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).
Contents |
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.
2011: Resorts to 2-day fast to meet her
Irom in Love
Kaushik Deka, India Today September 17, 2011 |
Sharmila has met more people in just a week after Hazare broke his 12-day fast on August 28 [2011] than she did in the last decade.
Confined to the isolated security ward of Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Imphal, in custody of the Central Jail, Sajiwa, for almost 11 years, Sharmila is visibly annoyed, not because of the attention she is getting, but by the sudden interest in her personal life. "I said something in good faith as I rarely get to share my feelings and emotions, but the media seem to be more interested in my lover than the cause I'm fighting for," she told India Today.
When 48-year-old Desmond Coutinho read about her struggle in Burning Bright, a book by Deepti Priya Mehrotra, he wrote a letter to Sharmila in 2009. Since then, the two have been exchanging letters regularly. Cupid struck, and in Coutinho Sharmila found her soulmate. He came to Imphal for the first time in February this year and finally managed to meet her on March 9 at a court, just before she was released for a brief period. "Yes, he loves me a lot and cares for me," says Sharmila, blushing like a teenager.
The union, however, has not gone down well with her supporters. Coutinho had to fast for two days before the activists relented and allowed him to meet her. The problem started when Coutinho insisted on sitting by Sharmila at the meira shang (women's shelter) where the Meira Paibis (women activists) gathered following Sharmila's release from jail for two days. Agitated activists were on the verge of manhandling him before the police came to his rescue.
Sharmila's room is full of gifts from Coutinho-a wooden statue of Krishna and Radha, Santa Claus cap and bells, a calendar, a diary and a laptop. "My supporters did not like the way he dressed and behaved. I admit he is very possessive about me and gets aggressive with the local people. At the same time, my family and friends consider me public property. I don't like interference in my personal life. He is of Goan origin but a British citizen," she says. Coutinho, however, has posted on a website, "Goan origin she said, but I was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania, as were my parents. I am a second generation African travelling with an EU passport." he posted.
"I have nothing to say if Sharmila wants to marry him. But she is blind in love. He is a good writer and could influence Sharmila's impressionable mind," says Babloo Loitongbam of Human Rights Watch, a long-time associate of Sharmila. "He seems mentally imbalanced. Initially he came to us saying that he wanted to build an ashram here. Soon, he started demanding money from us. He wanted to go to Kathmandu and asked us to book his tickets," says Loitongbam. Sharmila's brother Irom Singhajit was also annoyed by Coutinho's behaviour. "I met him for a minute at the Classic Hotel in Imphal and did not like his attitude," says Singhajit. "I don't mind her marrying him though," he clarifies.
Coutinho insists he is serious about Sharmila. "I am not a writer. I am not an activist. I care about her. And although this seems to annoy activists, I have done more for her with my caring than the moral support they claim to have offered her," he posted on the website.
Sharmila does want to go back to a normal life and get married once her goal is achieved. For now, the steely resolve hasn't flagged one bit. The Class XII dropout, who quit studies because she believed she did not know how to pass an examination, has put her entire life to test. "Could Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have afforded to ignore me for 10 years if I belonged to a state in mainland India?" she asks. Loitongbam says Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid has invited a four-member delegation to Delhi to discuss her demands. Is there hope around the corner?
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.
Free my feet
Poem of Irom Chanu Sharmila Translated from Manipuri by Wide Angle Social Development Organisation, South Asian Peoples' Forum
By Irom Chanu Sharmila :-
Free my feet from the shackles
Like bangles made of thorn
Confined inside a narrow room
My fault lies in
Being incarnated as a bird.
Inside the dark room of the prison
Many voices echo around
Unlike the sound of birds
Not the merry laughter
Not that of a lullaby
A child snatched away from the mother's bosom
The lamentation of a mother
A woman separated from her husband
The cry of anguish of a widow
A cry springing out of a sepoy's hand
A ball of fire is seen
Dooms day follows it
The ball of fire was lit
By the product of science
Because of oral experimentation
Servants of sense organs
Everybody is in trance
Intoxication – the enemy of thinking
Wisdom of thinking is annihilated
No experimentation of thinking
Laughing with smiles on the face
By the traveller of coming beyond the hill ranges
Nothing remains but my laments
Nothing saved by the seeing eyes
Strength cannot show itself
Human life is precious
Before life comes to an end
Let me be light of darkness
Nectar will be sown
A true of immortality will be planted.
Putting on artificial wings
All the corners of the earth will be covered
Near the joining line of life and death
Morning songs will be sung
The chores of the world will be performed.
Let the gate of the prison be flung wide
I will not go on another path
Please remove the shackles of thorn
Let me be not accused
For being incarnated in the life of a bird.
Ms.Sharmila is a 2007 Gwangju Human Rights co-awardee along with Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi
Anish Krishnan Nayar on Irom’s poems
Anish Krishnan Nayar : Poems of Irom Sharmila
Select Poems of Irom Sarmila: An Existential Critique
Irom Chanu Sarmila (1972- ) … is a poet too. Fragrance of Peace (2010) contains twelve of her poems. The poems were originally written in her native language Meiteilon before Sarmila started her phenomenal hunger strike. These poems were translated into English by a few translators including Longiam Jayachandra and Waikhom Romesh. The poems of Sarmila consist of a unique blend of passion, protest and hope. In spite of the simple structure, the poems of Sarmila bring in the pangs and problems of her homeland. The objective of this paper is to highlight the existential concerns of Irom Sarmila through her poems. The paper seeks to establish that the poems of Sarmila have elements of existentialism.
In her poem “love” (The titles are not capitalized in the text) Sarmila says that she is unable to bear any more love as she had to accept a lot from the public. She says: “my frail vessel is full to brim” (Sarmila 2010: 6) .She means that bodily love has become unbearable to her as she is overwhelmed with the brotherly love for her people. She understands that she can be the chooser. She can either make a personal preference or live happily forever, or make a sacrifice for the people. She has chosen the latter. There is often the temptation to lead a ‘normal’ life. But she is determined to overcome those temptations. She accepts her fate and thinks that God has put her on such problems to test her determination. Sarmila says: “my life has been put as fire /to test me if I’m strong or weak” (Sarmila 2010: 13-14). In her poem “a fortunate woman” which seems to be a sequel to “love”. Sarmila laments on a rendezvous with her love. She is moved during the meeting. But she controls herself by saying “perhaps, I belong today / to another” (Sarmila 2010: 9-10). ‘Another’ is obviously the political struggle.
Sarmila’s “like a child” is a prayer for the life she longs for. She does not dream of power, glory and political achievement. In contrast she says:
Without malice to anybody
Without hurting anyone
With tongues held right
Let me live
Like a child
A three-month old (Sarmila 2010: 1-6)
It is interesting and encouraging to know that in spite of intense political activity, Sarmila prefers an innocent inconsequent existence. She wants to live “like an ambitionless insect” (Sarmila 2010: 19). These lines make it clear that Sarmila has been a victim of compelling situations. She chose a public life only because she could not bear the cruelties carried out against her brethren.
In the eponymous poem, “fragrance of peace” she explains her mission. She says that when she dies, her body should not be cremated. She hates the idea of trees being chopped and ground being dug to put her to rest. She is against the idea of disturbing ecology for her sake. It she says that it would be better if her body is ditched and allowed to rot. She says:
let it rot under the ground
Let it be of some use to future generation
Let it transform into the ore in the mines
I’ll spread the fragrance of peace (9-13)
Even in her death she wants to be of some use to the people and contribute towards the peace of the nation.
Apart from exhilarating her mind, Irom Sarmila’s poems also revolt against exploitation of the oppressed. A few of her poems are testaments against abuse of authority. One such poem is “that cane of the policeman!” The poem describes a day when an innocent rickshaw man was ruthlessly assaulted by the policeman. The victim and the onlookers are muted by the authority. She says: “I came back with a heavy heart that days whose creation could have made it possible/ the policeman’s cane I saw that day” (Sarmila 2010: 31-32).
In her poem “be brave, sister”, she exhorts the oppressed to fight against injustice. This poem which has tones of existentialism makes it quite clear that fate has now role to play in human existence. Irom Sarmila says: Why blame fate endlessly / prove your strength, sister” (Sarmila 2010: 7-8). She is against the hegemonial attitude of the oppressed people. Due to this reason she is against the biblical adage, ‘meek shall inherit the world’. She says:
Stop hitching rides in their vehicles
To bare more of meekness
Can only invite disrespect (Sarmila 2010: 10-12)
---She advocates resistance against submission and meekness.
In “Victorious worm”, she pours out her anger and indignation against power and hypocrisy. At times people become highly influenced power that they consider themselves to be almighty god. With this attitude they meddle with the life of ‘ordinary people’. These people do irrevocable damage to the life of a common man / woman. Sarmila says:
Man of integrity
Is revered as god himself
A dirty worm like me
Detests them as enemies (Sarmila 2010: 7-10)
Yet another important theme in the poems of Irom Sarmila is subversion of birth rights. Often people who have power subvert the lives of others to suit their needs. Look at the following lines from “the fish were fighting in the aquarium”
In the water inside man made aquarium
Fishes, the lord’s creation
Unable to taste life in the sea (Sarmila 2010: 1-3)
In the above-mentioned lines she illustrates the fate of human beings by bringing in the analogy of fish in cage. God has created the fish and provided it with vast oceans to live. However, human beings create an artificial atmosphere, and force the fish to live within them. This act is done for the sole purpose of human entertainment. Similarly, oppressed people are deprived of their birth rights for the profitable endeavors of oppressors. This deprivation can be physical or psychological.
The poems of Irom Sarmila can be better understood if they are read with an existential point of view…
When one tries to define Sarmila as an existentialist, one should account for the repeated positive references to God in her poems. This is essential as the literati are mostly under the misconception that existentialism advocates atheism… Sarmila is a theistic existentialist. The reading of her poems can be equated to a journey into existentialist mind. It is said that an existentialist cannot escape agony, anguish, alienation and dread in his or her life. These words, as emotions, have specific meaning in existential philosophy. These emotions accompany the freedom to choose. Wesley Barnes defines these terms. Agony is the result of the revelation that a person’s choice is going to affect others too. Anguish accompanies the process of decision making. Once the choice is made the existentialist is alienated from others. He or she ends up living in dread of the choice that he or she has made. The above discussed poems contain these emotions in myriad forms. They vary from a desire to love and to be loved to indignation against injustice. The weight of the responsibility and choice hangs in the poem “love”. The lines, “perhaps, I belong today / to another” (Sarmila 2010: 9-10) shows the degree of alienation. Sarmila wants to live a simple contended anonymous life in a far corner. Instead, she is in the midst of a political struggle. She could have led a life of her dream by the exercise of a single choice. In spite of this she resists authority as she knows that her decision affects millions of people. This act proclaims that Irom Sarmila is a committed existentialist.
Sarmila,Irom. 2010, Fragnance of Peace, New Delhi: Zubaan.
