Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia also write about those who are battling to uphold individual and human rights.
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Vijayan and Recchia talk at length about the notorious Bhima Koregaon case, where 16 activists, teachers, intellectuals, university professors, writers, and lawyers were arrested and charged with arms smuggling, for allegedly helping Maoists, and for hatching a plan to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apart from waging war against the state – Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Hany Babu, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor, Jyoti Jagtap, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, and Father Stan Swamy (who died tragically while imprisoned). Read more
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
He added that this was a failure on the part of courts, civil societies and the media to project what was right and truthful.
The three pillars of the Constitution – legislature, executive and judiciary – have lost their credibility, and their core ideas have been shaken, said former Supreme Court judge Kurian Joseph on Friday. Read more
Video: Discussion on “Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste”
By Paranjoy Online
en | 1:39:02 | 2024
On Thursday 30 July 2024 evening, a lively discussion took place at the India International Centre (Annexe), New Delhi, on the book written by journalist and author Ajaz Ashraf titled “Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste – Brahminism’s Wrath Against Dreamers of Equality” published by Paranjoy/AuthorsUpFront. The discussants were Manoj Kumar, Professor and Member of Parliament belonging to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Subhashini Ali, member of the Communist Party of India – Marxist and Colin Gonsalves, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India. Watch video
Ajaz Ashraf’s ‘Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste’ sheds light on judiciary role in Elgaar Parishad case
31/08/2024
The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said the case had witnessed “the second biggest betrayal by the judiciary” following its “supine” role during the Emergency
Caste hatred and “State terrorism” came under the spotlight at the release of Ajaz Ashraf’s book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging Caste, with speakers also questioning the judiciary’s role in the context of the long incarceration without trial of the Elgaar Parishad accused. Read more
Ajaz Ashraf’s Book on Bhima Koregaon Unveiled at IIC
30/08/2024
Radiance News / by Radiance News Bureau
Senior journalist Ajaz Ashraf’s book, Bhima Koregaon: Challenging the Caste, was launched at India International Centre last evening. The book, published by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, delves into the enduring struggle against casteism, focusing on the events surrounding the Bhima Koregaon incident and its broader implications. 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
The prisoners’ courage seems to grow the more it is quenched
… “The publication of 27 profiles made us understand how urgent it was to articulate a more complex and nuanced understanding of the situation of political prisoners,” Recchia tells THE WEEK over Zoom.
She is right, because the book truly is an eye-opener. One might have known the rough outline of what happened to these political prisoners, from the 16 accused of abetting the violence that broke out in Bhima Koregaon in 2018 to those arrested in the anti-CAA protests of 2019. Yet, the true extent of their agony is intricately fleshed out in the book. Read more
‘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
by Deepak Kumar / @rencho79130 (Jul 28):
End 4 Years Wrongful Incarceration in Bhima Koregaon case.
Release Professor Hany Babu Immediately
#Bhimakoregaon #bk16 #SupremeCourtOfIndia
by The Polis Project / @project_polis (Jul 28):
Actor, poet, and writer Danish Husain ( @DanHusain ) reads a poignant poem “For Sachidanandan” written by Professor Dr. Hany Babu, one of the prisoners in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case.
Today, 28 July 2024, marks four years of his incarceration under the draconian UAPA Watch video
Hany Babu completes four years in prison without bail, trial
28/07/2024
Maktoob / by Maktoob Staff
Delhi University professor and noted academic Dr. Hany Babu, who is one of the UAPA prisoners in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case, completed four years of incarceration on Sunday, 28 July, 2024.
On 28 July, 2020, the National Investigation Agency arrested Babu, an anti-caste activist and a staunch proponent of social justice. Read more
The Print / by Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
In ‘How Long Can The Moon Be Caged’, Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia look at present-day India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.
A Dalit activist we spoke to said that most people don’t encounter the state the way Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims do. She told us: ‘The state has always had a boot on our necks.’ Forget living; imagine what it takes to survive this. The boot is always pressed against minorities’ necks, making it hard to breathe, demanding that they beg for dignity every day. She added: ‘[For us] it doesn’t matter who is in power; oppression is the only thing that hasn’t changed.’ Read more
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 A powerful look at authoritarian India through the experiences of political prisoners
How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? includes visual testimonies and prison writings from those falsely accused of inciting the Bhima Koregaon violence, by student leaders opposing the new discriminatory citizenship law passed in 2020, and by activists from the Pinjra Tod’s movement. In bringing together these voices, the book celebrates the courage, humanity and moral integrity of those jailed for standing in solidarity with marginalised and oppressed communities. Read more / order
India will and should never forget that infamous night of 25/26 June 1975, when, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared all over the country.
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Just before his arrest on 8 October 2020, in a video-message that went viral, Jesuit Fr. Stan Swamy said, “What is happening to me is not something unique happening to me alone. It is a broader process that is taking place all over the country. We are all aware how prominent intellectuals, lawyers’ writers, poets, activists, students, leaders, they are all put into jail because they have expressed their dissent or raised questions about the ruling powers of India. We are part of the process. In a way I am happy to be part of this process. I am not a silent spectator, but part of the game, and ready to pay the price whatever be it.” Read more
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, organised an event in Ahmedabad entitled “Remembering Fr. Stan Swamy in Today’s Challenging Reality” in the memory of Fr. Stan Swamy on his third death anniversary. The event included a discussion of the new criminal laws enforced since July 1, 2024.
At the start of the event Fr. Cedric Prakash spoke about Fr. Stan Swamy, a fearless defender of tribal rights in Jharkhand, who was arrested by the NIA in 2018 in the context of the Bhima Koregaon case. Read more
At UN Human Rights Review, PEN International Questions Crackdown on Dissent in India
18/07/2024
The Wire / by The Wire Staff
The writers’ body cited a growing number of writers, journalists, academics and other critics of the government being subjected to legal harassment in the form of arbitrary arrests and prolonged detentions without trial.
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The writers’ body mentioned the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) being used as a tool to “unjustly prosecute” the government’s critics. Citing the detention of those accused in the Bhima Koregaon/Elgar Parishad case, the report highlighted the ill treatment of professor Hany Babu and poet Varavara Rao, and denial of bail despite medical grounds. Read more Read PEN International’s full report here
‘28% rise in sedition cases’: Top global NGO alliance rates India’s civil space ‘repressed’
17/07/2024
Counterview / by Rajiv Shah
Rating India’s civic space as repressed, Civicus, a global civil society alliance, in its new report submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) on the state of civic space in the country has said that the use of sedition law against the Modi government’s critics continues. “Under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sedition cases have increased by 28 per cent with over 500 cases against more than 7,000 people”, it says. Read more
