India’s civic space is rated as ‘repressed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. In recent years, the government has misused the draconian anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other laws to keep activists behind bars and fabricate cases against activists and journalists for undertaking their work. Read more
What Freedom Means For India’s Political Prisoners
15/08/2024
Outlook / by Apsksha Priyadarshini
For political prisoners, freedom becomes a longing for small mercies that make us human
Maryam was six—the youngest of three siblings—when her father, Khalid Saifi, was arrested following the sectarian violence in northeast Delhi in February 2020. The violence took place against the backdrop of months of protests led by Muslim women at several sites across the national capital and in the country, against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed updates to the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR). Maryam’s mother Nargis recalls the day as the beginning of “a dark, endless night” that has been written into their fates. Read more
The Freedoms Our Martyrs Won Are Under Seige
15/08/2024
Outlook / by Anand Teltumbde
This Independence Day, we are in an age in which we need assurances from our leader that the Constitution will survive
Seventy-seven years ago, our martyrs won freedom from British colonial rule. Three years later, we gave ourselves a Constitution that guaranteed a plethora of freedoms, inspired not by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) but the indigenous ethos of our own freedom movement. Today, having traversed into the Amrit Kaal, these guarantees appear to have expired, needing a new guarantee from our supreme ruler that the Constitution itself will survive. If the likes of Bhagat Singh were to see the state of India’s freedom today, they would certainly ask themselves what was wrong with the British rule that they went to the gallows fighting them. Read more
India Cries for Freedom!
13/08/2024
Countercurrents / by Cedric Prakash
India cries for Freedom: Thanks to the relentless struggles and sacrifices of our freedom fighters, on 15 August 1947, India made her tryst with destiny! After years of colonial rule, she finally became an independent nation. Ever since (during these past 77 years), India has made rapid strides in every sphere, and this fact must be applauded; however, one must also humbly admit that, India still has an unimaginable long way to go in the internalisation and actualisation of her freedom!
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India cries for Freedom for Human rights defenders (HRDs), right to information seekers and others who take a stand for truth, justice and human rights. They are at the receiving end of a vicious and vindictive system. The are intimidated, incarcerated and even killed! These include those in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case; Jesuit Father Stan Swamy is a case in point. Read more
Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration
‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’ by Ajaz Ashraf: Laying bare Maharashtra’s deep-rooted caste fault lines
11/08/2024
The Tribune India / by Debashish Mukerji
By now, it is manifestly clear that the Bhima Koregaon case, unfolding since 2018, is an indelible blot on India’s democratic record.
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Two books recalling these shameful developments have been published this year — ‘The Incarcerations’ by Alpa Shah, an anthropology professor at the London School of Economics, and ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’ by veteran journalist Ajaz Ashraf. Both are staggeringly well researched; however, while they do inevitably cover much common ground — using interviews with the same people, even quoting from the works of the same experts (such as Paul Brass and Christophe Jaffrelot) — their focuses are somewhat different. Read more
Groundbreaking book, addresses oppression of Dalits, ‘Brahminical’ underpinnings
05/08/2024
Counterview.net / by Harsh Thakor
‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s Wrath Against Dreamers Of Equality’ is a groundbreaking work addressing the oppression of Dalits and the Brahminical underpinnings of the state. This book compellingly illustrates the perilous consequences faced by those engaged in the struggle against class and caste hierarchies in India, especially since 2014, where any quest for justice and equality is often met with suppression and criminalization. It holds an esteemed place in the literature that confronts proto-fascism and embodies the fury of Brahminism against advocates of equality. Read more
New book investigates Bhima Koregaon—‘riots are manufactured, not spontaneous’
02/08/2024
The Print / by Antara Baruah
There’s no singular account of what happened at Elgar Parishad. In ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’, Ajaz Ashraf offers precisely this.
The battle in today’s India is between those dreaming of equality and those upholding Brahminical hierarchy. It is within this context that senior journalist Ajaz Ashraf situates the contentious legacy of Bhima Koregaon as a site and symbol of Dalit liberation in his book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste.
In the book, he discusses the events following Elgar Parishad—held to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregaon’s 200th anniversary on 31 December 2017—and the wrongful arrest of 16 activists, professors, and journalists, collectively known as BK16. Read more
Process as Punishment – Recent books that bear witness to the BK-16’s incarceration
31/07/2024
The Caravan / by Kaashif Hajee
“The Incarcerations” / “How Long Can The Moon Be Caged” / “Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste”
“IT IS ONLY BY CHANCE that I came out of prison alive,” GN Saibaba said, at his first press briefing after his release from Nagpur Central jail on 7 March. The 57-year-old former Delhi University professor also mentioned the inhumane treatment and torture he had faced for nearly ten years in prison. Saibaba, who is wheelchair-bound and over ninety-percent handicapped, was confined to the same cell for over eight years and deprived of a wheelchair. Read more
▪ Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste. Brahminism’s wrath against dreamers of equality
Author: Ajaz Ashraf
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Publishing Date: June 2024
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
▪ How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners
Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247 Read more / order
Bhide would speak against Gandhi and Nehru, in decidedly abusive language, then switch to raising alarm over the rising population of Muslims. Did they know, he would ask his audience, that infants died of heart attack when loudspeakers came alive with the azan, or the Muslim call to prayer?
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In Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s Wrath Against Dreamers Of Equality, journalist Ajaz Ashraf takes a close look at the performances and speeches at the Elgar Parishad in Pune on the eve of the Bhima Koregaon violence. These critiqued Brahminism, prime minister Narendra Modi and the ‘new peshwai’ or new age caste oppressors. It provides a rare glimpse into how a Hindutva leader in Maharashtra used the state’s widespread reverence for Maratha warrior king Shivaji to foment anti-Muslim feelings; and studies the impact that James Laine’s book on Shivaji had on Maharashtra’s anti-Brahmin consciousness. 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 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. Read more/order
Shah traces the trajectories of cartoonists, poets, writers, Jesuit priests, grassroots activists and English educators arrested under the UAPA law.
June 4 was a significant day for India. After ten years of unfettered access to power, the Bharatiya Janata Party lost its majority mandate, leading to another era of coalition politics. Liberal critics of the party published long articles on the scent of the renewed hope wafting over the country. The voters have spoken – they will not hand over custody of our nation’s values to one person or party. 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
▪ Book Excerpt: The story of an ‘Urban Naxal’ (Deccan Herald | by Alpa Shah | April 2024 )
As the J&K High Court recently reiterated, allegations of ‘terrorism’ have become a copy-paste template that the State uses to muffle dissent, but why do courts freeze the process of criminal justice on hearing ‘national security’?
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The jurisprudence has resulted in widening the coercive powers of the police and investigation agencies. Since the court only forms its assessment on broad probabilities, a pattern has emerged from the evidence submitted by the prosecution in a wide range of UAPA cases where there is a similarity in terms of enormous allegations running into thousands of pages, generalised testimonies of witnesses; most of which are protected witnesses, lack of incriminating evidence and heavy reliance on electronic evidence and literature.
There are similarities in three specific instances: those arrested in the backdrop of the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence, deoperationalisation of Article 370, and 2020 Northeast Delhi riots. Read more
McCarthyism in INDIA?: The Return of The Urban Naxal Bogey!
17/07/2024
The Crossbill / by Subbhash Gatade
Does the ruling dispensation feels that since Naxals are seen as violent gangs who claim to work for people this bogey of Urban Naxal facilitates it to target anyone who refuses to play ball.
1. ‘India Will Awake to Police Raj’!
““I am reminded of Pandit Nehru ‘s speech “At the stroke of midnight India will awake to freedom.” At the stroke of midnight night 1st July 2024 India will awake to police raj,”
There are rare occasions when a simple tweet underlines the unfolding reality in stark terms.
… Any concerned citizen can look dispassionately at the Bhima Koregaon Case (12) or the way the accused in the NE Delhi riots have been languishing in jail – and are not even getting bail – and infer where things have reached. Read more
A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism
15/07/2024
The Wire / by Ajay K. Mehra
The proposed legislation will authorise state police and other security agencies to arrest an accused person without warrant and by extension, without letting them know of their offence.
As soon as the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, tabled in the state legislative assembly on July 11 this year, becomes a law, the state government will have another draconian legal instrument to use against protesters, dissenters, critics and opponents. Like other such laws, this one too has strict provisions making an individual’s arrest non-bailable.
Since the need for such a law is being justified on the grounds that the “menace of Naxalism is increasing in urban areas… through Naxal frontal organisations”, dissenters being framed up as ‘urban Naxals’ is imminent. Read more
A New Bill Shows Maharashtra Wants to Become a Police State Before Combatting Left-Wing Extremism
15/07/2024
The Wire / by Ajay K. Mehra
The proposed legislation will authorise state police and other security agencies to arrest an accused person without warrant and by extension, without letting them know of their offence.
As soon as the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, tabled in the state legislative assembly on July 11 this year, becomes a law, the state government will have another draconian legal instrument to use against protesters, dissenters, critics and opponents. Like other such laws, this one too has strict provisions making an individual’s arrest non-bailable.
Since the need for such a law is being justified on the grounds that the “menace of Naxalism is increasing in urban areas… through Naxal frontal organisations”, dissenters being framed up as ‘urban Naxals’ is imminent. Read more
Colin Gonsalves writes: Under proposed ‘urban Naxal’ law, I could be arrested for fulfilling my duty
14/07/2024
The Indian Express / by Colin Consalves
Because the judiciary has let us down again and again, the government has become bold enough to draft a law to trap within its web all those who struggle without guns or bombs for a better India
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We have gone through the experience of the arrest of the Bhima Koregaon lawyers and social workers, none of whom, even after five years of incarceration, could be shown to have engaged in any act of violence intended to overawe the state by warfare. All of them were denied bail by judges, up to the Supreme Court. Read more
‘Urban Naxal’ bill is bogey to smother opposition before Maharashtra polls, say Congress, CPI(M)
12/07/2024
The Hindu / by Ateeq Shaikh
In a strongly worded statement issued by the CPI (M) State Secretary, Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis has been called a “hitman” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah
… The statement reads, “It is well-known that Devendra Fadnavis, then Chief Minister and Home Minister, acted as a hitman for Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in arresting innocent individuals under UAPA on false charges in the Bhima Koregaon case. Read more
India: Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on the deterioration of civic space
12/07/2024
CIVICUS / by CIVICUS
CIVICUS has submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Committee on the state of civic space in India ahead of its review of the state’s implementation of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in July 2024.
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The submission calls on the UN Human Rights Committee to make a series of recommendations, including:
Immediately and unconditionally release all HRDs, including Khurram Parvez, HRDs detained in the Bhima Koregaon case, student activists Umar Khalid and Gulfisha Fatima, journalists including Irfan Mehraj, academics and others detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms, and review their cases to prevent further harassment. Read more Download the India research brief
Reporters Collective / by Shreegireesh Jalihal, Swapnil Ghose and Saras Jaiswal
Modi government gave in to intelligence agenciesʼ demands for a “blanket exemption” from a proposed right to privacy law. It effectively killed a decade-old assurance to bring in a law to protect citizens from illegal surveillance
In 2012, the Congress-led government assured Parliament that a right to privacy law was in in the making. The eagerly awaited law was supposed to be a bulwark against surveillance on individuals, with rules spelling out when the government could snoop on citizens.
… While the assurance was still on the table, controversies emerged around allegations of government snooping on dissidents, and journalists using Pegasus, an Israeli military-grade spyware. Read more
