A night of poetry in support of Professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba
UoN HRLC Scholars At Risk Student Advocacy Seminar are advocating for the release of Professor Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba who is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life in prison in India. Professor Saibaba is a scholar of English literature at Delhi University who has engaged in human rights activism on behalf of vulnerable populations in India, including tribal groups who suffer from poverty and human rights violations due to the prolonged conflict between India and the separatist Communist Party of India (Maoist), also known as CPI (Maoist). Saibaba is also a poet, having written many poems whilst being imprisoned.
Professor Saibaba also suffers from critical health conditions. Most recently, Saibaba's family issued an appeal to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to intervene and direct the Nagpur Central Jail authorities to shift him to a multi-speciality hospital. In a phone call on 23 February 2021, Saibaba reportedly told his family that he suffers from a severe cough, his blood pressure is very low, he lost his appetite and he has difficulty swallowing food.
Both the human rights and academic freedom of the imprisoned scholar are being gravely violated. In order to amplify Professor Saibaba’s case and provide a creative platform for people to engage with important human rights issues, Scholars At Risk University of Nottingham presents …
FREE SAIBABA: POEMS OF LIBERTY
Featuring …
- Sophia Thakur (she/her, pronounced “Tarkor”), an award-winning, best-selling author and performance poet. Her debut book ‘Somebody Give This Heart a Pen’ became a global #1 Bestseller months before it hit the shelves.
- University of Nottingham Poetry & Spoken Word Society
- University of Nottingham Creative Writing Society
and more!
As members of the university, we feel it is vital that we come together to defend academic freedom and, in this case, advocate for the freedom of one of India’s great minds.
All welcome - register here.
Make sure you keep updated by following UoN Scholars at Risk social media pages:
Twitter: @NottsSAR
Instagram: @saratuon
Facebook: @nottsSAR