How India treats ‘political’ prisoners
(By
COLIN LEGUM,
of the “Observer”)
After spending seven months in Indian gaols, 10 weeks of them or a hunger strike, a British-born New Zealand student and an Australian friend have reached London.
, ! The New Zealander, Richard White, and Andrew Colbert told me that they had been interrogated mainly at night for almost four weeks, before being transferred to prison. They were never formally charged with any crime.
White and Colbert are both members of Ananda Marga, a movement with an international network in 35 countries, which combines meditation with practical social work. The leader and founder of the movement, P. R. Sarkar — known as Anandamurti — has been on a hunger strike for four years, while awaiting trial in India on murder charges. “One of the people he is accused of murdering was in fact in prison with us up to the time we left,' 1 White said. A month before White’s arrest, in September 1975, the Prime Minister (Mrs Indira Gandhi) accused the Ananda Marga of responsibility for the assassination of her Minister of Railways, an attempt on the life of India's Chief Justice, and for planning to kill herself. White strongly denies all these allegations. “Ananda Marga,” he said, “fell foul of Congress and Communist Party leaders in Calcutta because of the practical side of our work. We are not just concerned with alleviating people’s suffering but also with the sources of this suffering.
“We had become a popular organisation in India because of our campaign against corruption. It was for this reason that Congress and the Communists began to persecute Ananda ‘Marga before banning it and arresting our members.” In 1973 White decided to take time off from his engineering studies at Auckland University to go to Australia where he met Andrew Colbert. They went to India as disciples and trainee workers of Ananda Marga. Their troubles began on a Sunday night at the end of September, 1975. “We had been out during the day and had just returned when the police walked in and asked us to accompany them on some passport matter.” They were interrogated throughout the night in the
Calcutta Security Control Office. “The police kept asking me what spectacular thing we were planning to do on September 25 (the date of the start of Sarkar’s trial),” White says. “Who were we planning to kill? I told them it was absurd of them even to ask such questions.” White says that he and Colbert feared they might be detained under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, which would mean that no information about their detention would be given to the outside world. “So we decided to attempt to escape to our consulates, when they took us back from the police lock-up, where we were kept, to the Security Control Office. When the police car in which we were travelling was in the vicinity of the consulates, Aniruddha (Andrew Colbert’s Sanskrit name) reached over, grabbed the steering-wheel and the car stalled. I jumped out but was caught by a policeman. A large crowd quickly gathered, among them a Second Secretary of the British High Commission, a Mr Perrot. I yelled out our names and nationality. The police then detained the diplomat as well, but later released him.”
They were interrogated, mostly at night, for 24 days before being transferred to a prison. “During that time in the police lock-up,” says White, “we were confined night and day (except when we were being interrogated) in a cell approximately 30 feet by 40 feet with 25 other prisoners, nearly all of whom smoked. The Windows were high and barely gave adequate ventilation. We were not supplied with soap, nor had any change of clothing, or even a comb. We were fed only two small slices of white bread, five small chappatis, a little vegetable and a teaspoon of yoghurt twice a day.” White says there were a number of prisoners whose feet were bruised and swollen and, in some cases, had gone septic. “We discovered that they had been hung upside down and beaten on the soles of their feet. This was the standard method employed to extract confessions for petty crimes. Many
people confessed, just to avoid the beating.”
‘The police,” White continued, “resorted to crude threats and obscenities when we didn’t answer questions.” After five months of investigations and several court appearances — each of which ended after the police had told the magistrate that they needed more time to complete their inquiries — White and Colbert finally told the magistrate that they intended to begin a hunger strike until proper charges were laid against them. Efforts by the British and Australian High Commissions finally resulted in their release. Now that he is free, Richard White’s concern is about the future of Anandamurti (Sarkar). “After three years of hunger strike, taking just a few cups of Horlicks a day, Anandamurti is reported to have wasted away and is very frail. It is difficult to know how much longer he can preserve his physical being.” Amnesty International has taken an Interest in Mr Sarkar’s case for a number of years, and in an independent initiative William T. Wells, Q.C., a former Member of Parliament, went to India in 1974 to investigate the case. Even ar that time he expressed concern about the prisoner’s extreme state of weakness.
His report was critical of some aspects of the Ananda Marga movement which, he said, must arouse a measure of suspicion and antagonism because of its condemnation of the caste system and its moralist attacks on corruption. Its emphasis on spirituality, he pointed out, is anathema to secularists and particularly Marxists. He was also critical of Sarkar for giving “powder and shot” to his opponents by allowing his spiritual movement to acquire a political character.
Wells concluded, however, that whatever Sarkar’s share of responsibility for helping to create his present situation, “the fact is that he is, almost unquestionably, approaching a terminal state because of a fast undertaken basically because he believes he and his movements are the victims of injustice.” — O.F.N.S. Copyright.
Log in