It is with a deep sense of pain and anguish I write these lines at the unfortunate death of Fr. Stan Swamy in judicial custody on July 5. As if the world has not suffered enough in these trying times of the invisible enemy, we are beset with the heart-breaking news of the sudden demise of tribal rights activist, Jesuit Fr. Stanislaus Lourduswamy. People of good-will across the world are disturbed and angry.

Fr. Stan, the gentle protector of the rights of tribals and other downtrodden, is no more. His struggle is over, and ours begins now. God has bailed him out from the cruel world. He will not be forgotten. His tragic death in custody is rightly termed as a case of judicial murder. He was falsely branded as Maoist and condemned by vested interests. He was part of the Jharkhand Organisation against Uranium Radiation (JOAR), campaigning against the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. He organised and supported the Adivasis in their battle for their own lands.

I remember my association with him and his prophetic stand for justice and peace. He was contemplative in action. Every move of his was backed by in-depth study and analysis of the issue. He was naturally gifted in the area of social research and analysis. A number of times he was a resource person for our various student programmes in colleges. He had a tremendous impact on students through the rich content of his inputs and also through his simple and unassuming life-style.

He was a prophet in its true sense. As Jesus had pointed out, ‘A prophet has no honour in his own country' (John 4:44), this staunch defender of the Adivasi rights was named a terrorist and nailed to the prison without any human consideration. His death is an institutional murder by a section of the Indian Judicial system. Standing for truth can cost us significantly. Fr. Stan stood for truth and truth cost his life.

The entire country is in a state of disbelief and shock at the unfortunate passing away of a Jesuit religious committed to the cause of tribal development. His bail petition was rejected many times and this proves the inherent weakness of a section of the judiciary. His lawyers sought his bail on humanitarian grounds and as per the recommendations of the committee appointed by the Supreme Court to release prisoners in view of COVID 19 pandemic. But the NIA opposed the bail saying that Fr. Swamy was taking undue advantage of the COVID outbreak. 

‘What is my crime? Is standing for and with the poor tribal people and their rights a crime? Is giving voice to the voiceless masses a crime?’ Fr. Stan asked after his arrest in Ranchi. Looking at the shameful way this senior Jesuit priest had been arrested, I find myself failing to repeat the words of Christ on the Cross: ‘Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing’. The arrest was politically motivated. As a true Jesuit who follows Christ, Fr Stan Swamy was sharing in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of justice and truth.

The Jesuit Order is devastated by the loss of its illustrious and exemplary member, and I express my deep condolences to the entire Jesuit fraternity and Fr. Stan's family members. I am confident that the Jesuit Society and his friends will take forward the legacy of Fr. Stan's mission for justice and liberation, particularly among the underprivileged and the tribals. His life and endurance has left a message for the world.

As Jawhar Sircar (former Union Secretary) tweeted, 'What terrible act did this ailing octogenarian Jesuit priest do to be led to die like this? Have Indian State and a section of the Judiciary become so inhuman? Who else will take responsibility but the State?’

‘A caged bird can still sing,’ Fr. Stan Swamy wrote from the jail some months ago. Fr. Swamy belonged to the Jesuit province of Jamshedpur. He had been working through various civil rights organisations for over 50 years and was based out of Ranchi.

‘Can neither walk, write nor eat. Taloja Jail has brought me to this Situation’, Fr Stan Swamy told the Court. Fr. Swamy was presented on May 21 before the Bombay High Court from Taloja Jail via video-conferencing.

Fr. Swamy told the Court, he would rather ‘suffer and possibly die’ than get treatment at a state-run hospital in Mumbai. ‘I have suffered much while in prison’. I bow my head in shame and condemn the inhuman treatment meted out to a senior citizen.

‘I was brought here eight months ago. When I came to Taloja, my whole system, my body was still very functional. But during these eight months, I have gone through a steady regression of all bodily functions’, Fr. Swamy said.

‘…What is happening to me is not something unique, it is a broader process taking place all over the country. We all are aware how prominent intellectuals, lawyers, writers, poets, activists, student leaders are put in jail because they have expressed their dissent or raised questions about the ruling powers of India’, Fr Stan Swamy has asserted in a video message.

Fr. Stan Swamy said he was part of the process and, in a way, happy to be so because he was not a ‘silent spectator’. ‘I am ready to pay the price, whatever be it’, he said. He has often raised his voice against alleged police excesses in Jharkhand, and what he describes as the government’s failure to properly implement the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution in the state.

The Fifth Schedule stipulates that a ‘Tribes Advisory Council (TAC)’, composed solely of members from the Adivasi community, advises Governors of tribal-inhabited states on their well-being and development. Fr. Stan Swamy has claimed that none of the Governors — the discretionary heads of these councils — has ever reached out to the Adivasis to understand and work on their problems.

He has also taken exception to how the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), 1996, has been ‘neatly ignored’ and ‘deliberately … left unimplemented in all the nine states’ with tribal population. The Act, according to him, was the first to recognise the fact that the Adivasi communities in India have had a rich social and cultural tradition of self-governance through the Gram Sabha.

In 2017, he mobilised the Adivasis to fight for the rights granted to them under PESA, and this led to the Pathalgadi movement. Fr. Stan Swamy and many others were booked for alleged sedition under the state’s erstwhile BJP government, but the cases have been revoked under the current JMM-Congress dispensation.

Fr. Stan Swamy has also been a vocal advocate for the release of under-trials. He says they have been unfairly lodged in jails and labelled Maoists. In 2010, he published a book about this, titled Jail Mein Band Qaidiyon ka Sach (The truth of Undertrials).
In the book, he states that the family income of the youths arrested was less than ₹ 5,000 in 97% of the cases, and they could not afford lawyers to represent themselves. He claimed that 98% of those arrested were falsely implicated and had no links to the Naxalite movement.

Fr Stan Swamy sought to represent those who are yet to get rights to land under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, which seeks to recognise forest-dwelling communities’ claim to land they have inhabited for generations. In a September 2018 interview to Caravan magazine, he alleged that those who raised questions were being termed anti-national.

‘If you take up these issues, these are the things you have to face. The mahaul (current environment) in Jharkhand, adjoining states, and the country is that if you raise questions and find facts, you are anti-development. If you are anti-development, you are anti-government. If you are anti-government, you are anti-national. That is the logic being followed here’, he said.

There must be international uproar against such violations of human rights. The massive protests against police brutality of George Floyd across the world in May 2020 are still fresh in our minds. I remember what Floyd's daughter said, 'Daddy changed the world’. I wish and pray that Fr. Stan's death in custody inspires us to bury the draconian laws and inhuman treatment of prisoners.

Father Stan Swamy spent a lifetime working for the marginalised and the excluded. He defended the rights of Adivasis being exploited in their homeland, Jharkhand. He was one of the gentlest and kindest Jesuit activists. In spite of charges levelled against him, he displayed an indomitable strength with moral conviction and deep commitment to truth.

It is time for all of us, academicians, thinkers, philosophers, theologians and the like to come out openly and speak out against the arrest of activists and acts of injustice. Our bold stand and intervention will definitely put the wheels of our country on the right track.

What the German Bishop Niemoler said about the situation under Hitler might teach us something: ‘When Nazis put communists in the concentration camp, I did not protest because I was not a communist; when they persecuted the social democrats, I did not protest because I was not a social democrat; when they massacred the Jews, I did not protest because I was not a Jew; when they banned all political parties and trade unions, I did not protest because I was not one of them; when they came for me, there was no one to speak for me’.

May his soul rest in peace.

(The writer is Vice-Chancellor of St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata)