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The Feared: Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners
"The first night in jail is reputed to be the hardest. After that, you learn how to survive, though many prisoners carry lifelong scars."
The Feared brings together interviews conducted by Neeta Kolhatkar with eleven political prisoners, and in some cases, their loved ones, in which she highlights the interviewees’ everyday lives within the walls of multiple prisons across India. In doing so, she calls urgent attention to the grave injustices meted out to the thousands of undertrials dissent in the political life of India today.
During long discussions, sometimes taking place over multiple meetings, Kolhatkar unearths personal anecdotes from the time her interviewees were incarcerated, bringing into focus the human face of prison inmates, while also detailing the wretched conditions relating to space, hygiene, medical attention, and food that they experienced.
Apart from being an urgent call to action for prison reforms, The Feared is thus also an account of hope and strength, narrating unique stories of survival and solidarity, and the unexpected bonds and relationships formed in prison.
The Feared brings together interviews conducted by Neeta Kolhatkar with eleven political prisoners, and in some cases, their loved ones, in which she highlights the interviewees’ everyday lives within the walls of multiple prisons across India. In doing so, she calls urgent attention to the grave injustices meted out to the thousands of undertrials dissent in the political life of India today.
During long discussions, sometimes taking place over multiple meetings, Kolhatkar unearths personal anecdotes from the time her interviewees were incarcerated, bringing into focus the human face of prison inmates, while also detailing the wretched conditions relating to space, hygiene, medical attention, and food that they experienced.
Apart from being an urgent call to action for prison reforms, The Feared is thus also an account of hope and strength, narrating unique stories of survival and solidarity, and the unexpected bonds and relationships formed in prison.
270 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 10, 2025
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April 15, 2025
After reading this book, you would be afraid of Indian Jails. Afraid as standing in terror!
And it makes you angry. Very very angry.
And without being a political narrative, it makes it clear that any kind and form of dissent is unacceptable to the rulers. From the age of declared emergency to the undeclared ones, for more than 5 decades, the rulers have been incarcerating those having contrarian views and strength to express those views openly through poetry, literature, lectures or activism.
And they've deliberately maintained these prisons in almost the same style as in British colonial days.
They're really afraid of free flow of ideas and opinions.
The title of the book is apt - THE FEARED!
11 chapters covering interviews with Sudha Bhardwaj, trade union and human rights activist; Nilofer Malik and Sameer Khan, daughter and son-in-law of Nawab Malik; Koel Sen, daughter of Prof. Shoma Sen; Sanjay Rout; Manipur journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem; and sympathisers or activists of radical left ideologies working openly and in available constitutional framework, like Prashant Rahi, Anand Teltumbde, Binayak Sen, Kobad Gandhy, K Murlidharan and P Hemlatha, w/o Varvara Rao are very illuminating.
And it makes you angry. Very very angry.
And without being a political narrative, it makes it clear that any kind and form of dissent is unacceptable to the rulers. From the age of declared emergency to the undeclared ones, for more than 5 decades, the rulers have been incarcerating those having contrarian views and strength to express those views openly through poetry, literature, lectures or activism.
And they've deliberately maintained these prisons in almost the same style as in British colonial days.
They're really afraid of free flow of ideas and opinions.
The title of the book is apt - THE FEARED!
11 chapters covering interviews with Sudha Bhardwaj, trade union and human rights activist; Nilofer Malik and Sameer Khan, daughter and son-in-law of Nawab Malik; Koel Sen, daughter of Prof. Shoma Sen; Sanjay Rout; Manipur journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem; and sympathisers or activists of radical left ideologies working openly and in available constitutional framework, like Prashant Rahi, Anand Teltumbde, Binayak Sen, Kobad Gandhy, K Murlidharan and P Hemlatha, w/o Varvara Rao are very illuminating.
Displaying 1 of 1 review