By Lalita Roshni Lakra
Namkum, April 27, 2024: Human rights activists, journalists, social workers, and lawyers were among 150 people who attended the 87th birth anniversary of Jesuit Father Stan Swamy in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
The April 26 program at Agriculture Training Centre in Namkum near the state capital of Ranchi included the opening of a gallery in the memory of the late Jesuit tribal activist and release of two books on incarceration and patriotism.
The participants, including priests and nuns working among tribal people, paid floral homage to the bust of Father Stan, in the premises of Bagaicha, an institution he founded in 2006 near Ranchi.
Welcoming the gathering, Bagaicha director Jesuit Father Thomas Kavalakkatt recalled Father Stan’s words that those who remain silent spectators of injustice are part of the game.
Father Kavalakkatt urged the participants to emulate Father Stan who paid with his life for challenging the unjust system that makes farmers, workers, tribals, Dalits and other poor sections unsafe.
He regretted the present scenario of the country that makes the poor destitute. He said his elderly confrere had refused to compromise to protect the rights of the poor tribal people.
“We have gathered here, not only to pay him tribute but to carry on his legacy and draw inspiration from him. We can make our contribution at this time of decision making. We may obtain justice to the poor and to give a new direction to our country, he added.
Bagaicha was the last work place of Father Stan before his arrest by the National Investigation Agency on October 8, 2020. The following day, the agency took the priest, who was then 83, to Mumbai, western India, and presented him before a court that sent him to judicial custody.
The tribal activist died July 5, 2021, as an undertrial prisoner in Mumbai, nine months after his arrest under India’s anti-terror laws.
During the four-hour program, a book titled “Incarceration, Bhima Koregaon, search for democracy in India” was released.
Alpha Shah, a professor anthropology at London School of Economics, wrote the book staying some time at Bagaicha and interviewing Father Stan.
Sanjay Basumullick, director of “Jungle Bachao Andolan” (movement to protect forests) who worked closely with Father Stan, briefed about the book.
The 561-page book containing nine chapters is dedicated to Father Stan. Basumullick said the book helps people to know about Father Stan and 15 others who were arrested under the anti-terrorist laws.
Also released on the occasion was “Deshdrohi ki Diary” (Diary of an anti-national) authored by journalist Vinod Kumar.
After discussion on the books, the gathering visited Father’s Stan’s personal room that was renovated and converted to Stan Swamu Memorial Gallery.
Meghnath, film and documentary maker on Tribal rights, inaugurated the gallery.