Kottayam: Renowned educationist and an early activist for women’s rights, Mary Roy passed away here on Thursday.
Roy, who was equally known for her trailblazing initiatives in the education sector as for her perseverance in ensuring gender equality, was 89. She is the mother of Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy.
Mary Roy had garnered the attention of the entire nation with her perseverance in fighting a legal battle to ensure that daughters were placed on an equal footing as sons in the matter of succession. She challenged the provisions of the Travancore Succession Act, 1916 and Cochin Succession Act, 1921, which the Syrian Christian community followed.
According to the two Acts – that heavily favoured sons – women in a family were eligible for one quarter of the son’s share or Rs 5,000, whichever was less, if the father died intestate. Mary’s contention was that members of her community elsewhere in the country were governed by the Indian Succession Act, 1925.
In a legal battle spread over nearly four decades, Mary Roy won the case in 1986 when the Supreme Court of India made a historic ruling in her favour. It then took her another 24 years to have the final decree executed in her favour in 2010 by a sub-court in Kottayam, which gave her a fair share in her family property.
Mary Roy was equally known for the school she established in Kottayam, Pallikoodam, which blossomed into an institution of repute, producing numerous luminaries in different fields. Her daughter Arundhati Roy was also a student there.
Born in 1933, Mary Roy was educated in Delhi and Chennai and was married to Rajib Roy. Following strains in the marriage, she returned to Kottayam and established the school in 1967 which was then named Corpus Christi before being renamed Pallikoodam, the Malayalam for school.
In a message, her children Lalith Roy and Arundhati Roy said her body would be kept at her residence in the Pallikoodam campus on September 1 and 2, and that the final rites on September 2 will be kept private, respecting her wish.
