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Keeping Up the Good Fight: From the Emergency to the Present Day
September 25, 1975. The students of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi had called for a strike to protest the expulsion of Ashoklata Jain, an elected councillor of the students’ union. Three months before, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had declared a state of Emergency. It was the second day of the strike and the campus was tense. A black Ambassador car pulled up near a group of students, a few cops in plainclothes got out, and abducted one of them. The student spent the next one year in jail.
February 9, 2021. Officers from the Enforcement Directorate raided the home of the founder of an online news portal. The raid lasted 113 hours, over five days. The office of the news portal was also raided.
October 3, 2023. Officers of the Special Cell of Delhi Police remanded the founder of the news portal and his colleague to custody under the dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Keeping Up the Good Fight is the story of Prabir Purkayastha, incarcerated by two authoritarian regimes, half a century apart. It is also the story of a young man’s political coming of age, told with wit and humour, and of his engagement with some of India’s most pressing social, political and economic issues over the decades.
“All the while as I hold his book in my hands, and as I write this account of why the book is necessary reading to understand our times, I am haunted by the image of Prabir, now 47 years older than when he was first jailed in the Emergency of 1975-77, once again in prison, feebler in body, challenged by serious health ailments, but as blameless, as resolute and as brave as the first time.”
—Harsh Mander
February 9, 2021. Officers from the Enforcement Directorate raided the home of the founder of an online news portal. The raid lasted 113 hours, over five days. The office of the news portal was also raided.
October 3, 2023. Officers of the Special Cell of Delhi Police remanded the founder of the news portal and his colleague to custody under the dreaded Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Keeping Up the Good Fight is the story of Prabir Purkayastha, incarcerated by two authoritarian regimes, half a century apart. It is also the story of a young man’s political coming of age, told with wit and humour, and of his engagement with some of India’s most pressing social, political and economic issues over the decades.
“All the while as I hold his book in my hands, and as I write this account of why the book is necessary reading to understand our times, I am haunted by the image of Prabir, now 47 years older than when he was first jailed in the Emergency of 1975-77, once again in prison, feebler in body, challenged by serious health ailments, but as blameless, as resolute and as brave as the first time.”
—Harsh Mander
- GenresNonfiction
230 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
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July 22, 2024
Prabir Purkayastha’s memoir is an invaluable record of a political activist’s engagement with science and technology. This is also a tribute to the vibrant student movement against the state's oppression in India, with a reflection on the lessons to be learnt for future.
Through his memoir, Prabir takes us along in his journey from Bengal and Allahabad (a few places before that too) to Delhi. His engagement with the student movement grew by the time he reached Delhi. While he was not involved in the movement as a leader, the police arrested him during the emergency. Prabir was mistaken to be the President of the JNU Students' Union, D. P. Tripathi, by a senior police officer. Although the state later realised its mistake, Prabir was not released and instead remained in jail for an year under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). We get a picture of the harrowing times of emergency, through the retelling of these events.
We see Prabir's relationship with Ashok Lata Jain, a student leader and later a leader of the women's movement in Delhi. The comradeship of a couple trying to balance different worlds is shared lovingly in the book. They have to face the challenges involved in navigating traditional family environments and devoting life for the progressive cause. I wondered how some questions have remained relevant even today, despite a distance of almost five decades. With the twists and turns in his personal life, Prabir was also getting actively involved in the world of popular movements around science and technology. The formation of Delhi Science Forum and its contributions towards the discussions on several key topics (such as self-reliance, Bhopal tragedy, and nuclear sector) were some pioneering work in this area. Experiences from this phase of life form the second half of the book.
Some of the recent years are not covered in this memoir, probably because the publication was rushed. But the first chapter, "Does Every Generation Have to Face an Emergency?", gives an interesting guide to compare the Emergency years with the present. While we see the concentrated state power and new ways of non-state terror in the current times, the changed background in some other aspects gives us hope for continuing with our resistance. This message of optimism becomes evident in the subsequent life events of Prabir. And I felt this is the most important thought to carry from the book, something that provides nourishment to a progressive reader.
Through his memoir, Prabir takes us along in his journey from Bengal and Allahabad (a few places before that too) to Delhi. His engagement with the student movement grew by the time he reached Delhi. While he was not involved in the movement as a leader, the police arrested him during the emergency. Prabir was mistaken to be the President of the JNU Students' Union, D. P. Tripathi, by a senior police officer. Although the state later realised its mistake, Prabir was not released and instead remained in jail for an year under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). We get a picture of the harrowing times of emergency, through the retelling of these events.
We see Prabir's relationship with Ashok Lata Jain, a student leader and later a leader of the women's movement in Delhi. The comradeship of a couple trying to balance different worlds is shared lovingly in the book. They have to face the challenges involved in navigating traditional family environments and devoting life for the progressive cause. I wondered how some questions have remained relevant even today, despite a distance of almost five decades. With the twists and turns in his personal life, Prabir was also getting actively involved in the world of popular movements around science and technology. The formation of Delhi Science Forum and its contributions towards the discussions on several key topics (such as self-reliance, Bhopal tragedy, and nuclear sector) were some pioneering work in this area. Experiences from this phase of life form the second half of the book.
Some of the recent years are not covered in this memoir, probably because the publication was rushed. But the first chapter, "Does Every Generation Have to Face an Emergency?", gives an interesting guide to compare the Emergency years with the present. While we see the concentrated state power and new ways of non-state terror in the current times, the changed background in some other aspects gives us hope for continuing with our resistance. This message of optimism becomes evident in the subsequent life events of Prabir. And I felt this is the most important thought to carry from the book, something that provides nourishment to a progressive reader.
Displaying 1 of 1 review