The struggle for access to information is not just happening through negotiations with the upper echelons of government, in academic debates, and in the columns of newspapers largely read by urban populations. It is also being fought by numerous citizens’ groups in rural areas and smaller towns. The paper draws on the authors’ experience in Rajasthan, including a march to Beawar in April 1996, as a starting point for the discussion on right to information laws in India. Since the march in 1996, which was a tool to force open the doors of participation in governance, Rajasthan and seven other states have passed Right to Information laws, and at least three more states are considering introducing them, as is the national parliament.
