Father Stan Swamy completed his earthly sojourn and went beyond this world on 05 July 2021, for receiving his eternal reward for the commendable life he lived on earth and for celebrating it with God for ever. But, his going had both ‘graceful’ and ‘disgraceful’ dimensions, like the two sides of the coin.  

He lived his life heroically for the ‘noble cause of the browbeaten’ for decades and that was ‘graceful’ about him. But, we Indians, some responsible people in special, failed to understand him or misunderstood him and misbehaved with him, unjustly so, and that was ‘disgraceful’ from our part. 

The ‘disgrace’ from our part is in two ways, one of ‘commission’, on the one hand, and one of ‘omission’, on the other. The former committed ‘crime against humanity’ towards him by being active on the wrong side. The latter omitted their role of preventing the crime by being passive spectators of the crime, heartlessly so. In either case, the crime amounted to a ‘crime against divinity’ in one shot, as well.  

This odd episode reminds us of Jesus Christ, who, some two thousand years ago, came down to the world as the Messiah to defend those who were oppressed by the so called powerful of the world. The politically and religiously powerful and privileged people of the time got a shock for life, seeing the Messiah standing on the side of the weaker ones and not with them. 

As a result, the ‘powerful’ of the then society, both religious and political, conspired against Jesus and sentenced him to ‘death on the cross’, which was the most discreditable death they could conceive of. This was to make their own selves safe and secure and to ensure ‘peaceful sleep’, well, ‘peace of the cemetery’ and ‘sleep of the dead’!    

Here in India, to be more specific, in Jharkhand, Stan Swamy pursued the path of the Messiah and stood like ‘rock’ for the fundamental rights of the original inhabitants of India, for several decades. Those with vested interests and power lost their sleep, naturally so. They noosed him in the so called Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), in reaction to the obstruction posed to their private plot.  

It may be recalled that UAPA does not believe in the universal norm of the world ‘you are innocent until proved guilty’. ‘UAPA and its custodians acted on Stan Swamy, in the most brutal manner. Accordingly, he was flatly denied even such a small thing like a water sipper or a straw, which is the most basic need of a frail senior citizen of 84 years with Parkinson! Finally, he had to die the death of the vicious irony ‘you are guilty until otherwise proved innocent’. Besides, he had to die like a guilty person, without a trial, with a shackle attached to his ankle even on the death bed, very shamefully so.   

Jesus the Messiah made ‘history’ in the world, even to the point of making a new beginning of the human history, AD (Anno Domini / After the Lord), as against BC (Before Christ). He presented to the world how ‘bad’ the ‘story of a human being’ on earth could be. He left with the world a high volume of ‘human and divine values’ for the humans to live by, too. He became for the world a ‘paradigm by himself’, as to how ‘good’ one can be to others, along with a range of lessons to learn from, for all ages to come. 

So did Stan Swamy, making a ‘history’ in India, in his own way, in the footsteps of Jesus. For having left his native land of South India, for having learned the language of the people he lived for, for being one among them, for advocating their basic rights and needs and thus for living for them the best way possible, he was awarded a ‘chit of guilt’, humiliation and suffering of the worst order for nearly 200 days. No doubt, he has become a ‘case in point’, along the lines of his Master Jesus.    

Besides, as Jesus as ‘Messiah par excellence’ in his earthly sojourn, proved to be a ‘good shepherd’ to one and all, especially to the weaklings, in the world. As a ‘great divine pastor’ he knew the sheep and the sheep knew him. He was the door of the sheep. He wouldn’t allow the ‘wolves’ to snatch his sheep from his custody, not even one of them. Without doubt, Messiah is a good shepherd in character. He lived for his sheep, nothing less and nothing more.   

Stan Swamy had avowed to follow the footpath of his Master Jesus. His sheep was the ‘aadivaasees of Jharkhand’, a highly mistreated, deprived and marginalized group in India. He breathed for them and lived for them. He had the ‘smell of the sheep’, in the language of Pope Francis. He became a ‘good shepherd’ or pastor, after the fashion of his great Master. He wouldn’t spare any effort to save his sheep from the beastly wolves around them. That was the raison d’être of his life.  

Jesus was carrying the heavy cross on his shoulders. The soldiers were sadistically enjoying the fun. Over and above, they were further persecuting him and beating him up. Moved with pity, some women of Jesrusalem started weeping. Jesus knew that he was paying with his life the prize for the evil of the humans. That was the mission from his heavenly Father to be fulfilled, to the core. Jesus turned back and told them, ‘do not weep for me, but weep for yourself and for your children’. Well, that is a great point! 

Mourning for Stan Swamy doesn’t make much sense. He knew very much the ‘what and why’ of the mission of his life, along with all that he underwent. We need to think for ourselves and for the citizens of our country and of the world society. Stan Swamy is an ‘archetype’ of the miserable state of our country and of the world. We have a duty to stand for one another, irrespective of affiliation to diverse communities and groups, for those pushed to the margins and are deprived and maltreated in special.        

Father Stan Swamy was a ‘living martyr’ for decades, and during the days of the jailed suffering of ‘being guilty without guilt’, all the more. Now, he is an eternal martyr. He has to be a perennial source of inspiration. He has to motivate us citizens, to stand up, speak and act for the weaker sisters and brothers of our country and beyond. That is our constitutional duty. Justice, equality, fraternity, love and unity, in line with the democratic and secular credentials of the Constitution, are our national ethos and ethics, as well. 

It is high time those who are still in the deep slumber of their ‘comfort zones’ of the world, safe and secure, to have woken up and come out to the open of the realities of life. For those who are Christians, ‘pursuing the footprints of Jesus’ would mean advancing the mission that remained incomplete by Stan Swamy. For people of other faiths, inspiration and strength have to be drawn from the respective gods and goddesses, to care for the other. The citizens of India, our great country, form one community. Attending to one another as members of the same family or community has to be the ‘national culture’ of our land.   

I am sure, the efforts, struggles, suffering and martyrdom of Father Stan Swamy as a ‘guiltless guilty’ will not go waste. It will produce its fruit in its own time, in diverse ways. It has to do so, too, sooner the better. The ‘conscience’ of the citizens of our country, backed by their divinely motivated wisdom, has to get awakened towards ‘human and divine values’, in line with the ‘ethos and ethics’ enshrined in the Constitution of our country. The Nobel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore reminds us, “Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake”.    
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The author is Director of Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi. He can be contacted at ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’.