Unsilenced: Book explains the social realities of an Indian prison

Unsilenced: The Jail Diary of an Activist 

Author & Translator: Seema Azad  & Shailza Sharma 

Published by Speaking Tiger

328 pages, ₹599

  In literary tradition, prison diaries have a special place. They are written not for self-praise but instead as a witness to what is being levied upon a person who has been condemned behind bars. Those who have been unjustly imprisoned tend to reveal the dark reality of their times and inspire people to always remember, never again. Unsilenced by Seema Azad, translated from Hindi by academic Shailza Sharma, adds to this rich tradition and follows her journey from being framed under dubious charges to finally coming out of the jail and her life in between. 

Seema Azad has been a known name in the human rights circle for a long time. Being an independent journalist and the editor of a bi-monthly Hindi magazine focusing on socio-political issues, she is known to write about national and international issues in a forthright and unapologetically independent manner. But things turned quickly for her and her partner, Vishwa Vijai, on February 6, 2010 as they were picked up by a Special Task Force when both of them returned from a planned trip to the Delhi Book Fair. Their supposed crime? “Waging a war against the state.” 

The entire ordeal around their arrest shows how norms and rules can be flouted and statements by the accused twisted and presented in front of the court. When Azad and Vijai’s case was passed on to the Anti-Terrorism Squad, things started to get even more grim for them. Soon they were taken into custody, and that's how they ended up in the Naini Central Jail, a place where the couple were separated, starting their different journeys. 

Often movies and even the so-called “reality” OTT series tend to distort what life inside the prison looks like. The author goes to give an intimate introduction to her initial days inside the jail; The women inmates surrounding her, the dreadful infrastructure, the power dynamics around which one has to negotiate and, obviously, the police and the system at large. She describes how accessing simple amenities such as a newspaper or pen and paper becomes a herculean task, with officials making their own arbitrary rules to humiliate and limit her freedoms. But what definitely stands out is the author’s recurrent realisation that despite popular claims, law often is slow and unjust. 

With time, Azad realised unlike the slow monotonous life that she had imagined inside prison, a different world altogether waited for her. The first thing she noticed was that most of the inmates took time out to dress up each day, and even applied make-up. When they saw that she wouldn't participate in this daily ritual, they persuaded her to at least “get ready” on the days she was supposed to meet visitors. What struck her next was the open acceptance of patriarchy even if she and her fellow inmates were surrounded by women — though sometimes they would simply sing and dance and break the norms of “decency” expected of them. 

These sociological realities tend to get accentuated behind bars. Soon Azad realises that people from Dalit, Adivasi, Muslim, Other Backward Classes, and economically weaker sections are represented in much higher numbers than others. Another interesting aspect was the utilitarian attitude towards love inside the jail; many women inmates formed relationships with men outside prison in the hope that the man would free her by posting her bail. Though this happens only to a lucky few, the relationships continue, including arranging meetings by lying about their relationship to the jail authorities. 

Originally written in Hindi as Zindan Nama, Unsilenced isn’t just a jail diary but written proof of how governments tend to trample any kind of activism that is critical of their policies and actions, and seek to make examples of individuals to dissuade other critics.  Unsilenced aims to project the voices of people dedicated to human rights who raise their voices, irrespective of the government and face repercussions for it as well. Today, there are several human rights and political activists who are languishing in jail for twice the time the author and her partner spent there, but the question remains: Why should anyone be wrongfully confined even for a day? The Supreme Court once commented,  “Deprivation of liberty for a single day is a day too many.” 

 

It is books like these that  make us wonder whether such comments are reserved for the rich and the famous.

 

 

The reviewer is an independent writer, journalist and translator based in Prayagraj. chittajit.mitra@gmail.com