India is on the road to creating a giant prison. A country-wide lockdown was called in March 2020, but the forces of the Indian state have been locking away ordinary people’s lives for years. The regime in power today is accelerating along a path previous governments paved. It brings anti-democratic measures with parallels across the world, from Brazil to Turkey.

A lethal mix of authoritarianism and neo-liberal reforms is on the rise, benefitting big business but brutally curtailing many people’s freedoms, dispossessing them of their livelihoods, and sharply escalating inequalities. Here, I share with you what I have seen in India.

I saw the imprisonments first happening in the heart of the country, in the forests that are home to the Adivasis — India’s indigenous people. The state security forces surrounded their hills, occupied their schools and health centers, and ran riot in their villages.