Standing for a cause

Yesterday and today thirteen of my Bhil adivasi colleagues and I stood for six hours with a break of one hour in between on each day facing trial for having allegedly attempted to attack and kill a party of police and forest officials. Once a person is accused of an offence then there is no option but to stand trial. But it is only when one does go to court as an accused does one realise how literal is that phrase. One may be innocent but once one is framed by the police then there is no way out but to stand in court. In the present case we have so stood for upwards of five hundred hours over the past four years or so. This is because the police in order to make up for the lack of quality in their chargesheet and investigation have sought to add quantity. So we have had to stand through repeated assertions of untruth by over fifty witnesses which have been clinically demolished by our lawyer.
We take solace from the fact that we have stood for a cause - the right of the adivasis in this country to fight for a human existence which has been continually denied them by the Indian state. Rarely has a case been fought with such diligence in a lower court right from the word go. We have meticulously established a case of our own against the police and the forest officials by just refuting their accusations with solid statements of fact and thus proving that it is they who are the criminals.
The law is something that is arcane to the Bhil adivasis and so they have continually been "outlawed". If I can take pride over anything it is this that I have helped my Bhil adivasi friends use the law for their own benefit. I have fought innumerable cases right from the lowest to the highest court of the land and always won. Justice ultimately is to be had only if one fights cases in court. If we have had to stand and wait indefinitely to do so then that too is a service to the Bhils.