With new firsthand experiences, observations from his seven-and-a-half-year stay in two central prisons in Maharashtra – Yerwada in Pune and Taloja in Navi Mumbai – his activism while incarcerated, and research conducted within the confines of prison, 53-year-old Rona now views the term from a different perspective. He now approaches the subject with a deliberate focus on caste and religious dimensions. https://thewire.in/rights/rona-wilson-political-prisoner-jails-state-of-emergency
In recent years, however, he has spent considerable time in jail trying to broaden this perspective. He does acknowledge the “missing historical and social contexts” in the arguments around what a political prisoner is, and how Indian society, during pre-colonial and post-colonial times, has created a separate “criminal category” merely on the basis of one’s birth.
Raut, an Adivasi rights activist from Gadchiroli and a former Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellow, converted prison into a place of research. Over many years in Taloja prison, Raut meticulously gathered data on individuals arrested under The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, a legislation introduced in 2012 to protect children from sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment.
Raut’s research revealed that more than 80% of those implicated under this Act belong to Dalit, Muslim and other marginalised identities, Rona notes.
“Sure, some of them might actually be involved in the criminal act, but a large section of this community is criminalised for merely disturbing the social pyramid,” he observes.
“These young men,” Rona explains, “whether intentionally or not, sought social mobility by forming romantic or sexual relationships with women from different communities. This, however, is seen as a violation of rigid social norms. This regressive society punishes such transgressions. As a result, their actions have led them to be imprisoned.”
Rona is now trying to understand if this very act of transgression, more importantly in a caste-ridden and highly communalised Indian society, “is a political act”.
17/02/2025