Prof Soma Sen incarcerated 'merely' for daring to express her dissent against state

By Surabhi Agarwal*
Shoma Sen was arrested on June 6, 2018, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for charges which include inciting violence, being involved in raising funds for the banned CPI (Maoist) party and harbouring its fugitive members.
Prof Sen is a highly vocal and committed women’s rights activist who has been involved with a wide range of social and political causes. She is a member of the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), an organisation which was set up in the wake of the Emergency with the objective of spreading awareness among people about their democratic rights under the Indian Constitution.
She is the founding convener of the Committee Against Violence on Women (CAVW) and has participated in fact-finding missions on the implementation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur and on the sexual violence perpetrated by the Salwa Judum in Bastar, Chhattisgarh.
As a young college student in Mumbai Sen was part of the Vidyarthi Pragati Sanghatana (VPS) which was a students’ organisation working to support numerous students and workers movements in the region. Through them Sen became involved with the Mumbai textile workers’ strikes of the 1980s.
After completing her BA from Elphinstone College in Mumbai, Sen moved to Nagpur where she did her MA and PhD in English Literature at the Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University. Here she joined the organisation Stree Chetana which worked with survivors of domestic violence.
She was a convener at the Adivasi Mahila Sammelan held in Ranchi in March 2007. She has also spent many years working with the women living in the slums of Juni Magalwari in Nagpur, helping them with their education and in accessing legal aid.

Sen is the former head of the Department of English at Nagpur University. She has also taught at the People’s Welfare Society (PWS) College in Indora, Nagpur and served as visiting faculty at the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University in Wardha. She also served as the president of the Nagpur University Teachers’ Association for many years.

Sen has made significant academic contributions to the fields of postcolonial studies and women’s studies. She has written extensively on women’s rights and caste oppression in India. Her academic writings have been published by journals such as the "Economic and Political Weekly" and the "Journal of Commonwealth Literature". She was a participant at the Indian Association of Women’s Studies (IAWS) National Conference held in Wardha.

Sen is very popular among her students and is known for her kind and encouraging demeanour. As a teacher of English, she has always been acutely aware of the elitist and exclusionary character of the language in India. Her students describe how she went out of her way to make everyone in her class feel comfortable and confident, irrespective of how “well” they could speak.

The court rejected her plea for release on health grounds stating she couldn't be granted bail only because she suffered from 'some' disease

Her close engagement with issues of caste-based sexual violence and discrimination on the ground provided her with a critical lens through which to look at the writings of fellow Indian upper-caste feminists and critique the gaps in their understanding of the role of caste in the oppression of women.
Colleagues, friends and family members of Shoma Sen talk of how her commitment to social justice translates into extraordinary generosity and compassion in her day to day life. Sen chose to leave her birthplace and childhood home in Mumbai to settle in Nagpur because she wanted to escape her elite circles and work in a less developed region of her state.
Her daughter Koel remembers how her mother always kept the doors of their home open for outsiders, often allowing young girls in need of financial and educational support to stay with them for months or years.
Prof Sen’s arrest came in the wake of the Bhima-Koregaon anti-Dalit violence that followed the Elgar Parishad conference in which Sen had participated. The police held the conference responsible for the violence, even though there are conclusive reports of how Hindutva leaders of the area such as Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote -- who were upset by the assertion of solidarity by Dalit-Bahujan groups -- had incited people to violence.
Sen was suspended from her position at Nagpur University and an enquiry against her was initiated by the university administration a few months after her arrest. It has been reported that the university was under pressure from the government to take action against her.
Sen first applied for bail in November 2018, but her plea was rejected by the court with the claim that there was evidence linking her to illegal, anti-national activities. However, none of this evidence has been made public.

Recently Sen, who is now 61 years old, filed for bail again, stating that she was especially vulnerable to Covid-19 due to her history of health issues. The court again rejected the plea and said that she could not be granted bail only because she was suffering from “some disease”.
Two other political prisoners, Akhil Gogoi and Varavara Rao have tested positive for Covid-19, raising concerns about the extent of the transmission of the virus in Indian jails and the need to decongest them and improve living conditions in order to protect prisoners.
Under such circumstances, the continued imprisonment of Shoma Sen, along with all other political prisoners who have been incarcerated merely for daring to express their dissent against the state, is indefensible and inhumane. Sen must be released and all charges against her dropped immediately.
---
*Associated with Socialist Party (India)

Comments

Tracing roots of Hindutva Zionism: cannon fodder for 'warped' nationalist pretensions

By Shamsul Islam* Those who believe in a world free of hegemonic ethno-nationalism, racism, religious bigotry and hatred have rightly taken note of Zionism and its ally Christian Zionism, major perpetrators of ethnic cleansing of ‘Others’. However, the civilized world with its core belief in multi-culturalism and peaceful co-existence is oblivious to a no less dangerous threat to the present human civilization: the Hindutva Zionism. As the term reads it is part of the Hindutva world-view which stands for an exclusive Hindu India minus Muslims and Christians. The other religions like Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism will have no independent status but treated as part of Hinduism. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS; National Volunteer Organization) is the most prominent flag-bearer of the Hindutva politics whose cadres presently rule India, the largest democracy in the world. RSS was founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889-1940) in 1925 who was disillusioned with the Indian freedom st

Regional parties, anti-Congress progressives, civil society groups 'joining' Bharat Jodo

By Harshavardhan Purandare, Sandeep Pandey* The Congress party declared Bharat Chhodo (Quit India) movement against the British regime in 1942. The Congress party has now launched a movement Bharat Jodo (Connecting and Uniting India) against the Modi regime in 2022. Indian people have had a journey of 80 years since Mahatma Gandhi gave that Quit India call to the British and we have to agree that we stand most divided in our modern history when Rahul Gandhi is giving this Bharat Jodo call to the nation. And back then, Congress was a thriving idealistic political movement against the British rulers and now it is an ever weakening political organization electorally defeated several times. However, it is India at stake, not just the Congress party. That is why so many regional political parties, civil society organizations, traditional anti-Congress progressive forces like socialists and communists, intellectuals and civil servants have declared their support and are proactively partici

Shocking? No Covid vaccine trials conducted on pregnant, lactating women: RTI reply

By Rosamma Thomas* A Right to Information applicant who sought details of safety trials conducted in India on pregnant and lactating women for three Covid vaccines in use in India – Covishield, Covaxin and ZyCov-D -- was shocked to learn from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) that Serum Institute, manufacturer of Covishield, and Cadila Healthcare, manufacturer of the ZyCov-D vaccine, had not sought permission for such trials. Bharat Biotech, manufacturer of Covaxin, had sought permission for trial on pregnant women and later withdrawn its application. This response , provided after the applicant was initially unsatisfied with the response and went in appeal, is from the joint drugs controller, CDSCO. It was dated September 13, 2022. One researcher closely following the vaccine rollout, however, is of the opinion that the lack of a trial on pregnant and lactating women is a blessing; potential trial participants and their unborn babies thus escaped harm. Aruna Ro

Grave error? Scholar blames ex-Gujarat babu for anti-Christian riots 'citing fake report'

By Rajiv Shah A few days back, I received a message from one of the finest former Gujarat government bureaucrats, PG Ramrakhiani, a 1964 batch IAS official, who retired in November 2000. I would often interact with him in 1997-99, even later, after I was sent to Gandhinagar as a Times of India man to cover Sachivalaya. Those were turbulent times. Shankarsinh Vaghela was the Gujarat chief minister, under attack from two sides – from the BJP, which he had left to form a separate breakaway party, Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP), one one hand, and the Congress, which was supporting him from outside, on the other. Ramrakhiani, in his message, referred to the book authored by Ghanshyam Shah and Jan Breman, both top-notch scholars who have known Gujarat in and out. Called “Gujarat, Cradle and Harbinger of Identity Politics: India’s Injurious Frame of Communalism”, I reviewed the book in January 2022. It claims that Muslims in Gujarat have been turned into “new untouchables”, thanks to the Hin

Rajasthan cops 'halt' Gujarat Dalit women's rally: homage to untouchability victim boy

By Our Representative In a surprise move, the Rajasthan police stopped a Dalit women's rally from Gujarat on the borders after it crossed Gujarat alleging that it would "disturb peace" in village Surana, Jalore district, where the gruesome incident of death of a Dalit boy took place on August 13 after he was brutally beaten up by his teacher on touching the drinking water pot. Sources said, while the Gujarat government had "no objection" in allowing the rally, which originated from the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), an empowerment-cut-technical institute for teens founded by human rights leader Martin Macwan, on September 24 morning, the Rajasthan police stopped it for two and a half hours before allowing it to proceed to Surana. The decision to take out a women's rally was taken at a DSK meeting on September 5 following a condolence meeting of the NGO Navsarjan Trust, also founded by Macwan, activists committed to work against caste-based discrimination, orga

Excess to cheetah in Kuno to increase 'woes' of local people, 'disturb' wildlife balance

Bharat Dogra* The release of eight cheetahs into the Kuno National Park ( Madhya Pradesh) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, although accompanied by a media blitz, has raised several questions. The animals were flown from Namibia to Gwalior and from there they were taken to the release site in a helicopter. Official sources have stated that this is the first time a large carnivorous species has been moved across continents for establishing a new population. This first release will be followed by others under this project. However, precisely for this reason, it is important to be cautious because if such translocations have been generally avoided in the past, there may have been reasons for this and at the same time we do not have much learning experiences from the past. The Cheetah became extinct in India in 1952, although this very fast moving animal is still remembered in the folklore of many areas. Hence the first impulse is to say that trying to introduce and revive

Introducing non-native cheetahs is 'not equivalent' to restoring pride in the nation

By Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay* The Cheetahs from the African continent has finally been introduced to India by the Indian Prime Minister on his 72nd birthday. The process had started with the previous Government in 2009. However, the Supreme Court clearance was pending owing to the objection by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) plea to reintroduce cheetahs. Finally the clearance was obtained in January 2020 and thereafter Kuno National Park (KNP) was chosen for the reintroduction of first set of Southeast African Cheetahs. In the near future, depending upon the success story of the current reintroduction, more cheetahs from South Africa may also be introduced. This exercise has generated a lot of interest among various stakeholders with opinions on both sides galore. It is important to pose some questions that surround the whole exercise. Let us evaluate some of these arguments. The first set of arguments are quite detached from the issues of conservation as they most

'Military diplomacy': US praises Bangladesh Army for leadership role in UN operations

By Kamal Uddin Mazumder* As the Indo-Pacific region represents the world’s economic and strategic center of gravity, the Indian Ocean today is becoming the centerpiece of all geo-strategic play. Cooperation in the region is crucial to implementing the international community’s global agenda, including achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Major powers like the US have enhanced and deepened their strategic engagement and leadership roles with countries in the region. The Indo-Pacific Army Management Seminar, or IPAMS, is a U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) initiated conference that is aimed at facilitating and enhancing interactions among the armies of the Indo-Pacific region. This year's 46th Indo-Pacific Armies Management Seminar (IPAMS)-2022, co-hosted by the Bangladesh Army and US Army Pacific (USARPAC), concluded in Dhaka. The objective of IPAMS is to promote peace and stability in the region through mutual understanding, dialogue, and friendship. It is the largest confer

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Counterview

Search This Blog