Dilip Simeon's blog

On January 1, 2018, Anjana Gaikwad, a 26-year-old Dalit activist from Pimpri Chinchvad town in Pune, was heading towards the  Bhima Koregaon  Vijay Stambh (victory column) on the outskirts of the city with her younger brother, Santosh Shinde. Gaikwad and Shinde had planned to join the thousands of Dalits from across Maharashtra who had gathered in Bhima Koregaon to pay tribute to the Dalit soldiers who, as a part of a British army, defeated a Peshwa army in 1818 despite being outnumbered. 2018’s commemoration was to mark the 200th anniversary of the victory. Violence in Maharashtra as Dalits protest death of 28-year-old in Bhima Koregaon clashes Why lakhs of Indians celebrate the British victory over the Maratha Peshwas every New Year Anand Teltumbde: The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend But when the siblings’ bike reached Sanaswadi, a village near Bhima Koregaon, Gaikwad saw a violent mob furiously pelting stones at anyone wear...

Five hundred Mahar soldiers scattered the 25,000-strong Peshwa army for the East India Company in Koregaon near Pune in 1818. An hour after New Year struck on Friday, two retired army officers, PS Dhoble and Dadasaheb Bhosle, set out in a bus from the tomb of Independence-era leader BR Ambedkar in Mumbai's Dadar area. Accompanying them in the convoy were more 300 other uniformed men and women. Five hours later, they reached their destination: a large village just past Pune called Bhima Koregaon. It was here, on the banks of the Bhima river, that a ragtag group of Mahar soldiers fighting under the British flag in 1818 defeated the vastly superior forces of the Peshwa. More than 150 years later, evidence of the battle is still apparent. Residents of Bhima Koregaon say they find swords from the battle in the river bed even today. Bhosle recounted with pride the story of how 500 Mahar soldiers on foot launched a heroic attack against the 25,000-strong army of the Peshwas, staf...

They came from across the country, boys from a hip-hop crew wearing low-slung jeans and their hair in dramatic cuts, colours and braids; first-timer senior citizens camping around a bonfire; a barefoot Bhante, or Buddhist monk, who walked 48 days to get here; flag-waving activists. In the minutes leading up to midnight at the Jaystambh memorialising the battle of Bhima  Koregaon , it was a sombre Dalit chant, not sloganeering, that stirred the gathering. On the 201st anniversary to mark the victory of a British regiment including Mahar soldiers over a Peshwa army, the nearly 5,000 people who spent the night of December 31 around the memorial spoke of their search for solutions to caste stigma that see beyond aggression. Bhima Koregaon: Dalit Assertion Is Only Getting Stronger A Year After The Violence // Bhim Army Chief Detained Ahead Of Bhima Koregaon Anniversary On January 1, 2019, a year after one person was killed and several injured in clashes and rioting, over th...

Violence roiled Maharashtra on Tuesday as angry Dalit groups burnt vehicles, blocked railway tracks and pelted stones to protest the death of a 28-year-old man near the bicentennial celebrations of a British-era war in Pune district.  Protesters damaged at least 20 government buses near Chembur in Mumbai , blocked roads and halted services on the city’s harbour railway line for about 15 minutes, police said. In Thane, hundreds of protesters sat on the roads, forced shops to down shutters and smashed seven state-owned buses. Reports of violence and stone pelting were also reported from Pune and Solapur with police blaming workers from the Republican Party of India (RPI). Why lakhs of Indians celebrate the British victory over the Maratha Peshwas every New Year Anand Teltumbde: The Myth of Bhima Koregaon Reinforces the Identities It Seeks to Transcend The East India Company fought and won several battles from the first one in Plassey in 1757 before the last battle of the Ang...

It was the virtual ‘midnight knock’! The irony was that the knock took place in broad daylight, and expectedly in a blatantly unjust, uncivilised and unconstitutional manner. On 6 June 2018, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson were arrested from their residences in various parts of the country. The arrests of others then continued in a phased manner: on 28 August 2018, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao and Vernon Gonsalves; on 14 April 2020, Anand Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha; on 28 July 2020, Hanybabu Tarayil; on 10 September 2020, Sagar Gorkhe, Ramesh Gaichor and (the next day) Jyoti Jagtap – all three from the Kabir Kala Manch were arrested from Pune; finally on 8 October 2020, Fr Stan Swamy was arrested from Ranchi. Bhima Koregaon: Dalit Assertion Is Only Getting Stronger A Year After The Violence // Bhim Army Chief Detained Ahead Of Bhima Koregaon Anniversary It is three years now since the first arrests in the Bhima-Koregaon con...

The clampdown on political dissent since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014 has received global attention with an association of social justice activists and scholars called ‘Fresh Perspectives, USA’ condemning the “illegal arrests” of human rights activists in India. In a statement signed by Noam Chomsky, James Petras and Angela Davis among others, the group says that in recent months, the Maharashtra police has arrested several prominent human rights activists including Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha and others in the Bhima Koregaon case.“All these social activists have a long history of challenging state violence and human rights abuses through democratic and constitutional means,” said the statement. It added that in Modi’s India, attacks on Dalits, adivasis, rationalists, Muslims and other religious minorities have continued and intensified.  In a strong condemnation of the Modi government, the statement further ...

This is the latest thread in conspiracy theory that the police is weaving around the incident. We have completely forgotten the origin of the case. It was the large-scale violence on the participants, mostly Dalits at Bhima Koregaon near Pune, which warranted investigation and action. But the alleged instigators and organisers of that massive violence are roaming free. They seem to be shielded by the feeling of honour that the prime minister has for at least one of them... Instead, the police has turned the whole case on its head by “unearthing” a conspiracy to assassinate the prime minister Bhima Koregaon case: DU professor Hany Babu booked for sedition, home searched The Pune police has confiscated Babu’s computer and hard drive, in which his academic work is stored. Now, his social media account and other contacts are with the police. The police did not even have a search warrant... It is complete lawlessness from the keepers of the law  My father called to inform me that...

NB : After willfully neglecting Fr Stan Swamy 's bail pleas and subjecting him to unusual punishment without trial, our criminal justice system literally presided over his death in custody. He was 84 years old, weak and ailing; and had suffered enormously in jail. After he died, spokesmen for the government repeated the allegations against him as if they were proven facts. What is happening? There is a clear Mandate from On High that the accused in this notorious case are to be presumed guilty even before they are tried in a court of law, and that conditions in custody be made so physically dangerous as to endanger their very lives. This is not justice, it is cruelty and barbarism. As to the consciences of those sworn to uphold the Constitution, the less said the better. DS The family members of the accused undertrials in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, have written to the Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) and Special Inspector General of Police (Prisons) to continu...

'Once crime was as solitary as a cry of protest; now it is as universal as science. Yesterday it was put on trial; today it determines the law':  Albert Camus, The Rebel         The Maharashtra governmen t needs to order an inquiry into the planting of false evidence on Bhima-Koregaon accused Rona Jacob Wilson. It owes this to the Indian public to protect freedom of speech and the right to dissent in our democracy. The sensational but hare-brained ‘conspiracy’ to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi is entirely built on ‘evidence’, which a US cyber forensics company has shown to be fake and planted on the accused, describing it as “one of the most serious cases involving evidence tampering” that it has come across. Delhi Police arrests 22-year-old Disha Ravi, calls her key to foreign hand Tavleen Singh: When govt shows signs of paranoia, it has dangerous consequences Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling c...

NB : It looks as though the Government of India is hell-bent upon preventing Indian citizens from communicating with one another. We may neither speak nor think, except in accord with the requirements of His Highness the Sangh Parivar. Let us see how much the public is prepared to put up with. DS Internet services were shut down in Koregaon Bhima and neighbouring villages on Wednesday as lakhs poured in to pay tributes at the ‘Jay Stambh’ on the 202nd anniversary of Koregaon Bhima battle. Pune District Police told Indian Express a call on restoring services in the area would be taken in the evening. Officials estimated 3-4 lakh people had visited the victory pillar since the evening of December 30. Hindustan Times reported nearly five lakh Dalits had gathered in the venue.   On Wednesday Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi president Prakash Ambedkar had arrived at the village to pay their respects.  More posts on Bhima Koregaon Pe...

Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani asked Prime Minister Narendra Modito choose between an ancient Hindu legal text and India's Constitution, at a rally in New Delhi on Tuesday. Mevani lamented what he called an unprecedented "state of crisis," and told his audience they were fighting "fascism." The Dalit leader, who ran unopposed by the Congress in the Gujarat assembly election, defended himself against allegations that he instigated violence in Maharashtra's Bhima Koregaon. The Pune Police had registered an FIR against Mevani in connection with the incident. Here's a brief overview of Mevani's fiery speech at the Yuva Hunkar rally, in ten points. NOBODY THINKS I'M GUILTY: "I have been charged with instigating violence (in Bhima Koregaon). Nobody believes that," Mevani said, days after the Pune Police received a written complaint about his and activist Umar Khalid's "provocative comments" at an event in Maharashtra. "Due ...

 After three years and three months in prison, Bhima-Koregaon accused and undertrial Sudha Bharadwaj was granted bail in December 2021 by the Bombay High Court on a technical ground. The human rights lawyer and law professor talked to us about her time in prison, the state of legal aid for forgotten undertrials, the need for courts to address congested prisons, particularly in the pandemic, and her plans to rebuild her life as a lawyer and a mother, as she grappled with bail conditions which prevent her from leaving Mumbai and Thane. “I love this country, I love the people of Chhattisgarh, and I have no regrets,” 60-year-old advocate Sudha Bharadwaj told  Article 14 , weeks after she was granted  bail  by the Bombay High Court in the Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case. Arrested on 28 August 2018, Bharadwaj is among 16 ‘Bhima-Koregaon accused’ - lawyers, human rights activists, writers and academics - charged under 10 sections of the  Indian Penal Code , 1860,...

NB : "Why were you having (sic) these books and CDs at home? You will have to explain this to the court,” said Justice Sarang Kotwal. Wouldn't it be more pertinent to ask why a person of this intellectual level is sitting on the Bombay High Court? DS MUMBAI — The Bombay High Court hearing a bail plea of Elgar Parishad- Bhima Koregaon  case accused Vernon Gonsalves on Wednesday questioned his motive behind keeping copies of some books and CDs whose titles prima facie indicated they contained material against the State.  The books and CDs the high court referred to included copies of Marxist Archives, a CD titled ‘Rajya Daman Virodhi’ released by Kabir Kala Manch, and Leo Tolstoy’s literary classic  War and Peace   among others. “The title of the CD ‘Rajya Daman Virodhi’ itself suggests it has something against the State while  War and Peace  is about a war in another country. Why were you (Gonsalves) having these books and CDs at home? You will have...

This is a moment of reckoning for a nation scarred. The unspeakable tragedy in Lakhimpur Kheri has wounded the nation’s sensitivity to its core. The  30-second video vividly depicting the gruesome murder  of innocent citizens by a bunch of goons sheltered by ‘ netas ‘ drunk on power has once again exposed the fault-lines of our politics and a constitutional democracy in decline. The absolute imperative of resisting the perversion of democracy and trade of power must begin with an unreserved acceptance of the truth that we are a faltering democracy, for more reasons than one. A troubling scenario of debilitated institutions of democracy, absence of ‘empathetic pluralism’, rise of muscular nationalism, the questionable ideological integrity of political parties, assault on first principles of the republic and accentuation of social and economic inequities and so on, point to a dwindling democracy and conditions of a ‘flailing state’.  A dysfunctional parliament in which...