Writing on their many decade-long friendship, activist K. Sajaya reflects on the work and legacy of Prof. G.N. Saibaba. Even while incarcera
The ten years of imprisonment shortened his life. The body was destroyed inside. Even the basic things that should be given to disabled people were denied. He described his daily life in prison to us in minute detail. Prison officials would give them a chance to come out of the cell only in the morning. The inmates would complete their routines and wait for that time as they did not want to miss those hours. He said that even if there were any quarrels between the fellow prisoners, they were all friendly with him, and perhaps his physical condition also contributed to that. Writing petitions for fellow prisoners and teaching them, he remembered the things that kept him alive there.
When I mentioned that I had translated Bhasha Singh's Unseen, a book on manual scavenging, into Telugu under the title Asuddha Bharath, he shared that in prison too, work was divided along caste lines. Safai (cleaning) work was done entirely by Dalits, and caste universalism was strictly enforced in prisons. We were not surprised to hear that. We continue to see how caste intertwines with inequality in different ways in our everyday lives.
During those ten years, his fellow prisoners took care of him as much as they could. He said that he wrote the necessary petitions for completing their formal education and taught them so that some of them could even graduate. Even there he stood firm for democratic rights despite the detention making his body weaker. A beautiful smile graced Saibaba's face as he said that secret praises from prison staff, along with fellow inmates, were regenerating and life-giving during his incarceration. However, senior police officers were constantly on alert in order to keep him under control. Saibaba mocked not only his disability but also the state's imprisonment.