The Daily Fix: Irom Sharmila the leader disturbs the status quo more than Irom Sharmila the martyr

The Big Story: Being Irom Sharmila

A day after she broke her fast, Irom Sharmila was back at the Imphal hospital where she has spent the last 16 years. People in the colony where she had once lived refused to give her shelter, angry that she had broken her fast. Groups such as the Meira Paibis of Manipur have said they will go ahead with their fight against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act without Sharmila. Insurgent groups have sent her a reminder about "former revolutionary leaders who were assassinated". So Irom Sharmila has returned to the place of her long solitude.

It is perhaps comforting for all parties concerned to imagine Sharmila wasting away at the government hospital in Imphal. For the government, she remained a lonely figure whose resistance could be managed so long as she was kept out of sight. To her supporters and fellow-activists, she represented the comfort of the moral high ground. Year after year, Sharmila kept up her fast, a figure of self-abnegation who seemed to have transcended all physical ties and desires. She did not meet her family, she did not comb her hair, she did not know the taste of food any longer. It was almost an otherworldly battle rather than a real political struggle and the hospital room became a shrine for Sharmila.

But her former supporters seem to misunderstand the nature of the Gandhian fast that Sharmila had embarked on, her method of "non-violence with love". The fast, for Gandhi, was a means of purification, a period of penance undertaken on behalf of society. He turned a religious act into a powerful political idiom. As the fasting body cleansed itself by abjuring all worldly desires, it drained the body politic of its sins. It was only in cruder interpretations that the fast turned into an act of brinkmanship, a means of holding the government to ransom until certain demands were satisfied. Sharmila, like Gandhi, knew when to fast and when to stop fasting.

Besides, Sharmila the political leader is perhaps far more disturbing to the status quo than Sharmila the martyr. She speaks of becoming chief minister and fighting for the repeal of AFSPA. The terms of her struggle are now framed by the Indian Constitution and the political process that flows from it. With Sharmila, the struggle against AFSPA could finally enter the political mainstream. It could be an idea whose time has come.

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story

Nandita Haksar on Irom Sharmila's transition from "goddess" to "leader".
Anubha Bhonsle on the difficulties of sustaining a non-violent protest in India.

Political pickings

1. Home Minister Rajnath Singh says the government is willing to talk to "moderate groups" in Kashmir.

2. Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, has identified a new threat when it comes to Kashmir: "intellectual terrorism".

3. A cabinet sub-committee appointed by the Telangana government will meet various stakeholders to discuss the formation of new districts.

Punditry

1. In the Indian Express, Harsh Mander on how the people of India have let Irom Sharmila down.

2. In the Hindu, Rakesh Sood on the tasks before Prachanda in his second stint as Nepal's prime minister: restore economic and social stability at home and mend bridges with neighbours.

3. In the Telegraph, Krishnan Srinivasan on Britain's life after Brexit.

Giggles

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