Calif. Congressman Reintroduces Resolution to Honor Life and Legacy of Indian Tribal Activist Father Stan Swamy
- Supported by Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.), the resolution by Rep. Juan Vargas also encourages India to pursue an independent investigation into his arrest, incarceration, and death.
Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) has reintroduced a resolution to honor the life and legacy of Father Stanislaus Lourduswamy, known as Father Stan, an Indian Jesuit priest and prominent tribal rights activist who died while in police custody on July 5, 2021. The resolution, supported by Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.), also encourage India to pursue an independent investigation into his arrest, incarceration, and death.
“Father Stan dedicated his life to giving a voice to the voiceless,” Vargas notes in the resolution. “He was a tireless advocate for the rights of the Indigenous Adivasi people, trained young community leaders, and worked for justice for many communities in India,” he adds. “As a former Jesuit, I’m horrified that Father Stan faced relentless abuse and was denied medical care while in custody,” he said. “I introduced this resolution to make sure Father Stan and his lifelong commitment to the greater good is never forgotten.”
An Indian Roman Catholic priest, a member of the Jesuit order, and a tribal rights activist for several decades, Father Stan fought for the human rights of India’s marginalized and Indigenous groups, speaking and writing in-depth about caste-based injustices. India’s caste system was officially abolished in 1950, but the 2,000-year-old social hierarchy imposed on people by birth still exists in many aspects of life. The caste system categorizes Hindus at birth, defining their place in society, what jobs they can do and who they can marry. In October last year, Swamy was arrested and charged under the country’s anti-terrorism laws, which critics have described as draconian.
Father Stan played a key role in one of the most significant Adivasi movements in contemporary India — the Pathalgadi movement, which used Adivasi traditions of stone carving to spread information among Adivasi communities regarding rights guaranteed to them under the Indian Constitution “During these decades in Jharkhand, Father Stan advocated for and raised awareness regarding the implementation of provisions of the Indian Constitution like the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) or the PESA Act, which instituted self-governance for people dwelling in Adivasi lands,” the resolution said.
Father Stan was born on April 26, 1937, in a village called Viragalur in the Tiruchirappalli District in Tamil Nadu. Inspired by the work of Jesuit priests from an early age, he studied theology starting in 1957. During his Jesuit regency, he came to love and appreciate the culture and values of India’s Adivasi community, as well as understand the problems they faced and the exploitation they endured. He then completed his master’s degree in sociology in the Philippines and was subsequently put in charge of the Catholic Relief Services charity in the Jesuit Jamshedpur Province, now Jharkhand. He served as the director of the Indian Social Institute, India’s leading Jesuit institution, in Bengaluru, from 1975 to 1990, where he trained young people from marginalized communities across the Indian subcontinent.
After finishing his work with the Indian Social Institute in 1991, Father Stan moved to Chaibasa, in Jharkhand, where he worked for the Jharkhand Organization for Human Rights, and worked tirelessly with the Adivasi people to protect their lands and homes from unfair expropriation by the state and mining corporations. With the support of the Jesuit society and intellectuals and activists such as Xavier Dias and Ram Dayal Munda, Father Stan set up Bagaicha, a research, documentation, and Adivasi training center near Ranchi.
In 2017, the state of Jharkhand charged Father Stan with ‘‘sedition’’ for a Facebook post written in support of the Pathalgadi movement. He was subsequently released following the change in government in Jharkhand in 2019. But soon Pune police conducted raids on Father Stan’s one-room home in Bagaicha in a case regarding clashes near Bhima Koregaon in the western Indian state of Maharashtra and subjected him to hours of intense interrogation. When he declined to travel to Mumbai from Ranchi for further interrogation, the National Investigation Agency placed him under arrest on Oct. 9, 2020.
Since then he was incarcerated in Taloja prison until May 28, 2021, which provoked a gradual deterioration in his health. Father Stan was denied bail even as his health deteriorated in prison. Swamy, who was living with Parkinson’s Disease, had recently contracted Covid-19 in prison. At a hearing for his bail application in May, the court noted Swamy had a “severe hearing problem,” and was “physically very weak.” While still in the custody of the Indian state, he passed away at the age of 84 on July 5, 2021, at Holy Family Hospital, in Mumbai.