“Struggle will go on. Repression is doomed!”: On Fr. Stan Swamy’s fourth martyrdom day, a declaration of a hunger strike

ON JULY 5, 2021, FR. STAN SWAMY left us, succumbing to failing health aggravated by the deliberate denial of medical care by a repressive State as part of its devious strategy in the Bhima Koregaon - Elgar Parishad case. Four years have passed since this institutional murder of Fr. Stan. We seethe in indignation on the very memory of this day, when the real violent blood thirsty face of the State unravelled to one and all. The fourth anniversary of Fr. Stan's martyrdom is significant to keep alive certain memories: the memory of how this repressive State targeted an octogenarian Jesuit priest by twice conducting raid and search at his residence cum research and resource centre in Ranchi, called Bagaicha, the memory of how he was made charged in trumped up cases, culminating in his arrest in the Bhima Koregaon - Elgar Parishad case. Finally he was put in confinement in a faraway place like Taloja Central Prison in Maharashtra where despite his ill health and growing ailments, he was deliberately kept away from timely medical care until his body finally gave away during the peak of the pandemic. Behind the facade of violence, the powers that be feared the fearlessness of Stan. He dared the State by calling out all injustices inflicted on the people, especially the Adivasis, by organising and being part of struggles against their eroding rights over the resource-rich land of Central and Eastern India. Against the terror of Adivasis being displaced from their natural homeland, against their Jal, Jungle and Jameen being irreversibly destroyed due to mining of precious minerals, raising of big dams and the interests of big industries, Stan had strived to bring together vast sections of the people's movements under the banner of upsurge against the catastrophic consequences of the State’s policies on the people. He had written extensively against such policies while exhorting for united resistance of the masses. Joining hands with the Pathalgadi resistance, he strongly argued and accorded the right to self-rule of the Gram Sabhas. The Adivasi-Dalit-Working youth of the region who had embraced the path of struggles in this context were being criminalised through false cases slapped on them, most of them branded as Maoists put behind bars in hundreds and thousands. .Behind the facade of violence, the powers that be feared the fearlessness of Stan..Stan embarked on a rigorous documentation of all such arrests and unmasked the real repressive nature of these arrests--that the ruling establishment despised these youth exercising their democratic right to protest against state policies that would destroy their lives and livelihoods. Against such arrests Stan had moved a PIL at the Jharkhand High Court exposing the real nature of the government policies. He had voiced with great concern the plight of the Adivasi community who were forced to abandon their land in search of livelihood, and the ravages caused by the intrusion of capital in the social and cultural fabric of Adivasi life. He was one with the everyday life of the Adivasis, in their ups and downs, in their struggles for a better future. .On Father Stan Swamy’s second death anniversary, two letters, a painting and the triumph of memory against forgetting.The ruling class fears the fact that Stan had become one with the struggling masses. It is their never ending fear against the voices of resistance, against the ideas of change, which encourages them take refuge in reactionary tactics and do away with revolutionary movements. The present brahminical-fascist rulers have heightened the repression on the masses to unforeseen levels. The government has been violating constitutionally guaranteed special provisions/rights of the Adivasis. Thousands of hectares of dense, biodiverse rich verdant forests are being destroyed at the behest of extractive, venture capitalist interests. For facilitating the flow of extracted minerals to the outer world, jungles are being cleared for roads that ply trailers, and railway tracks that transport minerals. Adivasi villages are being uprooted, trees felled in thousands of hectares. Besides railways and roads, under the garb of protecting mines, police stations and paramilitary camps are being set up resulting in further destruction of forests and displacement. All these self-destructive steps are given the moniker of development. Those who oppose these policies, those Adivasis who organise movements to protect their Jal, Jungle and Jameen, their valuable resources are branded as anti- development, anti-national and terrorist to brutally and violently repress them. The need of the hour is a united resilient resistance against this game of unbridled irreversible destruction of earth under the smokescreen of development. This brahminical-fascist dispensation, in alliance with capitalism, have brought increasing miseries to the vast sections of women, Adivasis, Dalits, minorities, various oppressed nationalities, peasants, workers etc. The casteist atrocities on Dalits have increased manifold in these times. Under direct state patronage, like never before, communal violence against minorities, in a planned way, has increased. Under the present dispensation which openly espouses patriarchal values, violence against women, in the name of the so-called rich cultural heritage and societal traditions, has increased in the subcontinent. To facilitate US-imperialism led foreign big capital interests in India, anti-farmer, anti-medium and small trader/industries policies are being ushered in which will have deep negative ramifications in the trade policy and domestic material production for indigenous producers. Meanwhile, it is far easier for multinational corporations to exploit the burgeoning Indian economy. And to ensure the unhindered implementation of such policies, the government is resorting to reactionary tactics to browbeat any differing opinion, ideas and movements, that challenge socially, politically and economically the policies of this capitalist-brahminical-fascist regime. These movements are being targeted under the garb of threat to national security and hence branded unlawful and anti-national. .The increasing percentage of Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, and those from the working classes incarcerated in prisons in India reflects the anti-people fascist policies of the present regime..Those who participate are under constant surveillance, their residences being raided, their properties impounded, and cases foisted against them and more often than not being killed. All those who oppose the policies of the present regime are being imprisoned under false cases so as to silence them. The arrest and imprisonment of activists of Moolnivasi Bachao Andolan (‘Movement to Save Indigenous People’), the continuing incarceration of activists who organised protests against CAA-NRC currently framed in false cases as perpetrators of Delhi riots, the prolonged incarceration of comrades accused in the Bhima Koregaon - Elgar Parishad case, the continuing arrests and incarceration of activists of organisations/individuals of the Muslim community that are branded as terrorist, are all clear facets of the fascist nature of the present regime. The increasing percentage of Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, and those from the working classes incarcerated in prisons in India reflects the anti-people fascist policies of the present regime. They are subjected to further discrimination and mistreatment in the prisons. The situation of political prisoners in incarceration is a telltale instance of how the government of the day and the prison administration join hands to deliberately ignore their very existence, often denying them basic rights, consciously hindering their facilities/rights, rendering tough bail conditions so as to create obstacles in fulfilling the requirements of release, criminally delaying and being negligent in timely medical care when reported with illness. These are all part of the same toolkit of repressive designs of a brahminical-fascist state. The institutional murder of Fr. Stan is one among scores of such despicable instances that have gone unreported in the prisons in India. Similarly the demise of Saquib Nachan in Tihar Central Prison while undergoing treatment for serious medical conditions is undoubtedly part of the same set of repressive policies of the State. But history shows that repression is doomed. It cannot be sustained. And struggles cannot be curtailed through the horrors of repression. The farmers' movement that rocked the country very recently, the country wide protests against CAA-NRC, the struggle of the workers in Maruti Suzuki, the organisation of Elgar Parishad Convention and the ensuing Bhima Koregaon movement, the Pathalgadi movement, the Todgutta (Gadchiroli) movement, the organised resistance of women in various walks of life in the country, peasants and workers struggles and Dalit- Adivasi resistance movements, have kept alive the barricades of resistance while also striving towards a united resistance against fascism. .Remembering Fr. Stan Swamy’s life and death.Even after his martyrdom, Fr. Stan is a beacon of resistance, standing with us like a comrade in arms being one with the voice of all of us, being one with the resolve of his comrades in Jharkhand and concomitantly strengthening the resolve of the toiling masses in this country to never give up. Fr. Stan is alive as the beacon of our resolve for justice and liberation. He was daring, fearless and steeled in his resolve while at the same time kind hearted, compassionate, sensitive and understanding. On his martyrdom day we remember and salute his fearless, cheerful persona, his unmitigated love and commitment to the oppressed, exploited and struggling masses. Fr. Stan lives always as an abiding spirit in our hearts, dreams and struggles. On Fr. Stan's martyrdom day, we, his comrades and co-defendants in the Bhima Koregaon Elgar Parishad case, in protest against the State sponsored institutional murder of his, will observe a one day hunger strike on 5 July 2025. We call upon the freedom loving struggling masses, people's organisations, progressive groups, political parties and individuals to organise meetings, dharnas, processions, and harthal in memory of Fr. Stan and the values he espoused with the resolve to carry forward the struggle on July 5, 2025. Johar Fr. Stan! Jai Bhim! Lal Salam!