'We are going through the darkest times I have seen': G.N. Saibaba

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/ 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 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/ 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 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/ 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/ 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/ 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/ 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.

To read the full interview

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