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Burning Bright: Irom Sharmila and the Struggle for Peace
in Manipur THE red cover of the book, with Irom Sharmila’s intense face on it, arrests my attention at the window display of a local bookstore. Curiosity gets the better of me and I ask the shop owner, "How is the book selling in this part of the country?"
Without even knowing it, the young man changes my perception of a "celebrity", for Sharmila does not symbolise any of the glamour elements one usually associates with this word. This "celebrity" at this very moment is languishing either in solitary confinement, or in some hospital ward. Instead of shining in the arc light, she has been depriving herself of the very basic right of a living being "to eat" in order to live a better life, a life that does not shriek away every time it sees Army men passing by or prays hard not to hear those familiar heavy footfalls of either the Army or any terrorist group on her doorsteps in the middle of the night. In Deepti Priya Mehrotra’s word, "Sharmila is dancing the sacred dance of Manipuri, Lai Haroba, in her own tune, a salutation to the divine forces in order to protect all from harmful influences." The author met Sharmila in November 2006 at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, after her escapade from Manipur. By that time she was a known figure because her fast, which started after the Malom incident in November 2000 when security forces allegedly gunned down 10 innocent persons at Malom bus stand, had entered its sixth year. Since then she had been arrested, re-arrested, was forced-fed through a nasal tube, but she remained firm in her resolve—the withdrawal of the infamous Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) from Manipur. For the uninitiated, AFSPA, which was passed by Parliament in 1958, grants power to security forces for internal security management on a par with defence against external aggression. In a layman’s language, the Act permits firing and causing death based on the slightest suspicion of an offence, which amounts to extra-judicial execution. AFSPA was introduced in some parts of Manipur in 1960 and later the entire state came under this draconian law following the conferment of the "disturbed area" status on Manipur in 1980. The book is not just about this young woman from an ordinary family who has done an extraordinary act, but about Manipur as a whole, mostly the courageous deeds of Manipuri women who gave birth to groups like Meira Paibis (women with burning torch), women who stripped themselves naked to protest against rape. The author puts it correctly when she writes, "Although her fast is a very individual act, it is born out of a bedrock of shared convictions and collective actions. In this sense, it is the product of centuries of history." Though the author gets a little repetitive at times and a crisper editing would have been in order, the book overall does justice to the topic. She has captured the true essence of the state, the feeling of alienation among its people and its rich legacy of women empowerment that comes so naturally for the Manipuris. Though they do not follow the matrilineal system like in neighbouring Meghalaya, a Manipuri woman has always been known for playing a very active role both in home, society and politics. Where else in India one finds a market (Mothers’ Market) run entirely by the womenfolk! The north-east has always been a collage of contradictory images and this book, with its hard-hitting account of the people who are trapped between the Army and the militants, will clear the air for a reader. In the meantime, Sharmila’s unique fight for the right to live and die with dignity goes on and so does the state’s resolution to break her down. For, the AFSPA is still in tact and so is the nasal tube in Sharmila’s body. Both should not have been there in the first place!
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Before the discussion
proceeds any further, a young student from Manipur joins us, "I
met Sharmila didi when she started her protest fast". That must
have been some nine years back. "You cannot meet or even talk to
her anymore. She is now a celebrity," informs the young man as I
express my desire to get in touch with the "Iron Lady of Manipur".