A.D. Gorwala

A.D. Gorwala

Astad Dinshaw Gorwala is a lesser known activist civil service officer, widely believed to be one of the unsung heroes of modern India. Born in 1900 into a Parsi family, Gorwala joined the prestigious Indian Civil Service in 1924 and served in the Northwest province of Sindh and elsewhere. After India's independence, Gorwala quit the civil service and became a journalist. In 1960, Gorwala founded a newsletter called Opinion in which he wrote against corruption and campaigned for the rights of the individual against the state.

During the state of Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi, the authorities, which had imposed press censorship in the country, ordered Opionion to be shut down.

In the final issue of Opinion, Gorwala boldly wrote that "the current Indira regime, founded on June 26th 1975, was born through lies, nurtured by lies, and flourishes by lies. The essential ingredient of its being is the lie. Consequently, to have a truth-loving, straight-thinking journal examine it week after week and point out its falsehoods becomes intolerable to it." Gorwala established Bombay's food rationing system during World War II, a system that still operates, though with falling efficiency.