By Irudhaya Jothi
Konchowki: An octogenarian Jesuit social activist jailed for alleged Maoist links says prison life is a great leveler.
Father Stan Swamy made this observation in a poem he penned December 22 and disseminated through his Jesuit companions.
In the past too, the 83-year-old priest had described his life in jail through letters to Jesuits. The letters spoke of his appeal to jail authorities for straw and warm cloths.
The letters helped people cutting across class, caste, and creed to come to the support of the Jesuit and 15 others languishing in jail for their alleged involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon violence case.
Father Swamy’s latest letter-poem reminds people about James Shirley’s “Death the Leveler,” a 17th Century remembrance poem quoted as an ideal epitaph, eulogy or funeral reading.
Most people know about prison life from movies and everyone fears the word jail of obvious reasons.
Many Christians like to share their Christmas joy with people in jails and distribute sweets and gifts.
Some prison authorities resent such programs because many visit jails with the preconceived notion that the prisoners are dreaded criminals.
However, most prisons are either under trails, suspects or victims of political manipulations.
Father Swamy is a political prisoner like his 15 jail mates who are renowned intellectuals, lawyers, professors, writers and activists.
They are: Jyoti Raghoba Jagtap, Sagar TatyaramGorkhe, Ramesh Murlidhar Gaichor, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha and Hany Babu.
Father Stan stood for the rights of Advasis — Jal, Jangal, Jamin (water, forest and land) which are guaranteed to them. Corporate houses grab them and push the Adivasis to the peripheries.
Without land, forest and water the Adivasis lose their identity and dignity. Father Stan stood with these people as a beacon, “a fire that kindles other fire.”
Along with civil society members the Jesuits launched a post card camping on December 10, the Human Rights Day, and demanded the release of Father Stan and the co-accused and repeal of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Father Swamy was arrested November8 and imprisoned in Taloja Central Jail in Mumbai.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) that arrested him alleges that Swamy is a member of banned communist party of India (Maoist) and is involved in a conspiracy to instigated caste violence in Bhima Koregaon near Pune in 2018.
The case refers to violence that erupted in the vicinity of a war memorial in Bhima-Koregaon, a village near Pune, on January 1, 2018.
After 75days in prison, Stan wrote this simple yet well meaning poem, Prison Life, a great leveller.
Prison life, a great leveler
Inside the daunting prison gates
All belongings taken away
But for the bare essentials
‘You’ comes first
‘I’ comes after
‘We’ is the air one breathes
Nothing is mine
Nothing is yours
Everything is ours
No leftover food thrown away
All shared with the birds of the air
They fly in, have their fill and happily fly out
Sorry to see so many young faces
Asked them: “Why are you here”?
They told it all, not mincing words
From each as per capacity
To each as per need
Is what socialism all about
Lo, this commonality is wrought by compulsion
If only all humans would embrace it freely and willingly
All would truly become children of Mother Earth
Stan Swamy