Lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj was released from Mumbai’s Byculla Prison in December 2021, three years after she was arrested by the Pune Police in connection with the Elgar Parishad case.
Bharadwaj sits down with The Wire to talk about her new book titled From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada.
In the book, she chronicles her life behind bars and her time spent with the women in Yerawada jail. The book weaves the stories about their life in jail and outside, and notes how patriarchy, caste hierarchies and the absence of legal aid for the impoverished shape these women’s experiences and realities.
Bharadwaj was one among 16 activists, scholars and lawyers arrested in the case, which has been decried as having been a witchhunt against lawful dissenters.
Speaking to The Wire‘s Sravasti Dasgupta about the recent police action on NewsClick, Bharadwaj shows that dissent of all forms is being criminalised.