Browsed by
Category: Background

Book Excerpt | Intellectual Insurgency and Mahesh Raut

Book Excerpt | Intellectual Insurgency and Mahesh Raut

The Wire / by Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan

We are witnessing a pretend politics which lives on the time borrowed from a deferred revolution.
“I shall speak of ghost, of flame, and of ashes”

– Jacques Derrida, Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question

It is not easy to write about the scholar and activist Mahesh Raut without sorrow and rage. Raut was a fellow of Prime Minister’s Rural Development programme; it has been five years since he was arrested on June 6, 2018. He is the youngest prisoner in the Bhima Koregaon case, currently awaiting the mercy of the judiciary for bail in Taloja central jail. His health has been deteriorating in prison.
Read more

Also read:
▪ SC to hear plea of activist seeking interim bail on June 21 (Legalworld.com / June 2024)
▪ ‘Ominous portents’: Why High Court staying its own bail orders in Bhima Koregaon case is troubling (Scroll.in / Dec 2023)
▪ In Jail for 5 Years, Activist Mahesh Raut Gets Bail in Elgar Parishad Case (The Wire / Sep 2023)
▪ Gadchiroli’s 300 Gram Sabhas Pass Resolution in Support of Activist Mahesh Raut (The Wire / Oct 2018)

Before Arundhati Roy, Writers, Human Rights Activists & Journalists Were Slapped With UAPA

Before Arundhati Roy, Writers, Human Rights Activists & Journalists Were Slapped With UAPA

Outlook / by Outlook Web Desk

The draconian UAPA has drawn criticism from several Supreme Court judges. However, it continues to be used against prominent writers, activists and journalists.
A celebrated Booker Prize-winning author and human rights activist, Arundhati Roy became the latest target of India’s draconian law – Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, after Delhi’s Lieutenant General approved her prosecution on a complaint lodged 14 years ago. The approval comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP-led NDA came to power for the third time. Human rights organisations have accused the government of misusing the law to silence critics.
Since 2014, at least 6,900 UAPA cases have been lodged until 2020, according to NCRB data. 
Read more

Also read:
▪ Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial (Telegraph / June 2024)
▪ Legal experts call for a repeal of UAPA over misuse and rights violations (Frontline / May 2024)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report
▪ How Governments Avoid Due Process by Declaring Groups as ‘Front Organisations’ of Banned Entities (The Wire / Sep 2020)

Book Excerpt | How Bhima Koregaon Became a Trope for Dalit Pride and Assertion

Book Excerpt | How Bhima Koregaon Became a Trope for Dalit Pride and Assertion

The Wire / by Ajaz Ashraf

The national media coverage of the violence at Bhima Koregaon enhanced the historical significance of the place. Until 2018, Bhima Koregaon was not embedded in the popular consciousness outside Maharashtra.

Below is an excerpt from the recent book of Ajaz Ashraf titled Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Publisher: AuthorsUpFront.

The story you are about to read does not begin with the beginning. It does not because it is difficult to identify precisely where and when the story began. The beginning is buried deep inside events that occurred centuries ago, recorded or remembered and passed down orally over generations, in what is now the state of Maharashtra in western India.
Read more

Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality


Author: Ajaz Ashraf  
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496
Read more/order

Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial

Meet 10 ‘political prisoners’ of the Narendra Modi regime in jail without trial

The Telegraph / by Telegraph Web Desk

From Kashmir to Pune, here are some of the most high-profile names in India’s prisons for whom the criminal justice process has been made the punishment
From the barrage of detainees from the CAA-NRC protests to the infamous Bhima Koregaon arrests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time in office has been marked by a number of ‘political prisoners’ who remain indefinitely behind bars, with their trials still pending.
Read more

Also read:
▪ 7/16 Bhima Koregaon Accused Get Bail, Courts Raise Prima Facie Doubts About Evidence (Live Law / May 2024)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report

To Think of Modi 3.0 as Less Dangerous Would Be a Misreading

To Think of Modi 3.0 as Less Dangerous Would Be a Misreading

The Wire / by Anand Teltumbde

While forming the government, Modi may do whatever it takes, but thereafter he will recoil back to his fascist persona with a vengeance.
… Most commentators expect Modi 3.0 to be a tamed affair which may not last a full term. I do not agree. While forming the government, he may do whatever it takes, but thereafter he will recoil back to his fascist persona with a vengeance, like a wounded tigress. He will do more of what he knew and did with added fervour of vendetta. For instance, Muslims and Dalits concertedly voted against the BJP, and he will not leave them unpunished. There will be more incarcerations of dissenters (“urban Naxals”), and more raids on and arrests of political opponents by the central agencies under the guise of punishing corruption. 
Read more

Also read:
▪ Who Does June 4 Belong to? (The Wire / June 2024)

Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality

Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality


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. It points out the ironies underlying the State’s charges against the sixteen, and the flimsiness of the evidence that is said to have been planted on their hacked computers. The conspiracy against the sixteen that inflicted untold miseries on their families is retold here in their voices.

Author: Ajaz Ashraf  
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Pages: 496

Read more/order

6 years of Bhima Koregaon witch-hunt / CASR: Formal permission of the protest has been denied

6 years of Bhima Koregaon witch-hunt / CASR: Formal permission of the protest has been denied

by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (June 7)
Yesterday the Campaign Against State Repression gathered at Jantar Mantar to demand the release of all #BhimaKoregaon prisoners
#MaheshRaut #SurendraGadling #SudhirDhawale #RonaWilson #HanyBabu #JyotiJagtap #RameshGaichor #SagarGorkhe
#Freethemall #HumanRightsViolations

by COLLECTIVE Delhi / @COLLECTIVEDelhi (June 6)
6 years of Bhima Koregaon witch-hunt…
We must not stop demanding freedom of all political prisoners arrested in the name of Bhima Koregaon – a symbol of radical Dalit struggle.


by InSAF India / @IndInsaf (June 6):

Also read:
▪ CASR: Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case (Countercurrents.org / June 2023)

Podcasts: What does the death of a jailed priest say about India’s democracy? / ‘India’s Watergate’

Podcasts: What does the death of a jailed priest say about India’s democracy? / ‘India’s Watergate’

poster by @/bakeryprasad

What does the death of a jailed Jesuit priest say about India’s democracy under Modi?

02/06/2024

npr / by Lauren Frayer

MUMBAI, India — Two days before police finally came to arrest him, the Rev. Stan Swamy recorded a video of himself speaking directly into the camera.
“They want to put me out of the way,” the ailing 83-year-old Jesuit priest said.
His voice sounded frail. But what he was saying was explosive.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, was targeting him in retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of Indigenous people in Indian jails.
Read more / 33-Minute Listen

‘India’s Watergate’: A tale of political manipulation, disinformation and nationalism

29/05/2024

Npr / by Lauren Frayer

It started with a civil rights rally, and ended in riots. NPR investigates how 16 of India’s most famous human rights activists were jailed for an alleged terror plot. They say they were framed.
India is wrapping up elections this week. We’re going to take you back to the last Indian elections five years ago, to a scandal that some call India’s Watergate. It has not brought down Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. In fact, he is expected to win a third term. The scandal started with a civil rights campaign that led to hundreds of arrests, allegations of computer hacking and the death of an elderly priest behind bars. NPR’s Lauren Frayer has our story.
Read more / 8-Minute Listen

Legal experts call for a repeal of UAPA over misuse and rights violations

Legal experts call for a repeal of UAPA over misuse and rights violations

Frontline / by Frontline Web Desk

Senior advocates and rights activists raise concerns over the draconian application of UAPA, arbitrary arrests, and denial of constitutional rights.
If the present government comes back to power, “we will see the use of terrorism legislation in a manner that we’ve never seen before” said senior advocate of the Supreme Court, Colin Gonsalves, the founder of the Human Rights Law Network. “We’re at a very tenuous period of our history, a very dangerous period,” he added.
Read more

Draconian Laws Promoting Authoritarian Rule Should Be Repealed

Draconian Laws Promoting Authoritarian Rule Should Be Repealed

Poster campaign by PUDR || PUDR welcomes bail to civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha (pudr.org / May 15, 2024)

Draconian Laws Promoting Authoritarian Rule Should Be Repealed

19/05/2024

Peoples Democracy / by G Ramakrishnan CPI(M)

… After BJP came to power in 2014, the situation in our country has gone from bad to worse. The situation now is akin to an undeclared emergency. The last ten years of the Modi government have seen unprecedented attack on democracy and democratic rights. The lawless laws, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), National Security Act (NSA), Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the central Agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), CBI and Income Tax department have been used to target the leaders of the opposition parties and those who criticise and oppose the policies of the Modi government at the centre.
Read more

Also read:
▪ Five years behind bars for five activists (PUDR / June 2023)
▪ CASR: Release activists incarcerated in Bhima Koregaon Case (Countercurrents / June 2023)
▪ UAPA – CRIMINALISING DISSENT AND STATE TERROR – Study of UAPA Abuse in India, 2009-2022 (PUCL / Sep 2022). Download report