A Cage with a View: Under-trial life in an Indian jail

25/10/2023

National Herald / by Sudha Bharadwaj

Human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj’s account of her time in Yerawada Jail is also a poignant lesson in keeping hope alive in the teeth of absurd injustice

The jottings that make up this book were my way of coping with incarceration. Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put their heads down and work themselves weary. Some fight defiantly every inch of the way, some are inveterate grumblers, some spew gossip. Some read the newspaper from cover to cover, some shower love on children, some laugh at themselves and at others.
I watched through the bars, and I wrote.
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Nano tales from an Indian prison: From Phansi Yard – My Year with the Women of Yerawada

25/10/2023

Business Standard / by Vipul Mudgal

Sudha Bharadwaj’s book offers a thought-provoking glimpse into the lives of prisoners in a colonial-era prison in Pune, leaving readers to ponder why some of them are languishing behind bars
This is a book of human sketches from the world of an Indian prison. Call it casual ethnography or participant observation, it is the author’s labour of love, brought together with empathy and a touch of wit. You get a string of nano tales of human bondage and its myriad ironies, of love, betrayal, loyalty, desire, and momentary lapses of reason, followed by bouts of rage, remorse and self-pity. These are stories of remediable injustice.
Sudha Bharadwaj takes you on a tour of the colonial prison in Pune. But when she introduces you to the inmates, an absurdity hits you — that most of them have no business being there, the author included.
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`Being a dissident is not anti-democratic´

25/10/2023

Times of India / by Alka Dhupkar

Sudha Bharadwaj, who is out on bail in the Bhima Koregaon case, talks about her experience of being an undertrial, how it inspired a book and why democracy needs dissidents
Sudha Bharadwaj was born in 1961 in the US and spent the first 10 years of her life on the University of Cambridge campus in England. After her parents returned to India, she grew up on the then newly created Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus and then spent decades working as trade unionist and human rights lawyer in Chhattisgarh.
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Video: Dissent of All Forms Being Criminalised: Sudha Bharadwaj

11/10/2023

en | 14:51 | 2023

The Wire / by Sravasti Dasgupta

The lawyer and activist speaks to Sravasti Dasgupta of The Wire about her new book titled ‘From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada’.
Lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj was released from Mumbai’s Byculla Prison in December 2021, three years after she was arrested by the Pune Police in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
Lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj was released from Mumbai’s Byculla Prison in December 2021, three years after she was arrested by the Pune Police in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
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From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada

Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
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Also watch/read:

● Video: The Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails

By All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice – AILAJ / March 2022

en | 1:21:23 | 2022
The huge number of undertrials, the overcrowding, and the disproportional numbers of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi prisoners are part of the prison problem in India.
We are joined by Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj for a discussion on the Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails.
Watch video

● Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism

Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)
Edition: January 2021
Language: English
Sudha Bharadwaj’s interview by: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty
Paperback: 316 pages
Access a free PDF copy of the book here:
Sudha_Bharadwaj_speaks (2,1 MB)