Abstract
This chapter looks at the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA) in Manipur as a concrete context of the politics of torture and pain. The contentious agencies at play at various levels interpret torture in their respective ways, either in support of AFPSA, or against it, by parading the objectified enemy and the tortured bodies of victims. This chapter analyses the manner in which individual torture becomes social and political phenomena. It highlights the socio-political construction of torture as a means of organized protest, and argues that the narratives of torture at various levels not only objectify bodies as victims but also encourage them to fight against torture. In that sense, torture that is being rendered demonstratively visible and audible enters into a framework of schematization. Schematized pain involves such strategies as embracing a certain pain to avert torture, making pain demonstrably visible, hurting the pained and fragmenting the depiction of pain. The chapter concludes with the observation that the dialectics of the AFSPA and the tortured bodies suggests a dialectical unity of the opposites in the political totality.
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- 1.
As given in the UNHR Convention against Torture which was ratified by the General Assembly in 1984 and came into force in 1987. Online: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CAT.aspx
- 2.
As given in the International Commission of Jurists Legal Opinion on the Revised Prevention of Torture Bill currently before India’s Parliament, November 2011. Online: http://icj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/India-opinion-prevention-torture-legal-submission-2012.pdf.
- 3.
The AFSPA enacted in 1958 is a law that grants sweeping powers to the Indian Armed Forces in areas deemed ‘disturbed’ in the eye of the Government. The powers thus vested on the army personnel include indiscriminate use of force against persons suspected of acting against the law and entering and searching their premises and arresting them without warrant. For more on the AFSPA, see n. 8 below.
- 4.
The State avoids using the term ‘torture’. It uses terms such as ‘disturbance’, ‘threats’, ‘terrorism’ and so on. My argument is that the term ‘torture’ is not being used so as to avoid formulating a definition of torture.
- 5.
There are many who talk about the misuse or abuse of AFSPA by the law enforcing agencies. I avoid from using the term ‘misuse’ or ‘abuse’ because I believe that AFSPA authorizes the personnel to suspect and act accordingly. Therefore, when military personnel kill or torture someone on the ground of suspicion, there is no abuse of the Act. The personnel are merely acting under the provisions of the Act.
- 6.
Indian State uses the term ‘disturbance’ while referring to rebellion and other forms of social unrest. The AFSPA is imposed in ‘disturbed areas’.
- 7.
Herman and Chomsky, in their book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, use the phrase ‘manufacturing consent’ to refer to the manner in which popular subjective consciences are being manipulated by the propaganda of policy makers which in turn, relies on that consent to justify the adoption of certain legislation or policy (Herman and Chomsky 2008). The argument is that public opinion or consent is important in legislation and policy making. However, public opinion is not independent of the influence of the ‘hegemonic’ mobilization and campaigns of the policy makers that disseminate ideas and contribute to ‘manufacturing’ ideas at the receptive end.
- 8.
Section 1 of the AFSPA empowers the Governor of a State or the Government of India to construe any area or territory as disturbed or dangerous, thereby empowering any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the Armed Forces to exercise powers prescribed by the AFSPA. Section 4 of the Act empowers the concerned officer to ‘suspect’ and consequently act on ‘his’ suspicion to arrest anyone without warrant, to search any premise without warrant, destroy, and “fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in the disturbed area prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons or of things capable of being used as weapons or firearms, ammunition or explosive substances.” Section 5 of the Act empowers the concerned officer to detain any arrested person with the least possible delay and does not stipulate any time frame of the detention. Section 6 of the Act defends guilty personnel as “no prosecution, suit or legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Government of India against any person in respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act” (Ningthouja 2011, pp. 145–155).
- 9.
Supreme Court of India Judgment on Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights versus Union of India, dated 27 November, 1997. Online: http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1072165/ and http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgst.aspx?filename=13628.
- 10.
This is based on my interactions with young people. For instance, my nephew wanted to join the Army for money, pride and to avenge humiliations that he was subjected to by various agencies and individuals, both working for State such as the army and the police or ordinary members of the local community. In other words, the legitimate possession of a gun under the projection of the AFSPA opens up an enormous avenue of wielding power.
- 11.
Miss Rose Ningshen (born on February 2, 1954), a Tangkhul Naga tribal woman of the Ngaprum Khullen village in the East District (now Ukhrul) of Manipur was gang raped during the night of 4 March 1974 by Major Pundir and Captain Negy of the 95 Border Security Force. She committed suicide on 6 March 1974 (Haksar and Luithui 1984, pp. 205–208).
- 12.
- 13.
Thangjam Manorama Chanu alias Henthoi (born on 25 December 1971), daughter of late Thangjam Bihari and Thangjam Ongbi Khuman Leima of Bamon Kampu Mayai Leikai, Imphal East, was ‘sexually’ tortured in front of her family and arrested from her home by a team of the 17th Assam Rifles in the intervening night of 10 and 11 July, 2004. Manorama’s body was found abandoned with multiple gunshots and other injuries on various parts of her body, including on her genitals and thighs, on the roadside land of Ngariyan Yairipok Road near Imphal, Manipur.
- 14.
Construed, if it is subjectively disseminated through manipulative propaganda, but creating a form of pain to those who consume it.
- 15.
Kept on 13 April, to commemorate the fallen ‘heroes’ at the battle of Kodompokpi, fought by the People’s Liberation Army, a prominent rebel group of Manipur.
- 16.
They were: Lalit Chandra Oinam, Moirangthem Ranjan, Sanjoy Khaidem, Thangjam Ibotombi and Vicky Yambem.
- 17.
The text is an excerpt from a transcription of the video statement delivered by Chittaranjan before committing self-immolation.
- 18.
Statement delivered by Ms. Kh. Lata, mother of Khumgbongmayum Orsonjit, a 19 year old boy killed in a fake encounter on 16 March 2010 (Ningthouja and Hidam 2014, 147–8).
- 19.
See n. 11 above.
- 20.
See n. 13 above.
- 21.
Irom Sharmila is a Civil Rights Activist from Manipur, India, who has been on the world’s longest hunger strike since the year 2000 and still continuing without break. Her main demand is the repeal of the AFSPA.
- 22.
Rabina Devi was killed by a stray bullet during an indiscriminate firing session of the police to cover up a fake encounter on 23 July 2009 in Imphal.
- 23.
Those killed were: (i) Linkholane Haokip (50), (ii) Lalneithen Haokip (25) and (iii) Hoineichoung (The Sangai Express, May 5, 2005).
- 24.
The charge against the 24 Assam Rifles was regular harassment of people. I conducted an interview with the President of the All Tribal Women’s Organisation, Chandel District, Lalam Mate, and Chief of Tengnoupal Village, John Thangkholen Mate, on 14 February 2015 at Tengnoupal Village.
- 25.
For several years the paramilitary check post at Khudengthabi and other areas had been unpopular on account of inconveniencing and harassment of the travellers.
- 26.
The incident occurred when I was present in the village.
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Ningthouja, M. (2016). AFSPA and the Tortured Bodies: The Politics of Pain in Manipur. In: George, S., Jung, P. (eds) Cultural Ontology of the Self in Pain. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2601-7_13
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