The Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered the Maharashtra Government to put up the State’s Prison Manual and also Police online so as to help prisoners and their relatives learn more about their rights, while in jail.
… The judges are presently hearing final arguments in the plea by senior advocate Gayatri Singh assisted by advocates Susan Abraham and Sudha Bharadwaj. Also tagged along is another petition wherein the primary focus is on the mental health of prisoners. This petition is being argued by advocate Vijay Hiremath.
The final hearing will continue on Monday (April 28). Read more
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 Read more / order
Protecting the Protectors: AILAJ Demands Advocates Protection Act
Lawyers demand protection from harassment, sexism, and state repression as AILAJ finalizes draft Advocates’ Protection Bill after month-long campaign.
All India Lawyers Association of Justice (AILAJ) Delhi culminated its month-long campaign for the enactment of an Advocates’ Protection Act in a state-level consultation held on 12 April at the Press Club of India. …
Advocate Rohin Bhatt … urged that the Bill must have provisions that discourage the state from maliciously prosecuting lawyers, as it has done to lawyers like Sudha Bhardwaj and Surendra Gadling in the Bhima Koregaon case. Read more
▪ Video: The Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails
By All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice – AILAJ / March 2022
en | 1:21:23 | 2022
The huge number of undertrials, the overcrowding, and the disproportional numbers of Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi prisoners are part of the prison problem in India.
We are joined by Adv. Sudha Bharadwaj for a discussion on the Conditions of Prisoners in Indian Jails. Watch video
Learning About Strength, Solidarity and the Injustices of Incarceration / Voices from the Purgatory
Learning About Strength, Solidarity and the Injustices of Incarceration
04/04/2025
The Wire / by Meenaz Kakalia
In ‘The Feared’, Neeta Kolhatkar interviews 11 political prisoners and their loved ones about their struggles, their resilience and their joys.
While memoirs of political prisoners are not uncommon, what one doesn’t often find is their stories told through interviews which probe the more intimate aspects of their lives and the enduring ways in which their incarceration has affected their families and loved ones. Read more
Voices from the Purgatory
04/04/2025
The Telegraph / by Kartik Chauhan
The Feared is not only an urgent call for prison reforms but it also reveals an alarming history of forced and/or false incarcerations of political dissenters, opponents and activists in India
… The opening interview with Sudha Bharadwaj revisits her days in Yerawada and Byculla prisons. Bharadwaj talks about her daughter and the complexity of mulaqat processes in Indian prisons — a recurring conversation in the book wherein the interviewees report arbitrary rules that the prison authorities impose with impunity, often in flagrant violation of the prescribed Prison Manual. Read more
Also read: ▪ The Feared – Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners
Author: Neeta Kolhatkar
Publishing Date: Dec 2024
Publisher: S&S India
Pages: 272
During long discussions, sometimes taking place over multiple meetings, Kolhatkar unearths personal anecdotes from the time her interviewees were incarcerated, bringing into focus the human face of prison inmates, while also detailing the wretched conditions relating to space, hygiene, medical attention, and food that they experienced. Read more /order
‘The Message Is Loud & Clear.’ Author Of New Book On 11 Indian ‘Prisoners Of Conscience’ & The Costs Of Defiance
07/03/2025
Article 14 / by Zeyad Masroor Khan
Political prisoners are among the most discriminated against of India’s prisoners, says Neeta Kolhatkar, author of ‘The Feared’, a book that explores the lives of 11 such prisoners and their families. They talked to her about their experiences while incarcerated and—for those on bail—after. Kolhatkar tells us how she got access to India’s ‘prisoners of conscience’, and why she thinks they were arrested; how they struggle for basic facilities, including medical tests; the impact on their physical and mental health, on their spouses and children; and their survival strategies.
“I will not come out alive if I am jailed again.”
That is what Binayak Sen, 75, says in “The Feared”, a new book by Mumbai-based journalist Neeta Kolhatkar, chronicling the experiences of 11 Indian political prisoner. A medical doctor arrested in 2007 while working in the Adivasi lands of Chhattisgarh, Sen was convicted of sedition in 2010 before being granted bail in 2011. Read more
The Feared: A wake-up call to the gross human rights violations inflicted on thousands of undertrials
05/06/2025
Sabrang India / by Harsh Thakor
The Feared is a collection of interviews conducted by Neeta Kolhatkar with 11 political prisoners and, in some cases, their loved ones. Through these conversations, she vividly portrays their everyday lives within multiple prisons across India. This landmark work is a path breaking contribution to resurrecting the spirit of dissent and resistance at a time when proto-fascism is reaching unprecedented heights.
The book serves as a wake-up call to the gross human rights violations inflicted on thousands of undertrials. Kolhatkar’s detailed discussions – some spanning multiple meetings – reveal personal anecdotes from the prisoners’ time behind bars. She brings to light not only their experiences but also the deplorable prison conditions, including issues related to space, hygiene, medical care, and food. Read more
‘If I’m A Hindu, It Does Not Mean I’ll Put Non-Hindu Behind Bars,’ Says Retired Justice BN Srikrishna At Book Launch
27/02/2025
Free Press Journal / FPJ News Service
If I’m a Hindu, it does not mean that I hate a person who’s a non-Hindu or put him behind the bars for their religion or political ideology, said retired justice BN Srikrishna, who headed the Srikrishna Commission to investigate the Bombay Riots of 1992-93.
… The book includes conversations with political prisoners including Sudha Bharadwaj, Nilofer Malik and Sameer Khan, Koel Sen, Prashant Rahi and Shikha Rahi, Sanjay Raut, Kishorechandra Wangkhem, Anand Teltumbde and Rama Ambedkar, Binayak Sen, Kobad Gandhy, Muralidharan K and P Hemlatha. Read more
Also read: ▪ The Feared – Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners
Author: Neeta Kolhatkar
Publishing Date: Dec 2024
Publisher: S&S India
Pages: 272 Read more /order
Accused raise high cost of living, difficulty in finding jobs and houses on rent to restart life
While the bar for granting bail itself is high in stringent anti-terror laws, for several accused released on bail by Mumbai courts, the real ordeal begins after being granted bail- to find a local address to live in the city.
Just last week, Bombay High Court, while granting bail to Elgaar Parishad accused Rona Wilson and Sudhir Dhawale, directed them not to leave the territorial jurisdiction of the trial court without permission. While Dhawale is a resident of Mumbai, Wilson, whose originally from Kerala, resided in New Delhi before his arrest in 2018. Read more
By the end of the 1990s, both capital and a willing state had eviscerated the labour movement. The death blow will be dealt in the 2020s.
The 1990s marked a watershed in the attitude of the Indian state towards labour, with the ushering in of “liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation” (LPG) policies.
The early years of the LPG era saw sensational murders of trade unionists. The theatre activist Safdar Hashmi and members of his troupe, Jan Natya Manch, were brutally attacked with iron rods by the henchmen of a Congress corporator as they performed a street play that campaigned for minimum wages in Jhandapur village in Sahibabad Industrial Area on January 1, 1989. Read more
Part 1: en | 01:02:00 | 2022
Part 2: en | 45:43:00 | 2022
On this Human Rights Day, Newslaundry is removing the paywall from our interview with prominent human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj, who had walked out of prison in 2021 after being repeatedly denied bail in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Working with people on the ground, Sudha is only too aware of how “alien” the judicial process is to the majority of India’s population. She also thinks it’s important for young lawyers to cut their teeth by representing the most marginalised.
In this interview, the activist talks about her childhood in Bilaspur and her educational journey, culminating in Jawaharlal Nehru University and IIT Kanpur. Her mother, a JNU professor, helped shape the ideology of this self-proclaimed Marxist who began working with trade unions at the age of 25.
In Byculla jail, Sudha tried to secure legal aid for those imprisoned with her. She believes in the importance of a “united front” and worries that the lack of this unity gives rise to dogma. Watch video Part 1 Watch video Part 2
Also read: ▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 Read more / order
▪ Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism Publishing Date: January 2021 Interview: Darshana Mitra and Santanu Chakraborty Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Pages: 316 Access a free PDF copy of the book here
Reading The Marginal Spaces Of Prison: Incarceration And Women Political Prisoners
Women in prisons booked under laws like UAPA and the colonial law sedition become a critical site of the exposition of the fallacy of law.
The state as a modern capitalist notion often pursues eliminationist policies to repress dissent. The law in a regime change becomes a repressive state apparatus which functions to crush revolutionary people’s movement and penalise dissent. The identity of a political prisoner thus becomes a contested category with an attempted condensation with criminalisation. The notorious Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was amended in 2019 which is an instrumental act in dealing with the procedures to deal with terrorist activities. Read more
Also read: ▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada Author: Sudha Bhardwaj Publishing Date: Oct 2023 Publisher: Juggernaut Pages: 216 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
Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud: The New Right liberal
05/11/2024
The Leaflet / by Indira Jaising
Does the outgoing Chief Justice of India represent the emergence of a New Right in India, one that is modern and yet able to rely on a norm above the Constitution to perform the judicial function, writes Indira Jaising.
… It was during this period that pre-trial jail and not bail became the norm of the Supreme Court of India. The accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, granted bail by the Bombay High Court, had their bail Orders stayed by the Supreme Court of India by a Bench of which Justice Trivedi was a member. Many withdrew their petitions for bail rather than have them dismissed by the Supreme Court. Read more
I Have Always Granted Bail From A To Z, From Arnab To Zubair: CJI DY Chandrachud
05/11/2024
Live Law / by Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
Speaking at yesterday’s discussion organised by The Indian Express, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud answered many pressing issues and controversies including whether the Supreme Court stands true to the ‘bail is the rule, jail an exception’ principle.
Set to demit the office on November 10, CJI was asked by Apurva Vishwanath, The Indian Express, what institutional processes and mechanisms are required to prevent cases such as that of G.N. Saibaba and Stan Swamy, who have languished as undertrial prisoners for years in jail. Read more
The bail conditions do not allow her to leave Mumbai or discuss her case.
I am revisiting Sudha Bharadwaj’s courageous, revealing and inspiring book From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada (Juggernaut Books, Rs 799 hardcover, Rs 499 online). Early one morning in August 2018, Bharadwaj was arrested. She is a respected trade unionist and human rights lawyer, who actually gave up her US citizenship and took up Indian citizenship, choosing to work for the rights of the poor and tribals in India, in Chhattisgarh and elsewhere, for over three decades. She was charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, UAPA, of inciting violence in Bhima Koregaon village in Maharashtra. Read more
From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada
by Sudha Bharadwaj Publisher: Juggernaut Books Edition: Nov 2023 Language: English Pages: 216
Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put down their heads and work themselves weary. Sudha Bharadwaj watched through the bars of her cell, and she wrote. This is her remarkably granular account of the world of women prisoners in Yerawada Jail in Pune.Bharadwaj was incarcerated here, in a high-security wing called PhansiYard, from November 2018 to February 2020. Read more/order
Also read/watch:
▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year With The Women Of Yerawada, by Sudha Bharadwaj
Artice 14 / by Samar Halarnkar / Sudha Bharadwaj | Nov 2023
Arrested on 28 August 2018, human rights lawyer, teacher and IIT graduate Sudha Bharadwaj is among 16 accused in the Bhima-Koregaon case, charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967…
EXCERPT On 1 November, I mark my second birthday in custody. Diwali was in late October this year, and Shoma Di has saved a bit of her Diwali faral (snacks, in Marathi) as a treat for me. She gives me a beautiful card with a hand-drawn Sudoku on the front and a ballerina ‘dancing away to her freedom’ on the inside. It’s an ode to my Sudoku mania. Read more
▪ Video: Barkha Dutt speaks to Sudha Bharadwaj on her book ‘From Phansi Yard’
Mojo Story | Nov 2023 en | 21:03min | 2023 Barkha Dutt speaks to Trade Unionist, activist and lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj on her book ‘From Phansi Yard’. The book records stories of her time in jail. She is out on bail after 3 years in the 2018 Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Sudha speaks about her days in jail and how her time in a women’s prison made her aware of the gender gap in legal aid. “Many women are jailed- because their husband committed some crime and are now absconding- they don’t even know about the crime,” she says.
Sudha further says that she lives in the house of a friend, as she “can’t afford rent”. Trade unions support her, she does legal cases for them, she says. Watch video
▪ A Cage with a View: Under-trial life in an Indian jail
National Herald | by Sudha Bharadwaj | Oct 2023 The jottings that make up this book were my way of coping with incarceration. Some prisoners pray, some weep, some just put their heads down and work themselves weary. Some fight defiantly every inch of the way, some are inveterate grumblers, some spew gossip. Some read the newspaper from cover to cover, some shower love on children, some laugh at themselves and at others.
I watched through the bars, and I wrote. Read more
▪ Sudha Bharadwaj speaks – A Life in Law and Activism Publisher: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Edition: January 2021 Language: English Paperback: 316 pages Access a free PDF copy of the book here (2,1 MB)
