Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy’s first memoir, which releases on August 28, reintroduces readers to the late Mary Roy, a woman whose life extended far beyond the label of “Arundhati’s mother.”The release of Mother Mary Comes to Me, Arundhati Roy’s first memoir, on August 28, promises to go beyond a recount of her life’s history. The book explores the Booker Prize winner’s relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, who was renowned in her own right.The senior Roy was a legal pioneer whose Supreme Court case transformed inheritance rights for Syrian Christian women and an educator who challenged Kerala’s rigid schooling system with her institution, Pallikkoodam. Here is what to know.Legal battle for equal inheritanceRoy is most widely remembered for her trailblazing legal fight. Under the Travancore Christian Succession Act of 1916, Syrian Christian women in Kerala could inherit only a token share of family property— either one-fourth of a son’s share or ₹5,000, whichever was less. When Roy found herself denied an equal share after her father’s death, she refused to remain silent.Taking her case all the way to the Supreme Court, Roy won a landmark 1986 verdict that brought Syrian Christian women under the Indian Succession Act of 1925, granting them equal inheritance rights. The ruling changed the legal and social reality for thousands of women, ending decades of discriminatory custom. Yet, the victory came at a personal cost: she faced hostility from her community and even painful fractures within her own family.Also Read | Where Netflix’s new ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ adaptation fits in rise of ‘cosy crime’ mediaStill, her determination was unwavering. As she once remarked, the fight was not just about property but about dignity and equality, values that would define her life’s work.If her courtroom battle made her a public figure, her work as an educator shaped her legacy more intimately. In 1967, she founded Corpus Christi High School in Kottayam, which was later renamed Pallikkoodam (school in Malayalam).Pallikkoodam was unlike any other school in Kerala at the time. Rejecting rote learning, Roy introduced a curriculum that encouraged questioning, creativity, and independence of thought. Students engaged with theatre, music, debates, and community projects. She insisted that children be treated as individuals with their own voices rather than empty vessels to be filled with facts.Story continues below this adUnlike convent schools that distanced children from their linguistic roots, Roy insisted that Malayalam be the medium of instruction till Standard III, introducing English phonetically alongside. Her belief was clear: children must first think, dream, and learn in their mother tongue before turning outward. Pallikoodam was not just an experiment in pedagogy; it was a quiet act of resistance against the alienation of young Keralites from their cultural soil. In a state celebrated for its literacy rates but still tied to rigid classroom structures, it stood out as an experiment in fearless education.Arundhati Roy’s homageRoy’s influence did not remain confined to courtrooms and classrooms—it seeped into her daughter’s art. In Arundhati Roy’s 1997 Booker Prize-winning debut, The God of Small Things, the character Ammu bears a striking resemblance to Mary: a divorced Syrian Christian woman battling patriarchal norms and raising children on her own. The fictional town of Ayemenem, based on Aymanam near Kottayam, mirrors the landscape of the Roy household. Family disputes over property, social stigma, and the struggles of a fiercely independent mother are narrative strands reflective of her lived experience.It was her mother’s death in September 2022 that set Arundhati Roy on the path to memoir. In her publisher’s note, she has described her mother as both “my shelter and my storm”—a woman she fled from at 18, only to find herself shaped by her throughout life.Arundhati Roy’s memoir is not just remembrance but a reckoning with a woman who shaped both her life and her literature.© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Explained CultureExpress Explained