#iromsharmila

[greenjaydeep]

It requires no caption; no description #blackandwhitephotography #redminote6proclick #iromsharmila (at New Alipore) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt3jg3SgeFA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qv9inpxtcd

[lukesav]

"When she started fasting, there was all kinds of rumours about Sharmila. Some said she was mad. Others said she came from a very poor family and was being paid to do this. Another rumours is that she had a boyfriend who died in the Malom massacre. People just couldn't understand why anyone would do something like this until and unless the peoples are informed by a true and unbiased media reports. That's the same thing in the case of JNU and #Rohitvemula, apart from the intellectuals across the country and abroad. The unjust governance would distract the integrity nature of their society, if medias like Zee News and Times Now keep doing "Suparri" journalism." ~ @tenzin_shakya #standwithJNU#IromSharmila#JNU#Justice.. #Repost with @repostapp ・・・

[oneweekoneband]

Peace Prayer

Indian misogyny has been in the news a lot these last few months, and you probably know that Delhi is unsafe for women. It is, and it's especially unsafe for women from north-eastern India. Like many other cities across India, Delhi is home to thousands of people from the north-east, who have left their poor and heavily militarised states to seek lives elsewhere. They are students, workers, artists, citizens. They are treated like hostile aliens, and their women - our women - are raped and murdered. In silence. 

Every so often, depressingly, rhythmically often, newspapers highlight particularly brutal instances of the trend. The latest, this week, is Reingamphi Awungchi, who comes from Manipur, a state with a long history of unrest and Indian army occupation. Like it's neighbour, Nagaland, Manipur has waged a fluctuating battle with the central government ever since Independence, and, like most armies, the Indian one chooses to assert its power and its presence through rape. Much of this violence is legally shielded, and one of India's greatest peace crusaders, Irom Sharmila, has been on a hunger strike for thirteen years to protest the law that governs her state. 

Other women, less patient and less heroic, began Femen-style public stripping long before Femen existed (if without Femen's self-righteous declamations about All Women Everywhere). Their despairing protests have been, alas, as futile. 

For all its marginality, the north-east sustains some of India's finest artists, writers, musicians and athletes. It was a Manipuri woman, Mary Kom, who won a bronze for boxing during the London Olympics. And then there is, of course, beloved Soulmate.