The arrests and continued incarceration of fact-checker Mohammad Zubair, political activist Javed Mohammed and the exoneration of 121 Adivasis accused of terrorism are the latest evidence of how the State adopts extra legal methods of dealing with ‘inconvenient citizens’- including journalists, dissidents, activists or the poorest Indians – to push official narratives of conspiracy and terrorism. The common threads: manipulation or egregious misinterpretation of laws, changing accusations, unknown or untraceable complainants and the abandonment of due process by police and courts. Read more
Announcements of Events Commemorating Father Stan’s Death in Custody
Memorandum will demand release of all human rights activists arrested in Elgaar Parishad and revocation of the UAPA cases.
Civil rights outfits along with like-minded political outfits will take out a Nyaya March (march for justice) in Ranchi on July 5 to mark the first death anniversary of octogenarian Jesuit priest and human rights defender Stan Swamy. Read more
Video: Persecution of Religious Minorities and their Defenders in India – Commemorating Father Stan’s Death in Custody
28/06/2022
By Hindus for Human Rights
Join us to mark the 1-year anniversary of Father Stan’s passing and hear from lawmakers from across the world, the UN, & Adivasi activists. About this event
Join an international coalition of human rights organizations to mark the first anniversary of Father Stan Swamy’s passing. At this virtual event, we will hear from lawmakers from Australia, Canada, the European Parliament, the UK, and the US, as well as top officials from the UN. The event will also feature the voices of Adivasi (Indigenous) leaders, alongside whom Father Stan lived and worked for decades.
Video: Persecution of Religious Minorities and their Defenders in India
July 5: London, Anniversary Mass and Vigil for Fr Stan Swamy SJ
29/06/2022
By Jesuit Missions UK
A special Mass and Vigil to mark the first anniversary of the death of Fr Stan Swamy will take place in London on Tuesday, 5 July.
Mass will be celebrated at 13.05 in Farm Street Church, Mayfair, by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ. At 13.35 there will be a Solidarity Walk from Farm Street to the Indian High Commission. Read more
July 9: Lecture: Democracy & Human Rights Defenders
Indian Social Institute, Bengaluru is delighted to invite you to Volken-Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture on “Democracy & Human Rights Defenders”. The lecture will be delivered by Adv.Vrinda Grover and chaired by Adv. Henri Tiphagne. Register
Tributes to Stan Swamy / Video: Why Democracy and Human Rights matter?
Alluri Sitarama Raju and Stan Swamy: Two Adivasi rights defenders – one praised, one persecuted
04/07/2022
Scroll.in / by Cedric Prakash
Prime Minister Modi unveiled a statue of Alluri in Andhra Pradesh one day before the first death anniversary of the Jesuit priest, who passed away in custody.
On a recent domestic flight, the head of the cabin crew made an announcement from the airlines informing passengers that July 4 was the birth anniversary of
Alluri Seethrama Raju.
“He led the ‘Rampa Rebellion’, the protest of tribal people against the British Raj,” the announcement said. Read more
Fr. Stan Swamy: his legacy lives forever!
03/07/2022
Countercurrents.org / by Cedric Prakash
A year ago, on 5 July 2021, when Father Stan Swamy left us, the world mourned the death of a great human being who epitomised compassion, courage, collaboration and commitment! ‘Stan’, as he was lovingly called by those close to him, died whilst he was still incarcerated. From the time he was illegally arrested on 8 October 2020, he languished in the Taloja jail; his deteriorating health conditions prompted the Special Court to direct the jail authorities to admit him to a private hospital in Bombay where he finally succumbed, despite the best possible medical treatment given to him at that time! It was indeed too little too late. For one, Stan should never have been arrested; Read more
‘Sad situation for human rights in India… Father Stan Swamy’s resolve inspires us’
04/07/2022
The Indian Express / by Sadaf Modak
Father Frazer Mascarenhas, the former principal of St Xavier’s College in Mumbai and the Parish Priest of St Peter’s Church, in whose care Swamy was in his last days, in conversation with Sadaf Modak.
On July 5, it will be a year since the death of 84-year-old priest and Jharkhand-based activist Stan Swamy while in judicial custody. Swamy was arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in October 2020 and a chargesheet filed against him for his alleged links with banned CPI (Maoist). Swamy had denied the charges. Read more
Video: Why Democracy and Human Rights matter? – Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture
03/07/2022 hindi | 2h 48min | 2022
By PUCL Jharkhand
People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Jharkhand organized the Inaugural Lecture of ‘Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture’ series on 1st of July 2022. Prof. Faizan Mustafa, the Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad delivered the lecture. Watch video
Essential to have defenders of rights in country
03/07/2022
Ranchi, July 1
The Telegraph / by Animesh Biosee
Activists pay tribute to Father Stan Swamy and criticise State’s tendency to crack down on dissent
India needs more human rights defenders, constitutional law expert Faizan Mustafa said in Ranchi on Friday as he paid tribute to the late Father Stan Swamy and criticised the State’s tendency to crack down on rights activists. Read more
XISS lecture to honour Stan Swamy
02/07/2022
Times of India / by Jaideep Deogharia
Ranchi: Vice-chancellor of National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad, Faizan Mustafa while addressing the first Stan Swamy memorial lecture here at XISS auditorium on Friday said that the activist believed in true spirit of human rights. “Swamy came from a different state to fight for the oppressed and people of a different state,” he said. Read more
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. Read more
‘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. Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
Every moment of joy has each family member of the youngest of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case murmur “wish you were here,” the title of Pink Floyd’s haunting song on aching absences.
A lady in a house at Wadsa, Gadchiroli district, rages and switches off the television every time Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears on it. The lady is an aunt of Mahesh Raut, who, at 34, is the youngest of the accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case and has been languishing in prison since his arrest on June 6, 2018. That house at Wadsa, where a family of 14 children and adults live, is home to Mahesh. Read more
Falling in love while trying to affect a change in the society, as their hearts beat for adivasis and dalits, the couple has now spent in jail nine out of 31 years of their life together.
I called up Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya, husband of Shoma Sen, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, on May 9, with a request: could he tell me their story—she languishing in jail and he alone outside? He said it was on this day in 1991 that Shoma and he were married. Read more
Established just a few months ago, Jharkhand Jan Sangharsh Morcha (JJSM) is currently acting as an umbrella for over two dozen provincial-local people’s organisations of Jharkhand to raise voices against injustice, exploitation, corruption and to resolve the public problems in the region …
“Father Stan Swamy, who was one of the founder members of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan, lived for the Adivasi and moolnivasi communities of Jharkhand.
Taking inspiration from him, various people’s organisations have formed this front as a tribute to him to fulfil his dream of bringing all the movements of Jharkhand on one platform,” says Satyam, a social activist associated with the front. Read more
Radical priest Stan Swamy was one of India’s leading social activists. Modi’s government is to blame for his death while awaiting trial on bogus terror charges, but the clampdown won’t snuff out the inspiring legacy of Swamy’s work with Adivasi communities.
Under the rule of Narendra Modi, the Indian state has launched a sweeping authoritarian clampdown on political dissent. One of the manifestations of this onslaught has been the jailing of opponents on trumped-up charges of terrorism and conspiracy. Read more
The Bhima Koregaon Arrests and the Resistance in India
It often happens: A murder takes place, an utterly foul one. But there is little outcry, no lasting sense of wrong in public memory. Deep down, everyone is aware of the gross violation that has taken place in their midst. Everyone is affected and silently appalled that there is no redress, no justice. Yet normal life and routine democracy continues—at the expense of a deep scar in the inner recess of society, unseen and perhaps illegible, best described as a void. Like an abyss that stares back, will this void come to haunt everyone later, in some possibly unrecognizable form? Read more
