A Blood Sacrifice on the Altar of National Consciousness

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

The words of Jesus the Nazarene, who knew of his own coming death on the cross, came spontaneously from many friends, some only borderline Christians and absolutely disinterested in anything faintly resembling political action, as LiveLaw disrupted whatever they were doing on their smart phones.

The law journal reported from the Bombay High court that the judges had just been told that Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, 84, whose application for bail they were to consider, had passed away. Recovering from covid and several comorbidities including progressive Parkinson’s disease, Stan had suffered a heart arrest, been put on a ventilator for several hours, and was then declared dead. His bail application remained unheard.

Father Stan Swamy, born in Trichy in the then Madras province, who worked much of his life in what is now Jharkhand, died in the Catholic-run Holy Family hospital in Mumbai, was bid farewell at a funeral Mass at the St Peters Church, Bandra. Just 20 of his brother priests were in the church obeying the covid distancing guidelines. But millions must have followed the Mass on various internet platforms.

In the funeral Mass, it was announced that Fr. Stan's mortal remains would be cremated and the ashes would be strewn through several Adivasi areas where he worked, including Jamshedpur, Ranchi and other parts of Jharkhand.

It may not bring closure, though it brings to an end the final chapter in the fascinating and inspiring life of the lanky old scholar-researcher-activist old man who was arrested in October 2020 from his Bagaicha home on the outskirts of Ranchi, Jharkhand. He was the last of 16 men and women National Investigating Agency and the Maharashtra police had arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, UAPA, for conspiring to assassinate the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi. It is called the Elgar Parishad case.

There is no doubt but that the government at its highest political echelons had decided to make this case a matter of prestige over which it would hang several political objectives, ranging from the smaller one of the politics of Maharashtra, to issues of ending popular resistance to opening up infrastructure and resource exploitation in central India.

Tagging the Prime minister’s security ensured it becoming what has over the years come to be called the “national consciousness”, suitable to the regime and its loyal supporters.

The NIA knew the orders came from, and so did the subordinate judiciary which over the years had heard and rejected bail applications from not just Stan, but several others of the arrested 16 who had chronic cardiac and other ailments.

On 22 March this year, rejecting Stan’s plea for a bail on medical grounds, Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) judge Dinesh E. Kothalikar wrote, “If seriousness of the allegations made against the applicant are considered in proper perspective, in that case there will be no hesitation to conclude that the collective interest of the community would outweigh the right of personal liberty of the applicant and as such the old age and or alleged sickness of the applicant would not go in his favour, so that the discretion to release the applicant can be exercised in his favour.”

This was just a bail application. Hearings in the case are yet to begin, and the over 10,000-page charge-sheet to be analysed in court by prosecution and defence lawyers. The men and women are at best suspects, and undertrials, who maintain they are innocent and the case is a politically directed fabrication.

Stan’s death evoked a tsunami swell of shock, injury and revulsion in the people across the globe, ranging from Human rights pointsmen of the United Nations, political leaders, civil society, and the common people cutting across religious beliefs or ideological positions. For the record, it must be said that major TV and print journals continued their support to the government whose spokespersons in turn held on to their argument that all 16 were guilty as charged, and posed a threat to Mr Modi and the national fabric.

Will Stan Swamy, the seed which died, give strength to civil society and to the tribals he so dearly loved, and whose staunch demands for control over their natural resources and constitutional rights he espoused as his own, remains to be seen. Will the Christian community which was active on social media demanding his release -- the Pope in Rome too had spoken - go beyond a candle light vigil, is also a moot question. It is not known to be a militant group, and its fissiparous leadership would rather sue for peace than anything more.

But Stan and his work has also to be seen in the context of his own roots as a Jesuit, and his eventual coming out of the boundaries of classical religious institutions to merge seamlessly with the aspirations of the poorest of the poor. In this case, it was the Adivasis demanding that constitutional guarantees under Schedule 5 as well as subsequent laws be evoked to keep the forests and resources away from government’s crony capitalists who have long had an eye on these.

Though he worked in the civil sphere, Stan was loyal to his training and his creed. The 4,000 strong community of men of the Society of Jesus work not only in the iconic schools an colleges we know in metropolitan cities and state capitals. Some of the well-known Jesuit charisms, as they define it, are education of the whole person, men and women for and with others, promotion of justice and leadership, and ‘contemplation in action’. That is what stan had done all his life after he came back from Brussels with degrees in sociology.

They are not intimidated way what many said is the institutional murder and ‘vengeance of the state.”

“The death of Fr Stan is not the end, but the beginning of a fresh impetus for justice and freedom. It is a kairos moment for us to read the signs of the times and to respond to them. It is an opportunity for us to pause, ponder and proceed boldly on our way of proceeding. It is an occasion for us to discern, decide and dedicate ourselves to our mission of reconciliation and justice as Fr Stan did. Let us pray for the grace of discernment and holy boldness. May the courage and fortitude of Fr Stan inspire us to deepen our faith and hope for a new desire, a new purpose and a new future’ wrote Fr Stany D’ Souza, President of the Jesuit conference of South Asia and head of the Jesuit in India.

Stan Swamy had worked with two, perhaps three generations, of men and women Tribals of central India in their many campaigns and movement, from the formation of the Jharkhand state to the more recent Pathalgadi movement protecting the people’s control of what was theirs by right.

He will remain a guiding light for them and for those of us in the country who profess support for the dignity of the poor and seek an end to the exploitation by crony capital. And to that extent, it will have severely dented the regime’s effort to make a lesson out of the women and men arrested in the Elgar Parishad case. And hopefully, it will trigger some soul searching in the judicial system, too, even if they still retain UAPA.