By Vinod Sushil Soreng
Chennai: The saddest day of my life. I am appalled, shocked, horrified and shattered having heard of the sad demise of Fr. Stan Swamy, SJ, who I have known and interacted with for quite some time.
Being dismissed as a terrorist, anti-national, the man responsible for inciting violence and disrupting law and order; accused of being in nexus with the Naxalites, being denied the basic medical attention, being denied a simple water sipper for he suffered from Parkinson disease; and above all, his bails applications repeatedly being rejected one after the other, languishing behind bars for months and finally succumbing to death…all these and many more accusations against him are bitter pills to swallow…
Today, I feel depressed, devastated and feel ashamed about the manner in which he was being denied justice repeatedly for the last so many months along with his other fellow social activists, writers, research scholars and intellectuals. I had the opportunity to spend 15 days each, two years in succession during my summer holidays of 2015 and 2016, at his tribal research institute he affectionately named as BAGAICHA, Namkum, Ranchi. Now, all the tribals of Jharkhand and those of Central India, would definitely understand what BAGAICHA meant to them, what it stood for, values it promoted, culture and rights it safeguarded.
As a writer, thinker, social activist, a renowned research scholar and an intellectual, he would talk for hours with me on issues that affected the lives of the people, issues of tribal identity and unity, displacement, protection of tribal rights and land related acts, migrant workers mass migrating towards the cities and metros, young tribal boys and girls falsely being put behind bars, being accused of having nexus with the Naxalites; these and many more issues that mattered most to the tribals were his areas of research. At times he would describe his wealth of experience and disappointments narrating his enormous amount of showdowns with the bureaucracy, civil servants, police and the people in authority and systems. One thing I gathered from all my interactions with him, which used to happen almost every day, was his love for the tribals, people of indigenous origins and people at the margins of our society. He would often say, I would never keep quiet when someone’s rights are being violated especially those of the tribals and underprivileged. He would protest not only through his research and writing but would take part in demonstrations demanding justice for the people he loved and served, fully inserted into the lives of the people. Issues affecting the lives of the people would affect him as much as they did to the victims.
In short, he was the voice of the tribals in Jharkhand (and that of Chotanagpur) and its original settlers. He was the prophet of our times, fearless, bold, uninhibited, unflinching and tireless. He disturbed and challenged the institutions and systems by asking valid questions, pitching invalid arguments in order that the rights of the tribals and Dalits were safeguarded… Not only the institutions without but the institutions within the church and the Society of Jesus, that resorted to arm-chair teaching bereft of what was happening to the existential lives of the people we served, he questioned that. He questioned the quality of life and commitment the clergy and religious had. The people resorting to mediocrity, rosy and cozy way of life, often leading a high profile life, seeking to hog the limelight for themselves rather than working for the kingdom of God where peace and harmony reign supreme, irritated him the most. He would often say, if you can’t be in solidarity with those who suffer and are denied the very basic rights to life, your life as a religious or a human being is just shallow and futile.
Today, at his transition from earthly life to heavenly abode, I do not know why I am sad. Is it the manner in which he went or the manner in which he was allowed to go? Who or what am I angry with? Who or what should I hold accountable for his death? Should I actually hold someone or something responsible for his sad demise at all? I actually have no answers. In fact, I would not want to find answers to these questions. I would rather, look forward to the future with hope. Fr. Stan’s sacrifice and his dedicated service to the people at the margins of our society will inspire me to be the agent of the voiceless and the marginalized by giving the quality of service and commitment, which is much higher than I possibly have tried to extend so far, irrespective of the field of work I am engaged in.
May the legacy of Fr. Stan live on and inspire generations to work for justice, the justice that’s consistently being denied to the poor, to the minorities and to the indigenous people across the world.
(Vinod Sushil Soreng is a Jesuit from Ranchi Jesuit Province. Currently, he is a professor at the Jesuit Philosophy Seminary “Satya Nilayam”, Chennai, Tamil Nadu).