‘Quakers have to be more than “nice people” if we are to come close to being the patterns and examples the world needs.’ Photo: Rajan being arrested, by Vladimir Morozov

‘It is up to us whether we opt to remain bystanders.’

Resistance movement: Rajan Naidu writes from prison

‘It is up to us whether we opt to remain bystanders.’

by Rajan Naidu 14th October 2022

In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends – Martin Luther King Jr.

I am putting these words together in a small grubby cell – one I am sharing with another prisoner, who is twenty-one years old – in a Victorian wing of a prison. There is no writing surface. My fellow inmates have generally been friendly and well disposed towards me. Being locked up just under twenty-three hours a day has been much lightened by weekly Quaker group meetings. My thanks to Tricia Bradbury for her excellent chaplaincy here.