Although the couple have a home in Delhi, 72-year-old Navlakha’s bail conditions prevent him from leaving Mumbai.
Ever since he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the Elgaar Parishad case in May, Delhi-based journalist-activist Gautam Navlakha and his author-partner Sahba Husain have been struggling to rent a home in Mumbai. Read more
To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
THE POLIS PROJECT / by TATYARAM GORKHE AND SUREKHA GORKHE
We were at our village for Sagar’s grandmother’s funeral rites on the day of his arrest, in September 2020. Sagar received a call and had to leave for Mumbai immediately. He did not tell us what was going on. Later, we called his friends, who told us that he had been arrested. Like others, Sagar was offered the opportunity to become a state witness and escape arrest. But he didn’t take up the offer, insisting that he had not done anything wrong. Read more
To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
THE POLIS PROJECT / by MURALIDHAR SITARAM GAICHOR AND SUMAN GAICHOR
Since childhood, Ramesh liked helping people in need. He would play with the kids in the neighbourhood. He taught at a college and worked as a clerk at a local hospital. During his graduation, he helped his friends from Nowrosjee Wadia College, Pune, to win a trophy in a one-act play competition. Later, the college gave him free admission to masters without charging any fees. Read more
In this excerpt from his new book ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’, Ajaz Ashraf recounts the moments that changed the lives of three activists
We tend to recall vividly the moment life changes tack. And so Minal will never forget that on 17 April, at 6.30 am, she left her house at Misal Layout, in Nagpur, for a walk in nearby Dayanand Park with her friends. She will remember that her children were still asleep and her husband, Surendra Gadling, the Nagpur-based lawyer, was in the toilet. She will remember that a little after the group of friends entered the park, the phone of one rang. 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
▪ The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India
Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672 Read more / order
To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
THE POLIS PROJECT / By MINAL GADLING
6 June 2024 marked six years since Surendra was arrested. Six long years! It is very difficult to talk about this time in a few words. During these six years, life completely changed. Life, which earlier meant stability, security, friends, relatives, and happiness, was suddenly altered completely, and I found myself forced to face a reality that I could not have imagined in my worst nightmares.
I recall that grim dawn of 17 April 2018, when our house was raided; that sinister morning of 6 June 2018, when Surendra was taken away. Read more
Jesuit Missions repeats call to clear Indian priest’s name
03/07/2024
Indcatholicnews.com / by ICN
Jesuit Missions has once again written to the Indian High Commission as part of its campaign to clear the name of the late human rights’ advocate and Jesuit priest Fr Stan Swamy.
Br Stephen Power SJ, Chairman of Jesuit Missions’ Management Board, sent a letter to Vikram Doraiswami, High Commissioner of India to the UK, yesterday (July 2) requesting a meeting to discuss the subject of Fr Stan’s imprisonment and death. Read more
The Search for Democracy in India
Mon, 8 Jul 2024 18:45 BST
London Jesuit Centre, Mount Street, London, UK
Join us for a talk by anthropologist and author Professor Alpa Shah, exploring the state of democracy in India. Read more
Let’s start Father Stan Swamy’s beatification process
01/07/2024
UCA News / by John Dayal
The Jesuit martyr who was falsely targeted by Indian probe agencies is already a saint to the tribal people he served
… Modi’s government has also not taken any step to exonerate Jesuit priest and social activist Stanislaus Lourduswamy — Father Stan Swamy for short — who it had arrested on charges of being a part of a conspiracy to assassinate him. Read more
Also read:
▪ How the system broke Stan Swamy: A cell mate recalls the activist’s last days in prison (Scroll.in / Aug 12, 2021 / by Arun Ferreira) Illustration by #bakeryprasad The 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, who had been arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case in October, died on July 5.
Although we received news by late evening on October 8, 2020, of Father Stan Swamy’s arrest, we were quite shocked to see him the next morning in the adjourning barrack conversing with inmates in his impeccable Hindi.
I was at that time lodged in a cell at the prison hospital with my co- accused Varavara Rao (or VV) and Vernon Gonsalves. Read more
In The Incarcerations, Alpa Shah provides a survey of these men and women that allows us to understand what truly connects them
For many who have followed the news regarding the Bhima Koregaon case, the saga of arrests, press conferences, cyber-forensic reports, bail hearings, statements of condemnation, and protests has gone on long enough and been spread out so thinly that fatigue and forgetfulness are real threats.
Naturally, the opposite has been the case for the 16 individuals arraigned by investigative agencies in the matter. For these persons, the case has illuminated the state of our democracy, the nature of threats against it, and the identity of its most strident defenders. Read more
The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon And The Search For Democracy In India
Author: Alpa Shah
Publishing Date: March 2024
Publisher: Harper Collins Publisher
Pages: 672 Read more / order
Also read:
▪ 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
To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
THE POLIS PROJECT / BY RUPALI JADHAV
This is the story of that day, when Jyoti was supposed to meet us, but did not show up. Two other members of Kabir Kala Manch, Ramesh and Sagar, had already been arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case, and the NIA had summoned Jyoti to Mumbai for questioning for the third time. The next day, on 8 September 2020, Jyoti was supposed to meet me and some of our sathis, or friends, at Sarasbaug in Pune. We waited for her for a long time. Her phone was unreachable. I became anxious because she is usually very punctual and disciplined, and I told the others that she never takes this long. Only after I started searching for her did I receive the call. “We are calling from Pune ATS. Jyoti Jagtap has been arrested. You can come here to collect her keys and belongings.” Read more
To mark six years of the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of political dissidents in the Bhima Koregaon case, The Polis Project is publishing a series of writings by the BK-16, and their families, friends and partners. By describing various aspects of the past six years, the series offers a glimpse into the BK-16’s lives inside prison, as well as the struggles of their loved ones outside. Each piece in the series is complemented by Arun Ferreira’s striking and evocative artwork.
Credits: Drawing by Arun Ferreira / The Polis Project
The Polis Project / by Jenny Rowena
As a space that takes away our liberties, marked by deep deprivation and suffering, the prison often gets framed as the point at which the liveable modern life ends. The fear of prisons, then, becomes all-pervading, with language itself constantly pointing to it as a dead end. Thus, for the ordinary person, the police and the prison system evoke extreme anxiety, and they design their lives to evade any encounters with it. Yet, those who come face to face with this system observe not an end, but the continuing flow of life inside, behind massive, impenetrable walls, even as their family and friends navigate a completely new reality outside. For academics like Hany Babu, the twelfth person incarcerated in the Bhima Koregaon case, who was active in social justice projects in the university space, the prison also offers a glimpse into the stark structural inequalities of Indian society and the many resistances against them. Read more
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
Author: Ajaz Ashraf 
