Sudha Bharadwaj's book records episodic stories of her time in jail

Mumbai was Bombay when Sudha Bharadwaj first visited the city in her teens This was in 1978 the trade unionistactivistlawyer tells us ldquoMy mother an academic had gone abroad for a year so I moved here to do my Class XI I lived with my mama in Prabhadevi and Irsquod travel all the way to Navy Nagar to my school Kendriya Vidyalaya I still remember that beautiful bus journey passing by Worli seaface Haji Ali and Mantralaya I have such fond memories of that timerdquoIt was in Mumbai that Bharadwaj also recalls experiencing the comforts of family ldquoI was the single child of a single mother but here I got to be with my uncle and children I loved being around everyonerdquo she smilesSo much has changed in the last 40odd years ldquoWe donrsquot have a seafacerdquo she rues ldquoAnd you canrsquot see Haji Ali anymore But even though the mills are gone Mumbaimdashin ethosmdashremains a workingclass city Itrsquos a place where you can have food for Rs 5 and even for Rs 5000 Therersquos a whole layer of people in all kinds of circumstances living in the nooks and crevices of the city Thatrsquos what I like about itrdquoNow confined to an apartmentmdashthanks to the graciousness of friendsmdashon the 15th floor of a highrise in the western suburbs Bharadwaj is all on her own for the first time Her daughter Maaysha who has a Bachelorrsquos in Psychology is currently in Chhattisgarh ldquoI spend my time taking on some labour cases and assisting a senior advocaterdquo says Bharadwaj whom we meet on a weekday morning She sits right below a black and white sketch under which are the wise words of American social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass ldquoThose who profess to favour freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without ploughing the groundhellip power concedes nothing without a demand It never did and it never willrdquoBharadwaj a coaccused in the 2018 BhimaKoregaon violence case was granted bail in December 2021 after over three years of incarcerationmdashfirst in Punersquos Yerawada jail and later in Byculla womenrsquos jail Born in the US to academician parents she later moved to the UK and then India with her mother giving up her American citizenship and plunging deep into the fight for the rights of adivasis the underprivileged and marginalised in Chhattisgarh After three decades of leading the cause in 2017 she joined as visiting professor at the National Law University NLU when she came in the radar of the police in August 2018Although her bail conditions do not allow her to talk about the case Bharadwaj has resiliently continued her activism This time with her justreleased book From Phansi Yard My Year with the Women of Yerawada Juggernaut which is a collection of vignettes on the inmates she encountered while serving time ldquoWriting itrdquo she admits ldquowas cathartic It was my way of understanding what was happening around me Theoretically I knew that therersquos a serious problem with legal aid for inmates and that the discrimination outside continues here as well But you only recognise the human cost of bias in the criminal justice system when you meet these womenmdashsee how they cope and struggle to find out whatrsquos happening with their caserdquo The book began as jottings in her single cellmdashldquoI could take 10 paces down the length of my cell and six paces across its widthrdquomdashin the Phansi Yard death row of Yerawada In the neighbouring cell was Professor Shoma Sen coaccused in the same case They would only be let out into the corridor from7 am to noon and later from 3 pm to 530 pmBecause she was isolated from the others for most part of the day she remembers having a lot of time alone ldquoI would watch these women through the bars of my cell and in the front of our corridor Someone would catch my attention and I would observe them from a distance When the next opportunity presented itself while going to court in the canteen or waiting for mulaqaat Irsquod strike up a conversation with themrdquo Their story came together in ldquobits and piecesrdquo ldquoAnd once I felt I knew the person to a certain extent I would put my sketches down on paperrdquo At no point did Bharadwaj think of publishing the book ldquoI was used to being with and around people because of my work in trade unions In jail I could not communicate with inmates These jottings became my way of being with themrdquo When she finally got out of jail in 2021 she typed all her notes and gave it to friends some of whom worked on the issue of women prisoners ldquoMy friends encouraged me to publish the bookrdquoIt takes us through many lives and storiesmdashNepali women arrested for maintaining brothels a Dalit nurse implicated by her employers for stealing jewellery a dignified uppercaste woman held for murdering her husbandhellip Bharadwaj also talks about the hard prison rules the foodmdashldquoYerawada had its own abundant fields where they grew vegetablesrdquomdashand tasks expected of inmates ldquoWomen have a certain caring and nurturing personality and this shared solidarity became a mantra for survival When I newly arrived at the hospital barrack of Yerawada before being shifted to Phansi yard I remember a woman immediately taking me under her wings and guiding me about the dos and donrsquots thererdquo says Bharadwaj ldquoWomen truly became each otherrsquos social supportrdquoWhile the book doesnrsquot touch upon her time in Byculla womenrsquos jail where she spent nearly two years she remembers a mentally challenged woman there attaching herself to Bharadwaj ldquoShe was a beggar whorsquod sleep on the Bandra skywalkrdquo she says ldquoand had been implicated in the murder of her partner Because of her personality shersquod get attacked by fellow prisoners often Thatrsquos when I started protecting her Slowly she shifted her bedding next to mine and began calling me ammi Gradually I took her to a psychiatrist and got her to start taking medicines which made her feel better She was a person I wouldnrsquot have normally interacted with as our worlds were so different But the fact that it happened helped her and merdquoBharadwaj requested her lawyers to arrange bail for her ldquoShe eventually did get bailrdquo she says adding ldquoWhen I was released everyone told me lsquoAapko toh unhi ki dua lag gayirsquordquo