Freedom, the celebrated realisation at a midnight in August 1947, was seen caged in Taloja in 2021. The caged bird still sang. At midday on 5 July 2021 Stan Swamy was free at last for all eternity. Stan continues to sing. All is not lost.
SAJI P MATHEW OFM
Stan Swamy was born a decade before India’s freedom. He was born into the thick of our freedom struggle. The baby must have felt the heat of it, though was not yet in know of the great fire of countless Indian souls waging a nonviolent war against the British. Being born into the blaze of Indian freedom struggle seems to have made him an unyielding, non-melting metal. What sprouts in fire will not whither in the summer heat. Fr Stan’s death was as touching and radical as his 84 years of life.
“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,” announced the first Prime Minister of our country in his Tryst with Destiny speech. The hour of it’s happening, and stressing it by mentioning it is quite metaphoric. The liberty envisaged by the founders of our great nation was freedom for all, even at the darkest hours of the day. We have drifted hours away from that dream. Atrocities against the tribals, and unconsented grabbing of their land continue to happen in the bright day- light, and with the consent of the ruling dispensation. When will the soul of our nation, the soul of Stan Swamy, long oppressed find utterance? The popular song “Apna time aayega” is heard from the loud speakers as India launch the year-long celebrations from August 2021 to commemorate 75 years of Independence with programmes and projects to showcase ‘development, governance, technology, reform, progress and policy’ over the years. Will their time ever come?
Freedom Begins Only When One
Is Ready to Die
Our independence was hard fought. Our heroes stood up and refused to give up. They sacrificed many things that were dear to them; and they were even ready to die. No establishment would be stress-free once they know that the people are fighting for justice; and they are ready to even die for it.
People close to Stan say, that as standing with the tribals attracted the fury of government machineries and became dreadfully dangerous, Stan began to show ‘a mysterious calmness and determination’. He was ready to pay the price, even with his life: ‘Only a prophet closer to his God and people can exhibit such readiness’. That led to the incarceration of Stan Swamy; and freedom is not far away.
Incarceration Then and Now
The idea of imprisonment is quite terrifying. Shreya Goswamy, in her article in India Today, Bhagat Singh to Jawaharlal Nehru, Here’s What Our Leaders Experienced in British Jails, throws light on the state of those detained by the British. Incarceration was a common form of punishment as far back as the 1790s, when the British were just consolidating their rule in India. They established prisons in the many forts of India for security reasons, and turned the Andaman and Nicobar Islands into a penal settlement. We have learned in our history books about the horrible conditions and atrocities thousands had to undergo in jails during our pre-independence freedom protests.
Though in retrospection there is some amount of romanticisation attached to jail-time back then, even if it was detainment for just a day, there’s a lot more to forced detention; it wasn’t easy. Our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote in The Discovery of India, “Prison is not a pleasant place to live in even for a short period, much less for long years.” Bhai Parmanand, who was associated with the Lahore Conspiracy Case of 1915, described how severe was the incarceration in his prison diary, Aapbeeti. Even the long journey from Delhi to the Andamans via Calcutta took a toll on many prisoners.
Bhagat Singh, who was incarcerated in the Central Jail Mianwali near Rawalpindi, started an in-prison hunger strike to demand all
the rights they were denied - equality in food standards, clothing, toiletries, and other hygienic necessities, as well as access to books and a daily newspaper.
Aren’t there striking similarities between the incarcerations then and now with the stories of Stan Swamy and other undertrials, arrested un- der UAPA? Both had long journeys to reach their prisons, and are deprived of basic necessities. It is good to note that there were exceptions too: considering and observing that Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru etc. were nonviolent and are working at a larger vision, though they did not want to admit it then, the jail authorities provided them with fundamental provisions; they were even given paper and pen. In fact, Gandhi wrote his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments With Truth, while serving time in Yerwada Jail in Pune in 1932! Nehru did the same with The Discovery of India, which he wrote being in Ahmednagar Fort Jail.
Fr Stan Swamy, aged 83, ailing from Parkin- son’s disease, was denied a straw and a sipper, even after repeated requests. Even at 75th year of country’s illustrious independence, the struggle for even one’s basic human rights is still on, leave alone the struggle to protect one’s water, jungle and land. Are people and parties who fought against unlawful detentions, and fought for one’s right to dissent, during the British era becoming perpetrators of the same today?
Two epochs, pre-independence times and post-independence times are united with one reality –undertrial prisoners. During the British rule Indian prisons were teeming with people who asked for political freedom. Fast-forward 75 years, The Hindu in September 2020 reported that the number of people lodged in Indian prisons as undertrials increased at a faster rate betweem 2001 and 2019. There are more than 3.28 lakh undertrial prisoners in India. 1.6 crore criminal cases are pending judgement for more than a year across courts in India.
The End of Tribals Uprising
The tribals seem to be at a second independence struggle? They have lost their Mahatma (Mahatma Swamy). What is next? What conversations are possible with them? The answer is with the corporates and multinationals who are the favourites of the Government. There has to be a radical change.
The privileged must learn to say ‘no’, learn to say ‘enough’. That is the deeper sense of option for the poor; that is voluntary reservation for the deprived and underprivileged. Let others too have opportunities and privileges. Never saying ‘no’ and ‘enough’ is the disaster of corporate behaviour. The world is ruled by handful of corporates, not because others have no abilities, but the corporates never say ‘enough’. They even swallow the others through mergers, acquisitions, and by influencing government policies.
Stan Swamy Worked with Perspicacity
and Courage
In his interview with Indian Development Review (IDR) Stan recollects, “through friends, I came to know of the indigenous Adivasi people in central India – a place where despite the tremendous natural wealth in the region, the people were very poor. He did not think twice, he declared solidarity with the tribals.
Stan reached Jharkhand tribal belt; so are many others, corporates, politicians, religious preachers; all had their own agenda. Some converted, some exploited, and some others even looted. Stan Swamy had empathy for them, he stayed with them, accompanied them. When many others made profit out of the tribals and their water, forest and land; Stan became a prophet for them.
Perspicacity is a quality of prophets. It is a profound understanding and insight into things. It is keen-sightedness. It is the ability to understand people, issues, and situations quickly and accurately. Stan had
the capacity to see what is happening beneath, what is happening behind, what is happening besides, and what would happen further. He saw more than what others saw; and gave up fear of standing up for it. Having a mind of one’s own
is a rare asset today. Having to speak up one’s mind is even more rare; and for anyone, to speak up one’s opinion, takes significant effort and energy, especially when he/she is alone or part of a minority. Fr Stan had grown weaker and feeble as time went.
Suzy Kassem, an American thinker, and social commentator, says, “stand up for what you believe in, even if you stand alone.” She clarifies further in her book, Rise Up and Salute the Sun, “Stand up to hypocrisy. If you don’t, the hypocrites will teach. Stand up to ignorance, because if you don’t, the ignorant will run free to spread ignorance like a disease. Stand up for truth. If you don’t, then there is no truth to your existence. If you don’t stand up for all that is right, then understand that you are part of the reason why there is so much wrong in the world.”
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