Shoma Sen

Last updated

Shoma Sen is a women's rights activist and assistant professor and was head of the English literature department of the Nagpur University. [1] On 8 June 2018, she was arrested by the Pune Police for her alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon riots

Contents

Personal life

Shoma was born and raised in an upper-middle class Bengali family in Bandra, Mumbai. She did her schooling from St. Joseph's Convent. After completing her master's degree from Elphinstone College in Mumbai, she pursued her M.Phil and Ph.D in Nagpur University. She is married to Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya, a writer and translator and has a daughter, Koel, who is a filmmaker. Shoma lives in Nagpur. [1] [2]

Activism

Shoma Sen has worked with the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), a human rights organisation. Shoma has been the president of Nagpur University Teachers' Association (NUTA). She was arrested on 6 June 2018 by the Pune Police, and later suspended from her position in Nagpur University. No charges have been proved yet by the prosecution and an ongoing case is due for trial at the Bombay High Court. Shoma has spent more than 528 days (1 and half years) of incarceration already. Shoma was a part of a women's organisation in Nagpur, called Stree Chetna which discussed issues such as violence against women and dowry deaths. [3]

Arrest

On 8 June 2018, she was arrested by the Pune Police along with Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Surendra Gadling and Rona Wilson. They were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their alleged involvement in the Bhima Koregaon violence. At the time of her arrest, she was nearing retirement. [1] [2] On 15 June, she was suspended from her position in Nagpur University on grounds that she had been in police custody for more than 48 hours. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Varavara Rao</span> Indian writer (born 1940)

Pendyala Varavara Rao is an Indian activist, poet, teacher, and writer from Telangana, India. He is an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence and has been arrested under the non-bailable Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Rao was arrested on the charge of plotting to assassinate Indian prime minister, possibly based upon planted evidence. In August 2022, he was released on bail by the Supreme Court of India, on medical grounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act</span> Indian law to prevent unlawful activities

Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is an Indian law aimed at prevention of unlawful activities associations in India. Its main objective was to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India. The most recent amendment of the law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019 has made it possible for the Union Government to designate individuals as terrorists without following any formal judicial process. UAPA is also known as the Anti-terror law.

Kobad Ghandy is an Indian communist activist and ideologue. He became involved in revolutionary politics whilst a student in England in the 1970s, and worked as an organizer for the civil rights movement in India. He was a founding member of the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights. He was arrested on the accusation of being a politburo member of the underground Communist Party of India (Maoist) in 2009. He was acquitted and released after almost a decade in jail in 2019.

Sudhir Dhawale is an Indian activist, actor and publisher of the bi-monthly Marathi magazine Vidrohi. He is also the founder of organisation, Republican Panthers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anand Teltumbde</span> Indian scholar (born 1950)

Anand Teltumbde is an Indian scholar, writer, and civil rights activist who is a management professor at the Goa Institute of Management. He has written extensively about the caste system in India and has advocated for the rights of Dalits. He is also a longtime critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and was imprisoned in 2020 along with other activists and intellectuals who were critical of the government. His arrest has been condemned by other academics and human rights organizations, and legal experts have said that the charges against him appear to be fabricated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kabir Kala Manch</span> Cultural Organization

Kabir Kala Manch was a cultural organisation that was formed in Pune, Maharashtra, India, in the wake of the Gujarat riots in 2002. Through music, poetry and theatre, it aims to spread an anti-caste, pro-democracy message. It comprises students and young professionals who perform protest poetry and plays in slums and streets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gautam Navlakha</span> Indian human rights activist and journalist

Gautam Navlakha is an Indian human rights activist and journalist. He has written on left-wing extremism and is a critic of army and state atrocities in Kashmir. He is a member of People's Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi. He is also an editorial consultant of the Economic and Political Weekly. He resides in New Delhi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudha Bharadwaj</span> Indian activist

Sudha Bharadwaj is a trade-unionist, activist and lawyer who has lived and worked in Chhattisgarh for over three decades. She is an active member of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha.

The 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence refers to violence during an annual celebratory gathering on 1 January 2018 at Bhima Koregaon to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. The violence and stone pelting by crowd on the gathering resulted in death of a 28-year old youth and injury to five others. The annual celebration, also called Elgar Parishad convention, was organised by retired justices B. G. Kolse Patil and P. B. Sawant. Justice Sawant stated that the term "Elgar" meant loud invitation or loud declaration.

The Elgaar Parishad was an event held on 31 December 2017 to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Koregaon Bhima. It was organised by a coalition of 260 non-profit organisations at Pune's Shaniwar Wada Fort, and had approximately 35,000 people in attendance. The program consisted of a number of cultural performances, speeches and slogans.

Surendra Gadling is a human rights lawyer and Dalit rights activist based in Nagpur.

Rona Wilson is an activist, researcher and the public relations secretary of the Committee for Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP). He has worked with people accused in terrorism cases, including those booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). He is an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence.

Mahesh Raut is an activist working with Adivasi in Gadchiroli. He is the youngest accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case.

Arun Ferreira is an Indian activist. He was arrested in 2007 for alleged links to the Indian Naxalite movement and spent five years in prison before he was acquitted in 2012. He began a career as a criminal lawyer defending political prisoners. He was arrested again in August 2018 and is currently lodged in Taloja prison along with other accused of the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence

Sambhaji Bhide is a Hindutva activist from Maharashtra. Bhide, a native of Sangli district, was a full-time worker for the Hindu-nationalist organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, before leaving to form his own organisation, the Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan, in the late 1980s. The organisation claimed to spread the teachings of Shivaji and his son Sambhaji.

Milind Ekbote is a resident of Shivaji Nagar, Pune. He is the president of Dharmaveer Sambhaji Maharaj Pratishthan and Samasta Hindu Aghadi (SHA), and the founder of Shiv Pratap Bhoomi Mukti Andolan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Swamy</span> Indian Roman Catholic priest and tribal rights activist (1937-2021)

Stanislaus Lourduswamy, SJ, popularly known as Stan Swamy, was an Indian Catholic priest, a member of the Jesuit order, and a tribal rights activist for several decades. Swamy was the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somnath Waghmare</span> Documentary filmmaker and Dalit activist

Somnath Waghmare is an Indian documentary filmmaker based in the state of Maharashtra. His most prominent and most recent film, Battle of Bhima Koregaon, was critically received and screened in India and abroad. Till now, all his films have been documentary films and they have dealt with various social issues like the persecution of women and Dalit assertion in Maharashtra. He made his directorial debut with the short documentary feature I Am Not a Witch (2017). His upcoming films are Chaityabhoomi and Gail and Bharat.

Vernon Gonsalves, born 1957, is a trade unionist, activist and academician, and an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence. His wife, lawyer Susan Abraham, is also a workers rights activist. Vernon was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. N. Saibaba</span> Activist and academician convicted under UAPA Act for extortion of money from tribals

Gokarakonda Naga "G. N." Saibaba is an Indian scholar, writer, human rights activist, and professor.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The People's Fighters: Meet the Five Arrested in the Bhima Koregaon Case". The Wire. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  2. 1 2 Johari, Aarefa. "A poet, a lawyer, a professor: These are the five activists held for sparking Bhima Koregaon clashes". Scroll.in. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  3. ↑ Sen, Koel (28 August 2018). "Arrested professor Shoma Sen's daughter Koel says: My mother's been tagged a Maoist after lifetime of working for others". Firstpost. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  4. ↑ "Nagpur varsity suspends Prof Shoma Sen held for alleged Maoist links". Hindustan Times. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.