Irom in Manipur’s soul

“The time has come,” the walrus said, “to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships — and sealing wax — of cabbages and kings”.

Every time I met Irom Sharmila Chanu, I was reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and felt like I was in a different realm. I remember the ticking of the clock on the wall of the special isolation ward of JN Hospital in Manipur’s capital, Imphal, that acted as her ‘prison’. That clock has been witness to the many years that the woman spent confined to the room, with a ryle tube inserted through her nose.

The clock has been witness to her visitors, some of them police personnel and a few celebrities too. The sparse hospital room housed one of Manipur’s most famous prisoners. People across India are familiar with the powerful image of the calm, ever-smiling woman who put up a peaceful protest by refusing to consume even a morsel for the past 16 years. Somewhere on the periphery of India’s consciousness lurks this frail woman who, in a remote corner of the country, is on what is arguably the world’s longest hunger strike. Her fast since November 2000 has been to get the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) repealed.

A few kilometres from JN Hospital is the Ima Keithal market run by women. It’s business as usual till the bustle of the marketplace is shattered by a bomb blast or a killing or a curfew. The overbearing presence of commandos, dresse0d in black and armed with AK-47s, on the streets of Imphal reinforces the reality of a low-intensity war that has become an intrinsic part of the day-to-day existence of the people of Manipur.

However, I was more interested in understanding Sharmila the woman. She did not set out to be a leader. Her eyes reflected eagerness to help those she didn’t know. I glanced at her curly hair and asked why she leaves it untied. I was spellbound when she replied that she had taken a vow to not tie her hair or look in the mirror till her demand was fulfilled. Her brother Singhajit Singh once told me that ‘she was very simple and never used cosmetics’.

Born on March 14, 1972, Sharmila had a regular childhood. The youngest of nine children, she was a bookworm. Singh recalls her as someone who “read books on religions as well as leaders of the world. As a child, she was very simple and was always compassionate towards the poor and the underprivileged”. When she began fasting in 2000, Singh initially thought she would give up after a few days. But she remained resolute. When he went to meet her, she urged him not to persuade her to give up the fast.

Sixteen summers passed by since Sharmila dedicated herself to a frugal life. In all those years, many things have changed. Little children have grown up to be young men and women. Young mothers have become middle-aged mothers-in-law. Elderly grandmothers have passed away. Weddings and funerals marked the renewal of life in Manipur. But time stood still for one resolute daughter of the state. Over the years, she has become a ‘symbol’ of resistance against the AFSPA, which gives the armed forces special powers in what they call ‘disturbed areas’. As the years passed by, Sharmila was celebrated for her resolute will. The response to the commemoration of a decade of her fast was overwhelming. Human rights defenders from all over the country assembled in Imphal. A play was staged and a book of poems was released. As a journalist, I have frequently received press releases celebrating her ‘iconic’ fast.

The concept of ‘time’ seemed to pervade our conversation when we last met, six years ago. It was the same hospital room. I always talked to her as another woman. She seemed caught in a time warp, one that she was trying to break free of. We spoke about many things — her books, her poetry, her potted plants and her gifts, including a few stuffed toys that adorn her room. As she cuddled a soft toy, she smiled at me. She asked me to be comfortable. She pointed to the clock on the wall and said, “Of all the things in this room, my clock is the most important object for me. I keep looking at the time, especially at night.”

She preferred to be in her room during the day as visitors to the hospital and the patients stared at her as if she were some exotic ‘object’. The loneliness seemed killing. She said she got restless at night. It is at night that she constantly glances at the watch and keeps pacing up and down the corridor.

Sharmila has the uncanny ability to put everyone at ease. She put me at ease and, like two good friends, we talked about our lives, our families and our aspirations. But every time I caught her glancing at the clock, she smiled at me. I could sense the restlessness in the apparently calm demeanour. She was eagerly waiting for a new dawn — one in which she will wake up to a Manipur where there is no AFSPA. She wants to wake up in a Manipur where nobody fears death. A morning when she will sit down to a hearty meal with her elderly mother and siblings.

Sharmila, 44, surfaced all of a sudden on the radar of the national media recently, when she surprised everyone by announcing that she is going to break her 16-year fast, contest elections and probably get married. However, I was not surprised. She is an intelligent woman with a mind of her own. If she has decided to change her strategy to achieve her goals, I fully endorse her decision. We should respect her for giving years of her life to a futile struggle.

After long years in solitary confinement, this resolute lady might not be able to handle the murky world of politics. But she has chosen another democratic means to achieve her goal. As a citizen of India, she has every right to do so. In 2014, she had refused offers from two political parties to contest elections. As a person confined to jail, the law denied her the right to vote.

It had become fashionable for the ‘national’ media to report on the iconic activist each time her annual ceremonial release from judicial custody took place in March. She was soon rearrested after 24 hours, on charges of attempted suicide, after she confirmed her intention to continue her fast.

In August 2011, she hit the headlines at an odd time of the year, when she was invited by Team Anna to join Anna Hazare in his weeklong fast against corruption. She wrote back to them, “My humble suggestion is if you feel seriously, please try to reach the concerned legislators to let me go free, like you, to join your crusade to root out corruption, which is the root of all evils. Or you can come to Manipur, the most corruption-affected region in the world.” The local media in Manipur scoffed at the invitation by Team Anna. In a scathing editorial, The Sangai Express rued that Anna Hazare, “an anointed Gandhian has managed to grab the attention of the country” whereas Sharmila, who had been fasting for over a decade, ‘largely existed in the periphery of the country’s consciousness’. Sharmila told a local television show, “I want to tell the people of India that if Mahatma Gandhi would have been alive today, he would have launched a campaign against the AFSPA.”

If Sharmila now chooses to lead a normal life, get married and have a family, she is just being human. Her decision does not warrant virulent reactions. If she decides to shed her image of the ‘poster-girl’ of the anti-AFSPA movement and change gears to adopt a different strategy through democratic means, we must respect her for it. She is, and will remain an icon for what she did at the expense of her physical and mental health. She had managed to put a mighty establishment on tenterhooks. Her grit stood the test of time. Her iconic protest was, and will remain an inspiration for all time to come.

She is, and will endure as the ‘iron lady’ of Manipur.

This transition from the ‘extraordinary’ to the ‘ordinary’ will not be difficult for someone like Sharmila, who, I feel, is a ‘child’ at heart. Her poem ‘Like a child’ reflects her wistful yearning for a life devoid of power and lustre.

Without malice to anybody

Without hurting anyone

With tongues held right

Let me live

Like a child

A three-month old

Teresa Rehman is a journalist based in northeastern India. Her book The Mothers of Manipur will be published soon

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