Irom Chanu Sharmila
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As an independent human being, Sharmila undertook her Fast, in obedience to her conscience. As the days turned into weeks, then months, then years, and now almost 1.5 decades, her personal reason – obedience to the truth within her – has been ursurped by family, supporters, and society, to the point where, she is expected to continue the Fast, no matter what. Aunty Kamala, writing in 2013, three years before many people expressed disappointment when Irom ended her fast (in July 2013).
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Irom’s 16-year fast, 2000-16
The mowing down by Assam Rifles troopers of 10 civilians, including a national child bravery award winner, on November 2, 2000 near a bus stand at Malom village in Imphal West shook the state and gave the then 28-year-old Sharmila cause to fight for lifting of an Act, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which gives sweeping powers to the armed forces to carry out counter-insurgency operations.
Since then she was force-fed through her nose at the security ward of the state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences close to her Kongpal Konkham Leikai residence in Imphal East.
The AFSPA was imposed in the militancy-ravaged Manipur in 1980, which is seen as the foundation for the large number of killings by armed forces and police and security agencies, often seen as extra-judicial killings of both rebels and innocents.
Even as Sharmila's hunger strike entered the fourth year, the killing of Thangjam Manorama Devi by Assam Rifles, as an alleged member of rebel group People Liberation Army of Manipur on July 11, 2004 reinforced "extra-judicial killings" in the state.
Five days later, 15 women vigil group leaders, denouncing the Rifles' excesses, disrobed at the gate of then 17 AR headquarters at the historic Kangla Fort in the heart of Imphal, stunning the whole world.
Bowing to the unrelenting movement, the Okram Ibobi Singh government had, in August 2004, lifted the Army Act from Imphal municipal areas spreading over seven assembly constituencies in Imphal West and Imphal East districts.
The same year, Assam Rifles vacated Kangla fort. Then PM Manmohan Singh had also said that AFSPA was draconian and needed to be replaced. Manipur had witnessed large-scale protests against the excesses of the rifles.
2010: Desmond Coutinho
Aunty Kamala, wrote on Nov 11, 2013 in ‘Gandhi King’
Somewhere around [2010], through correspondence, Sharmila and a man named Desmond Coutinho felt a deep connection, and seem to have fallen in love with one another. Mr. Coutinho pledged his life, and all that he has to her help and cause. He is a social worker, of Indian origins, from UK and Africa. They have never had any sort of normal relationship, Sharmila is a State prisoner, they can at best meet in public courts. Sharmila announced to the world that he was her fiance: the boats began to rock.
Despite the fact that Irom Sharmila has independently taken on the awakening of the people in her prayerful Fast, and has done more than any man in Manipuri history for Peace, for Manipuri society, for which she was regaled as a Goddess, when it came to Coutinho, she is regarded as a woman, who is held subjected to all the culture bound conditioning that area holds. This includes, not being able or allowed to marry or associate with men whom the family disapproves of. Mr. Coutinho is one such association.
At what age can a woman be allowed to make her own choice? She's 42 now [in 2013].
Shockingly, just two days ago, on her way to the fortnightly hearing, Sharmila declared to the press and NDTV that those who claimed to be her staunch supporters were threatening to `honour kill' her if she persists in her relationship with Coutinho. Worse, her brother, Singhajit, told the press that:
"I am a trustee member of the Just Peace Foundation, but let me speak in my capacity as the brother of Sharmila and not as a member of the JPF.
"As a brother, I had told Sharmila that if her affair with Desmond Coutinho is going to influence her and constrain her to change her stand, then I would be ready to sacrifice my role as a father to my children and spend the rest of my days in jail".iv
What does this mean? Is it a threat to Coutinho's life if Sharmila changes her mind about continuing the Fast? Is it a threat to Sharmila's? What is the normal legal proceeding when someone threatens a life? She is gentle. Like Gandhi, doesn't press charges.
2016
Supreme Court vindicates
SC: Is AFSPA in Manipur eternal?
January: Irom Sharmila received the highest vindication possible for an Indian. The Supreme Court of India questioned the prolongation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur. (For details, click the link.)
Attempt to suicide cases
The Times of India, Mar 02, 2016
Court again drops case for bid to kill self against Irom
Human rights crusader Irom Sharmila Chanu, who has been fast ng for over 15 years demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Po wers) Act in Manipur, was on Monday released by an mphal court which acquit ed her of charges levelled against her under Section 309 IPC (attempt to suicide). Sharmila was last arrested on January 23, 2015. For he last 15 years, police have been arresting her every year, charging her with the same crime -attempt to suicide -every time. Interestingly , for the last few years, courts have been acqu tting her every year.
Straight after her release from the security ward of he JNIMS hospital, where she was force-fed through her nose, the `Iron Lady of Manipur' went and camped at the historic Saheed Minar in Imphal and resumed her stir. She declined health examination by a team of government doctors which visited her at Saheed Minar.
Titular king of Manipur Leishemba Sanajaoba met her and discussed the prevailing situation in the state. Sharmila told him her campaign is not for personal gain but for the people suppressed by the AFSPA.
2016: Policeman confesses
January 2016, Manipur police head constable Herojit Singh, one of the suspended commandos, confessed to killing Sanjit (22) in a fake encounter on the orders of Ak Jhalajit Singh, then additional SP of Imphal West and current the SP there. He also disclosed that CM Ibobi Singh and then DGP Y Joykumar Singh were in the know about the killing.
Manipuri rights activist Irom Sharmila was just 28 years when she vowed not to eat, drink, comb her hair or look in a mirror till the govt repealed the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). 16 years later, in 2016, she decided to change tack and contest elections instead. A glimpse at how her struggle panned out is ontained in the graphic on this page.
2016: Fast ends
The sudden decision of civil rights activist Irom Sharmila+ to end her 16-year-old hunger strike against AFSPA next month has taken everyone by surprise including her associates and family members.
• Irom's elder brother Singhajit, who has been with her throughout her struggle said he never knew she was going to terminate her fast • • Sharmila's long-time associate Babloo Loitongbam, Director of NGO Human Rights Alert Manipur, said he too was taken by surprisebut can understand the reason behind her decision. "If AFSPA+ has not been repealed in 15 years of her fast then it won't happen in another 30 years also," he said while admitting that he too was not kept informed about her decision.
In 2000, when the activist embarked on her hunger strike, she also had taken a vow to neither enter her house nor meet her mother till the government repealed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
Since then, she has met her mother Sakhi Devi only once when she was also admitted to the same hospital in 2009.
Her brother recalled that during the early years of her fast he regularly tried to convince her to end it.
"But she never listened to me. Finally I gave up and promised that I will be with her throughout her struggle. She used to say that she will break her fast only when they remove AFSPA. That was her promise," Singhajit said.
Certain sections expected Irom to fast forever
When Irom Sharmila called off her fast in July 2016 widespread dismay was expressed by certain sections of society. Here is a sample of the reactions: ‘Sharmila's decision shocks many’ The Sangai Express, ‘Irom Sharmila’s decision shocks many Manipur News…Only the Government of Manipur welcomed it. Going through a 2013 article by Aunty Kamala it becomes clear that once Irom’s fast became iconic, many sections in Manipur wanted her, expected her to fast forever.
Aunty Kamala wrote in 2013:
Sharmila is literally a prisoner of two jails: the state which has unjustly criminalized her for standing up against violence perpetrated in its name, and the prison of social concepts and norms of what is appropriate or not, in the minds of supporters around her, who have deified her, against her will.
Deification of people who use pure and noble means, is a natural tendency in the human breast. There is a universal inner recognition that the truth such people adhere to, is eternal, alone is real, and if need be, worth dying for.
As an independent human being, Sharmila undertook her Fast, in obedience to her conscience. As the days turned into weeks, then months, then years, and now almost 1.5 decades, her personal reason – obedience to the truth within her – has been ursurped by family, supporters, and society, to the point where, she is ' expected to continue the Fast, no matter what..
Aunty Kamala, Nov 11, 2013, Gandhi King
Recently [in 2013], her brother, Singhajit, seemed to reaffirm his belief that Sharmila's decision to Fast, is no longer hers, but that she is now a symbol of the finest aspirations of the people, which she must serve, saying to her:
“The sanctity of the cause that you have taken up, the honour of the land and the prestige of the people are far superior to the interest of the family."
What is amazing, is that when Sharmila undertook her Fast initially, which was to her DEATH, there was no uproar from society. Her effort was seen to be serving the ideals they all cherished. The message from her supporters seems to be, `We will hold you as a Goddess, whether or not you like it, but, if you step down from the pedestal we insist you stand on, we will kill you.'
The Rebelling Reluctant Goddess, is now becoming increasingly dismissed by her own supporters, publicly, in the press: It is alarming to note the new tones coming from the JPF- the Just Peace Foundation's statements about Irom Sharmila. In an interview,
``Sharmila also claimed her protest has been hijacked by the very people in-charge of her campaign [the JPF]. The activist says she is not even allowed to donate money from her international prizes to causes like the Uttarakhand flash-floods tragedy.
In its defence, the organisation [JPF] says the primary problem is their communication gap, given the restrictions on meeting Irom Sharmila, who is under judicial custody in Manipur. Babloo Loitongbam of the Just Peace Foundation said, “Sometimes there is a tendancy to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
What does this mean? Whose tendency? Where? Sharmila's? So, the activist that got all the money for the JPF, which doesn't listen to her about how to use that money; the activist who is insistent on stepping off the Goddess platform in her dedication to truth, and dared to fall in love with a foreigner, is now a hysterical, weak little woman, making mountains out of molehills?
``On Sharmila likening some of the people as the Taliban, Singhajit said it could be due to poor vocabulary on her part. "It was a family issue and blaming CSOs would be out of place and inappropriate," he added.vi
No one questioned her maturity when she entered the Fast. But now [in 2013], as the Goddess insistently steps down from the pedestal, her perception of reality is alluded to.
What Aunty Kamala [who lives in Sweden] said in 2013 became even more relevant in 2016 when Iron actually ended her fast.
Nobody is sure what prompted her to take the decision. Her associates say her British boyfriend may have played a crucial role in ensuring that she breaks her fast.
Poetry
"Birth"
'Iron Lady' Irom Sharmila's 1000 word poem, Annie Samson / May 30, 2013, Madhyamam
A 1000-word "very long" poem, penned by Irom Sharmila, who has been on fast for the past 12 years to protest against what she calls repressive laws allowing widespread human rights abuses, forms part of a new book on the activist from Manipur.
Titled "Birth" the poem concludes "Iron Irom Two Journeys - Where the Abnormal is Normal," a book written by author and documentary filmmaker Minnie Vaid and published by Rajpal and Sons.
"I will write a poem, a very long poem. it will be a poem of one thousand lines. I will write about society. I will write about my experiences since my childhood. I will write about what I have seen," Sharmila told Deepti Mehrotra while she was in Delhi and in solitary confinement after being arrested for a fast unto death in the year 2006.
Six weeks after returning from Delhi, Sharmila was ready with the poem "Birth" written in "neat lettering in the Bengali script that she had learnt in school."
"Lonely as she may be in her confinement the poet in her cannot be kept restrained. She has written a long poem - a narrative poem giving an account of her visions," says Tayenjam Bijoykumar Singh, who has translated the poem into English.
"Her lines don't reflect remotely the reason of her fast. She has painstakingly painted a picture of an ideal world where men can live as friends.
"Characters of different personalities as she sees in the preset day society are sketched with meticulous care. If being poor is a crime then one, who fights for human justice and justice is a criminal... She has done a comparative study of two persons, one an indolent and the other a hardworking one," writes Singh.
Meanwhile, author Minnie writes, "The one towering influence in her life, one that remained an inspiration through all her actions, was an illiterate woman with extraordinary willpower- Sharmila's dadi (paternal grandmother)."
"Today if I am inspired my our dadi, a woman of great resolve, active in social movements including the Nupi Lal, the Manipuri woman's war in 1939," Singhajit, the brother of Sharmila is quoted as saying.
