Fr Stan Swamy SJ, martyr of the marginalised
Fr Stan Swamy SJ, martyr of the marginalised Circumstances behind his death: On October 8, 2020, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India arrested Fr. Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist known for upholding the rights of Adivasis and Dalits (groups at the bottom of India's social and economic hierarchy). Fr. Stan alongside several other prominent Dalit and Adivasi rights activists, were charged with several sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) counterterrorism laws for inciting caste-based violence through speeches on December 31, 2017, that resulted in violent clashes in Bhima Koregaon and neighboring villages near Pune, Maharashtra state, where hundred of thousands of Dalits had gathered to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon, which was won by the British army — largely comprising soldiers from the lower caste Dalit community — against the upper caste Peshwas in 1818. The follo