Irom Sharmila marked a milestone: the woman did not want to receive food for 16 years as a sign of protest against the acts of violence in her home region, the Manipur state of India.
“I just want to be a source of inspiration for my younger fans,” He supported the media, local authorities, onlookers and citizens who followed his feat from which he came out alive.
Prostrated in a hospital bed, arrested and accused of the crime of suicide, she said she acted taking her countryman as a model Mahatma Gandhi, who is known for leadership in the nonviolent civil disobedience movement.
Like Gandhi, she did not fire a gun; dedicated himself to denouncing the bullets that killed the population of Manipur and that came from the state military forces.
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Why did he do it?
I told myself as a woman that I should do my best to remind the Army, the authorities, that what they are doing is horrendous, terrible
The Law of Special Powers of the Armed Forces (AFSPA, for its acronym in English) is a rule established since 1958, by which the Indian military can do everything in their power to maintain public order.
Of course, as this newspaper reviewed at the time, the actions are not limited by the judicial system. Under the protection of that law, in November 2000 they were ten people killed in Manipur, after allegedly being accused of executing an attack with a car bomb.
The case was not investigated and it generated in Irom a deep feeling of rejection that he reflected a few days later by stopping eating.
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The woman protested against a law that grants greater powers to the Indian Army.
“We have witnessed so many rapes, torture, disappearances… I told myself as a woman that I should do my best to remind the Army, the authorities, that what they are doing is horrendous, terrible,” the woman said, in a chat with the ‘EFE’ agency, months after starting his hunger strike.
Suicide Accusation
The Indian authorities arrested her because, according to them, she wanted to make an attempt on her life. So they transferred her to Jawaharlal Nehru prison hospital in Imphal, where nurses put a tube in his nose and, against his will, injected him with vitamins, proteins and liquid carbohydrates.
Suicide in that country, for those times, was penalized. It was a crime that put anyone who tried to commit it behind bars for a year.
However, as Iram pointed out, his intention was not to die; he wanted to draw the attention of the government and parliament to modify the law that produced so many atrocities.
As soon as she had served a year in prison, she was released and recaptured for continuing to protest.
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Irom Sharmila was accused of having the intention of committing suicide.
His case turned the eyes of human rights organizations. In fact, International Amnesty considered it aprisoner of consciencea” and repeatedly asked the authorities to drop the charges and repeal the AFSPA.
“Although I follow the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, (the Indian authorities) are not able to respect me, to listen to my voice, to do justice for my use of non-violence,” the activist commented in the cited agency , and said that his days were spent writing poems and practicing yoga.
The recipient of his writings: Desmond Coutinho
They are not able to respect me, to listen to my voice, to do justice for my use of non-violence
The activist began a sentimental relationship during her confinement with Desmond Coutinho, a Briton of Indian origin, who helped spread their strike.
However, according to local media, the affair was described by Iram supporters as nonsense.
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“She is a princess trapped in a tower who continues to sacrifice herself for her people,” Desmond told reporters at the time. Even so, the woman received death threats that tried to delegitimize her.
“He is originally from Goa (Indian state) but is a British citizen. That is why they are against the relationship,” he assured the ‘Calcutta Telegraph’.
Irom had a tube in his nose to receive food.
‘The Iron Lady of Manipur’
They did not heed her call: more than 14,000 hours or nearly 6,000 days she remained held in the hospital entity. Total, 16 years old had a tube in the nose.
Despite the echo that his movement had had, he ended the strike in August 2016 without the law having even been modified in the Indian parliament.
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That year he took another path. He wanted to have a seat in the Legislature that would give him, even if only a little, power and legitimacy. So he entered his name in the campaign to defeat the politics he considered “tainted” and “dirty ad nauseam.”
“I want to enter politics as I have been called: the ‘iron lady of Manipur.’ I want to live up to that name”, she said hopefully.
Everything went down the drain in terms of his political aspirations.
Irom does not want to return to politics after being defeated at the polls.
I want to work to ensure peace and non-violence
It was not a winner and described the fact as a “humiliating defeat in the elections”, as he commented in a recent interview for the newspaper ‘Times of India’.
She left Manipur disappointed and has not returned in recent years. In addition, she married Desmond and had two twin girls that she protects in a house in the city of Bangalore.
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Despite being absent from public life, one of his life plans remains to spread throughout the world his call to abolition of the AFSPA. Of course, he will not do it again with a hunger strike that caused him, as he revealed, several health problems.
“I want to work to ensure peace and non-violence,” he said, now 49 years old.
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