A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in
which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke
feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific
goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but
not solid food. In cases where an entity has or is able
to obtain custody of the hunger striker, the hunger strike is often terminated by
the custodial entity through the use of force-feeding.
Early history Fasting was used as a method of
protesting injustice in pre-Christian Ireland, where it was known as Troscadh
or Cealachan. It was detailed in the contemporary civic codes, and had
specific rules by which it could be used. The fast was often carried out on
the doorstep of the home of the offender. Scholars speculate this was
due to the high importance the culture placed on hospitality. Allowing a person
to die at one's doorstep, for a wrong of which one was accused, was considered a
great dishonor.Others say that the practice was to fast for one whole
night, as there is no evidence of people fasting to death in pre-Christian
Ireland. The fasts were primarily undertaken to recover debts or get
justice for a perceived wrong. There are legends of St. Patrick, the patron saint
of Ireland, using the hunger strike as well.
In India, the practice of a hunger protest, where the protestor fasts at
the door of an offending party in a public call for justice, was abolished
by the government in 1861; this indicates the prevalence of the practice
prior to that date, or at least a public awareness of it. This Indian practice is
ancient, going back to around 400 to 750 BC. This can be known since it appears
in the Ramayana, which was composed around that time. The actual mention
appears in the Ayodhya kanda, in Sarga 103. Bharata has gone to ask the exiled
Rama to come back and rule the kingdom. Bharata tries many arguments, none of
which work, at which point he decides to do a hunger strike. He announces his
intention to fast, calls for his charioteer Sumantra to bring him some
sacred Kusha grass, and lies down upon the grass in front of Rama. Rama,
however, is quickly able to persuade him to abandon the attempt. Rama mentions it
as a practice of the brahmanas. Medical view
In the first 3 days, the body is still using energy from glucose. After that,
the liver starts processing body fat, in a process called ketosis. After 3 weeks
the body enters a "starvation mode". At this point the body "mines" the muscles
and vital organs for energy, and loss of bone marrow becomes life-threatening.
There are examples of hunger strikers dying after 52 to 74 days of strike.
Notable historical instances = Gandhi and Bhagat Singh =
Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned in 1922, 1930, 1933 and 1942. Because of Gandhi's
stature around the world, British authorities were loath to allow him to
die in their custody. It is likely Britain's reputation would have suffered
as a result of such an event. Gandhi engaged in several famous hunger strikes
to protest British rule of India. Fasting was a non-violent way of
communicating the message and sometimes dramatically achieve the reason for the
protest. This was keeping with the rules of Satyagraha.
In addition to Gandhi, various others have used the hunger strike option
during the Indian independence movement. Such figures include Jatin Das and
Bhagat Singh. It was only on the 116th day of their fast, on October 5, 1929
that Bhagat Singh and Dutt gave up their strike. During this hunger strike that
lasted 116 days and ended with the British succumbing to his wishes, he
gained much popularity among the common Indians. Before the strike his
popularity was limited mainly to the Punjab region.
After Indian Independence, freedom fighter Potti Sreeramulu used hunger
strikes to get a separate state for Telugu-speaking people. Morarji Desai
went on fast twice during Nav Nirman in the seventies and prior to that Indulal
Yagnik alias Indu Chacha went on a long fast during Maha Gujarat and thereafter
in the seventies. = Amarajeevi Sriramulu =
Potti Sriramulu was an Indian revolutionary who died after undertaking
a hunger strike for 58 days in 1952 after Indian independence in an attempt
to achieve the formation of a separate state, to be known as Andhra State. His
sacrifice became instrumental in the linguistic re-organisation of states.
He is revered as Amarajeevi in Coastal Andra for his sacrifice. As a devout
follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he worked for much of his life to uphold
principles such as truth, non-violence and patriotism, as well as causes such
as Harijan movement to end the traditional alienation of, and accord
respect and humane treatment to those traditionally called "untouchables" in
Indian society. = British and American suffragettes =
In the early 20th century suffragettes frequently endured hunger strikes in
British prisons. Marion Dunlop was the first in 1909. She was released, as the
authorities did not want her to become a martyr. Other suffragettes in prison
also undertook hunger strikes. The prison authorities subjected them to
force-feeding, which the suffragettes categorized as a form of torture.
Emmeline Pankhurst's sister Mary Clarke died shortly after being force-fed in
prison, and others including Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton are believed to
have had serious health problems caused by force feeding.
In 1913 the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act changed
policy. Hunger strikes were tolerated but prisoners were released when they
became sick. When they had recovered, the suffragettes were taken back to
prison to finish their sentences. Like their British counterparts,
American suffragettes also used this method of political protest. A few years
prior to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution, a group of American suffragettes led by Alice Paul engaged
in a hunger strike and endured forced feedings while incarcerated at the
Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. = Irish republicans =
Hunger strikes have deep roots in Irish society and in the Irish psyche. Fasting
in order to bring attention to an injustice which one felt under his lord,
and thus embarrass him into a solution, was a common feature of early Irish
society and this tactic was fully incorporated into the Brehon legal
system. The tradition is ultimately most likely part of the still older
Indo-European tradition of which the Irish were part.
The tactic was used by Irish republicans from 1917 and, subsequently, during the
Anglo-Irish War, in the 1920s. Early use of hunger strikes by republicans had
been countered by the British with force-feeding, which culminated in 1917
in the death of Thomas Ashe in Mountjoy Prison.
In October 1920, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, died on hunger strike
in Brixton prison. Two other Cork IRA men, Joe Murphy and Michael Fitzgerald,
also died on hunger strike in this protest. Over a period of 94 days, from
August 11 to November 12, 1920 John and Peter Crowley, Thomas Donovan, Michael
Burke, Michael O'Reilly, Christopher Upton, John Power, Joseph Kenny and Seán
Hennessy, demanding reinstatement of political status and release from
prison, undertook a hunger strike at the prison of Cork. Arthur Griffith called
off the strikes after the deaths of MacSwiney, Murphy and Fitzgerald.
During the 1920s, the HMS Argenta vessel was used as a military base and prison
ship for the holding of Irish Republicans by the British government as
part of their internment strategy post Bloody Sunday.
Cloistered below decks in cages which held 50 internees, the prisoners were
forced to use broken toilets which overflowed frequently into their
communal area. Deprived of tables, the already weakened men ate off the floor,
frequently succumbing to disease and illness as a result. There were several
hunger strikes, including a major strike involving upwards of 150 men in the
winter of 1923. By February 1923, under the 1922 Special
Powers Act the British were detaining 263 men on the Argenta, which was moored
in Belfast Lough. This was supplemented with internment at other land based
sites such as Larne workhouse, Belfast Prison and Derry Gaol. Together, both
the ship and the workhouse alone held 542 men without trial at the highest
internment population level during June 1923.
After the end of the Irish Civil War in October 1923, up to 8000 IRA prisoners
went on hunger strike to protest their continued detention by the Irish Free
State. Two men, Denny Barry and Andrew O'Sullivan, died on the strike. The
strike, however, was called off before any more deaths occurred. The Free State
subsequently released the women republican prisoners. Most of the male
Republicans were not released until the following year.
Under the de Valera Fianna Fáil government three hunger strikers died in
the Republic of Ireland in the 1940s. They were Sean McCaughey, Tony D'Arcy
and Sean McNeela. Hundreds of others carried out shorter hunger strikes
during the de Valera years with no sympathy from the Government.
The tactic was revived by the Provisional IRA in the early 1970s, when
several republicans such as Sean MacStiofain successfully used hunger
strikes to get themselves released from custody without charge in the Republic
of Ireland. Michael Gaughan died after being force-fed in a British prison in
1974. Frank Stagg, an IRA member being held in a British jail, died after a
62-day hunger strike in 1976 which he began as a campaign to be repatriated to
Ireland. Irish hunger strike of 1981
In 1980, seven Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners in the Maze
Prison launched a hunger strike as a protest against the revocation by the UK
government of a prisoner-of-war-like Special Category Status for paramilitary
prisoners in Northern Ireland. The strike, led by Brendan Hughes, was
called off before any deaths, when the Government seemed to offer to concede
their demands; however, the Government then reneged on the details of the
agreement. The prisoners then called another hunger strike the following
year. This time, instead of many prisoners striking at the same time, the
hunger strikers started fasting one after the other in order to maximise
publicity over the fate of each one. Bobby Sands was the first of ten
republican paramilitary prisoners to die during a hunger strike in 1981. There
was widespread sympathy for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the
broader nationalist community on both sides of the Irish border. Bobby Sands
was elected as an MP to the UK's Houses of Parliament and two other hunger
strikers, Paddy Agnew and Kieran Doherty, were elected to Dáil Éireann in
the Republic of Ireland by electorates who wished to register their opposition
to the UK Government's then policy. The ten men survived without food for 46 to
73 days, taking only water and salt, before succumbing. After the deaths of
the men and severe public disorder, the Government granted partial concessions
to the prisoners, and the strike was called off. The hunger strikes gave a
huge propaganda boost to a previously severely demoralised Provisional IRA.
= Cuban dissidents = On April 3, 1972, Pedro Luis Boitel, an
imprisoned poet and dissident, declared himself on hunger strike. After 53 days
on hunger strike, receiving only liquids, he died of starvation on May
25, 1972. His last days were related by his close friend, poet Armando
Valladares. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the Cólon Cemetery in Havana.
Guillermo Fariñas did a seven-month hunger strike to protest against the
extensive Internet censorship in Cuba. He ended it in Autumn 2006, with severe
health problems although still conscious. Reporters Without Borders
awarded its cyber-freedom prize to Guillermo Fariñas in 2006.
Jorge Luis García Pérez has done hunger strikes. In 2009, following the end of
his 17-year imprisonment, Antúnez, his wife Iris, and Diosiris Santana Pérez
started a hunger strike to support other political prisoners. Leaders from
Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Argentina declared their support for Antúnez.
On February 23, 2010, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a dissident arrested in 2003 as
part of a crackdown on opposition groups, died in a hospital while
undertaking a hunger strike that had been ongoing for 83 days, in Cuba's
"Kilo 8" prison. He had declared the hunger strike in protest of the poor
conditions of the prison in which he was held. He was one of 55 prisoners of
conscience in Cuba to have been adopted by Amnesty International. He was charged
with an array of offences, including "resistance", "contempt", and
"disrespect". Legal situation
Article 6 of the 1975 World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo states
that doctors are not allowed to forcefeed hungerstrikers. They are
supposed to understand the prisoner's independent wishes, and it is
recommended to have a second opinion as to the capability of the prisoner to
understand the implication of his decision and be capable of informed
consent. Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and
is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and
rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal
of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially. The decision as to the
capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgment should be confirmed by at least
one other independent physician. The consequences of the refusal of
nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner.
The World Medical Association recently revised and updated its Declaration of
Malta on Hunger Strikers. Among many changes, it unambiguously states that
force feeding is a form of inhumane and degrading treatment in its Article 21.
The American Medical Association is a member of the WMA, but the AMA's members
are not bound by the WMA's decisions, as neither organization has formal legal
powers. The AMA has formally endorsed the WMA Declaration of Tokyo and has
written several letters to the US Government and made public statements in
opposition to US physician involvement in force feeding of hunger strikers in
contravention of medical ethics. The United States Code of Federal
Regulations rule on hunger strikes by prisoners states, "It is the
responsibility of the Bureau of Prisons to monitor the health and welfare of
individual inmates, and to ensure that procedures are pursued to preserve
life." It further provides that when "a medical necessity for immediate
treatment of a life or health threatening situation exists, the
physician may order that treatment be administered without the consent of the
inmate." See also
Fasting Force-feeding
List of hunger strikes References
Mahatma Gandhi and India Brains, Courage, Integrity
ACTivist Magazine Fast for Peace 2003 Kleinrichert, Denise, Republican
Internment and the Prison Ship "Argenta", 1922, Irish Academic Press
Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7165-2683-4 Turkey Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices – 2004 External links
[1]"Hunger Strikes, Force-feeding, and Physicians' Responsibilities"
[2] Striking Differences: Hunger strikes in Israel and the United States
How Long Can You Go Without Food? Hunger strikes 101, Slate magazine, June 10,
2004 [3] Fasting as a Method To Demand
International Protection For the People of Darfur, Sudan
Bibliography on hunger strikes and force-feeding in the IFHHRO Right to
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