Enquiring Minds: Front for Rapid Economic Advancement of India (FREA)

The Front for Rapid Economic Advancement of India, or FREA, was started in 1968 by graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. They ran an ‘involvement programme’ which took over 350 students from different professional colleges all over India to more than 40 rural and urban projects across the country. The design of the projects was dialectical: every student was assigned a specific task suitable to his or her interest; their performance in the task inspired them to begin asking questions about the issue, about development, about their education and values.

The experience was transformational for many. This book explores different facets of this unique experiment 50 years after it began, through the memories of those who participated in it. It is a book that invites the reader to think about what motivates individuals to find out more about themselves and the society they seek to transform.