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Your Ideas Have Spread Like Wildfire: A Letter to Anand Teltumbde on His Birthday / His thoughts strive to liberate us

Your Ideas Have Spread Like Wildfire: A Letter to Anand Teltumbde on His Birthday / His thoughts strive to liberate us

‘Your Ideas Have Spread Like Wildfire’: A Letter to Dr Anand Teltumbde on His Birthday

15/07/2022

The Wire / by Suraj Yengde, Balmurli Natrajan, Meena Kandasamy, Sangeeta Kamat and Biju Mathew

“The world is at the brink of not giving up, of refusing, of resisting. You are that world in a world apart who has shown us to not give up.”

Dear Anand,
The din of darkness sprawls, the night sky devours and us – those who love you yearn for the patient past to be with us and skip the present. There is a silence in the lover’s island while the canon of flames has died in a fascist land.
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Republic of Caste: Anand Teltumbde’s thoughts strive to liberate us even as he is in jail

15/07/2022

Scroll.in / by Jean Drèze

His vision of working-class unity with an anti-caste core may or may not be realisable, but it is an important line of argument and action at the very least.
“Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path.” This powerful image from Dr Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste, published in 1936, still rings true today. That would be obvious enough from the point of view of the oppressed castes, but they are not the only victims of the caste system. India’s entire society, culture and politics are also casualties of it.
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Also read:
● Why Anand Teltumbde Matters – My Birthday Wish To A Caged Bird (YKA / Jul 2022)

And comrades admire Jyoti Jagtap

And comrades admire Jyoti Jagtap

Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf

That’s why comrades have not forgotten her as she festers in jail. They send her books on psychology—her passion, wire money to her prison account, and take donations to fund her legal battle.
Jyoti Jagtap was on her way to Pune*s Saras Baug on September 8, 2020, to meet her mates from the Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural troupe which often has had to endure the state*s iron fist in its 20-year existence. The Saras Baug meet had been convened to discuss the implications of the arrest of two members of the Manch – Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe – a day earlier, for inciting the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence with their music show and for harbouring links with the Maoists.
Jyoti was being tailed as she wended towards Saras Baug, for when she stopped her scooter at a traffic light, a woman slid on the pillion and said: “You are under arrest.” 
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Also read:
● And the letters of Rona Wilson (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And Allah’s call to Hany Babu (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And Ma can’t sing with Sagar (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / May 2022)
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday.com / May 2022)

Why Anand Teltumbde Matters – My Birthday Wish To A Caged Bird

Why Anand Teltumbde Matters – My Birthday Wish To A Caged Bird

YKA / by Ashwin Narayanan

“I am off to NIA custody and do not know when I shall be able to talk to you again. However, I earnestly hope that you will speak out before your turn comes.” 
Two years ago, I read these stinging lines from Professor Anand Teltumbde’s letter (on The Wire’s website) on the eve of his arrest. Prof. Anand is a scholar, writer, civil rights activist and management professor. He is also the grandson-in-law of Dr B. R. Ambedkar. I had never known about Prof. Anand or his history of struggle for the marginalized before reading his letter.
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‘You are immortalised in our hearts’: A cellmate’s letter to Stan Swamy on his death anniversary / Protest Fast by 11 Co-Accused

‘You are immortalised in our hearts’: A cellmate’s letter to Stan Swamy on his death anniversary / Protest Fast by 11 Co-Accused

‘You are immortalised in our hearts’: A cellmate’s letter to Stan Swamy on his death anniversary

05/07/2022

Scroll.in / by Vernon Gonsalves

The Jesuit priest, who had been arrested in the Bhima Koregoan case, died in custody on July 5, 2021, at the age of 84.

Dear Stan,
It’s now around a year to the day they said you went away. But it doesn’t seem as if you’ve gone. Guys like you can hardly just go away. Not from me at least, not from many many more you worked with and amongst. Actually you haven’t gone, in fact you’ve come. You’ve come to the lakhs who’ve come to know you over the last year and you’ll continue coming, down the ages, to millions more. You can’t go away, you won’t go away.
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On Father Stan Swamy’s Death Anniversary, Elgar Parishad Activists Observe Protest Fast in Prison

05/07/2022

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

Activists and lawyers have accused the jail administration of inhuman treatment towards and lack of adequate medical care for the priest and other accused in the case.
On July 5, last year, 84-year-old Jharkhand-based tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy died in judicial custody in Mumbai.
Swamy was the 16th and last person to be arrested in the highly controversial Elgar Parishad case. He, like his co-accused in the case, suffered from prolonged and serious health complications while in custody. Swamy passed away after testing positive for COVID-19. His co-prisoners and lawyers have blamed the state for not allowing adequate medical help to reach him on time.
A year later, protesting against alleged state apathy and lack of accountability, 11 of his co-prisoners have decided to observe a day-long fast on the day of Swamy’s passing.
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Eleven activists accused in Elgar Parishad case observe day-long fast in Taloja prison on 1st death anniversary of Stan Swamy

05/07/2022

Midday.com / by pti

The protesting activists alleged that the death of Father Stan Swamy (83) was “brutal assassination by the prison administration, the NIA, and the government.” Swamy’s co-accused and activist Sudhir Dhawale, in a letter written to the Taloja prison superintendent and the case lawyers, claimed there has been no change in the jail condition, including general apathy among the prison administration and lack of medical facilities, which were among the several causes that led to Swamy’s death.
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Also read
● How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison (Scroll.in / Aug 2021)

And the letters of Rona Wilson

And the letters of Rona Wilson

Rona Wilson

Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf

In his cell in Taloja jail, the activist now reads voraciously- from contemporary history to detective fiction – and writes, his reflections on the society and books; Malcolm X was right about living in jail.
Wilson Jacob’s memory began to fade around the time he turned 83, in 2020. He forgot his son Rona Wilson was arrested on June 6, 2018, booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for fomenting the Bhima-Koregaon violence, and denied his liberty since then.
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Also read:
● Pune Police allegedly planted fake evidence on devices of Bhima Koregaon accused, reports Wired (Scroll.in / June 2022)
● And Allah’s call to Hany Babu (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And Ma can’t sing with Sagar (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / May 2022)
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday.com / May 2022)

And Allah’s call to Hany Babu

And Allah’s call to Hany Babu

Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf

From being an atheist when he had enrolled for PhD at EFLU in 1992, he turned to Islam after his arrest and found that an imagined, one-way love, steeped in faith, too can heal wounds.
When Hany Babu was arrested, on July 28, 2020, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence, his daughter Farzana seemed unflappable. Surprising for a Standard XI student? Well, one night three months later, Farzana could not go to sleep.
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Also read:
● And Ma can’t sing with Sagar (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / May 2022)
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday.com / May 2022)

And Ma died waiting for Surendra

And Ma died waiting for Surendra

Midday.com / by Ajaz Ashraf

One of Nagpur’s most successful lawyers, Gadling took it upon himself to fight for the rights of Adivasis who were picked up and thrown inside jail after being tagged Maoists. Now he, too, is lodged in jail, without an end of his trial in sight.
There are many ways you could begin the story of lawyer Surendra Gadling, incarcerated in Mumbai’s Taloja Jail under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence. You could, for instance, leap over the events of June 6, 2018, the day he was arrested, to begin the story from June 11. 
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Also read:
● And Ma died waiting for Surendra (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And Ma can’t sing with Sagar (Midday.com / June 2022)
● And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / May 2022)
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday.com / May 2022)

Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each

Bhima Koregaon: Who’s who of those arrested and the developments in the case pertaining to each

The Leaflet / by Sarah Thanwala

In the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case, leading activists, lawyers, scholars and artists have been arrested without trial under the charges of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (‘UAPA’). According to the police, allegedly provocative statements and speeches made at the Elgar Parishad meeting in Pune on December 31, 2017, instigated the violence at Bhima Koregaon the following day on January 1, 2018 that led to death of one and injuries to several others …

The Leaflet brings to its readers a brief profile of each of the arrested persons, and the developments in the case pertaining to each.
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And Ma can’t sing with Sagar

And Ma can’t sing with Sagar

Midday / by Ajaz Ashraf

Sagar Gorkhe, termed Maoist twice and sent to jail, where he fights for the rights of the inmates, continues writing songs—of hope: “From wounds shall burst out vines/Learning how to blossom again”
agar Gorkhe, a Dalit accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, was on the fourth day of his hunger strike at Mumbai’s Taloja Central Jail when his mother Surekha learnt about it, via a WhatsApp forward on her daughter’s mobile. Surekha stopped taking food. Her family and members of the Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural troupe to which Sagar belongs, tried to coax her into eating. 
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Also read:
● And he waits for Shoma Sen (Midday.com / May 2022)
● And she waits for Gautam Navlakha (Midday.com / May 2022)

‘Unjust’ jail and death can’t eclipse Stan Swamy’s work / What is the Martin Ennals Award?

‘Unjust’ jail and death can’t eclipse Stan Swamy’s work / What is the Martin Ennals Award?

‘Unjust’ jail and death can’t eclipse Stan Swamy’s work

04/06/2022

The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent

Jesuit priest has been honoured by Martin Ennals Foundation in Geneva for showing exceptional commitment to defending and promoting human rights.
Stan Swamy, the human rights defender and Jesuit priest who died in judicial custody in Mumbai at the age of 84, has been posthumously honoured by the Martin Ennals Foundation in Geneva.
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What is the Martin Ennals Award, the ‘human rights Nobel’, which honoured Father Stan Swamy?

04/06/2022

The Indian Express / by Dipanita Nath

In a special move this year, the Martin Ennals Foundation posthumously honoured Father Stan Swamy for his “many contributions to human rights”. Who was Martin Ennals, and what is the intention of the award?
Every year, the Martin Ennals Foundation, based in Geneva, Switzerland, gives out an award that is regarded as the Nobel Prize for human rights defenders. The recipients of this year’s awards include Daouda Diallo from Burkina Faso, Pham Doan Trang from Vietnam and Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja of Bahrain.
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Late Indian Jesuit honored with rights ‘Nobel Prize’

04/06/2022

UCA News / by UCA News reporter

Father Stan Swamy, the late Indian Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, has been posthumously awarded the Martin Ennals Award, regarded as the Nobel Prize for human rights defenders…
Though the award was presented posthumously, the priest was chosen for it while he was still alive. “Father Stan was nominated for the award in spring 2021, but he sadly passed away before it could reach him,” said Hans Thoolen, chair of the award jury.
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