“Was Stan Swamy a Maoist?” By A Fellow Traveller

Just over a year ago, on 5 July 2021, the Indian Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy died in Mumbai at the age of 83 in judicial custody, while still an under-trial, having contracted Covid-19 in prison. History will remember it as an institutional murder. Stan was the sixteenth person to be imprisoned without trial and using fabricated evidence in the so-called Bhima Koregaon case.

In July 2022 the Indian government released data showing that 4,484 custodial deaths had occurred since 2020, of which 2,544 occurred in 2021-2022. These point to “six a day on average ― according to figures shared in Parliament yesterday.” We remember them as we publish this piece.

In this post, a fellow traveller of Stan’s in prison shares his reflections about the Jesuit priest who became one India’s foremost human rights defenders: the background to Stan’s own awakening and then participation in the continuing resistance movements among the most marginalised of Indian citizens, its indigenous peoples, the Adivasis; the state’s targeting of this most gentle defender of people’s fundamental and constitutional rights; and the time and camaraderie with his fellow prisoners that kept him going for those last few months of his life in the most inhumane conditions of the prison, such that before he died he noted that “A caged bird can still sing”.

Was Stan Swamy a Maoist?

by a Fellow Walker

People call him Father Stan Swamy. This way of addressing is different from the Maoist usage. He opted for the Christian way of life in the Jesuit order when he was an adolescent. He migrated from Tiruchirappalli in Madras State to Jamshedpur which was, at that time, part of the undivided Bihar State. Jamshedpur is the habitat of tribal people. The people who work in the coal reserves and steel factories, and the people who live in the nearby forests are all tribals. Being idealistic from a very young age, Stan was influenced by the preaching and practice of Jesus Christ. He thought that it was the duty of a true Christian to put a healing bandage on an injured lamb. He wanted to extend substantial support to the “wretched of the earth”, to those on whom stones and allegations are thrown mercilessly. And, he prepared himself to bear the blame on their behalf. He wanted to separate sin and crime from the sinner and to awaken his humanity. He did not stop at philanthropy or voluntary work for the welfare of all, but realised that in taking the side of the oppressed and the unprivileged he would have to challenge the State; just as Jesus had done and should be ready for crucifixion.

In order to become a Jesuit Father, Stan went to Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, and did his MA in Sociology. The Philippines is a neo-colonial State. In those days Marcos, an American stooge, was ruling the country against the fierce opposition of the people. The universities were impacted by the Vietnamese struggle against American imperialism. Stan studied Marxism as a part of his studies in the Social Sciences. He learned about Marx and Engels and their theories, as well as explorations in archaeology and anthropology. He understood dialectical historical materialism as a modern scientific philosophy that could enable us to understand and transform the system. From Marx’s observation that capitalism alienates the human from humanity, he arrived at the logical conclusion that human being should be made the centre of everything. To continue his studies, Stan went to France, the birthplace of all revolutions. Here he closely studied historical movements from the French revolution to Paris Commune and learned French — all while he was being trained to be a Jesuit Father.

From there he went back to the Indian Social Institute, Bengaluru and started teaching Social Studies in the Marxist mode of analysis. But he never used jargon. When Stan was brought to Taloja jail on 9 October 2020, Vernon Gonsalves met him in the hospital block and said to him that he was inspired and motivated by his speech when he listened to him for the first time in the Indian Social Institute, and was subsequently attracted to Marxism. The Management Board of the Indian Social Institute asked Stan to take over the charge as its Director. However, Stan thought that he was insufficiently trained to hold the responsibilities of a Director and proceeded to Brazil for further study. During this time, military dictatorships in Latin American countries, including Brazil, were treating Jesuit churches as their enemies and with the same hatred they reserved for communists. A question asked by a Father in one of the meetings and the answer he got left a deep impression on Stan. The Father asked, “Why are the people languishing in poverty?” Instead of answering, the ruling Chieftain darted a counter question at the Father: “Are you a Communist?”

In those days, Jesuit churches were developing and pursuing the tenets of Liberation theology. They strove for the liberation of oppressed people through religion and from the platform of the Church. Many, like St Francis, had to lay down their lives. They were shot dead by military dictators. Marxism states that religion is like the sigh of the oppressed people. The advocates of Liberation theology thought that they could take this pain and make it fruitful in struggle to change the conditions that caused such misery. Stan seriously pondered over this and came to the conclusion that it was a waste of time to pursue knowledge at this time and decided that it was time to jump into action. He discontinued his PhD studies and came back to Bangalore and taught at ISI from 1974 to 1986. He took an active part in all contemporary social movements, in particular land struggles. Most of the struggles were organised by Dalits and downtrodden classes.

Yet, it was the Jamshedpur tribal area, which he had known since he was very young that laid a deep impression on his mind. The tribal life in the Chaibasa district influenced him the most. He went to the Chaibasa district in the year 1986 and settled in a village called Budar. And from then onwards, the homes of the Adivasis became his home, their life his life, and their struggles his struggle. The aim of his life found its place in the opposition to the development model of the Imperialist globalisation that came about in the year 1991. The policy of structural adjustment revealed both the Central and State governments to be the agents of Multinational Companies. These corporates, especially American multinational companies had their eyes on the forests and mineral wealth available in Central India. Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are all states rich in mineral wealth. In one of the speeches titled “We shall speak”, Stan quotes Desmond Tutu (a Sourh African priest who worked as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist): “the tribals are resisting the destruction in Central India. They are speaking against it, we also should speak”.

On one side, as a result of the countrywide struggles for more than 200 years (beginning from Santal Kanu and Siddu to Komaram Bheem in the 1940s it is needless to mention, all were armed struggles, they might have used the traditional bows and arrows or guns), the Indian Constitution guaranteed Adivasis the right to “Jal, Jangal, Zameen” (Water, Forest, Land). They were guaranteed rights not only for education and employment but also given political reservations. Forest Protection Acts, like PESA, were enacted. The thrust of all such Acts is that the non-tribals are forbidden from occupying, purchasing, or taking on lease the land or minerals embedded in the earth in all tribal and other notified areas. Even a lease for a limited time is not valid. The purchase or selling of land by non-tribals is illegal.

The same is the content of the Act 1/1970 which was promulgated as a result of the Srikakulam movement in Andhra Pradesh. The Supreme Court has also reiterated it in what is popularly known as the Samata Judgment. The judgment mandates that the District Collector must abide by the decisions taken in Village Committee meetings (Gram Sabhas) following the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act of 1986 (PESA). Commenting on the Act that was adopted by the Parliament based on the Bhuria Committee Report, the eminent lawyer and civil rights activist, Mr Kannabiran, said that there was only one way to enter the Parliament but many ways to come out of it. That is to say, that there are many ways to avoid implementing the laws legislated in the Parliament under the pressure by the people of the country. In his book, Broken Republic, BD Sharma enumerates such breaches of the law and concludes that the entire history of our republic is a record of the infringements of the Tribal Acts and the 5th schedule of the Constitution.

Stan established the Jharkhand Organisation of Human Rights (JOHAR), whose mission was to work for the protection of the rights of tribal people. He was already an activist in the Bihar unit of PUCL and was designated as its Vice-President. People had dreamt of a big State in Central India, comprising all parts of Bihar, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Orissa which are inhabited by the Santhali and tribal communities. Instead the much smaller Jharkhand State was formed in the year 2000, pouring water over the wishes of the people. Here in Jharkhand State, iron and coal are abundantly available. Other minerals are plentiful in certain parts of this State. Multinational Companies like Vedanta, Mittal, and Jindal had their eyes on these minerals and Stan had to change his workplace to Ranchi, the capital city to serve the tribals better.

The revolutionary movement was active in undivided Bihar from Naxalbari times in the 1960s. The CPI (ML) was formed after the Naxalbari movement. A revolutionary organisation, Dakshina Desh, did not join the CPI (ML) and maintained its independent existence. It was renamed in the 1970s as “Maoist Communist Centre”. In the beginning, it worked mainly amongst Dalits, resisting the atrocities and massacres committed by the landlords, the Bhumihar army, and the Bhumisena in the plains. From there it spread to Adivasi areas and promoted art and cultural movements. The conflict between the Indian state and the Adivasis intensified. Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, started welcoming big companies under the grab of the slogan “ushering the nation into the 21st century” and implementing Acts like TADA and POTA to repress the opposition. On the other side, peoples’ Abhiyans/movements were launched.

When the revolutionary movement faced a serious setback in 1972, the country witnessed the emergence of some Marxist Leninist parties. The CPI (ML) Party Unity was one among them. Narayan Sanyal, whose name was popular among the Telugu people too, was one of the founders of that political party. After the Emergency, the Bihar unit of the CPI (ML) Party Unity focused its attention on mass movements. In the meantime, various sections in the revolutionary movement felt the need for unity among themselves and in this context the CPI (ML) Party Unity and the People’s War joined together and became one in the year 1999. Subsequently, after these two parties joined together, another revolutionary outfit MCC also joined with them to form CPI (Maoist) in 2004. The revolutionary movement that preferred to stay incognito and live among the tribal population from the very beginning vehemently opposed the development model of globalisation as a part of its anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle.

The tribals quite naturally resisted the companies that had dug in their mother-like forest land and extracted minerals embedded in the mother earth under the pretext of development. Roads, dams, and other large projects were initiated to advance these extractive processes. Among those projects, the Netarhat Field Firing Range was one. It was strongly opposed by the tribals in Palamu-Gumla districts and the revolutionary parties. Another such project, the Koyal Karo dam, was opposed by the tribals in Ranchi and Singhbhum districts. Stan Swamy vigorously worked among the tribals and his participation in these protests made the headlines in national news.

Subsequently, Stan founded an Institution called Bagaicha on the premises of Jesuit Institute in Ranchi to speak against the destruction of forests and displacement of tribals. On an acre of land, dedicated to Bagaicha, he opened an office in which he kept one room for himself. Mihir Desai, an advocate who has known Stan for the past 30 years and has met him umpteen numbers of times, describes Stan’s room: “In that room, he used to have one cot, one chair and a table on which there was one computer. The rest of the room was always occupied by the harassed and those who were suffering from various problems and the tribals who were participating in the struggles against the displacement. Hence, two hours’ time is more than excessive for the police to search his room.” Police raided Stan’s room twice — once on 28 August 2018 and the second time in June 2019 — and conducted a search for the whole day and took away the computer, pen drives, hard disks, and such things. It is to be noted that from 28 August 2018 on, the Pune police showed Stan only as a suspect, not accused. When the BJP governments were unseated in January 2020 elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the NIA [National Investigation Agency] under the control of the Central Government issued notices asking Stan to come to their office to answer questions on certain matters. They started pestering him repeatedly. Many a time, he gave statements in the NIA office at Ranchi denying any connection with the Bhima Koregaon incident. By that time, he was actively involved in all the three struggles waged by Adivasis but he was repeatedly questioned on the Elgar Parishad case.

The Visthapan Virodhi Manch was established in the year 2008. Soon after its formation it proclaimed the Ranchi Declaration and has since been active in waging struggles against the displacement of tribals. The Police used to arrest the Adivasis who participated in those struggles by calling them Maoists. The Visthapan Virodhi Manch collected these details and filed a writ petition in the High Court, stating that as many as four thousand tribals had been languishing in jails for years. Stan formed the “Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee” to work for the suffering tribals and political activists. Mahesh Raut from Gadchiroli, Maharashtra was active in the Visthapan Virodhi Manch. He was arrested on June 6th, 2018 and implicated in the Elgar Parishad case. He also developed a close affinity with Telugu society through the Visthapan Virodhi Manch. This affinity was significantly expressed in another context when capital punishment was imposed on a cultural group. The artists belonging to Jana Samskruthika Manch, Jeethan Marandi and his four companions, were sentenced to death in 2009. They were arrested when they were performing and singing songs against displacement, before the Chief Minister’s camp office. All these five artists were charged falsely that they murdered a sub-inspector. They were convicted by the Sessions court.

The Telugu people, having a background of building broad peoples’ movements against the executions of Bhumaiah, Kishta Goud, Chalapathi, Vijayavardhana Rao, and others, also responded powerfully against these death sentences. Writers, artists, and activists in the cultural field and in mass organisations got together and formed an association under the convenorship of Gitanjali who was also the convener of the Revolutionary Writers Association. Meetings, under the auspices of that Association, were held opposing capital punishment in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the Telugu land, and performances were staged under the leadership of Kandimalla Pratapa Reddy by the cultural teams belonging to Praja Kala Mandali, APCLC, and Praja Natya Mandali. Gaddar also participated in the Hyderabad meeting. Motivated by the Hyderabad and other meetings PUCL and JOHAR took initiative to conduct a one-day conference in Ranchi in which Stan was the central figure. Binayak Sen, Varavara Rao, and Telugu film director, R Narayana Murthy were also invited to that conference. With the initiation of the Revolutionary Writers Association, PUCL, and JOHAR, a case was filed in the High Court, and a retired Judge and his son argued in their favour. Ultimately the High Court struck down the capital punishment imposed by the Session’s court. The Jharkhand Government appealed against the High Court Judgment, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal at the admission stage itself.

A meeting was held in Ranchi in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Naxalbari struggle. Along with Varavara Rao, Stan Swamy also participated in it, and in his speech, he declared that it was the struggle by the Adivasis for their emancipation and for land and food. He participated in the meeting held in the month of November of the same year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. He opined that the victory of workers in that revolution and the labour laws that were implemented due to that struggle should be the guiding principles for us in our country too. These two meetings were conducted by the United Workers and Adivasis Association. After the conduct of these two meetings, Damodar who was the acclaimed leader of the Association, and its president, Baccha Singh, were arrested and the Association was declared banned. Those two leaders were released with the efforts put in by Stan.

Before his arrest, there were two allegations against him that characterised him as a Maoist, simply by association. The first was that he was supporting the Pathalgadi struggle which was backed by the Maoist party. The second was that he had formed the Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee, along with Sudha Bharadwaj, and that committee was affiliated with the Maoist party. Both Sudha Bharadwaj and Stan were implicated in the Elgar Parishad case as accused.

The tribal youth, including the young women in Khunti district, started an agitation demanding strict implementation of the guarantees incorporated in the 5th Schedule of the Constitution and the autonomy of the Village Assembly (Gram Sabha) assured by PESA. Dressed in traditional Adivasi dresses and holding bows and arrows in their hands, they carved their demands on a stone plate and installed it at the entrance of every village. This incident went viral in the entire country. The then dreaded BJP government headed by Raghuvara Prasad raided Stan’s office, confiscated many items, and created a terror scene. It implicated him in much litigation and troubled him, harassed him.

Jharkhand was then ruled by the Brahmanical Hindutva BJP headed by Raghuvara Prasad. The “Protect 5th Schedule” struggle started in 2014 gained momentum and became stronger day by day. Tribals in large numbers participated in the “Protect the 5th Schedule movement”. The BJP government arrested them and branded them as Maoists and implicated them in different cases. As many as 4,000 Adivasis were imprisoned and civil society woke up and formed the “Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee” to lend voice to these 4,000 tribals, branded as Maoists because of their participation in the Protect 5th Schedule struggle. The agitation against the displacement of Adivasis due to the plundering of mineral wealth spearheaded by Visthapan Virodhi Manch was also rising. The BJP government experienced these popular movements as if chilli powder was being thrown into its eyes. The court cases filed in 2019 against Stan and 20 others, including the sedition case in the context of the Pathalgadi movement, were pending in Jharkhand courts even after the fall of the Raghuvara Prasad government.

However, the present Hemanth Soren government has withdrawn all those cases against the Adivasis who participated in the Pathalgadi struggle. The Chief Minister himself condemned, in no uncertain terms, the arrest of Stan Swamy by the NIA. In order not to give flexibility to non-BJP governments, the Central Government arrested Stan by showing him as the accused, in spite of the fact that the Maharashtra Government until then was treating him as only a suspect. After his arrest, he was produced in court and sent to Taloja Jail. On the same day, the NIA filed a 10,000 pages chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet against all others except the people who were arrested in the first two phases. In the chargesheet, it was alleged that Stan Swamy had coordinated Maoist party activities all over the country by being in contact with the highest party echelons. It also mentioned that Stan was entrusted with this responsibility after a few important people were arrested before him. It further alleged that after the arrest of Professor GN Saibaba, Professor Hany Babu had handled all national and international activities of the Maoist Party, Delhi being the centre. Stan recorded the following statement under the title, “Shall Speak”, and released it to the press and prepared himself for arrest:

“I did not go to Elgar Parishad. I do not have any connection with the Bhima Koregaon incidents. But it seems the Government wants to keep me away from the tribals and their struggles. This intention and this pretext are not fair. If the Government wants to arrest me because of the struggles I am involved in for the sake of tribals, I am ready. I am living here amidst tribals and live for them, work for their welfare.”

When he entered the Jail, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Varavara Rao, and Anand Teltumbde met him in the Jail Hospital Block. Then, he said to them:

“For one thing I am happy because I am joining you. You all have fought for the rights of Dalits, Adivasis, Minorities, Women, and all the oppressed people. I felt so guilty because you all, who have fought for their rights, are languishing in jail and I was out in the world. Now I have no guilty conscience. The bird sings even in the cage. It sings about freedom and liberty.”

The accused in the Elgar Parishad case and all the inmates of the jail used to wonder at his modesty, sincerity, truthfulness, veracity, fearlessness, and commitment. Stan used to walk with Varavara Rao or Arun or Vernon in the jail corridor until Varavara Rao was admitted to Nanavati hospital on November 18, 2019. While Varavara Rao was practising walking with a urinary tube, Stan was accompanying him saying something to cheer him up. When he was going for a sunbath, Arun or Vernon used to accompany him. After sunbath, they used to relax in their cell with bright faces and happy countenances, sipping coffee and singing songs. He had always mentioned in the letters he wrote to his Jesuit friends from the jail that Varavara Rao was sicker than himself and hence they should pray for his health. He would request them to send a shirt to his fellow prisoner who was very poor. Even while speaking to his friends over the phone, he would tell them about the health condition of the other inmates and their needs. He never asked for sippers or other facilities for himself. But when he was sent to JJ Hospital for the first time he told his Jesuit friends that he was not well at all and he was unable to even come up to the phone stand. When he was there for the second time he could not even walk up to the phone. In fact, within the first forty days of his coming to the jail, day he suffered a loss of breath and suffered extreme suffocation. He had to breathe with the support of an oxygen cylinder all day. It was only due to his ill health that he was shifted from the cell where 30 people were kept, to the cell adjacent to Varavara Rao, Vernon, and Arun. Here, he was also given a cot. After a few days, hot water facility which was earlier provided to Varavara Rao for bathing purposes was also given to Stan. In the beginning, the hot water which was given to Varavara Rao was shared between Varavara Rao and Stan. After sometime, Varavara Rao was admitted to Nanavati Hospital.

During that time an article written by Anand Teltumbde on the conditions in prison was published in the magazine, The Caravan. The Jail Superintendent reacted vindictively and stopped all letter correspondence with the accused in the Elgar Parishad case. He started supplying only seven litres of water a day to each prisoner. He shifted Vernon to the other cell and withdrew the general prisoners who had been assisting Stan. By that time, the corona pandemic had spread manifold in Taloja Jail. Stan, who had been in JJ Hospital was brought back to jail without being tested for corona. Upon Court orders, he was produced before the Judge through video call. He asked the judge to grant him bail so that he could live amidst his own people before his death, otherwise, he would die in jail. Thrice he was sent to JJ Hospital, but his experience there was very bad. The 84-year-old Stan Swamy called all the inmates of the jail to his cell on 3 November 2020 to celebrate the 81st birthday of Varavara Rao. He celebrated the birthday enthusiastically by singing songs. Just after a few days, his health was in such a bad condition that he declared that he might die soon. The NIA‘s opposition to his medical bail and the vengeful Superintendent are fully responsible for this cruel state of affairs.

The NIA court had commented that the criminal charges against Stan were more serious than the medical conditions he was suffering from, like Parkinson's and Covid. Their rationale for saying so was their claim that he had links with the Maoist Party. The chargesheet mentioned a concocted story of a conspiracy to kill Prime Minister Modi in the same way as the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. The Judge might have known that this allegation could not stand prima facie in any court. Even ordinary people were wondering how a Jesuit father could be charged with the allegation that he was a Maoist, the Sangh Parivar forces, the NIA, and the NIA court insisted on representing him as the most dangerous Maoist.

Stan was a social scientist who could analyse from a Marxist point of view. He wrote articles based on scientific data. Just two days before his death he asked one of his friends to address him as “comrade”. In Stan’s opinion, the church is a school of the oppressed; it should become a place where the oppressed learn lessons on how to wage their struggles. When he was arrested, his Jesuit friends sent him a copy of the Bible and a book in which St Francis was compared with Pope Paul. St Francis was shot dead by the Latin American military dictators. In Government's view, whoever does not defend its policies whether he is a Marxist or a Marxist-Leninist or a progressive thinker, he or she is one with the Maoist party organisation. Further, the Modi government’s dictum is that if anybody is not with them, it means that they are with the enemy; and with this view, the Government is not sparing even the liberal democrats.

Father Stan Swamy is the epitome of a human being, living in the image of Jesus Christ, shaped by His preaching, practice, and sacrifice. The lives of the tribals, their struggles, and the Marxist understanding of their exploitation have chiselled Stan in the above fashion.

(Translated from original Telugu article from Veekshanam, August 2021)