'BK-16': Arrested development

In Indian society, children are told if they studied hard and got a good job, they would have the liberty to do whatever they want. Anand Teltumbde did exactly that.

- CHITTAJIT MITRA

Heisan IIT and IM alumnus, worked in the public sector and rose to become a managing director of a corporation before leaving to become an academic. This successful middle-class background gave him confidence that his indictment of the caste system and demands for social justice would not be used against him by the state. He was wrong. In The Cell and the Soul, he talks about his time in the Taloja central jail, what led him there and his observations about the functioning of the Indian car-ceral system.

B R Ambedkar once said: “Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men.” He understood that a fractured society cannot really enjoy the fruits of democracy; differences will be used against each other; until we inherently feel that all fellow human beings are equal, we cannot build a successful nation. But what happens if people who are continuously working to achieve such a society are not only mercilessly targeted but also falsely defamed, that too by the same authorities who are expected to uphold the Constitution?