The constant making and remaking of who is a citizen, who is not, is accompanied by a profoundly dehumanising process. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan falls in both categories. March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST. That was my starting point. Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. We need to think about border practices, policing, and national security policies within the larger historical and political contexts. I had to cut those out, as my editor felt this might not work. Suchitra Vijayan. Excellent interview, brave insights and critical reflections! Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from PSG Institute of Management. She was part of a music band at PSG. Also, I am an unknown and insignificant entity. Fearful of the future he asked quietly, Where did all this hate come from, where is it going to take us? echoing what many residents had told her. However, at work, Tiwari is in his element. Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me, Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, FUNNY WOMEN: Excerpts from George Eliots, Rumpus Original Poetry: Two Poems by John A. Nieves, RUMPUS POETRY BOOK CLUB EXCERPT: WHY I WRITE LOVE POETRY IN A BURNING WORLD by Katie Farris, The Freedom of Form & Re-Entering Myths: An interview with A.E. Acted as the General Manager for a day and motivated employees to work for the same purpose to reinforce team . Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). What makes these lives so vivid is how Vijayan contextualizes them by placing them in the bigger picture of history. You dont need a Leni Riefenstahl today. ", "Documentary photography has amassed mountains of evidenceyetthe genre has simultaneously contributed much to spectacle, to retinal excitation, to voyeurism, to terror, envy, and nostalgia, and only a little to the critical understanding of the social world.". I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. She writes about war, conflict . Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. As I travelled, I was very aware of these inherent power differences. What do these events have in common? In the first season, when he and his team are tasked to thwart the terrorist attack Operation Zulfiqar, the plot moves from Mumbai to Kashmir. The Rumpus is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. India shares borders with a host of . She perfectly captured the happiness and the intimacy of the occasion, the warmth of all the people present, and the splendor of the venue. Not mine. There are so many nonfiction books about India published yearly but few are so important and subversive. In Midnight's Borders, barrister, political analyst, and writer Suchitra Vijayan documentsmany such telling accounts of lives both growing and barely getting by alongIndian borderlands. But it needs to do more for peace. Suchitra Vijayan complicates and expands our understanding of the South Asian American experience, urging readers to consider stories that cast dark eyes at India, a strategic ally of many Western nations. Midnight's Bordersis an exceptional read, but one that may make some uncomfortable. Listen to Season 3 on Apple, Spotify and Google podcasts. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. And were there any apprehensions since you began working on this book? I dont have apprehensions. But who carries the responsibility of that fear? Its been a little over a week since the book came out, and every day this week, I have woken up to emails, messages, and DMs from readers. Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. Contributions for the charitable purposes ofThe Rumpus must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. In 2020, Suchitra took part in the fourth season of the Tamil reality television show, Bigg Boss Tamil hosted by Kamal Haasan. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. But for me hope is radical; hope is the last bastion of our defense. When I left him (the first time), I had a one-year-old daughter. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. You need to write what you seethats why you started this project.. Some people later chose not to be included because they feared repercussions, especially as the NRC process started playing out. The public is sold a lie as the attack is framed as a gas leak. MacAdam reviews Suchitra Vijayan's book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Read More. I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. O. By Suchitra Vijayan, Why should I read it? How did you respond to that environment being in an extremely challenging position yourself? This book ate into so much of my life. These are stories of massive human rights violations committed by the Indian state in the countrys margins. There are two quotes I regularly use by Allan Sekula when I teach: "The making of a human likeness on film is a political act. Founder & ExecDirector: @project_polis @watchthestate ; Teach @nyugallatin Writer Manhattan, NY linktr.ee/suchitravijayan Born April 14 Joined May 2008 8,013 Following 80.8K Followers Tweets & replies [6], She wrote a short story, a graphic illustration of an episode in the life of a black peppercorn called Kuru-Milaku, called "The Runaway Peppercorn".[7]. Who is expendable, and the manufacturing of rightlessness to render people expendable. The people whose lives are not just materials for the book, who are, in some ways, your co-conspirators in trying to make sense of the social reality. By looking beyond maps to create a museum of forgotten stories, Vijayan has given voice to those who live on the fringes like Ali or Sari. Thats part of the political imagination that I believe we need for political movements or any sustained acts of resistance. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. If she wasnt real she would be a marriage between a meme and parody. She is the executive director of the Polis Project . Its a vicious cycle. (Stay up to date on new book releases, reviews, and more with The Hindu On Books newsletter. Its when we lose hope that we believe that we have lost everything. You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. Vijayan has travelled 9,000 miles over seven 7 across India's borderline remote areas and has collected many bone-chilling, painful, myth-breaking stories of the people caught in between inter-state disputes because of the lines created by colonial powers who ruled over us for . One of the reasons why this book was written was to step back: to say that this violence that you and I listen to and encounter is not new to say that this violence is not new. This discrepancy is just one example of the confusion and misinformation spread to the public by deeply flawed media reports. The credit goes to my agent Lucy Cleland who suggested this title. These instances are also about border practices because modern states, especially liberal democracies, expend immense energy in creating and maintaining identity categories: who belongs, and where. So now, how do we respond to this? He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Georgia and is the author of The House With a Thousand Stories, His Fathers Disease, and There Is No Good Time for Bad News. Some of the oldest resistances in our nation are those communities who have been fighting for their own homes from militarisation who seek to exploit their mineral rich home land for mining. They took my land, they stole my life, they stole my future, they took my nightmares and they stole my dreams too. Ali went missing in 2018. I am repeating what I have said before, "Kashmir is Indias greatest moral and political failure. Then my agent said, Suchitra, you know, I think youre hiding behind your academic language. First, the escalation in the counterinsurgency war within the Kashmir Valley under which hundreds of activists were arrested and several Kashmiri civilians killed in gun battles was grievously underreported. There is a lot to learn and unlearn, and a writer and a photographer should respond to a political moment, and the work should be a reflection of those practices. A poll asked if its OK to be white. Heres why the phrase is loaded. Rumpus: Can we please talk about Priyanka Chopra, and how her rise is seen as a marker of brown achievement? Vijayan creates a constellation of micro-histories of people who have lived through the violence that India has committed in its borderlandsinjustice that has irrigated the glamour and prosperity we witness in what some of us in those borderlands call mainland India. Vijayan, a barrister by profession, is a founding director of Polis Project, a hybrid research and journalism organization in New York. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. In that process, her reportage unravels the cultural and political implicationsof our bordersonour 'collective conscience', as capricious as that might be, and on the lives of those sandwiched between two warring nations. Suchitra Ramadurai, known by the mononym Suchitra, is an Indian radio jockey, popular playback singer, songwriter, composer, voice artist, dubbing artist and film actress. Sometimes the news is the story. Midnights Borders perhaps also critiques the widely read body of work available as Indian English Writing (IWE), a literary canon that has so far told the story of India but seldom demonstrated social responsibility by acknowledging the atrocities India has committed silently within its borders. This income helps us keep the magazine alive. 6,253 Followers, 902 Following, 1,165 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitravijayan) These may not be perfect worlds or even equal worlds, but they strive to be. With profound empathy and a novelistic eye for detail, Vijayan brings us face to face with the brutal legacy of colonialism, state violence, and government corruption. The stories were a way to understand how people struggled and survived. This also decides who gets access, awards and accolades. Its an immense privilege to be able to write and be published. And join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member. What we can do is attempt micro-histories of events, timelines, or local communities. My job was to make sure that their voices were centered. Find him on Twitter at @AruniKashyap. Born and raised in Madras, India, she is the author of the critically acclaimed book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India (Melville House, New York). Finally, Indias current transformation, the aggressive posturing of an aspiring ethno-nationalist state, will have dire consequences for the people and the region. [4] She also worked as a dubbing artist for popular heroines like Shriya Saran and Lakshmi Rai.[5]. The Rumpus: It is shocking how unaware the world is about the violence the Indian government has committed since independence on its border citizens. If you want to support the work that goes behind publishing high-quality feminist media content, please consider becoming a FII member. Q: Speaking about the content of the work, by including under-represented perspectives on the frequently debated partition and border laws you present a novel perspective to journalistic canon. Instead, we need to ask what fate awaits us. One of the reasons I kept writing was of course all the people I met: their love and time and generosity. Last edited on 23 February 2023, at 09:35, Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer Telugu, 2nd South Indian International Movie Awards, "Suchitra going through certain emotional condition: Husband Karthik on her tweets", "Will Trisha sound like Trisha in Mankatha? Her writing has appeared in The Citron Review, Dukool Magazine, Cerebration, Feminism in India, Times of India (Spellbound edition), and others. As a graduate student at Yale, she researched and documented stories along the Af-Pak border and was embedded with the US forces in Afghanistan. Midnights Borders , Suchitra Vijayan includes a photo of the pillar, which becomes a cricket stump for boys on either side of the border most days. Suchitra Vijayan is the executive director of the Polis Project. Is that a probable solution? Suchitras account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. So the question is not: will the future be borderless? I was reading a lot of Pessoa when I was in Afghanistan, so another placeholder title was 'Maps/Lines/Cartographies of Disquiet', inspired by the Book of Disquiet. The black and white pictures accompanying the chapters add a thousand words more. It is here that we subsume all that we otherwise celebrate under the demands of freedom, progress, liberalism, liberty, and secular ideals.". Siaan On Being Queer And Being Online, FII Interviews: Journalist Meena Kotwal On Minority Politics, Journalism Today And The Caste Divide. The Indian media must learn to portray the conflict and human rights violations in the region in a more nuanced way, and not reduce Kashmir to a catalogue of death, destruction and emergency laws. She's a good friend and kindly agreed to take our City Hall wedding photos. Vijayan shows a keen eye for detail as she presents these diverse lives. What moral and political stands we should take in the face of ongoing oppression. Similarly, motherhood changed me; it radicalised me. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. That changes how you write and photograph a place. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . No one can write a book alone. Even those among us who will speak of BLM will not openly challenge Hindutva or the RSS. Vijayan: I wasnt trying to write a hybrid book; I was trying to tell the stories I encountered as a way to think about the moral and political realities of our lives. In Assam, Vijayan met people devastated by the National Register of Citizens process, with names of long-time residents missing from the final list, and in Kashmir she spent time with a family mourning the loss of their son in an encounter. More importantly, as Babasaheb would argue, the political revolution was never accompanied by a social revolution. We thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. In this podcast, Vijayan discusses with host Alex Woodson her 9,000-mile journey through India's borderlands, which formed the basis of the book, and she discusses the violent and continuing history of the 1947 partition, the stark differences and similarities along South Asia's various borders, and what "citizenship" mean in India in 2021 and What do words like democracy, freedom, and citizenship mean? Your prose is hopeful there. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. In her15,000-kilometre journey, spread over seven years, Vijayan mulls over the meaning of freedom, belongingness in a land of imagined communities, created by territorial demarcations. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. Why do you think India has gotten away with this so far? This is where I believe literary nonfiction becomes a powerful tool. Vijayan researches meticulously into official documents and conducts a series of interviews in an effort to uncover the murky truths behind the death of Hilal Ahmed Mir, a supposed militant killed by the military in an encounter in the disputed territory of Kashmir, or Felani Khatun, a 15-year-old girl who was shot when trying to cross the barbed wire at the porous India-Bangladesh border. How do you think your book contributes to the larger conversation about India? The controversy surrounding the Rafale deal and allegations of corruption against the government were suddenly sidelined, as was the order for the eviction of more than a million forest dwellers (that was later stayed) and a hearing on the repeal of an important constitutional clause before the Supreme Court. We still argue if something should be a massacre, a pogrom, or a riot. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. It took a long time to get the voice right. To repurpose an old sayingall infamy is now good virality. NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Instead, the Indian media has ascribed to itself the role of an amplifier of the government propaganda that took two nuclear states to the brink of war. Our investigation into the Indian medias reporting on the Pulwama attack found that many reports were contradictory, biased, incendiary and uncorroborated. It is the fragility of human lives that remains at the very center of the book. Its a dangerous moment where the figure of the rights-bearing citizen is being reduced to a consuming subject. Where India ends and Bangladesh begins is a question confused by history, family and the border pillars themselves. Panitar has a one-foot-high concrete block on the side of the mighty Ichamati river marked Border Pillar No.1. With sharp political analyses, dense historical research and lyrical, image-rich prose, Vijayans journalism displays an inspiring ethic, one that is invested in the micro-histories of the small man, the one existing on the fringes of history and the one that most requires urgent representation. B, A book that will enlighten every citizen of every nation. Stallings, Rumpus Original Fiction: The Litany of Invisible Things. Love, passion, anger, the desire to make a point about something. Already a subscriber? One of the ways she upholds the humane in this book is through her interaction with the men in the security forces. Part of this learning was also why photographer Asim Rafiqui and I created the free UN/DO Photography workshops to think about image-making in relationship to power. A relatively small group of people runs it. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories.. Her YouTube channel 'Suchislife' has all her updated work. This is a tightrope that you walk so well. Part-time Faculty suchitra@thepolisproject.com. A British lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe set foot in India for the first time in July, 1947 to draw the borders and completed the task within seven weeks, engendering communal riots, a heavily militarized border, four wars and seven decades of violence and hatred between the two countries. A: Writers are very strange creatures. You can carefully craft a narrative of immigrant success but act tone-deaf about the ongoing refugee crisis. Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. I had to write and rewrite this book so many times. There is something deeply flawed in the way we live today. She is actively involved in circulating urgent and underrepresented news from the world through her online platform. Check posts or bunkers were not part of the landscapes of my home. As a spy working for TASC, Srikant Tiwari, played by Manoj Bajpayee, has to juggle being an underpaid government employee as well as an absent husband and a perpetually late and distracted father. They dont. Vijayans lens not only captures the people but also the past through objects, such as the picture of Kotwali Gate, the remains of a medieval fort that serves as a border checkpoint rife with weeds and trees growing on it, symbolic of a state bent on rewriting history rather than preserving it. They are also essentially bureaucratic, judicial, and procedural acts of terror. Also, we shouldn't forget that the border making project is central to capitalist and neoliberal logic. So I try to learn and listen, and again, as I say in this book, "It is not my goal to 'bear witness' or 'give voice to the voiceless'. Early on, the idea of bearing witness as a rhetorical tool and as a literary device became deeply problematic. British India was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan on the eve of independence in August, 1947. I wanted to make sure that I was writing in a way that was honest and true to my initial reactions, and capture that without centering myself. I think these are fundamental questions of freedom and dignity. News organizations such as India Today, NDTV, News 18, the Indian Express, First Post, Mumbai Mirror, ANI and others routinely attributed their information to anonymous government sources, forensic experts, police officers and intelligence officers. No independent investigations were conducted, and serious questions about intelligence failures were left unanswered. Suchitra Vijayan, Newspapers in a Kashmiri home In August 2014 I travelled to the border town of Uri while researching my upcoming book, Borderlands. The show deals with interesting international happenings. 582.1K views. She has a sister named, Sunitha. They are arriving from various cities and people I have never met. Its easy for Indian Americans and diaspora Desis to become tokens who speak of diversity but not equity or representation, talk of caste as culture and whitewash Hindutva. As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. A:I dont think an ethical or moral compass exists nowI dont know if it ever existed. More than two weeks after the attack, our analysis finds that no news site had rectified the errors in their reporting, leaving these misleading facts as a matter of public record. Itembodied young Indias grand ambitions and aspired to a nation made of men and women equally protected by the law. As a lawyer, journalist, and human rights activist who has worked in conflict-ridden territories of Kosovo, Egypt, Rwanda, and elsewhere, she has often met people scrambling for bare existence, caught in a no-mans land. Over the span of seven years, Suchitra Vijayan interviewed scores of individuals, jotted countless notes, snapped hundreds of photographs, and altogether made herself witness to the manifold absurdities (and atrocities) of who gets to say where one nation ends and another begins.
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