“The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir” by Anand Teltumbde stands as one of the most powerful indictments of Indian democracy
27/10/2025
Countercurrents.org / by Harsh Thakor
“The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir” by Anand Teltumbde is not merely a prison memoir but a profound exposition of the Indian state, society, and criminal justice system, revealing their inhumane nature. It stands as one of the most powerful indictments of a democracy teetering on the brink of collapse. The book lucidly explores the stark realities of prison life in India, chronicling not only Teltumbde’s personal struggles but also those of his co-accused, serving as a testament to the resilient spirit of countless imprisoned activists.
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Anand Teltumbde’s The Cell And The Soul Highlights Urgent Need For Prisons Reforms In India
19/10/2025
Outlook / by Kabir Deb
Anand Teltumbde’s book offers us a significant insight into prisons, those who run them and how they contribute to the deterioration of judicial processing.
… Anand Teltumbde’s The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir presents before us a mirror in which we get to see our shattered democracy. From 2018 to 2019, the arrest of sixteen intellectuals with the help of fabricated documents, emails and voice recordings shook the liberty of this nation.
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An Elegy For A Comrade: Excerpt From The Cell And The Soul By Anand Teltumbde
19/10/2025
Outlook / by Anand Teltumbde
‘The Cell And The Soul’ Marks the first death anniversary of Father Stan Swamy, these reflections were written from within the Anda cell—recalling the loss, the silence that followed, and the conditions that led to his passing.
Stan Swamy’s death was an unbearable loss to us, the BK-16—a quasi-family bound together by the regime’s foul design to silence dissent. At 84, Stan remained remarkably healthy, save for his Parkinsonian tremors and impaired hearing. His death was not of age, but of neglect—born of a judiciary and prison system that habitually withholds medical care until crisis, refusing outside treatment for fear of exposing the emptiness of prison hospitals. Stan’s passing was the price of this callousness.
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The Cell and the Soul: Inside Anand Teltumbde’s prison reflection
18/10/2025
The New Indian Express / by Paramita Ghosh
Academic and a former corporate CEO, Anand Teltumbde, on his recently published part-prison notebook, part-memoir of his 31-month stay in Taloja Central Prison as an undertrial in connection to the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case
… A conversation with him on the recent publication of The Cell and the Soul (Bloomsbury), his part-prison memoir, part-prison diary.
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Book review: Anand Teltumbde’s memoir shows why prison is a mirror image of society, except the delusion of freedom
18/10/2025
The Leaflet / by Abdul Wahid Shaikh
Acquitted in the 7/11 Mumbai blasts case, a prison rights activist reviews the prison memoir of another – a searing reading on intellectual stifling, of loosening faith in the judiciary, and why the Bhima Koregaon case is a landmark indeed.
Abdul Wahid Shaikh is a Mumbai based prison rights activist who runs the Innocent’s Network which advocates against wrongful convictions. Shaikh was acquitted in 2015 after nine years in Arthur Road Jail in the 7/11 Mumbai train bombings. He is the author of ‘Innocent Prisoner’, ‘Ishrat Jahan Encounter Case’ and an upcoming book ‘Fair Trial?’
Anand Teltumbde’s ‘THE CELL AND THE SOUL’ is not just a prison memoir., it is a mirror to the Indian state, society and criminal justice system.
It refrains from fitting into the neat category of carceral literature, refusing to limit itself into description of everyday mundane life of prison.
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Review of The Cell and the Soul by Anand Teltumbde
17/10/2025
The Hindu / by G. Sampath
Teltumbde’s Taloja jail memoir is a pathology report on the cancerous rot eating away at the criminal justice system
What is the definition of a crime? “Crime is what the police think it is,” writes Anand Teltumbde, a scholar activist who spent 31 months in jail as an undertrial in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case. “By this definition, police are free to arrest you, slap whatever sections they like on you and put you behind bars. Yes, the Constitution gives you the remedy of approaching the courts. But that would take years to settle, whether you committed a crime or not. Until then, you are …a beggar for bail.”
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“Punitive actions against prisoners are seen as a demonstration of administrative control”
14/10/2025
The Caravan / by Anand Teltumbde
In The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir, the scholar and activist Anand Teltumbde writes about his incarceration in Taloja Central Prison. He spent 31 months in prison, as an undertrial in what is broadly termed the Bhima Koregaon case, before being released on bail in November 2022. In this excerpt from the book, he reflects on the prison’s surveillance system, its bureaucracy and various systemic failures, including suspensions of phone facilities and rejections of applications from prisoners.
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The Cell and the Soul – A Prison Memoir
Author: Anand Teltumbde
Publishing Date: Sep 2025
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Pages: 256
Noted social activist Anand Teltumbde entered the Taloja Central Prison as accused number 10 in the Bhima Koregaon case and spent 31 months as an undertrial until he was released on bail. As an intellectual who was stripped of his freedom, he lays bares the chilling realities of India’s prisons in his gut-wrenching prison memoir. Part memoir, part diary, Cell and the Soul is a descent into the heart of India’s carceral state, ripping open the belly of the beast-the prison industrial complex-and exposing the brutal, pulsating injustice within.
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Also read:
▪ ‘I’m going to live to 185’: Anand Teltumbde remembers his friend Stan Swamy in his memoir (Scroll.in | Anand Teltumbde | Sep 2025)
▪ BK-16 Prison Diaries: Anand Teltumbde reflects on his arrest and incarceration (THE POLIS PROJECT | Anand Teltumbde | June 2024)
