Reply #7: The Irish [View All]

believed that fasting at your enemy's door was the severest form of vengeance because it destroys the honor of the enemy. It is an old tradition. IRA prisoners have conducted long hunger strikes in British prisons.

Mahatma Gandhi used fasting, among other actions, as a tool for freeing India from British colonial rule.

Some people who protested the Vietnam war also employed hunger strikes as a tactic. I may be wrong but I believe the Berrigan brothers were among them.

I think political fasting has to have two components: one is to make the commitment to pursue it and then do so; the other is to recruit helpers who will help you with water and other needs, and publicize the fast to the community.