Fr. Stanislaus Lourduswamy SJ (Fr. Stan Swamy), who took a mission to work among the Adivasis, Dalits and other marginalized communities so that the poor may live with dignity and honour, left his physical body on July 5, 2021. He was a Jesuit for 64 years, and a priest for 51 years. His was a mission of justice, equality and reconciliation. He took sides with the oppressed and marginalised in their fight for justice.

Possessing a genial and gentle demeanour, Fr. Stan Swamy was a giant of a human being who was in the middle of his fight for bail when he died. His lawyers moved the Bombay High Court on the morning of the fatal day seeking an urgent hearing on his bail plea after his health deteriorated drastically on July 4 and he was put on ventilator support. 

He and others accused in the case had repeatedly complained to the court of poor health facilities inside prison and alleged neglect by prison officials. He was being treated at the private Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai following a court order on May 28. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had opposed a private hospital admission and had recommended JJ Hospital to which Stan had said: “I'd rather die here in prison.” 

The Case and Arrest

On 8 October 2020, in a widely criticized late-night swoop, the NIA arrested Swamy and charge-sheeted him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for his alleged role in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence and links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). He had denied the charges. 

Two days before his arrest, in a video statement he said: “They are even asking me to go to Mumbai for further interrogation, which I am refusing to go. Because of my age, I have certain ailments. There is the epidemic which is ravaging the country... This is something that I am communicating to them and let us hope that some human sense will prevail.” Prior to this he was interrogated for many hours for a few days. Earlier on 28 August, 2018 his house was raided, followed by another raid on 12 June 2019.

The NIA officials confiscated his laptop, mobile and ipad. Since his arrest, he has been in the Taloja jail near Mumbai. His last few months were fighting legal battles for even the smallest of needs. While in jail, in a letter to his Jesuit colleague, Swamy highlighted the plight of the prisoners stating, “Many of such poor undertrials don’t know what charges have been put on them, have not seen their chargesheet and just remain in prison for years without any legal or other assistance.” He ended the letter saying, “.... But we will still sing in chorus. A caged bird can still sing.”

The violence of Bhima Koregaon related to the event organised a day before under the banner of Elgar Parishad on 31 December, 2017 near Pune. The next day on 1 January 2018 in Bhima Koregaon people assembled in thousands to commemorate the bicentenary celebrations of the victory of a Dalit-dominated army. 

Bhima Koregaon is a small village in Pune district of Maharashtra connected with the important phase of Maratha history. On 1 January, 1818, a Dalit-dominated British Army defeated the Peshwa army in Koregaon. The battle attained a mythical and legendary stature for Dalits, who consider the win as a victory of the Dalit Mahars over the unjust treatment of the Upper Caste Peshwas. 

Ambedkar has epitomized Bhima Koregaon as a symbol of victory against the caste system. A pillar, known as Vijay Sthamb (victory pillar), was installed by the then East India Company in memory of those who fought in the battle. It is at this pillar that thousands of Dalits assemble every year to pay respect on 1 January.

The bicentenary celebration was met with organized violence and arson against the Dalits that left one person dead. Investigators claim that activists at the event, an Elgar Parishad meet, had made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements that led to violence the next day. Later the entire Elgar Parishad meet was connected with the banned Maoist -- the easiest way to silence voices of justice. 

Three years have rolled by, and more than 16 prominent activists, intellectuals, social workers, lawyers, cultural artists are in prison on fabricated, false charges. They included academics Anand Teltumbde, Shoma Sen and Hany Babu; Adivasi rights activists Stan Swamy and Mahesh Raut; poets Varavara Rao and Sudhir Dhawale; lawyers Surendra Gadling and Sudha Bharadwaj; writer-researcher Gautam Navlakha, activists Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves, and members of the cultural group, Kabir Kala Manch: Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Ghaichor and Jyoti Jagtap. The first raids in the Bhima Koregaon case were conducted on April 17, 2018.

Stan Swamy - the activist

Stan Swamy, who had worked with tribals in Jharkhand for over five decades, has been raising voices against displacement for industrial and mining projects. He stood in support of the Adivasi cause against any form of destructive development. In a long interaction with this author in 1997, he narrated stories of how the Adivasis were disposed of under the carpet of development. He also told stories of how Tata came to Jamshedpur region in the post-Ulgulan phase led by Birsa Munda. 

“In the middle of the first decade of the 1900s, Tatas with the help of British police forces, inversely hung the Adivasis on trees and beat them to death. This created a sense of fear and terror among them. This led to mass evacuation of the Adivasi population to establish the Tatas in that area. Scores of villages were emptied. After the assassination of Birsa Munda and other leaders of the Ulgulan, the Adivasis in the area were not able to marshal their physical strength and moral courage for another round of battle. Hence despite having strong dissent, it couldn’t develop into a movement of the Adivasi people. It is in this context that the Tatas exploited the situation. They wiped off the names of these villages and established a new township to honour Jamshedji Tata as Jamshedpur or otherwise Tatanagar.” 

Stan was a strong advocate of Adivasi Self Rule under Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act. He spread the message of Adivasi rights under PESA in the Adivasi areas of Jharkhand. However, due to the availability of thick mineral resources in the state, the corporate houses had their eyes on these areas. Accordingly, the industrial houses began to capture the Adivasi land without any consultation or consent leading to severe conflicts between the Adivasis at one end and the company men along with the police and security forces on the other. 

To add salt to their wounds, the Union Government went on to establish camps of the CRPF in various Adivasi strongholds. Followed by this, they began to kill or arrest Adivasi youths under the pretext of being directly or indirectly linked with Maoists. Later a new phenomena emerged which came to be known as “surrender” of Maoists. All these were in violation to the Constitutional rights under Fifth Schedule.

Stan sniffed the politics of militarization very early and could understand the coming back of a situation like what happened in the post-Ulgulan phase in Jamshedpur. He began to study and investigate the cases of killings, arrests and surrender. He unceasingly and fearlessly exposed how the then BJP-ruled State government and police had imprisoned thousands of Adivasis for long years in jail without bail for the only reason that they opposed the destruction of the dense forests in Jharkhand and handing over the traditional Adivasi homeland to big Corporates for mining and industrial projects. Based on his findings, he filed a few litigations in the High Court. 

His efforts ensured an investigation by the National Human Rights Commission on the “fake surrenders” of Adivasi youths in Jharkhand, who after investigation found that 514 youths were picked up from different parts of Jharkhand in police vehicles for a “surrender show”. He further found that the police arranged some arms and ammunition to show as though they had surrendered with arms. 

In a detailed memorandum submitted before the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes in December 2018 Stan said, “The innocent tribal youth have suffered a serious injustice. Justice must be done to them. After all, justice is truth in action.” He demanded that the CRPF and Police Officers who are guilty of this crime against the poorest of the poor must be brought to justice. He specifically demanded:

-    A judicial commission must be appointed to probe this crime. It certainly cannot be left to the local government or the police department because they will whitewash the whole affair. After all, the fence will not eat the crop!

-    The police officers and their middle-men who had cheated the tribal youth must be identified and their names made public.

-    The cash that was collected from the tribal youth must be returned to them with interest. This amount may be taken from the personal savings/PF of these officers.

-    A just compensation to the tribal youth for the economic, social hardship they have suffered because of this cheating game should be offered. The amount should be at least Rs. 5 lakhs.

-    The non-tribal police officers and their middle men must be prosecuted under The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 and (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015.

-    Clear safeguards must be provided to these tribal youth so they will not in any way be harassed in future.

Stan’s efforts led to the filing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Jharkhand High Court demanding release of thousands of innocent Adivasis arrested for the Pathalgadi movement. Later in 2019, after the change of government, Hemant Soren-led Government released thousands of Adivasis.

In June 2018, in a reflective note on Pathalgadi movement, he wrote that the non-implementation of the Fifth Scheduled and PESA Act is a failure of the government. “Every state with Scheduled Area should constitute having a Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) composed of 20 members all of whom should be Adivasis. It shall be the duty of TAC to advise the Governor on matters pertaining to the welfare and advancement of the Adivasis. Based on the advice, the Governor may make regulations for the peace and good governance of the people in Scheduled Areas,” wrote Swamy.

He argued that it is no wonder that some Adivasi communities have decided to assert their right to self-governance through the Gram Sabha. “It would be highly desirable if the government, the educated Adivasis settled in towns and cities and other intellectuals, activists would reach out to the rural folk and dialogue with them. It would be highly erroneous to look at this as a ‘law and order’ problem, call it ‘sedition’ and therefore the leaders should be punished by the mighty arm of the state.” It is no wonder that the BJP-led Central Government had Fr. Stan in its crosshairs.

Inside the Jail

Arrested in October 2020 from his home in Ranchi by a team of NIA officials from Delhi, Stan was named as one of the key accused in the Bhima Koregaon case and kept in prison even though he was 84 years old and suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He had to be assisted for even ordinary chores like holding a glass of water. The vengefulness of the NIA and the brute nature of the State are exposed by the strident attack launched by the NIA who fought viciously to deny bail to him even when it became apparent that his health was deteriorating. An equally heartless and pitiless prison administration adamantly refused timely medical treatment even when it was clear that he was suffering what appeared to be typical Covid symptoms.

Stan Swamy has been the oldest among those arrested. In December 2020, the jail authorities disallowed him to use a straw and sipper even though his hands shivered on account of Parkinson disease. He had to again go to the court seeking permission for the same. Several times he approached different courts for bail citing his deteriorating health condition. Against all humanitarian norms, the NIA opposed his bail request tooth and nail saying there is “no conclusive evidence” of his Parkinson or other ailments. 

Stan Swamy had told the High Court via video-conferencing that his health had consistently declined at the Taloja prison and if he was not granted interim bail, he “would die soon”. Before he was shifted to Holy Family Hospital (on May 30) Stan had appeared before the High Court through video-conference from Taloja jail. He then told the court that when he was brought to the jail, his core systems were still functional but there has been steady regression since then and he was unable to perform his daily chores, including eating and walking without assistance. He had requested medical treatment and interim bail multiple times. 

Stan Swamy had filed a fresh plea for bail in the Bombay High Court, challenging the stringent conditions for bail to an accused charged under the UAPA. When the hearing started on July 5, his lawyer told the High Court that Stan had died. This is part of the modern strategy that any dissenting voice could be easily suppressed by fabricating a case and keeping them in jail for years as under-trials without any trial. 

Claims of NIA 

The NIA claims that senior leaders of the CPI (Maoist) were in contact with the organisers of the Elgar Parishad event as well as the arrested activists, and aimed to spread Maoist ideology and encourage unlawful activities. But, it is an established fact known to everyone that like in many other riots including the North-East Delhi riot, it is the Hindutva leaders and activists who give inflammatory communal speeches and lead the riots. Then the Police file false cases against the victims under UAPA and torture them.

In the Binayak Sen case, the Supreme Court had pointed out that the police cannot arrest someone for his ideological commitment. Any arrest without proof of illegal or violent acts is illegal. But in the case of alleged Maoist supporters, students, youth and women who joined the anti-CAA protests are selectively picked and charged under UAPA to terrorize the dissidents and suppress those who challenge the authority of the government. At the same time, those accused in the brutal murders of veteran democrats and rationalists like Pansare, Dabholkar, Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh are allowed to go easily by the NIA. 

UN protests 

UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, tweeted: “The news from India today is devastating. Human Rights Defender and Jesuit priest Fr Stan Swamy has died in custody, nine months after his arrest on false charges of terrorism. Jailing HRDs is inexcusable.” 

EU'S Special Representative for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore, also tweeted, “I am very saddened to hear that Fr #StanSwamy has passed away. A defender of indigenous peoples’ rights. He was held in detention for the past 9 months. The EU had been raising his case repeatedly with authorities.”

Throughout his life Fr. Stan strongly stood for Adivasi justice. Few days before his arrest, he had 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, 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."

The martyrdom of Fr. Stan Swamy at the altar of injustice indicates that only such persons with deep and insightful visions can contribute to the project of socio-political change. They are priceless, who put their lives at stake. Such remarkable individuals also give us the rays of hope that the remnants of Hul vidroh by the four Murmu brothers -- Sidhu, Kanhu, Chand and Bhairav -- as well as the Ulgulan of Birsa Munda are still alive.