Sanjit “Bunker” Roy, who taught illiterate grandmothers to become solar engineers, passed away peacefully this morning at his home in Tilonia, Rajasthan, aged 81.[1] I first encountered his work not in India, but in the rain forests of Borneo.

It was October 2016, and as night fell, the surrounding Borneo tropical rain forest had come alive with noise, dominated by the trill of frogs and the rhythmic pulse of cicadas. I was about to embark on the Sabah study tour of the Emerging Leaders Dialogue Asia (ELDA). Over the next two weeks, we would visit timber plantations, mountain communities recovering from a deadly earthquake, and marine parks.

But undoubtedly the highlight for me was discovering the inspiring story of Barefoot College, which trains village grandmothers to be solar engineers. On our first evening, while enjoying a mini feast of banana fritters, pomelo, and langsat (a bit like lychees but more delicious), we were told about the college’s remarkable partnership with the Sabah Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals Association (SWEPA) in Borneo.

Barefoot College was the brainchild of Bunker Roy, and he was an unlikely revolutionary. Born into privilege in Bengal in 1945, he was educated at the Doon School and St Stephen’s College, Delhi—two of India’s most elite institutions—and was a national squash champion. A conventional career beckoned. Then, during the Bihar famine of the mid-1960s, he saw rural poverty firsthand, and his life changed course. [2] When he told his mother he wanted to live and work in a village, he later joked, she “went into a coma” and didn’t speak to him for a long time.

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