Interview/ G.N. Saibaba, human rights activist
Q/ Could you tell us about your childhood?
A/ I was born and brought up in the Godavari delta region of Andhra Pradesh. Most of my childhood was spent amid nature, but I also have memories of discrimination and atrocities against dalits. As a child, I saw blood being spilt over the beautiful landscape. As dalits were educated, at least to an extent, they lived with dignity and refused to bow down to caste oppression. In these rich and fertile lands, the tears of the oppressed flooded alongside the waters of the Godavari.
In my early childhood, I witnessed a destructive cyclone that devastated the region; the same cyclone washed away our thatched hut as well. The marginal and small farmers, a section to which my father belonged, always remained at the receiving end in the caste-ridden society.
Q/ Why were you named Saibaba - were your parents devotees of Saibaba?
A/ In those days, around our family, some people were devotees of Shirdi Saibaba. The image of Puttaparthi Saibaba, the magician-saint figure, was coming up as a new influence. My mother was also a devotee of the old Saibaba and wavered between the old saint and the new one. My mother named me even as my father, as always, kept himself away from all kinds of religious rituals.
Q/ What are your memories of your house, village and parents?
A/ Our hut stood among coconut, tamarind and mango trees, but my father had to shift the family to the nearest town when I was around six as the landlords of the area captured his agricultural land.
But the town paved a new way for us―we could go to school and get the best education.
Q/ How did you meet Vasantha? How did she influence you?
A/ In class 10, one day, I dreamt of failing in Mathematics in the Board examination. The next day, I visited a private tutor who taught Mathematics and English after school hours. I met Vasantha on my first day there. The teacher did not turn up that day. It was Vasantha who took the initiative and asked me why I came for the tuition classes and who I was. I told her I was weak in Mathematics. She asked me which problems I could not solve, and immediately showed me how to solve them, step by step. That was our first interaction.
Both of us decided to leave the tuition classes and teach each other as peers. In due course, during the preparation for the final examination, our interactions turned into a romantic affair. Thereafter, we never looked back and marched ahead in life and love together. It was she who pushed me to go to University of Hyderabad for my postgraduation. Before that, we read together an ocean of literature in which we drowned and dreamt.
Q/ How was your schooling like? Was there any discrimination?
A/ In the small town of Amalapuram, there was a municipal school near the house we lived in after we moved to the town. The headmaster admitted me straight into the fourth standard instead of the first after testing my learning skills. After fifth standard, my mother took me to a church-run school aided by the government, called St John’s High School. I didn’t face any discrimination in the school where most of the students and teachers were dalits.
The discrimination as a disabled person started particularly after I moved to a college. Nevertheless, I did extremely well and stood 1st in the university. This brought me a national merit scholarship. In turn, that helped me move to the University of Hyderabad for my postgraduation.
Q/ When did you discover that you could write poems?
A/ I wrote romantic poems during my intermediate and degree period, a few of which were published in the college magazine every year. I was elected to the editorial board of the magazine for all the five years of my college life. I also published some poems during my MA at the University of Hyderabad. Thereafter, my engagement with literary critical theory distanced me from writing poetry.
I also believed for a long time that poetry was read by only a few people, and that a vast majority of the oppressed people can’t read and enjoy poetry. I thought songs were the only vehicle through which one can reach out to the common people. That was the reason I stopped writing poetry. The time in isolation in the prison cell pushed me back into the world of poetry.
Q/ How was your life as a college student?
A/ One of the first issues that led me into the student movement in my college days was the movement for reservations in academic admissions and government jobs for OBCs. When V.P. Singh announced the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations, I became part of the movement at the University of Hyderabad.
Q/ How did you get attracted to Leftist thought? Who are your icons?
A/ It was through literature that Vasantha (his wife) and I developed a perspective in life. At that time our icons were Sri Sri, Premchand, [Leo] Tolstoy, [Maxim] Gorky, Chalam, Cherabanda Raju, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee and Rabindranath Tagore. But our reading was extensive, and we also read [Alexander] Pushkin, [Anton] Chekhov, [Ernest] Hemingway and others together. It was all the influence of the writers that worked on us rather than any political figures during our formative years.
Q/ You liked teaching literature. Who are your favourite authors?
A/ It is very difficult to pinpoint a handful of writers. Shakespeare has remained a favourite writer till today, though I opposed the teaching of Shakespeare as a dominant figure in English literary courses. I continue to love Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. Recently, I have enjoyed the works of Jerry Pinto, Meena Kandaswamy, Prayaag Akbar, K.R. Meera and Perumal Murugan.
Q/ You were arrested 10 years ago. What were you doing at the time, and what was your immediate reaction?
A/ I was arrested in a background that spread between 2010 and 2013 when multi-pronged attacks on adivasis in central and eastern parts of India targeted village after village. [They wanted the adivasis] to vacate the forests [and wanted] to mine the rich minerals underneath their feet. Those were genocidal attacks.... Several intellectuals started raising their voice collectively through Forum Against War on People. I was elected as the convener at the all-India level and also as a coordinator at the international level. I was abducted in May 9, 2014, from the university campus and implicated in a fabricated case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Q/ You got interim bail in June 2015. How was your first year in prison?
A/ It was a traumatic experience. During my abduction and arrest, my wheelchair was broken, and I was dragged by my left hand, because of which the nerve system from my neck to the shoulder was broken and muscles were damaged. I suffered unbearable pain, and huge swelling continuously for nine months without any medical treatment. I was completely restricted to bed and could not even read or write. I got no relief till the Chief Justice of Mumbai High Court ordered the prison authorities in a suo moto case to admit me in a hospital and subsequently released me on bail on medical grounds. It was a traumatic experience as well for my mother, life partner and daughter, too.
Q/ Were you tortured?
A/ There was no physical assault, but I was tortured indirectly―both physically and mentally. For example, while I was being taken away from Delhi to Aheri in Gadchiroli, they did not allow me to go to a urinal for more than 48 hours. In the same process, my wheelchair was broken and badly damaged.
At the Aheri police station, I was dragged and brutally pulled by my left hand. The ramp there was broken, and the wheelchair couldn’t go up and I had a bad fall there during the dragging. My left hand got damaged here and it was swollen. I remained in constant pain for the next nine months with my swollen shoulder without any medical treatment. It was [eventually] diagnosed as left brachial plexus injury. Practically, my left hand has been non-functional since. From then onwards, all my prison life, day and night, I have gone through a torturous experience because of this perpetual shoulder pain and lack of accessibility.
Q/ How did you spend time in the high-security anda (egg) cell?
A/ Most of the time I was reading and writing. Usually in the afternoon I taught fellow inmates. Another hectic activity was writing petitions for the prisoners. Most of them were illiterate and could not understand their cases in detail and had a lot of difficulty in appointing lawyers to look after their cases.
Q/ Who were your friends in jail?
A/ Initially, the jail authorities asked my co-accused to stay in my cell and help me around the clock. After 15 days, one of them, Hem Mishra, was transferred to Amravati Prison, and another co-accused Mahesh Tirki was brought in. After some time, another co-accused Vijay Tirki was also sent to my cell to help me.
When I was infected by Covid-19 during the second phase, my two co-accused who were not infected were sent away and another Adivasi inmate Bishan Singh Uikey, who was infected, was kept in my cell to help me. After that, a few others were also brought in as my cell mates from time to time. All these people remained close friends and helped me in every aspect of my daily life throughout these seven years. Apart from them, other inmates in the anda cell also supported and cooperated in several ways.
Q/ Did the police or prison staff show you any kindness?
A/ I was discriminated against by the jail authorities in my day-to-day life in prison, whether it be because of the kind of case I was put in, or because of my disability. The Nagpur Central Jail is a 19th-century prison that does not have any basic accessibility conditions for a disabled person. Most of the time when I was seriously ill, I was not taken to the prison hospital, whereas the other prisoners would be sent there for even complaints of headache.
Q/ Were you allowed to read and write in prison?
A/ In fact, it was my only pastime, but it was something I had to fight for. Initially, for a long time, no books or stationery were allowed easily. It was only after a long fight by presenting the prison authorities with various High Court and Supreme Court judgments, that books and writing material were allowed. After that, I could read regularly, and I went back to writing poetry addressing my family members and friends. These were collected and published as a book called Why do you fear my way so much? by Speaking Tiger.
Q/ Do you feel that a media trial was conducted to influence lower courts against granting you bail?
A/ A section of the local press in Nagpur and Maharashtra was extremely antagonistic and they published planted stories. A large section of the national press was interested in bringing out the facts and remained supportive throughout these 10 years. But a section of electronic media, particularly some television channels, propagated what was fed to them by the police agencies.
Q/ Have UAPA and the NIA been misused more during the Modi regime?
A/ UAPA was a law made during the Congress-led UPA government. NIA was also instituted by the same government. The law and the agency were draconian in nature and should not have a place in a democracy.
As a civil rights activist, I was part of the campaign against draconian laws like TADA, POTA, UAPA, AFSPA, etc. for a long time, but one of those very draconian laws was used against me to silence my voice. UAPA, in particular, is against the provisions of our Constitution. All draconian laws have been misused during all regimes. The very enactment of these security laws is itself a misuse of power and is unconstitutional.
Q/ A Congress government arrested you and a BJP government opposed your release from jail. What does this speak of the establishment?
A/ I was arrested during the last phase of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when there was no government office at the Centre and the Election Commission prevailed during that period. Perhaps it was done deliberately.
The establishment, whichever party in power, always took a stand against human rights and civil rights activists and defenders, instead of appreciating their untiring service to the people. The same thing happened in my case, though it turned out to be more aggressive and it was through illegal means.
Q/ What was the impact of years in prison on your health?
A/ No one who spends an extended period in the isolating and hostile atmosphere of the anda cell comes out without acquiring any psychological problems and trauma. I have acquired a serious heart condition, acute pancreatitis with cholelithiasis, spinal scoliosis, rotator cuff injury and fatty degeneration of rotator cuff muscles among others. I will have to perhaps live with these ailments throughout my life. Who will give my health back to me?
Q/ Do you feel that you should be compensated and that the authorities should be held accountable?
A/ This is a larger question that must be addressed by the higher judiciary and the eminent lawyers need to step in to seek full justice for all those lost years in my life and [those in the life] of others.
Q/ How do you look at today’s India?
A/ We are going through the darkest times known to me in my life.
Q/ What do you think of the Maoist resistance in various parts of the country? Is it a lost battle?
A/ People’s struggles are the hope for a new society based on equality and non-discrimination. The larger people’s democratic struggles all throughout the country form the basis for hope in my life. Without them there is no hope.
Q/ What do you feel about dalit life at present?
A/ Discrimination and atrocities have only increased. Today, dalits represent more than their percentage in prisons. A vast number of them languishing in jails are either innocent or involved in petty crimes. They have little refuge when it comes to seeking legal help.