AFSPA being one of the major challenges in the north-east, Irom Sharmilas continued protest fasting deserves a better understanding by the people of the region. Unfortunately, we do not take out time to think about such grave matters, unless we are held under the muzzle of the gun.... Here is a take on the issue by my friend, Prof Bimol Akoijam 20 hrs · Sharmila Saga: Why invoking Gandhi wont make sense... Irom Sharmila, who has been on an unprecedented fast for more than a decade, demanding that the controversial and notorious Armed Forces Special Powers Act be scrapped, is a self-professed admirer of M.K. Gandhi. There’s no doubt that the means she adopts is ‘non-violent’. But the similarity between her mode of protest and that of Gandhi ends here. Sharmila would have died of starvation long time back if she had been fasting like Gandhi. Just like Potti Sreeramula who died as a result of his hunger strike while demanding the formation of a state for the Telegu speaking people. Her fast is different from that of Gandhi. And also perhaps from all other known hunger strikers in human history. Not because, unlike Gandhi, as some would have it, she is ‘blackmailing’ the state. But rather because her protest raises profound ethical and political issues for any modern state, especially on the state’s rights over the matters of life and death of its citizens. To a state which legitimizes an illegitimate use of physical force by unleashing a terror on 9/11 way back in 1958 through a legal civil war against a population, Sharmilas fast is a response that says: I know you can kill me; but can you save me! To say the least, it is a language that is not easily understood precisely because it touches the very foundations on which the ideas of State and Citizen and their relationship rest. In that, the difference from Gandhi and the likes is that which makes Sharmila and her protest not only unique but also universally relevant. Therein also rests the difficulty that the Indian State confronts. (Excerpt from my work)
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 10:42:23 +0000
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