St. Xavier’s College Drops Annual Stan Swamy Lecture Following ABVP Opposition
By Amit Kumar
St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, has called off its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture, which was set
to take place on Saturday, in response to objections raised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad
(ABVP), the student affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
On Tuesday, members of the ABVP’s Mumbai wing met with the college administration and
submitted a formal letter urging the cancellation of the lecture. The group cited objections to
commemorating Father Stan Swamy, who was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention)
Act (UAPA) in connection with the 2018 Elgar Parishad–Bhima Koregaon case.
“ABVP firmly believes that organising a lecture in memory of a person accused in the Elgar
Parishad–Bhima Koregaon case, facing UAPA charges for links with banned Maoist groups, is an
attempt to glorify urban Naxalism on campus,” the group said in its statement.
It further called on the Maharashtra authorities to intervene, stating that such events were taking
place under the “guise of academic freedom,” and demanded “strict action” against similar
initiatives.
The lecture was being coordinated by the college’s Department of Inter-Religious Studies and was to
be delivered online by Father Prem Xalxo. The topic of the lecture was “Migration for Livelihood:
Hope amidst Miseries.”
Father Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest and well-known human rights advocate, passed away in July 2021
while in judicial custody. He was 84. Swamy, who had spent much of his life working for the rights of
tribal communities, was arrested in October 2020 over alleged links to banned Maoist organisations.
Authorities accused him and others of inciting violence during the 2018 Bhima Koregaon event in
Maharashtra.
Despite his age and serious health conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, Swamy remained
incarcerated for nine months without trial. His repeated pleas for bail were denied. He was
eventually hospitalized in May 2021 after contracting COVID-19, and suffered a fatal cardiac arrest
soon after.
He was one of over a dozen activists and academics arrested under the UAPA in the Elgar Parishad
case, a group widely recognized as being composed of scholars, lawyers, and human rights
defenders.
The cancellation of the memorial lecture has ignited renewed debate over academic autonomy and
freedom of expression on university campuses, particularly when it intersects with politically
sensitive issues