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Tag: solidarity

The Targeted Silencing of Thinker, Student, Reporter / Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

The Targeted Silencing of Thinker, Student, Reporter / Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

The Targeted Silencing of the Trinity of Thinker, Student, Reporter

28/03/2021

The Wire / by Pamela Philipose

Academia and journalism are intertwined. Both create and question knowledge, both demand a critical engagement with society, and both have a distinct interface with the public.
What is more, journalism and academia routinely draw from – and contribute – to the other. In a conversation carried by The Wire (‘Watch | The State of India’s Academic Freedom’, March 25), reference was made to the elements that constitute academic freedom…
Courageous individuals who stood up and spoke out felt the full force of a vengeful state machinery. If we are to consider the Bhima Koregaon arrests, four of the 16 people put behind bars were formally attached to universities. Anand Teltumbe, a former IIT professor, was a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management; Shoma Sen, the head of the English Literature department, Nagpur University; Sudha Bharadwaj, was visiting professor at the National Law School, Delhi; Hany Babu, was professor of language and linguistics at Delhi University.
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Criminalisation of Anti-Cast Research

27/02/2021

By International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF)

27 March
8pm IST
Register here: http://shorturl.at/hzHM5

Anti-caste academic research and activism in India are increasingly threatened with criminalisation and surveillance from the state: from the arrests of academics and students to the militarisation of campuses, from the banning of books, plays and film screenings to the censorship of activities deemed as detrimental to the reputation of the government. The persecution of academic-activists in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon violence is a case in point. …

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Artwork in Solidarity with Anand, Sudha, Rohit and all Political Prisoners (pics)

Artwork in Solidarity with Anand, Sudha, Rohit and all Political Prisoners (pics)

By Ashoka Students

Click to enlarge pics

Ashoka students call for class boycott next week, demand university reinstate Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Arvind Subramanian

20/03/2021

The Indian Express / by Express News Service

In a statement issued late Friday night, the elected student body said that the two professors’ controversial exit had eroded their trust in the university administration to protect students from “external pressures”.
… “Here, it is crucial to acknowledge the socio-economic capital required to make these demands and protest for these changes given the larger political context of the country. The state crackdown on academics and activists has only worsened during the pandemic. We stand in complete solidarity with all the academics and activists who have resisted the state’s brutality, organized in support of targeted groups and been subject to imprisonment and torture for it including, but not limited to the Bhima Koregaon 16, peaceful anti-CAA protestors and most recently Nodeep Kaur and Shiv Kumar,” the statement reads further.
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Video: Livestreamed prayer service / Jesuit Stan Swamy remains in jail, bail postponed again

Video: Livestreamed prayer service / Jesuit Stan Swamy remains in jail, bail postponed again


by Cedric Prakash (March 21):
Do JOIN: Special Day of Prayer and Fast for Fr Stan Swamy and others JCSA is inviting you to a livestreamed prayer service *PRAYING TOGETHER*
Date: Sunday, Mar 21, 2021 07:30 PM Indian Time +++

en | 28min | 2021
Watch @ Youtube here

Jesuit Stan Swamy remains in jail, bail postponed again

18/03/2021

UCA News / by UCA News Reporter

An elderly Indian Jesuit arrested more than five months ago on charges of sedition remains in jail as a special court postponed its verdict on his bail application for the third time.
The verdict on the bail application of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy was postponed again on March 16 by the special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) based in western India’s Mumbai city.
“The frequent postponements have disappointed us,” said Father A. Santhanam, a Jesuit lawyer based in Tamil Nadu state who is closely following the case.
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The ‘Buts’ To Freedom Of Speech In India / Why Bail to Vara Vara Rao Augurs Well for Indian Democracy

The ‘Buts’ To Freedom Of Speech In India / Why Bail to Vara Vara Rao Augurs Well for Indian Democracy

The BJP’s Toolkit Is Not Working That Well

17/03/2021

The Wire / by Amit Shrivastava

Despite the BJP-RSS’s repression tactics having a terrifying and chilling effect on the right to protest, two of India’s largest movements have taken shape since 2019.
By now, it’s fairly obvious that the NDA government has a standard toolkit for dealing with what it regards as troublesome movements. The script goes like this …
The police stand on the sidelines as first propaganda and then violence is unleashed by either the Sangh parivar organisations or others. We’ve now seen this in JNU (in 2016 and again in 2020), in Bhima Koregaon, in the Republic Day incidents, and most terrible of all, in the Delhi killings of February 2020.
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The ‘Buts’ To Freedom Of Speech In India

17/03/2021

Feminism India / by Guest Writer

A trembling, disillusioned father told his daughter to flee her homeland for her safety. This seems like a plot taken straight from a classic wartime story fraught with separation and grief. In reality, such was the conversation my friend had with her father following the unlawful arrests of activists. The Disha Ravi toolkit case was the last straw.
The ‘buts’ to the freedom of speech in India only seem to point to a dictatorial reality, much like that of Airstrip One in George Orwell’s 1984, where even the mere thought of protest is met with prosecution.
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Why Bail to Vara Vara Rao Augurs Well for Indian Democracy

16/03/2021

NewsClick / by Ajay Gudavarthy

Collective rights cannot remain intact without a collective spirit. The Bombay High Court has shown such compassion lives on in India.
It restores faith in the judiciary and augurs well for Indian democracy that the Bombay High Court has granted bail to revolutionary poet VV Rao on medical grounds. In a sense, the current regime and VV, as he is known among friends, are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
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US Congressman raises Fr Stan Swamy issue

US Congressman raises Fr Stan Swamy issue

The Times of India / by Jaideep Deogharia

US representative Juan Vargas has urged US secretary of state Antony J Blinken to take up the matter of octogenarian Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, who is in Tajola jail in Maharashtra on charges of terrorism, with the Indian government as part of US foreign policy. Blinken has assured the Congressman to look into the matter.
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Former civil servants urge Govt to bring legislative changes to prevent “planting” of incriminating material

Former civil servants urge Govt to bring legislative changes to prevent “planting” of incriminating material

The Leaflet / by The Leaflet

A group of former civil servants has expressed concerns at reports alleging the planting of incriminating material in Rona Wilson’s computer, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
“The reports that the police and other investigative agencies may have violated constitutional guarantees and judicial pronouncements in the practices adopted in search and seizure operations, as well as the possibility that they may have been party to planting incriminating material in personal digital devices and harvesting evidence therefrom, have caused us grave concern”, the statement signed by former civil servants reads.
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Video: The case against the Bhima Koregaon political prisoners

Video: The case against the Bhima Koregaon political prisoners


en | 5:07min | 2021

By The Polis Project

Sixteen individuals across India have been arrested since 6 June 2018 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). They are human rights defenders working for the democratic rights of India’s poorest and most oppressed: Dalits, Adivasis, indigenous people, and women. All of them have been outspoken critics of Hindutva.
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March 8: Solidarity with Shoma, Sudha & Jyoti & Other Women Human Rights Defenders

March 8: Solidarity with Shoma, Sudha & Jyoti & Other Women Human Rights Defenders

by Smashboard

This International Women’s Day, back our right to peaceful protest! Stand with these brave women attacked & arrested on trumped up charges in India – only for defending democracy.

Click to enlarge

by Gabbar:
On the International Women’s day let’s remember human rights activists Sudha Bharadwaj, professor and activist Shoma Sen and Jyoti Jagtap, who along with 13 others are behind bars in the fake Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case +++

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Rally against state violence against women in India held in Surrey

07/03/2021

Countercurrents / by Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI)


On the eve of International Women’s Day, South Asian activists came together to raise their voices against gendered repression in the world’s so called largest democracy.
Organized by the Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) on Sunday, March 7, the rally was held outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center in Surrey (Canada).
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