Dewas, Madhya Pradesh: In the tribal hamlet of Shukrawasa, in central India’s Dewas district, a quiet social experiment to improve lives through education, health access, and self-reliance has run aground—following a now familiar national pattern of violence by a mob of Hindutva extremists and the police filing criminal charges against the victims.

An eight-ten-member self-funded youth collective, How We Ought to Live (HOWL), is now scattered and in disarray, following mob violence, smear campaigns, and what its members call a fabricated religious conversion case. 

On 24 July 2025, HOWL’s founder, 46-year-old founder, former journalist Sourav Banerjee, was picked up by police from Indore, 200 km to the West of Bhopal , and held  without formal arrest. He has now been in jail for 18 days. 

His lawyer, Jayant Vipat, said police invoked section 57 of the newly enforced Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS)—an arrest without warrant. Banerjee is accused of “hurting religious sentiments”, under section 299 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), promulgated on July 1, 2024. The punishment is a maximum 3 years with fine or both. 

“The ingredients (of the case) relate to religious conversion,” Dewas superintendent of police Puneet Gehlot told Article 14. “If such an angle emerges during the investigation, it will be taken into account.” 

Vipat disputed that line of inquiry, pointing to the names of HOWL’s members—all Hindu. 

“If they are accused of conversion, are they converting Hindus into Hindus?” he said. “How is that conversion? No one’s religion is being changed.” 

On the day of his arrest, Banerjee and fellow members of HOWL had gone to speak to the press about escalating threats to their work with the Bhil Adivasi community. 

Outside the Indore Press Club, they were attacked by a group allegedly including members of the Bajrang Dal, a  Hindutva nationalist outfit. The mob accused them of proselytising Christianity — a claim they denied. 

A Bsc. graduate in Computer Science and was a journalist for over 10 years before founding HOWL—Banerjee was remanded to police custody until 2 August and now remains in judicial custody. On 7 August, his bail petition was rejected by the sessions court, and now members of the group are planning to approach the high court, Pranay informed Article 14. Until then, the collective’s work in the villages has halted, and its members remain underground. 

A Pattern of Harassment

The confrontation with police and right-wing groups did not begin in July. It followed months of intimidation, smear campaigns, and police inaction against threats and violence—a pattern increasingly familiar in Madhya Pradesh, which has witnessed a rising tide of vigilante activity and state-backed harassment in the name of religious conversion.

HOWL’s troubles began in May 2025, when a regional evening tabloid, Sandhya Lokswami, ran a front-page story accusing the group of everything from drug abuse to casteism, “anti-Hindu activities,” and links to Naxalites. The article provided no evidence but triggered panic among villagers and scrutiny from local authorities.

According to Banerjee, the story was based on a staged visit by two men who posed as journalists. 

“The paper is run by a local goon who just got out of jail. Everyone knows who he is,” Banerjee told Article 14 days before his arrest. The group filed a complaint with the Barotha police station—but officers refused to act, citing “freedom of the press.”

“Whenever we approached the police or the collector for help, we found ourselves under investigation instead,” Banerjee said. The Barotha station in-charge, Ajay Gurjar, told Article 14 that he had no knowledge of the complaint. 

“The case is still under investigation,” Dewas superintendent of police Puneet Gehlot told Article 14. “If conversion elements come up, we will investigate. Right now, it is section 299 of BNS—hurting religious sentiments.”

The new penal code, the BNS, which came into force on 1 July 2025, retains many of the vague and expansive provisions from the Indian Penal Code, and rights lawyers say (here and here) it risks further weaponisation against dissent and minority rights.

A Collective’s Quiet Revolution

The collective began in 2021, when Banerjee and two friends came to the village for a trek and stayed back after seeing the community’s needs. Shukrawasa, home to 1,200 people, lacks all-weather roads, a functional health centre, reliable electricity, and safe drinking water. 

Over the past four years, HOWL’s nine members—including artists, teachers, a trainee doctor and journalists—lived with the community and launched local initiatives. 

Pranay Tripathi, a founding member, recalled how they saw malnourished tribal children when they first reached the area.  “The villagers told us about their problems, and we felt we had to do something,” said Tripathi. 

“We are driven by our philosophy of how life should be lived,” said Tripathi. “We are not born just to pass the days and die; we are here to make this place better for future generations. That is the principle we work on and how our name was also decided , it reflects how we ought to live.”

Initially, HOWL’s members travelled back and forth from Indore. Then, in 2021, a villager named Devraj Rajawat offered part of his own land for their office, which also became home to them, including Banerjee. 

They built a treehouse using bamboo, plywood and iron, but police demolished this on 4 August alleging it was “illegal Construction” , according to a notice issued by the district administration. 

Dewas collector Rituraj Singh told Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar that Banerjee had encroached on government land and forged documents to grab tribal land. Singh was not available for comment despite repeated attempts,

They built informal schools, introduced rainwater harvesting, ran legal aid and health camps, and launched self-sustaining enterprises under the “Hamari” or our brand: Hamari Chakki (flour mill), Hamari Poultry, and Hamari Fishery. Their aim was to incubate a model of self-reliant, community-led development—without NGO funding or external donations.

“We are not here to deliver charity,” Banerjee said in an earlier interview. “We are here to rethink how life should be lived—not for profit or power, but for dignity and joy.”

A 300-member local body, the Parvatpura Panchayat Vikas Samiti, was also formed to help villagers access government schemes, healthcare, identity cards, and pensions. For three elderly women denied pensions due to missing documents, HOWL provided a monthly stipend of Rs 700 from its own pooled resources.

A Political Turn—And Blowback

In 2022, the group backed a Bhil Adivasi woman in the panchayat elections. She lost, but villagers say it marked a political awakening. 

A year later, HOWL supported an independent Adivasi youth in the assembly elections. “The people who had been looting funds for 18 years were defeated,” Banerjee said. “And that’s when the real backlash began.”

Since then, HOWL has faced repeated attacks and threats. Banerjee alleged five physical attacks in three years, none of which led to arrests. 

“They say we’re Christians, foreign agents, druggies,” said Banerjee. “ It’s laughable, but also dangerous” He said villagers told him individuals linked to right-wing outfits had told them not to engage with the group’s work.

“I have lodged complaints,” said Banerjee. “But they started investigating me instead.” 

(Adnan Ali is  a multimedia journalist who reports on human rights and environmental issues.)

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