By Fr Joshan Rodrigues –
Prophet, Martyr, Faithful Servant, Friend of the Adivasis, Champion of the Dispossessed, Victim of the State, a modern day Saint, Caged Bird whose song could not be stopped – Fr Stan Swamy has been called these and many other names in the days following his demise at Holy Family Hospital, Bandra, while he was still incarcerated under the dreaded UAPA, despite lack of proven evidence. The State dubbed him a Maoist and a threat to national security, which smacked of an Orwellian attitude destructive of an open and free society. Yet this feeble, octogenarian Jesuit priest’s painful death provoked outrage and condemnation from the depths of social consciousness, not just in India, but globally as well.
Fr Stan was many things to many people, but he was above all a man ‘sent’ by God. Following in the footsteps of the prophets, he was sent to “pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10) amongst the poorest of the poor in the hinterlands of Jharkhand. In resonance with the first reading this Sunday (coincidentally also from Jeremiah), Fr Stan was sent as a ‘Shepherd’ to his people, to protect them from danger, injustice, inhumanity, indignity and a seizing of their fundamental rights. He served with righteousness, and to the humble tribals and poor of the land, he was their ‘Justice’.
While human rights activists, lawyers, concerned citizens and several Church leaders have been quick in condemning the state, judiciary and investigative agencies for Fr Stan’s unjust and inhuman suffering, a prominent journalist has poignantly pointed out that blame must also lie with “We the People”. Our continued silence and lack of courage to condemn human rights abuses, oppressive government policies and unjust arrests under draconian laws, makes us complicit in the work of evil. Our silence may be due to fear or ignorance, but it is shameful that civil society doesn’t speak out more often.
While passionate human rights activists, writers, poets, journalists and lawyers lend their voice and fight on behalf of the collective consciousness, we cannot abdicate our own responsibilities. Silence and inaction emboldens heavy-handed governments to slowly strip away basic human rights and protections in the name of “national interest”. This journalist also evoked German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemölle’s famous 1946 poem, “First they came…” which he wrote following the Nazis’ rise to power and subsequent incremental purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Countless undertrials continue to languish in prison for months and years on end, due to a broken judicial system. When they are finally released due to lack of evidence, their lives have already been crushed in many ways. The powers that be are obviously not interested about convictions, seeing that only 2 percent of all cases prosecuted under UAPA end in convictions. Rather, it is the process that becomes the punishment. As has been pointed out on many occasions, the slowness of our judicial system has become a potent tool in the hands of those who desire to stifle democratic dissent and remove inconvenient voices who stand up for the common man’s interests.
Fr Stan Swamy was a prophetic witness of our times, a model of Christian discipleship. In consonance with the Gospel ethic, he showed us that true peace and happiness emanates from a life lived for others. Though he owned almost nothing in terms of earthly possessions that he could call his own (that too was laughingly ‘seized’ by the police when they came to arrest him), he had more joy, love and contentment than most of us could hope for. It is in giving that he received. The marginalized and vulnerable counted as his “mother, his brothers and his sisters.” There is no greater reflection of the Christian Gospel than a man who laid down his life for his friends.
Fr Stan, may you forever rest in the joy of your Master whom you strove to see in the faces of the poor, vulnerable and defenseless. As for the rest of us, it’s time to wake up!
Fr Joshan Rodrigues is currently the Managing Editor of The Examiner, Catholic Newsweekly of the Archdiocese of Bombay. He is an alumnus of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome in Institutional and Social Communications. He has done brief stints with the DeSales Media Group in Brooklyn, New York and Communications Office of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, London. He frequently blogs on faith and culture in ‘Musings in Catholic Land’