Under the rule of Narendra Modi, the Indian state has launched a sweeping authoritarian clampdown on political dissent. One of the manifestations of this onslaught has been the jailing of opponents on trumped-up charges of terrorism and conspiracy. The authorities refer to the victims of these judicial frame-ups as “urban Naxalites,” in reference to the Maoist revolutionaries who remain active in certain parts of the country.

One of those targeted was the priest and campaigner Father Stan Swamy. On July 5 last year, Swamy passed away after contracting COVID-19 in an overcrowded prison during the disastrous second wave of the pandemic in India. He had spent nine months in prison on fabricated charges of involvement in a supposed plot to “assassinate the prime minister,” along with fifteen other human rights defenders, academics, lawyers, artists, and social activists, known collectively as the Bhima Koregaon 16 or BK-16.

There have been tributes to Swamy from his colleagues, students, and many other people whose lives he touched. Alongside Swamy’s own memoir, I Am Not a Silent Spectator (2021), these tributes offer a moving account of his life as one of modern India’s most remarkable citizens in its many different aspects. This article will discuss Swamy’s inspiring record of combing social research and activism through the space he established at Bagaicha in Jharkhand state.