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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Prisoners of Conscience (India, 1978) Zameer Ke Bandi / "மனச்சாட்சியின் கைதிகள்"

June 26, 1975 is remembered as a black day for Indian democracy. On this day, 36 years back, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, declared a state of national emergency, thereby granting her extraordinary powers to rule by decree; which was promptly followed by launching a massive crackdown on civil liberties and on all political opposition.

An important historical record of this dark period in India's post-independence political history, Anand Patwardhan's "Prisoners of Conscience" documents the State of Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi from June 1975 to March 1977.

During the Emergency the media was muzzled, over 100,000 people were arrested without charge and imprisoned without trial. Cases of custodial torture, beatings and death were a plenty. Repression was also unleashed on defenceles people - workers, peasants and middle class - outside of jails.

But political prisoners existed before the Emergency, and they continue to exist after it was over. Today, the common people of India witness a state of 'undeclared emergency' as the Indian state holds tens of thousands of political prisoners behind bars, often for years without trial, and employing an arsenal of infamous and heavily criticized draconian acts, some of the most repressive of which are the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Public Safety Act (PSA) in Jammu and Kashmir, the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA), the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), the colonial era Sedition Law, et cetera.


For more information on "Zameer Ke Bandi"/"Prisoners of Conscience", please visit the official website :http://www.patwardhan.com/films/



இந்தியாவில் எடுக்கப்பட்ட முதல் சுதந்தர/சுயாதீன அரசியல் ஆவணப்படஙகளில் ஒன்றாகக் கருதப்படும் "மனச்சாட்சியின் கைதிகள்" ஆனந்த் பட்வர்த்தனின் இரண்டாவது படம் ஆகும். எமர்ஜென்சி காலத்தில் இந்திரா காந்தியின் அரசால் நடத்தப்பட்ட சட்டப்பூர்வமான கொலைகள், சித்ரவதைகள், பொய் வழக்குகள், காணாமல் போகச் செய்தல் போன்ற மனித உரிமை மீறல்கள் பற்றிய மிக முக்கியமான ஆவணப்படம். இப்போது யூட்யூபில், இலவசமாக, எல்லோரும் பார்க்கும் வண்ணம் இயக்குநரே பதிவேற்றம் செய்திருக்கிறார்.

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