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In Bastar s Shaheen Bagh , a Youth-Led Movement Quietly Perseveres
Every effort is being made to repress the mass movement and paint it as a front of the Maoists. But the peaceful protest against a CRPF camp shows no sign of letting up.
The dharna at Silger. Photo: Nandini Sundar
Rights7 hours ago
Silger (Chhattisgarh): Silger was like any other Koya village in Konta or Bijapur before it became the symbol of a non-violent struggle against security camps.
The village has four hamlets, a sacred grove, fields that shade into forest, a Patel or headman and a Pujari or priest. Like other villages in the area, Silger found its life upturned by the Salwa Judum, a state sponsored vigilante movement against Maoists and villagers.
Ranchi: Father Stan Swamy, known for giving voice to the poor and marginalised people, would always be remembered as a friend of the poor-tribal and Dalit communities. He ultimately had to die in custody for “antagonizing political power corridors”.
Born in 1937 in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, Swamy’s life is an example of relentless activism for safeguarding human rights, particularly of the tribal and the oppressed, and in turn become a victim of “institutionalized maiming” of such voices, people who knew him said.
At the age of 20, he became a Jesuit priest and committed his life to the poor and marginalized people. Eight years later, he visited Chaibasa in the Kolhan division of erstwhile Bihar to live and understand the life of the Ho tribe, which dominated the region. For a brief period, he went to Manila in the Philippines to obtain a master’s degree in sociology and came back to Chaibasa again to learn the life and challenges of the tribal community.
RANCHI: As a 28-year-old Jesuit priest, Fr Stan Swamy first arrived in Jharkhand, then a part of undivided Bihar, to “live and understand” the life of the Ho tribe in Chaibasa. What he saw and experienced then led him to become the voice of the poor and marginalised until his death in judicial custody at the age of 84 on Monday.
Colleagues recalled how Fr Swamy, while studying Ho life, felt the need to further sharpen his understanding of academic sociology and went to Belgium to pursue a one-year course in the subject. Though he was selected for a doctoral degree in sociology there, he preferred to return to Chaibasa. “I first met him in Bengaluru in the 1980s when he was director of the Indian Social Institute. He drove down in a jeep to receive me. A real humble gesture,” social activist Balaram said. “Later, In the 1990s, he came to Jamshedpur and stayed at Mango as our neighbour,” he added.