She arrived in an ambulance, thin and
ghostly pale, a tube dangling from her nostril. Flanked by police
officers, she was ushered into the judge’s chambers for a fortnightly
ritual she has repeated hundreds of times. Was she ready to end her
fast?
Irom Chanu Sharmila, a 39-year-old poet
and activist, gave her usual reply: no. With that, she was taken back to
the hospital room where she spends her days in isolation, force-fed a
sludgy mix of nutrients though the tube in her nose. This routine has
gone on, remarkably, for 11 years.
A recent 12-day fast by the social activist Anna Hazareparalyzed
India’s political system, captured the nonstop attention of its
hyperkinetic 24-hour cable news media and inspired hundreds of thousands
of people across the country to rally in his crusade against
corruption.
In New York Times, Lydia Polgreen meets Irom Chanu Sharmila who has been on a hunger strike for the past 11 years and is force-fed through a tube more
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