From Mohandas to Mahatma : Crusader in Irom Sharmila
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 06 2011 -

Irom Sharmila released and re-arrested :: March 11 2011

If Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had not been thrown out of a train in South Africa on the basis of his colour, then the world may not have seen a Mahatma Gandhi. Or if the Sun had set on the British Empire in the early part of the last century then there may not have been an India as a Union of States and hence no Gandhiji.

Fast forward to the 21st century and shift focus from South Africa and mainland India to Manipur and one may say that the world and human rights defenders across the globe may not have seen an Irom Sharmila if there were no Act construed as draconian as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or if the Malom massacre of November 2000 had not taken place or more importantly if the Assam Rifles personnel had shown even a trace of humanity in their demeanour.

It was the Malom massacre aided primarily by AFSPA that gave birth to the crusader in Sharmila and it is Delhi which has made sure that the grit and determination of the young lady is thrown into the limelight and in the process introduce the crusader in Sharmila to the whole world.

Ironic it is but this is how things pan out in the real, ugly world, where the reality sounds more fictional than the best yarn that may come forth from the most imaginative minds available.

So is Sharmila a child of destiny, a young woman who has been thrust forward into the limelight by circumstances too compelling to brush them aside or is she a woman who has risen above mundane factors to be up there among the hallowed personalities ?

A practical stand would be not to try and interpret the phenomenon in the person of Sharmila but to acknowledge her grit which has withstood more than a decade of indifference and at times even downright dismissal. However there are times when the temptation to move away from the “practical” and study the factors of push and pulls that have propelled an individual towards the category of people known as Great Personalities, becomes overwhelming.

This may be the reason why there is the general belief that the true leadership quality of Winston Churchill may not have been witnessed if there was no World War II and by extension if a human had not taken the avatar of an Adolf Hitler. Today Sharmila is no longer a figure who may live only in the imagination of the people but is very much a living example of what grit and determination are all about.

Recognition is something which may be gained by more than one means but the price that one has to pay for recognition may be high, excessively high for comfort and the price that Sharmila has had to pay for the recognition that has come pouring in has come at the cost of her existence as a human being.

What makes it more impressive and beautiful is the fact that it was not recognition that she sought when she embarked on her fast unto death agitation, but the revocation of AFSPA. This perhaps is what sets her apart from so many other crusaders that we see being churned out from the assembly line of social workers and activists across the world.

Pritish Nandy, to her, may be just another man, never mind the fact that Nandy is a personality of varied hues and colours and best known for his stint as the Editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India. Taslima Nasreen is another personality who may not register in the consciousness of Sharmila.

But like many others, these two personalities have closed ranks under the name of Sharmila and this is where the universal appeal and depth of character of the young lady becomes all that more apparent. Launching a fast unto death is not a joke.

Ask Baba Ramdev or maybe even Ana Hazare. However sustaining the fast for well over a decade is something that is far beyond description. It is something which cannot be put down in words, no matter how clever one may be in juggling the written or spoken words.

For ten long years, the lady has been on a fast and while lesser mortals, correction normal mortals, would have thrown in the towel a long time back, she has shown no signs of capitulating to her physiological needs.

Eating is not only about filling up one's stomach but entails the involvement of a whole lot of senses such as the sense of taste, the sense of smell, the sense of anticipating a good meal, the sense of sharing something.

In other words, eating is integral to the human species, biologically, spiritually, socially as well as religiously not to speak of the psychological aspect. Sharmila's name began to spread only after she had completed more than five years of her fast and the solitary cell at JN Hospital is a symbolic interpretation of her lone struggle for the greater period of the more than ten years she has been on fast.

There is something intrinsically profound in her agitation. No playing to the gallery. No publicity stunt. No politicising. Nothing of the sort that are usually associated with the activists that we see a dime a dozen everyday. The dignity of her fast is something which cannot be measured.

Come September and one will see her campaign travelling from Srinagar to Imphal and the poignancy of her resolute stand cannot be lost on anyone.

The journey will come in the face of the firm stand taken by Delhi, egged on by the defence establishment and what is more Sharmila's cry for lifting the controversial Act has many a time run into the wall of some demented minds who have only gone on to add that extra bit of legitimacy to the claim of Delhi and the security personnel that AFSPA is needed to control the law and order situation.

If Delhi has unwittingly added to the aura of Sharmila, then it stands true that the mushrooming of numerous sons of the soil has only gone to aid Delhi's argument.