MUMBAI, India – St. Xavier’s College has cancelled its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture in Mumbai, originally scheduled for the evening of August 9, following a protest by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student organization affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization.

The lecture, organized by the college’s Department of Inter-Religious Studies, was to have been delivered virtually by Father Prem Xalxo on the theme “Migration for Livelihood: Hope amidst Miseries.”

The ABVP submitted a strongly worded letter to the college principal, objecting to the event and raising concerns about the legacy of Father Stan Swamy. The letter alleged that Swamy was a primary person accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case and had been arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), an anti-terrorism law. The ABVP Mumbai Secretary, Prashant Mali, further claimed that Swamy had links to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Swamy died from COVID-19 on July 5, 2021, months after his October 2020 arrest for allegedly supporting Maoist rebels in east India. The Jesuit order and human rights activists strongly objected to the arrest, calling it politically motivated, and denied the priest was supporting insurgents.

Following the ABVP’s written protest, a delegation met with the college administration, which subsequently cancelled the lecture citing “unavoidable circumstances” on August 6, 2025.

The lecture was intended to commemorate the late Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, who passed away in 2021 while in judicial custody.

Father George Pattery, the former provincial of South Asia, didn’t seem to be aware of the cancellation.

“If so, it’s sad comment on our sense of justice,” he told Crux.

Jesuit Father Frazer Mascarenhas is the former Principal of St. Xavier’s College Mumbai, who served for 12 years, and was declared by the Bombay High Court as Swamy’s next of kin.

“The ABVP accusations against Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy are totally unfounded because the Pune Police and now the NIA, have so far only made allegations against him and have been unable to prove them in a court of law for more than 5 years. In fact, the case has not yet begun and may be delayed eternally for fear of being thrown out as fabricated,” he told Crux.

“Since it is now impossible to prove the accusations due to his demise, the Jesuits, represented by me, have filed 2 cases in the Bombay High Court, to exonerate Father Stan’s name and to pay compensation for the false charges and the ill-treatment in jail which cost him his life,” the priest said.

“We quite understand that it will be difficult for the ABVP activists to appreciate such finer points of reasoning, but it is regrettable that this has led to the cancellation of a meaningful Memorial Lecture. One can gauge the state of democracy our country has degenerated to,” Mascarenhas said.