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The cancellation of the Stan Swamy Memorial lecture and the weaponisation of allegations, truth is obfuscated.
The decision by Mumbai’s prestigious St. Xavier’s College to cancel its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture — under pressure from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — reveals the deepening erosion of democratic space, academic freedom, and dissent in contemporary India. The lecture, slated for 9 August 2025 and to be delivered virtually by Jesuit scholar Fr Prem Xalxo on “Migration for Livelihood: Hope Amidst Miseries,” was called off after the ABVP objected to the memorialisation of Fr Stan Swamy — the 84-year-old Jesuit priest who died in state custody while undertrial in the Bhima Koregaon case.
At one level, this is a case of routine intimidation by a student body aligned with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). At another, it is a disturbing symptom of a broader ideological project that seeks to criminalise human rights advocacy, delegitimise voices from the margins, and silence institutions that honour India’s true democratic traditions.
The Facts of the Case
Fr Stan Swamy was arrested in October 2020 by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), accused of links to the banned CPI (Maoist) and conspiracy in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence. He was neither convicted nor tried. He died in July 2021 in a hospital, chained to a bed, his repeated appeals for bail on medical grounds denied. He had spent decades working with Adivasi communities in Jharkhand, advocating for land rights, fighting displacement, and documenting illegal detentions under draconian security laws. International rights groups, Indian civil society, and legal experts have consistently condemned his arrest and death as an indictment of the Indian state.
The ABVP, however, continues to paint Fr Stan as a criminal, a “Maoist,” and part of a so-called “Urban Naxal” network — a term popularised not through legal rigour but by ideological propaganda. In a letter to the college principal, ABVP’s Mumbai secretary Prashant Mali demanded the event be cancelled, arguing that memorialising Swamy was “anti-national” and “dangerous.” The college, citing “unavoidable circumstances,” relented.
Criminalising Conviction: The Cost of Conscience
To call Fr Stan Swamy a criminal is not only factually incorrect — it is intellectually dishonest and ethically indefensible. He was never proven guilty, and until his death, he maintained that he was targeted solely for his work with India’s most marginalised. His “crime” was to challenge state violence, illegal detentions, and the weaponisation of the justice system against dissenters. His tools were law, documentation, and prayer — not violence.
The allegation that he was “associated with Maoists” was never substantiated in court. In fact, the Arsenal Consulting digital forensics report revealed that incriminating documents found on other Bhima Koregaon accused’s computers were planted using malware — a finding that casts deep suspicion over the entire case.
Calling him an “Urban Naxal” is a textbook case of ideological name-calling designed to bypass legal due process and vilify dissent. The term has no standing in Indian law. It is a media invention — a crude slur meant to demonise lawyers, academics, journalists, and activists who resist the state’s excesses.
St Xavier’s and the Crisis of Academic Courage
It is tragic that a respected Jesuit institution like St Xavier’s succumbed to pressure from an ideological student group. One can sympathise with the college’s dilemma — protecting its students from backlash, avoiding controversy — but the decision marks a worrying trend of pre-emptive compliance with authoritarian pressure. Academic institutions must stand as bulwarks of free inquiry and moral clarity. Their silence or retreat emboldens those who seek to muzzle thought and rewrite history.
Ironically, Jesuit education in India has long prided itself on social justice, critical thinking, and accompaniment of the poor. Fr Stan Swamy embodied that vision more fully than most. Cancelling a lecture in his memory dishonours that legacy.
The Broader Context: Shrinking Spaces, Expanding Fear
This incident is not isolated. It is part of a wider pattern where state-linked organisations seek to rewrite narratives, criminalise empathy, and hollow out institutional autonomy. From banning student unions to criminalising lectures, the goal is to produce an India that forgets its moral dissenters and worships power over justice.
In the Bhima Koregaon case, 16 activists remain jailed, many of them elderly, despite mounting evidence of digital fabrication. Meanwhile, the real violence on Dalits at Bhima Koregaon has never been properly investigated. The law is used less as a tool of justice and more as an instrument of intimidation.
The UAPA, under which Fr Stan was arrested, has a conviction rate of less than 3% — but it ensures prolonged incarceration. It turns the process into punishment. The fundamental principle of criminal law — that an accused is innocent until proven guilty — has been inverted when it comes to dissenters.
The Absurdity of Hatred
It is absurd that in 2025, a man like Stan Swamy — who gave his life in service of India’s most dispossessed — can still be vilified as a threat. That his faith and non-violence should make him suspect. That to speak for the poor is considered “seditious.” This inversion of values is not just tragic; it is calculated. What is truly “anti-national” is not a lecture on migration and livelihood – but the intolerance that seeks to silence it.
A Call to Conscience
The BJP must re-educate its cadres if it hopes to preserve India’s constitutional ethos. Disagreement is not disloyalty. Dissent is no danger. Fr Stan Swamy represents the best of Indian democracy – one that listens to the last, the lost, and the least. The moral compass of a nation is judged not by how it treats its rich and powerful, but by how it remembers those who died in chains while demanding justice for others.
* Ranjan Solomon is a political commentator and human rights advocate based in Goa. He writes on democracy, dissent, decolonisation, and justice. His recent work includes longform essays on Kashmir, Gaza, and India’s shrinking civil liberties. He has been writing and working in solidarity with people’s movements since the 1980s.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.