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Armed Forces Special Power Act, 1958

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Armed Forces Special Power Act.1958

An ordinance entitled the Armed forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance, 1958, was promulgated by the President on the 22nd May, 1958. Section 3 of the Ordinance powers the Governor of Assam and the Chief Commissioner of Manipur to declare the whole or any part of Assam or the Union territory of Manipur, as the case may be, to be a disturbed area. On such a declaration being made in the Official Gazette, any Commissioned Officer, Warrant Officer, non-commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces may exercise, in the disturbed area, the powers conferred by section 4 and 5 of the Ordinance.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Bill was passed by both the Houses of Parliament and it received the assent of the President on 11th September, 1958. It came on the Statute Book as THE ARMED FORCES (SPECIAL POWERS) ACT, 1958 (28 of 1958).
List of ammending acts
  • The State of Mizoram Act, 1986 (34 of 1986).
  • The State of Arunachal Pradesh Act, 1986 (69 of 1986).
  • The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers (Amendment) Act, 1972 (7 of 1972).
  • The Armed Forces Special Powers (Extension to Union Territory of Tripura) Act, 1970.
  • The Repealing and Amending Act, 1960 (58 of 1960).
History
The Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942 was promulgated by the British colonial government on 15 August 1942 to suppress the Quit India Movement. Modeled on these lines, four ordinances—the Bengal Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance; the Assam Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance; the East Bengal Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance; the United provinces Disturbed Areas (Special Powers of Armed Forces) Ordinance were invoked by the Indian government to deal with the internal security situation in the country in 1947 which emerged due to the Partition of India. Article 355 of the Constitution of India confers power to the Central Government to protect every state from internal disturbance.
Armed Forces Special Powers (Assam and Manipur) Act, 1958
In 1951, the Naga National Council Nation’. There was a boycott of the first general election of 1952 which later extended to a boycott of government schools and officials. In order to deal with the situation, the Assam government imposed the Assam Maintenance of Public Order (Autonomous District) Act in the Naga Hills in 1953 and intensified police action against the rebels. When the situation worsened, Assam deployed the Assam Rifles in the Naga Hills and enacted the Assam Disturbed Areas Act of 1955, providing a legal framework for the paramilitary forces and the armed state police to combat insurgency in the region. But the Assam Rifles and the state armed police could not contain the Naga rebellion and the rebel Naga Nationalist Council (NNC) formed a parallel government “The Federal Government of Nagaland” on 23 March 1956. The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance 1958 was promulgated by the President Dr. Rajendra Prasad on 22 May 1958. It was replaced by the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958 on 11 September 1958.
The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958 empowered only the Governors of the States and the Administrators of the Union Territories to declare areas in the concerned State or the Union Territory as ‘disturbed’. The reason for conferring such a power as per “Objects and Reasons'” appended to the Bill was that “Keeping in view the duty of the Union under Article 355 of the Constitution, interalia, to protect every State against internal disturbance, it is considered desirable that the Central government should also have power to declare areas as ‘disturbed’, to enable its armed forces to exercise the special powers”. The territorial scope of the act also expanded to the seven states of the North-East – Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. In addition, the words “The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958” were substituted by “Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958”, getting the acronym of AFSPA, 1958.

When the CM of Manipur called the press conference, there were many female journalists asked questions regarding the human rights and sentiments of Manipuri women. Women participation is seen everywhere small businesses to big government offices.

A group of women gave slogans like ‘’we want freedom’’ that they consider the Indian army took away their basic rights, and they want to be free from that kind of militarization in every part of Manipur.

Many women came up with a hunger strike until they remove the Indian army from Kangla and repeal AFSPA from Manipur, one of them is Irom Sharmila, and she had been fasting for the last 16 years, protesting for the repeal of AFSPA 1958.

Members of Pressure groups, women entrepreneurs, senior citizens, and college teachers came out to protest against the AFSPA, and gave a strong statement about the situation in Manipur ”They(Indian Army) killed many women and husbands in front of their kids…it’s a usual thing in Manipur…we want to repeal AFSPA’’, and one of the women continued ‘’the one who died is a woman the one who is fasting is also a woman, the one who is protesting is also women”, their voice continued ‘’ the state government is unable to communicate the center….in a democratic country they can’t suppress our
voice’’.

Defying curfew thousands of women mourners came to pay tribute to Th. Devi on completion of her demise. Women led the customs and rituals of showing respect in the deceased final funeral process.

On 24th August.2004 they got one of their demand that the CM of state announced that ‘’The Imphal Municipality are covering seven constituencies from today will not come under the AFSPA 958, though Central government is not ready to fully withdrawal of AFSPA.

Analysis
After watching the documentary, I comprehend that women play a strong and vital role in Manipuri society. They live with respect and highly consider with honors. There’s a sense of unity among women from different communities. When it comes to women’s issues or somebody dishonors women’s moral values, they united against it. Feministic ideas, equality, leadership, and bravery are in every woman’s heart. The movie also certainly highlighted the strong customs and traditions of Manipuri women; they came out to protest with their traditional attire called ‘Fanek’ and shawl(same color) with sindoor, and said ‘Women can only fight and handle women’s issues”. The movie highlighted the unbiasedness of gender issues in Manipuri society, unlike other states in India.

The most fascinating scene about women in the movie is that one of the brave women stands with a strong voice and challenges the Indian army with her words ‘‘We are not like you who leave your wife for three years after marriage, happily claim the child, we are not like your wife, kill us rape us we are all Manoroma’s Mother’’. They challenge anybody who dishonors their basic rights. Local women’s bodies called ‘ApunbaLup’ have even proposed to ban Indian-made goods. ApunbaLup, a parent organization of the 32 organizations spearheading the agitation calls for Torch Rally at night to give more teeth to the demand of lifting AFSPA. From this rally, we can also understand power and willingness of participating in movement in socio-political crisis, and in that torch rally, many women’s organizations from hills to valley came out and give agitation the Manipur government for the removal of AFSPA. They challenge the almost three-decade law.

On 31st Dec 2004, Union Minister of Home Affairs Prakash Jaiswal proclaimed in the press conference to shift the 17th Assam Rifles from Kangla Fort. This achievement gives us the clear concept that women have power to organize mass movements and play a strong role in the political decision. Even though there were many complexities within the Manipur women’s society, they came together under one identity as women, and they achieved their demand within 20 days from the central government that they removed AFSPA from seven Municipal constituencies of Imphal after more than 24 years of atrocities. They even challenge the central government that they will continue fighting until the Act is completely removed from the state of Manipur.

Women’s role in customary law and traditional values, Haobam Kumar, the director of the movie put up that they can perform and join many ritual and traditional activities like men such as funeral processions, and read the religious scripts for the decease. Different women from different faith came together and gave their religious prayers which shows the equality of women in society. There are no gender biases, and they have equal opportunity and power in society as men.

Conclusions
HaobamPaban Kumar’s documentary movie clearly shows the orderly wise collection of AFSPA 1958 and the brutal murder of Th. Manorama by 17th Assam Rifles in 2004. The eruption of mass protests led by strong and brave women of Manipur gives us the ideas of feministic views and the status of women in the state. Their role in the political decision and societal issues is also certainly understandable from the movie. From their actions and bravery, we can say that there is the potential and capability of leading a movement for their demand. In this movie, Mr. Kumar portrays the concept of the Matriarchal system that women can come out on the street anytime as responsible citizens. They have the sense that they are responsible for any issues like a man regardless of sex. They are united when it comes to women’s subjects.

Maibam Warish is a Post-Gratute scholar pursuing his Master’s in International Relations, specialization in West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. His field of interest includes geopolitical conflicts, India’s West Asia Relations, Energy security, Internal Security Challenges, changing power dynamics in the West Asian region, Israel’s politics, and the issues related to democratization in the region.

References Kuipers, Richard (1 August 2006). “Afspa, 1958”. Variety. Retrieved 13 February 2018. AFSPA 1958 (Manipuri Movie by Haobam Paban Kumar) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGb7i-rrn5g (Part-1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGb7i-rrn5g (Part-2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGb7i-rrn5g (Part-3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_(Special_Powers)_Act https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/armed_forces_special_powers_act1958.pdf
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