I came with my privileges, also lets not forget prejudices. She sang her first song for the movie, Lesa Lesa under the composition of Harris Jayaraj and her co-singer was the legendary, K. S. Chitra. I want to flag two essays where I engage with this in an in-depth manner, Disaster Ruins Everything, on my work in Haiti, and what it means to photograph disaster, especially when it is Brown and Black bodies. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? Suchitra Vijayan. Parts of Pakistan have already been consumed by the water. Abrogation Of Article 370 Jammu And Kashmir Statehood, BSF foils another Pakistan plot, shoots down drone in Punjab's Amritsar, Light on weight, heavy on damage: India will be able to hit deep inside Pakistan with THIS ultralightweight howitzer, Put issues related to border in 'proper place', work for its early normalisation: Chinese FM Qin to Jaishankar, In Midnight's Borders, Suchitra Vijayan meditates on belongingness, freedom and political implications of territorial demarcations. I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. We live in a surveillance economy where we are constantly just bearing witness we are record keepers, unwitting spies, and voyeurs. There is also a lot of deep-seated misogyny, casteism, and anti-Black racism in our communities that need to be addressed. What connects these messages is deep empathy and a willingness to engage with the books stories, ideas, and arguments. Her writing has appeared in The Citron Review, Dukool Magazine, Cerebration, Feminism in India, Times of India (Spellbound edition), and others. And what does this mean for on-ground communities, governments, armed forces, and other institutional stakeholders? She still does a radio show called Flight983 on Radio Mirchi, on Sunday evenings (79 pm). The black and white pictures accompanying the chapters add a thousand words more. Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. A: I lost friends, saw my father go through a transplant, and I gave birth. India shares borders with a host of . MacAdam reviews Suchitra Vijayan's book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Read More. 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. What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? Who is expendable, and the manufacturing of rightlessness to render people expendable. Be it the teenager who is offered guns, money, and M&M candies to fight the Taliban in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, or Ali, who seeks solace in darkness as the floodlights installed on his plot of land along the India-Bangladesh border leaves him traumatized, or the nonagenarian Johinder Singh Suj from Sindh (a province in present-day Pakistan), who still cherishes his school geography textbook that shows a map of undivided British India the people are captured with deep empathy and come alive in her narration with the adept use of dialogue. Not mine. Dear reader, this article is free to read and it will remain free but it isnt free to produce. We need more writers from Indias Northeast, Kashmir, Indigenous, Dalit, and Muslim communities to tell stories that help complete the canvas of narratives about India. The two officers who avert the attack narrowly escape death but are left with broken bodies and broken lives. 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. In the middle of significant change, this fraught system cannot exist as it is. In India, that arbitrariness can be seen in how differently we perceive landboundaries with multiple sovereign nations. Say, for instance, do we need a James Nachtwey to fly to war-torn Bosnia? This also decides who gets access, awards and accolades. Thank you! But eventually we need all kinds of stories and arguments to emerge from what is now considered Indian American writing. Suchitra Vijayan is the executive director of the Polis Project. After being detained at one of the checkpoints for over two hours, I made my way to one of the villages closest to the Line of Control. In an early chapter of the book, you talk about how new worlds are created by the people at Indias borders. The mortality of someone you love affects how you write. These new worlds are already herethey are maps of survival, maps of resistance. I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. As Sari Begum's story [in the book] illustrates, 'A life where the violence of the border is not at the fence, or in the trenches, but at the center of 'their' and our 'universe'. [2] She became known as Rj Suchi, with her popular morning show Hello Chennai. FII Media Private Limited | All rights reserved, "Imagine how it would be for someone coming from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, working class background, who wants to come into thisit is especially difficult if youre a woman coming from these backgrounds. Those notes were raw and immediate. You need to write what you seethats why you started this project.. Creative . Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. Rohini Menon for Feminism in India, FII Interviews: Suchitra Vijayan Talks About Marginalisation, Institutional Violence & Political Imagination, Ananya is a chaotic humanities student with a deep interest in the relationship between art and society, a writing obsession, and way too many bizarre ideas involving their camera. First, does my work aid the powerful? Although Vijayan critiques the state and its complicity in violence and erasure of lives, she refrains from villainizing the men who serve the state. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. 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. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister at law and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. This is the backdrop against which we map how border practices and policies have played out in India. Chopra has long been neoliberalisms reluctant feminist, hawking giving a voice and sisterhood while silencing those who question her. I have never lived under military occupation, curfew, or a looming threat of violence. Could you comment on how much our present border security policies have changed in the last few years? Barrister. 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. Why is this particular time of the day intrinsic to the book? Especially when you can be charged with sedition for a tweet or arrested for the crime of committing comedy while being Muslim. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. Part-time Faculty suchitra@thepolisproject.com. Then you sit in a room with a mother telling you that she has no idea what happened to her son and has no way of knowing if hes ever coming back. Suchitra Vijayan: The Indian state has always used excessive and extrajudicial violence on communities that resist, whether its the borderlands, peripheries, or mainland Now the international viewfor instance while the Gujarat riots of 2002 brought critical international media attention and criticism, and [current Prime Minister] Modi was banned from entering the US, India was able to effectively manage global public opinion. What changeshave youobserved in the way you treat your subject after finishing your journey and book? There are some brilliant writers writing on these issuesthe problem is always that these voices dont make it to the mainstream. In an interview with Firstpost,Vijayan talks about her book, the militarisation of borders, ethno-nationalism, and the politics of documentation. A consistent ethical framework within the media hasnt existed for a long time. 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. We are all complicit in upholding and maintaining this fear. She is the founder and executive director of The Polis Project, and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, recently published by Context, Westland. In Midnight's Borders (Westland Publications, 2021), author and photographer Suchitra Vijayan travels the 9,000 miles of India's borders to understand what Partition did to individual lives and . Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. Rumpus: Were you trying to write a hybrid-genre book? He drops and picks up his kids from school, pines for his old job and is concerned about the newly-formed government in Pakistanall the while trying to salvage his crumbling marriage. Ali lived right on the edge of the India-Bangladesh border. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. I left a few names out in the acknowledgment, worrying if it might direct more trouble towards them. 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. This is not the violent right wing and their siege; its centrist and liberal media that is also relitigating history, deconstructing the core values of the constitution. Panitars division is as cruel as it is arbitrary: here, the houses on either side of one dusty lane occupy two neighbouring countries. The events in Hathras did not happen at the border; neither did the murder and gang rape of two teenage girls in the Katra village of Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh. The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. In the popular depictions of India circulating in the US, we rarely see the stories that the nations jingoistic governments have shoved under the carpet. For instance, a border security personnel tells her how he failed to capture a photograph of a porcupine after spending half an hour trying to fit a helmet on its head, because he is bored and lonely. As a spy working for TASC, Tiwari has to juggle being an underpaid government employee as well as an absent husband and a perpetually late and distracted father. As a Bookshop affiliate, The Rumpus earns a percentage from qualifying purchases. It is meant to manufacture an underclass of rightless subjects. We live in a profoundly unequal society, where every day brings news of new devastation. Lets start with a very simple statement that everyone can agree on: the way were living right now cannot continue. How do you think this shapes climate justice? In her book, she makes her intention clear at the very beginning, claiming that this endeavor is not to give voice to the voiceless but to critique the nation-state, its violence, and the arbitrariness of territorial sovereignty. She acknowledges that a book in its limited scope cannot really encapsulate the entirety of this journey, and it will remain more of a scrapbook, a collection of images, texts, poetry, and maps. More from this author , Tags: Aruni Kashyap, Asian American, bollywood, Brahmanism, caste system, democracy, Hindu, Hinduism, Hinduphobia, Hindutva, immigrants, immigration, India, Indian American, Indian American literature, Leni Riefenstahl, Midnight's Borders, Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, model minority, Modi, Narendra Damodardas Modi, Narendra Modi, neoliberalism, photographs, photography, Polis Project, Politics, Priyanka Chopra, south asian, South Asian American, South Asian diaspora, Stan Swamy, Suchitra Vijayan, travel writing, Filed Under: Features & Reviews, Rumpus Original. Chopra cleverly uses womens empowerment, diversity, and the immigrant story as a facade to parrot and promote deeply problematic ideologies, takes, and stances. Sometimes the news is the story. Our investigation into the Indian medias reporting on the Pulwama attack found that many reports were contradictory, biased, incendiary and uncorroborated. 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. She is actively involved in circulating urgent and underrepresented news from the world through her online platform. Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer, lawyer, political essayist, and a lecturer. So I dont know if it was empathy so much as just building a relationship with people. Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. Suchitra Vijayan's debut book, Midnight's Borders, is a genre-bending book of nonfictionmade of stories, encounters, vignettes, and photographsabout home, belonging, and displacement.The book recounts the author's recent journey across India's land borders covering 9000 miles over a span of seven years. A lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. You can find them onYouTube&Linkedin,and can also check out their websitehere. Jawaharlal Nehrus 'Tryst with Destiny'is a speech I have returned to over the past 20 years. When fencing began, he became trapped in a no-mans land, his marriage to a girl from Bangladesh ended with each being stranded on either side and he never got out of the cycle of debt and struggle, finally losing the ability to dream. I think its the other way round, these communities have always been speaking, writing, documenting, teachingwe must simply listen rather than represent them in any way. As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. I test my practice of writing or being a photographer against this rule. They are arriving from various cities and people I have never met. The second season of The Family Man begins with Srikant Tiwari, a former intelligence officer of TASCa fictitious intelligence agency akin to the Research & Analysis Wingworking at an IT company. The taxi driver who describes the Egyptian revolution in five minutes to an American columnist (who speaks no Arabic) is sadly where the genre is today. India and the US are discussing the possibility of jointly developing and manufacturing an extended-range variant of the M777 ultra lightweight howitzer, Qin's first in-person meeting with EAM Jaishankar came on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers conclave in New Delhi amid the over 34-month-long border row in eastern Ladakh. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. Suchitra is a sought-after performer at corporate and other such stage shows. Also, I am an unknown and insignificant entity. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. The revolutionary Constitution not only created a social world made of contradictions, but it very soon became the tool of suppressing dissent, deployed laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and Public Safety Act (PSA) in Kashmir. That capacity to be able to go away and then come back profoundly affects how you write because then you are still rooted. We see that more clearly when you decide against photographing children at the India-Bangladesh border. But who carries the responsibility of that fear? Rumpus: Can we please talk about Priyanka Chopra, and how her rise is seen as a marker of brown achievement? Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from PSG Institute of Management. Suchitra was married to actor Karthik Kumar between 2005 and 2017. The complexities of the Naga peace process were apparent on a visit to remote villages of Tuensang district where many of the women remained silent with others admitting they had never encountered an outsider, except Indian soldiers. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Suchitra Vijayan's new book, Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, takes a deep look at such stories by prioritizing the experiences of the silenced victims as well as lesser-known accounts from victims of state violence. I find that profoundly inspiring. 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). Midnights Borders, a work of narrative reportage, is the fruit of this journey. How do you protect this child? The pair experience similar situations in their lives: abuse, the death or absence of a husband, and the longing for a better future. None of this helps in telling richer, more textured stories. For instance, if you went to school with, say, Indias most powerful publisher, or your dad plays golf or socialised at the Gymkhana with the politically powerful and the culturally influential, then that system is built to get you the resources. Now, along with the medias legitimization of an ideology that promotes violence including riots and lynchings its performance after Pulwama leaves severe doubts as to whether it is engaged in journalism or the propagation of Hindu majoritarianism. [8] On 7 March 2017, she applied for divorce. Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India ; Suchitra Vijayan, Context/ Westland Books, 699. The book arrived in the middle of a pandemic and a devastating second wave [of COVID-19] in India. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories.. 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? This article was published more than4 years ago. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. 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. She studied Law, Political Science and International Relations, and was trained as a Barrister-at-Law and called to Bar at the Honourable Society of Inner Temple. My role, then, and this books role, is to find in their articulations a critique of the nation-state, its violence and the arbitrariness of territorial sovereignty.". The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. This is a challenging task for the writer. The border runs through him, his friend Jamshed had told Vijayan, He is almost gone, but I dont want his story to be gone too.. 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. Sign in. But its also important to constantly take account of who is writing about this India to an Indian and global audience. Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). Indian Foreign Secretary V.K. I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. More Buying Choices 1,732.00 (16 Used & New offers) Audible Audiobook 0.00 Free with Audible trial 586.00 ( 9 ) At worst, its navel gazing peppered with white guilt, but always politically vacuous. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. She was part of a music band at PSG. Many news channels are not only owned, operated or invested in by politically influential families, but also are sometimes run for the express purpose of advancing party positions. A place to read, on the Internet. The government, of course, denies this. Vijayan began her journey in Kolkata. There are instances when you and some voices in the narrative question their documentation practice. If she wasnt real she would be a marriage between a meme and parody. This language drums the idea of the fundamental importance of justice, and such language is inalienable: it can easily be defined and empathetically understood. Vijayan: Its a very generous reading, and thanks for that. I want to clarify that what I witnessed or the violence inflicted on my father is not the same as what over eight million Kashmiris have endured. Rumpus: Toni Morrison said that she writes from a place of delight, not disappointment. It is here that even the most civilised amongst us begin to make excuses for repression, brutality, and violence. We still argue if something should be a massacre, a pogrom, or a riot. It definitely doesnt help when trying to hold a powerful state accountable. I had to cut those out, as my editor felt this might not work. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. Not everyone lived to see its promises. The people in the text fear statelessness, unknown violence, and being forgotten. 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. Reports also identified different people as the supposed masterminds of the Pulwama attack at various points without clear sourcing. These may not be perfect worlds or even equal worlds, but they strive to be. Zoya, a young female officer, is now confined to her wheelchair, and Milind, who also makes it out alive, is seen at home with drawn curtains, battling trauma. 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. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. Christopher Clary: India and Pakistan resort to the diplomacy of violence and flirt with catastrophe, Hafsa Kanjwal: As India beats its war drums over Pulwama, its occupation of Kashmir is being ignored. March 06, 2021 04:50 pm | Updated March 07, 2021 08:05 am IST. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. This is a serious, often funny and deeply revealing book. M, An essential, beautifully written report from the hellish margins of a modern mega-state struggling to be a nation, of people whose lives continue to be shaped by violent political marches across age-old homes and habitats. When I left him (the first time), I had a one-year-old daughter. We have already chosen silence and obfuscation even before the pushback has arrived. Its a hard book to name, and I kept going back and forth. 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). But who gets to speak for so many of us? Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility among the youth. Excellent interview, brave insights and critical reflections! In 1971, East Pakistan seceded and became Bangladesh. I believe it can teach us to ask these questions again. It seems that they have a different eye for these women, who they describe as cunning, deceitful, and in some cases, prostitutes'. Respond to our political present. Also read: Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? Sharing borders with six countries and spanning a geography that extends from Pakistan to Myanmar, India is the worlds largest democracy and second most populous country. What moral and political stands we should take in the face of ongoing oppression. I think these are fundamental questions of freedom and dignity. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. Some people later chose not to be included because they feared repercussions, especially as the NRC process started playing out. According to a new World Health Organization report, we lost as many as 4.7 million people in India. Travel to States like Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland in the Northeast which share borders with China and Myanmar required Inner Line Permits, BSF soldiers followed her everywhere on the West Bengal/ Bangladesh border, and in Kashmir she was summoned to meet the local inspector at Uri.
Cumberland Fair Dates, Articles S