A National Consultation on how to take forward the Stan Legacy
On an invitation from Bagaicha Social Centre, established by the late Stan Swamy, SJ in Ranchi, 18 Jesuits of South Asian Conference gathered at Bagaicha,Namkum, Ranchi, Jharkhand for a two-day consultation, on 5, 6 October, 2025 to reflect, share and discuss on how to take forward the Stan Legacy.
The consultation started with a floral tribute to Stan Swamy at his bust erected at Bagaicha campus. The deliberations began with personal sharing where everybody shared their experience of Stan Swamy. Each one shared what Stan’s life and works meant to him personally. This exercise helped the participants to delve deeply into themselves and identify Stan’s influence on their lives and work.. Most of the participants felt that Stan’s life was inspiring and his fight for justice is ever more relevant today.
After the brief presentation of the gist of various consultations held in the past year Antony Puthumattathil the participants examined where we stood at the moment, what we had been doing in terms of what Stan did as well as what he gave his life for.. The participants discussed intensively about the socio-political situation of central zone (the states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Odisha) where Stan was a torch bearer for the poor and the marginalized. At the discussions some of the pertinent issues emerged such as decline in constitutional and democratic values and practices, attempts to polarize Adivasis on communal lines (Christian and Sarna), the recent demands of Kurmis to be included in the category of scheduled tribes, displacement due to mining, migration due to prolonged agrarian distress, progressive land alienation and unemployment.
All the reflections, discussions and the overall ambience enabled the participants to be open to the Spirit guiding us. We realized that what we are doing in central zone is far from sufficient, given the enormity of current issues and the overarching “fear-factor” in addressing these issues. The sharing brought up a few under-currents which are making our social involvement difficult such as governments being pro-corporate instead of being pro-people, lack of political will in favour of the poor and the marginalized, etc.
The Consultation also felt that Jesuits are mostly involved in institutionalized ministries and thus fail to understand and address social-economic injustices. There is also a lack of socio-political consciousness among people as well as Jesuits in particular. Financial dependency on others or foreign funds also curtails our freedom in fighting rampant injustice.
On the second day the group prioritised a few pressing issues to be addressed at the zonal and conference levels: polarization of Adivasis and Moolvasis, discrepancies in land digitization and displacement due to mining and the need for a new domicile policy for Jharkhand. The group mandated Bagaicha and Hoffmann Law Associates to prepare concept notes and modules to take these issues forward.
It was emphasized that the Jesuit formation must include intensive Social Analysis and immersion programmes so that we Jesuits understand the realities of people while being faithful to our call to advance faith that does justice as mandated by the General Congregation (GC) 32 and other successive GCs. The meeting ended with a renewed hope that we will take forward the dreams and aspirations of people that Stan Swamy sacrificed his life for
Ranjit Roshan Minj, SJ (JAM)
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