[In
August, police officers raided Teltumbde’s house in Goa. Earlier this month, he
was taken into custody then released after stepping off a plane in Mumbai. With
courts rejecting his plea to quash the case, his arrest under a sweeping
anti-terrorism statute is a matter of time. Much of the evidence against him
remains secret.]
By Niha Masih
 |
Dalit
scholar Anand Teltumbde, who is facing arrest, appears at the Swargate police
station in Pune, India,
on Tuesday. (Hindustan Times/Getty Images)
|
Now he is just trying to stay out of jail.
In recent months, Teltumbde has been swept up in a government
crackdown on lawyers and activists. The authorities allege the activists are
supporting a banned group of Maoist militants, known as Naxalites, who
seek to overthrow the government — accusations they deny.
The activists targeted in the investigation are advocates for
India’s most disadvantaged communities, including indigenous tribal people and
Dalits, once called “untouchables.” They are also vocal critics of the
government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Opponents say the Modi government is taking increasingly harsh
measures to suppress dissenting voices ahead of national elections
expected in the spring. The authorities have charged students with sedition for
shouting slogans and raided the offices of international groups such as
Amnesty International and Greenpeace. The crackdown feeds into
fears that the freedom of expression is under fire in Modi’s India, where Hindu
nationalist groups emboldened by his party’s leadership have harassed and attacked
government critics.
But the bid to
arrest Teltumbde, a respected academic, has shocked many in India and abroad.
The accusations against him are “beyond preposterous,”
wrote author Arundhati Roy in January. Teltumbde’s detention would silence a
“powerful” voice with “an unimpeachable intellectual track record,” she
said.
Meanwhile, more than 600
international scholars, including professors from universities such as Harvard,
Columbia, Yale and Oxford, have called on the Indian government to “withdraw all charges
and to uphold democracy.”
In
August, police officers raided Teltumbde’s house in Goa. Earlier this month, he
was taken into custody then released after stepping off a plane in
Mumbai. With courts rejecting his plea to quash the case, his arrest under
a sweeping anti-terrorism statute is a matter of time. Much of the evidence
against him remains secret.
For a man who had never faced legal jeopardy or seen the inside
of a courtroom, the last several months have been disturbing. “I’ve been
treated like a bloody fugitive,” said Teltumbde, 67, as he prepared for a legal
hearing in Mumbai earlier this month. The government wants “to crush dissent
and make an example.”
Pratap
Bhanu Mehta, a political commentator and vice-chancellor of Ashoka University,
said that the use of the anti-terrorism law meant that the legal process itself
is a kind of punishment.
“It doesn’t have the kind of
protections a democracy should have,” said Mehta. The law allows authorities to
arrest people and hold them without filing charges for three months, and that
period is often extended. The law has been criticized for its “draconian”
provisions and its constitutionality
has been challenged in court.
Shivaji Bodkhe, the joint commissioner of police in the city of Pune who is overseeing the investigation, rejected the claims of harassment.
“Those
who are sitting in air-conditioned rooms can say anything,” he said. “Left-wing
extremism will be dealt with the law of the land.”
Teltumbde,
a bespectacled academic with short dark hair, he said such accusations were
“farcical.” His other worries are two half-written manuscripts on his laptop,
due for publication this year. One is a book on Mahatma Gandhi and the other is
on Bhimrao Ambedkar, an iconic Dalit leader who is credited with drafting
India’s Constitution. (Teltumbde is married to Ambedkar’s granddaughter.)
Born
to a family of landless Dalit farmers in a village in western India,
Teltumbde excelled in school and earned a degree in mechanical
engineering. He was forced to drop out of a master’s program at India’s top
engineering college because he was unable to afford the fee. He later
graduated from a premier management institute and earned a doctoral degree.
He spent much of his career as an executive at state-owned
Bharat Petroleum before switching to academia. But it is his work on caste — a
system of hierarchical discrimination that endures in India to this day — that
brought him into the spotlight.
His latest book, released in
2018, is an authoritative
exploration of how the marginalization of Dalits became an
essential part of Indian nationhood. One of the chapters describes how Indian
authorities have routinely labeled Dalits and tribal
people as Maoists to silence criticism.
Those
who know Teltumbde professionally were astonished by the allegations against
him. H.S. Komalesha, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur where Teltumbde once taught, said that it was “unbelievable to think that
he can do anything to incite violence.”
The case against Teltumbde is linked to violence that broke out
during an event held on Jan. 1, 2018. Tens of thousands of Dalits assembled at
a monument marking the defeat of upper-caste Hindus during a colonial-era
battle 200 years ago. The commemorations turned hostile as Hindu nationalist
groups and Dalits clashed. One person died.
The
official investigation into the violence later expanded to what the authorities
say is a wide-ranging conspiracy, including a plot to assassinate Modi. Those
arrested — nine so far — are alleged to have supported Maoist rebels.
Although
the police have not revealed details of their investigation, some of the case
against Teltumbde relies on four letters and a ledger entry allegedly recovered
by the police from the computer of another person accused in the probe.
Mihir Desai,
Teltumbde’s lawyer, said that the case seeks to criminalize innocuous academic
proceedings and advocacy events. One letter allegedly written to Teltumbde
refers to Maoist funding for his visit to a human rights conference in Paris in
2018. Teltumbde called such allegations “fabricated.” Experts have also
questioned the authenticity of the letters.
Teltumbde’s
younger brother, Milind, joined the militant Maoist group in the 1980s. The
police declined to comment on this aspect of the investigation, but Teltumbde
called it “puerile” to suggest guilt by association. He said that he had not
been in touch with his brother for over 35 years.
As
the investigation has upended his life, Teltumbde’s wife, Rama, has
been by his side.
“Throughout
his life, he has worked so hard,” she said. “This should have been his age to
rest, not be in jail.”
Read more
India’s government is arresting lawyers and activists
amid accusations of plotting to overthrow Modi
