English professor Shoma Sen and singer and activist Jyoti Jagtap, both accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, discuss the issues they experienced in prison, such as overcrowding, inadequate healthcare, and poor living conditions. They describe the lack of access to education, systemic inequalities, and the challenges faced by marginalised women and LGBTQ+ individuals in India’s prison system. Both women spoke of the importance of sisterhood and resilience and expressed hope for change. Read more
Also listen / read: ▪ Episode 18 of CJP’s Podcast Series RightsCast en/hindi | 13:18min | 2023 By Citizens for Justice and Peace (cjp)
How does the Indian Prison system strip the women inmates of their basic rights and dignity? In a patriarchal society, within a prison system that’s designed to focus on male inmates, how do female prisoners navigate their incarceration?
Listen to this in-depth podcast on the conditions of women inmates in India’s prisons where human rights activists, Adivasi leaders, student activists, lawyers and citizens-in-resistance share stories of horror and explore the plight of women in prison. Listen to the podcast
▪ Video: Healthcare and Mental Health inside Prison | Sudha Bharadwaj | QUAID KE PARE By Citizens for Justice and Peace hindi | 5:51min Watch video
Writer and Senior Journalist Ajaz Ashraf discusses the perspectives in his recently published book “Bhima Koregaon Challenging Caste“ in the context of the history of the Elgar Parishad, the relevance of Bhima Koregaon as a symbol of struggle and the upper caste backlash that has manifested in this background. Ashraf also discussed the Deep State factor in Indian polity. Watch The AIDEM interactions with Venkitesh Ramakrishnan here.
The bail conditions do not allow her to leave Mumbai or discuss her case.
I am revisiting Sudha Bharadwaj’s courageous, revealing and inspiring book From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada (Juggernaut Books, Rs 799 hardcover, Rs 499 online). Early one morning in August 2018, Bharadwaj was arrested. She is a respected trade unionist and human rights lawyer, who actually gave up her US citizenship and took up Indian citizenship, choosing to work for the rights of the poor and tribals in India, in Chhattisgarh and elsewhere, for over three decades. She was charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, UAPA, of inciting violence in Bhima Koregaon village in Maharashtra. Read more
From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada
by Sudha Bharadwaj Publisher: Juggernaut Books Edition: Nov 2023 Language: English Pages: 216
Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put down their heads and work themselves weary. Sudha Bharadwaj watched through the bars of her cell, and she wrote. This is her remarkably granular account of the world of women prisoners in Yerawada Jail in Pune.Bharadwaj was incarcerated here, in a high-security wing called PhansiYard, from November 2018 to February 2020. Read more/order
Also read/watch:
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year With The Women Of Yerawada, by Sudha Bharadwaj
Artice 14 / by Samar Halarnkar / Sudha Bharadwaj | Nov 2023
Arrested on 28 August 2018, human rights lawyer, teacher and IIT graduate Sudha Bharadwaj is among 16 accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967…
EXCERPT On 1 November, I mark my second birthday in custody. Diwali was in late October this year, and Shoma Di has saved a bit of her Diwali faral (snacks, in Marathi) as a treat for me. She gives me a beautiful card with a hand-drawn Sudoku on the front and a ballerina ‘dancing away to her freedom’ on the inside. It’s an ode to my Sudoku mania. Read more
▪ Video: Barkha Dutt speaks to Sudha Bharadwaj on her book ‘From Phansi Yard’
Mojo Story | Nov 2023 en | 21:03min | 2023 Barkha Dutt speaks to Trade Unionist, activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj on her book ‘From Phansi Yard’. The book records stories of her time in jail. She is out on bail after 3 years in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Sudha speaks about her days in jail and how her time in a women’s prison made her aware of the gender gap in legal aid. “Many women are jailed- because their husband committed some crime and are now absconding- they don’t even know about the crime,” she says.
Sudha further says that she lives in the house of a friend, as she “can’t afford rent”. Trade unions support her, she does legal cases for them, she says. Watch video
▪ A Cage with a View: Under-trial life in an Indian jail
National Herald | by Sudha Bharadwaj | Oct 2023 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. Read more
▪ Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Edition: January 2021 Language: English Paperback: 316 pages Access a free PDF copy of the book here (2,1 MB)
Surendra Gadling seeks contempt action against Navi Mumbai police
Elgar Parishad case accused seeks contempt action against Navi Mumbai cop
25/10/2024
India Today / by Vidya
Surendra Gadling and 14 other activists have been charged in connection with alleged provocative speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017.
An accused in the 2018 Elgar Parishad Maoist links case has moved an application before a special NIA court, seeking action against the Navi Mumbai police commissioner and reserve police inspector at Kalamboli headquarters for not producing him in court physically for hearings.
He also moved a plea seeking to initiate contempt proceedings against prison authorities for not providing him with a cot in prison despite the special court’s order. Read more
Lawyer accused in Elgaar Parishad case seeks action against Navi Mumbai police
25/10/2024
The Indian Express / by Express News Service
Last week, Gadling and six others had gone on a hunger strike to protest not being brought to court for three hearings from Taloja jail where they are lodged.
Lawyer Surendra Gadling, who is facing charges in the Elgaar Parishad case, filed a plea before a special court on Thursday seeking action against the Navi Mumbai police commissionerate stating that a government resolution on reserving police to escort undertrials to court is being flouted. Read more
Activist Rona Wilson, incarcerated in the Elgar Parishad case that has still not gone into trial, pens a note for a friend.
“I have lived all my conscious life on the campuses of learning and teaching in search of knowledge, love and freedom. In the course of this search, I learnt that freedom for a few was no freedom.”
– G.N. Saibaba, from Why Do You Fear My Way So Much? Poems and Letters from Prison
The untimely death of G.N. Saibaba (fondly known as Sai among his friends and well-wishers) when he was about to start his life afresh after acquittal betrays the brutality and inhumanity that the state had meted out to him during his long incarceration. Read more
▪ Video: State’s Job is to Serve People, Not Punish Them: G N Saibaba
en | 38:33 | 2024
Newsclick / by Newsclick Team
Former DU professor G.N. Saibaba, who passed away in Hyderabad on Saturday, had recounted his harrowing ordeal during 10 years in jail at a press conference in New Delhi in March this year. Watch video
InSAF Webinar with Ajaz Ashraf on his book: Bhima Koregaon Challenging Caste (Oct 26)
Join us this Saturday for an online conversation with Ajaz Ashraf on his new book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste (2024).
Share widely, and we hope to see many of you there! You can register here
Also watch/read:
▪ Video | Many Meanings of Bhima Koregaon: Ajaz Ashraf
The Commission has asked lawyers representing different parties and witnesses to submit their final arguments.
While making oral submission of his final argument before the Koregaon Bhima Commission of Inquiry, advocate Shishir Hiray, who represents the state, claimed the violence in Koregaon Bhima area on January 1, 2018 was a matter of a “larger conspiracy.” Hiray also justified the actions taken by the police department in handling the January 1 violence situation. Read more
From 2014 to 2022, 8,719 people were charged under the draconian UAPA. A majority are languishing in jail, with trials delayed and bail denied, as in the case of Professor GN Saibaba.
… In this week’s Let Me Explain, Pooja Prasanna looks at how jails mistreat people, how courts are complacent in denying justice and the blatant abuse of power by the police and governments where evidence and witnesses are fabricated or manipulated. Watch video
Hunger strike called off for now | Not Produced in Court Despite Directions – Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike
Elgaar Parishad case undertrials on protest path for not being produced in court for successive hearings
20/10/2024
The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent
Non-availability of police escorts is a common reason for undertrials not being produced in courts across India
Seven inmates at the Taloja Central Prison in Navi Mumbai, awaiting trial in the 2018 Elgaar Parishad case, on Saturday evening ended the hunger strike that they had started on Friday to protest against police who didn’t produce them in court for successive hearings. Read more
Update: The hunger strike has been called off for now.
The prison officials submitted an urgent application to the court & have assured them that they’ll be a produced before the NIA court on Oct 24.
If the seven men aren’t presented then, they plan to resume their hunger strike.
Not Produced in Court Despite Directions, Seven Elgar Parishad Accused Go on Hunger Strike
18/10/2024
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
The activists have not been produced before the court for the last three hearings in the case. Seven human rights defenders facing prolonged incarceration in the infamous Elgar Parishad case went on a hunger strike on Friday (October 18).
The activists have not been produced before the court for the last three hearings in the case. Today, despite a court order, the Navi Mumbai police failed to provide an escort team to take the incarcerated individuals from the Taloja central prison to the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court located in south Mumbai, prompting the activists to announce their hunger strike. Read more
Book review | The historical backstory: Bhima Koregaon – Challenging Caste.
Leaving aside the somewhat extended Maoist plot, a narrative challenge in the book, Ashraf’s contribution lies in his excavation of caste contestations of modern Maharashtra
In the opening pages of Bhima Koregaon, Ajaz Ashraf sounds a word of caution when he tells the reader that the book lacks a beginning. Not just beginnings but tracing thematic connections is difficult since diverse events are yoked together across a wide swathe of historical time ranging from Shivaji’s coronation in 1674 till now. Read more
Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality
Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Pages: 496
Challenging Caste reads the violence at Bhima Koregaon as a clash between two worldviews – one striving to flatten the social hierarchy, the other justifying and perpetuating it. This book rips apart the Maoist conspiracy theory and the Urban Naxal narrative. Read more/order
Also watch/read:
▪ Video | Many Meanings of Bhima Koregaon: Ajaz Ashraf
