The Bombay High Court Division Bench, led by Justice S.S.Shinde, bemoaned after hearing the custodial death of Fr. Stan Swamy: “With all humility at our command, we really are shocked by hearing this news. Therefore, last hearings were immediately allowed him to remain in hospital of his choice. We have no word to express”. 

These words of the judiciary, shows that some sense of humanity is left among the judiciary, the same cannot be said about the jail authorities, National Investigating Agency (NIA), the Union Home Minister and the Prime Minister who were directly monitoring the case of the 83-year-old Jesuit priest, struggling with Parkinson disease. The death of Stan on 5th July, 2021 has been termed ‘custodial death’, ‘institutional murder’, etc. 

Two years have elapsed after Stan left us. But the ruling class of India does not even have the basic humanity to state that in the death of Stan an innocent life was lost. It has not been able to prove the charges against him, that is he was anti-national. But the Tribals and the human rights activists all over the world have proved that he was a martyr for the Tribals’ self-rule, self-determination and swaraj. 

Stan Swamy, or Stan as he was popularly known, lived and died for the Tribals of Jharkhand and, in extension, his life challenged the authoritarian, autocratic and fascist regime of present day India. 

The ruling establishment incarcerated 16 academicians and activists under the pretext that they were involved in the infamous ‘Bhima Koregaon Violence 2018’. Interestingly, many of them were not even present in Bhima Koregaon where the violence is supposed to have happened, leave alone participating in the violence. Stan had not gone to Mumbai for many years. But the government included his name in the second FIR which ran into 10,000 pages. 

Various efforts to get Stan bail or to admit him in a hospital for treatment proved futile. The NIA, working directly under the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, opposed granting bail and treatment to him. Thus, from 9th October, 2020 till his death on 5th July, 2021 Stan was made to suffer in custody. Similar treatment was meted out to Varvara Rao who was then 80 years old and Saibaba, a person with special needs and a Delhi University professor. 

It is pertinent to ask why the government treated Stan this way. The only answer is that he had dedicated over 30 years of his life for the upliftment of the Tribals of Jharkhand. He, along with the Tribals, civil society activists and human rights activists, took up the cause of the Tribals for jal, jungle aur zamin (water, forest and land). Since he stood with the Tribals in protecting their natural resources, the mining mafia, forest mafia and the then BJP government in Jharkhand wanted to get rid of him. It is at this juncture, the Bhima Koregaon issue became handy ‘to do away with him’. 

If the ruling class thought that in the death of Stan they have got rid of one of their critics, they are mistaken. Stan has now become much more a rallying point for the cause of the Tribals who are carrying out their struggle for ‘swaraj through gram sabha’. Along with the Tribals of Jharkhand, civil society and human rights activists, Stan stood solidly with those who have been fighting for the legitimate place and role of Pathalgari. These people converted the Pathalgari practice into Pathalgari movement to assert their autonomy and self-rule and above all their right over all the resources above the land and below the land. The Tribal community of Jharkhand has acknowledged the contribution of Stan Swamy and inscribed his name along with the martyrs for Tribal liberation. 

Stan did not become a martyr for the Tribal cause by chance. But from his early days in the Tribal region of present Jharkhand, especially in Singhbhum district, he immersed himself into the lives and struggles of the Adivasis. He became aware of the exploitation and discrimination they were subjected to by the dikus, that is, the outsiders who in the form of traders, mining mafia, and government officials plundered the resources of the Tribals and forced to migrate. 

Residing among them, he saw every day the oppression unleashed on them. Hence, he began to observe, read relevant documents from the Constitution, special acts framed for the Tribals and also international instruments which talk about the independence of Indigenous People. Hence, starting from the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act, 1908 to Provision of the UN Decree Concerning Ownership of Minerals he researched on over 14 such constitutional provisions, acts, ordinances and instruments. 

Stan was bewildered and thoroughly disappointed by the omission and commission in putting these constitutional provisions into practice. Hence he began to organise training sessions for the Tribal activists along with other legal and human rights activists and built up a cadre of leaders among the Tribals to address this issue of their exploitation. 

One of the outstanding contributions of Stan, along with others, was to file a PIL to release the Tribal Undertrial Prisoners. It is reported that over 4,000 youth are languishing in jails being named ‘naxals’ but in reality these are the people who are opposing the displacement of Tribals from their natural and ancestral environment. This posed a huge challenge to the government and the exploiters of Tribal resources. Hence, they decided to silence him. But they did not realise that a martyr continues to live in the lives of the oppressed. 

As if castigating the stand of the present government, Stan Swamy was awarded on June 2, 2022 posthumously Human Rights Honorary Award in Geneva known as the Martin Ennals Award. This once again established Stan as a Human Rights Defender. 

Tribals, Dalits, minorities, common and conscious citizens, social activists and human rights defenders not only from India but globally are demanding the following: 1)Prove Stan and others were anti-national or declare that they are not; 2) Release all others who are still languishing in jail falsely accused; 3)Compensate all those who have been falsely accused and have suffered a great deal; 4)Release all the Undertrial Prisoners in Jharkhand and all the political prisoners without delay.