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Month: August 2020

The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Two & Three

The Making of Varavara Rao: Parts Two & Three


Pic: Rao with K Balagopal, Gaddar, and Vangapandu / ICF

Indian Cultural Forum / by N Venugopal Rao

I wouldn’t have been who I am without Varavara Rao, and it is true for the generation I come from and the one that followed. Today’s Telangana wouldn’t have been what it is without him. I have written and spoken about him and his poetry in the past, but now he is on the deathbed, in a faraway hospital, being subjected to retributive torture by the powers that be. Now, with a never-before urgency, I want to speak and write about him, through an interminable torrent of words.
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Bombay HC to state: Provide medical reports of Bharadwaj, Teltumbde, Gonsalves

Bombay HC to state: Provide medical reports of Bharadwaj, Teltumbde, Gonsalves

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to provide copies of the latest medical reports of Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde and Vernon Gonsalves, accused in the Elgaar Parishad case, to their families, lawyers and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) before the next hearing on August 28…
The next hearing of the case will be on Friday.
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An Irish Poet Sends the Fragrance of Invisible Flowers to Varavara Rao

An Irish Poet Sends the Fragrance of Invisible Flowers to Varavara Rao


Stills from Masood Hussain’s poetry film, ‘Flowers for Varavara Rao’. Photo: Masood Hussain

The Wire / by Gabriel Rosenstock

Recently, Dublin-based poet Gabriel Rosenstock sent Srinagar-based artist Masood Hussain a poem in Irish and English, titled ‘Flowers for Varavara Rao’ – a tribute to the ailing 81-year-old poet-activist who has been imprisoned since 2018, arrested in the Elgar Parishad case.
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Flowers for Varavara Rao

en, irish | 2:44 min | 2020
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Friends & family of Sudha Bharadwaj raise serious health concerns and seek her release

Friends & family of Sudha Bharadwaj raise serious health concerns and seek her release

Solidarity programs with Sudha Bharadwaj (click to enlarge)

Countercurrents / by friends and family of Sudha Bharadwaj

Keeping under trials in prison for two years deliberately stalling bail opportunities, with no effort for beginning the trial instead exposing them to serious health condition is a gross violation of rights of prisoners. This is further heightened in times of a global pandemic given the crowded situation in prisons…
Friends and family members of Sudha Bharadwaj gathered online Sunday to share series of serious concern over Sudha Bharadwaj’s health condition.
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Surendra Gadling – Arrested for defending Dalits and Adivasis

Surendra Gadling – Arrested for defending Dalits and Adivasis

The Polis Project / By The Polis Project and maraa

Surendra Gadling began his career almost two decades ago in Nagpur, fighting cases for those arrested under the draconian Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) 1985, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 1967. He also worked as a special public prosecutor on dowry-related cases and was one of the leading lawyers in connection with the Khairlanji agitation—a protest movement launched after the gruesome caste-murders of a Dalit family in Maharashtra.
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Movement Lawyering As A Tool To Articulate Feminist Values And Goals

Movement Lawyering As A Tool To Articulate Feminist Values And Goals

Click to enlarge posters above

Feminism India / By One Future Collective

As the world witnesses agitation from various minority communities, using existing formal legal processes to bolster their movements has been a major challenge. As a concept, movement lawyering is akin to the tool of public or social interest litigation in India. It envisions a close and harmonious relationship between the legal and activist circles who bring their individual expertise to fulfill a common objective – justice. India has been witness to the works of several noteworthy lawyers but some of their practice is an embodiment of movement lawyering.
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What We Can Learn from Varavara Rao’s Prison Diary

What We Can Learn from Varavara Rao’s Prison Diary

News Click / by Shoili Kanungo

When all relations are defined by oppression and subjugation, and human relationships vanish, the oppressor fears the future.
… Captive Imagination is Varavara Rao´s prison journal from the 1980´s. It is a manual of life infused with love, longing, and the power of dreams and imagination – which he says are the limbs that support every prisoner and cannot be taken away.
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Sudha Bharadwaj: Defender of the People, Nuisance to the State

Sudha Bharadwaj: Defender of the People, Nuisance to the State


Pic: www.karinscheidegger.ch

Gauri Lankesh News / By Gauri Lankesh News Desk

“If fighting for the rights of Adivasis, fighting for workers and peasants, fighting against repression and exploitation and giving up one’s whole life for them is being a Naxalite then I guess Naxalites are pretty good,” Maaysha, Sudha´s daughter.

Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj is a 2019 honoree of the Harvard Law International Women’s day exhibition and is sitting in a jail cell in Pune. How did these conflicting positions come about?
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