SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper aims to critically examine the naked protest that was performed by twelve imas (mothers) in the State of Manipur in 2004 outside the army headquarters in Assam, India. The protest was against the rape and murder of a women named Manorama by the armed forces and the draconian emergency law, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA), that allowed these armed forced, to act with impunity. I will analyse the disruptiveness of this protest to indicate the parallel lines that exist between policy frameworks in place and the reality on the ground. I will indicate that on a large scale, this protest served as an important space for reflection on the women, peace and security agenda (WPS) under the international law framework and its heavy focus on the criminal justice system for addressing such incidents of violence against women. This essay will indicate how the lack of accountability and monitoring mechanisms for the implementation of this agenda by member states has frustrated the process of seeking justice and redressal especially in cases of violence at the hands of perpetrators who are an extension of the colonising nation state. On a regional level, this protest, through its disruptive resistance, paved the way for a new form of civil disobedience and public participation. These mothers used the intimate and personal language of their ageing bodies rather than the clinical discourse of the judiciary and the law to collectively voice their grief. In doing so, they compelled ‘both the complacent Indian army, accustomed to complete impunity for its actions and a jaded citizenry numbed by regular army excesses’ to look at the Indian state’s systemic dehumanisation and objectification of its citizens.