By Dheera Sujan (American
Center Mumbai. Reused under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs
2.0 Generic License.)
I just think that it is my destiny to change society.” Irom Sharmila
is not saying these words lightly – The Manipuri activist has been on a fast for
11 years in an effort to pressure the Indian government to repeal the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act currently enforced in the north eastern territory of
Manipur.
Tripti Nath for The Women’s Feature Service has this report
Hard though it may be to believe, Sharmila's marathon fast during has not
killed her. Sharmila has sworn that she won’t stop her fast until she’s reached
her goal. She even refuses to drink water. The Indian government, interpreting
her actions as self destructive, have responded by detaining her under Section
309 for the Indian Penal Code. Sharmila lives in a prison-run hospital ward and
is force fed a liquid diet through a nasal tube. Though the maximum sentence
for attempted suicide is just one year, the government keeps extending her
remand, year after year, because she resumes her fast if she is set free. The
Indian government realizes the symbolic sensitivities of fasting - resonant of
the days of Mahatma Gandhi and now Anna Hazare - Indians have shown throughout
history that they can be moved in tremendous numbers by a public fast of a
respected figure and the government is afraid of having Sharmila's death on its
hands.
Isolated
Sharmila is cut off from the world and is only allowed to be seen by her
doctors, paramedics and security staff. Any communication addressed to her is
first vetted by the authorities. Even her requests for a telephone call to
family members are often denied. Her only outings are occasional court
visits.
When I met her recently outside the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of
Imphal (East) she was clad in a green sarong with a white shawl draping her
shoulders. Escorted by a policewoman, she headed to the last bench in the
courtroom and sat resting her right fist on the bench to prop up her body. Her
face sometimes wore an expression of pain.
Her fasting has made her very sensitive to sunlight – it takes her a while to
adjust to it. She is weak, pale and with thinning hair. But she does not
complain. She answered questions about her day-to-day life in a matter-of-fact
manner, with no trace of self-pity, “I am a prisoner of conscience," she says,
adding with steely resolve, “I just see the goal and it is approaching. I know I
will be successful by being positive.”
Sharmila reads Manipuri newspapers and is not interested in television. She
does yoga for about four hours every day because “it helps to balance my mind
and body”. For the rest of the time she reads books.
Gifts from the man she loves
She receives gifts from supporters but most of the books come “from the man I
love. He is British and is now based in Nepal.” Sharmila has declared that she
will marry her fiancée Desmond Cutinho but only when her struggle is
successful.
Sharmila did not succeed in convincing Sonia Gandhi to meet her when she
visited Manipur in 2010, but does have a message for her: “I just want to tell
Sonia Gandhi not to see us as step children. I want to remind her that she is
also a woman and should try to understand the mind of a conscientious
woman.”
Family support Sharmila is cared for by her elder
brother, Irom Singhait. Every Sunday, for five years, Singhjit takes a jug of
csinghi, a home-made hair wash solution, to Sharmila. He is 14 years
her senior, but they have always been close. Since she was born, it was
Singhijt who helped raise her, taking her to wet nurses when she was a baby
because their mother couldn’t feed her.
Today, he continues to worry for his little sister, “I support her because I
am convinced she has extraordinary will. But I am also terribly anxious. I have
told her to continue as long as she has strength and I will support her.”
Singhjit has kept his promise to Sharmila by never seeking her release. He has
also given up his government job to ensure that justice is done to her cause by
actively working for ‘Just Peace’, an organisation founded by Sharmila to help
the people of Manipur.
A mother's hopes At her modest home in Kongkham Lieikai,
Sharmila’s 78-year-old mother, Shakhi Devi greets us. She exhibits a resilience
that reminiscent of her daughter. She has decided not to meet Sharmila as she
fears it may weaken her resolve. But Sharmila is the youngest of her nine
children and she misses her deeply. She has even approached astrologers to find
out if Sharmila would ever be set free. Some of them have predicted that a
decision on the Special Powers Act will come from a “distant land”.
Shakhi Devi is old and frail now, but continues to hope that her daughter’s
situation will be resolved: “I often see Sharmila in my dreams telling me that
she has become successful. I pray to the Sun god that my daughter emerges
victorious.”
After her miraculous survival one hopes that Sharmila emerges victorious. It
is not enough for the government to “share her disappointment” as lip sympathy
in the Anna season.
(© Women's Feature Service)
- Sharmila waiting to go to court
