Opinion | After Pulwama, the Indian media proves it is the BJP's Through these real histories of the people, she gives readers another perspective on old wounds like Partition and new divisionary tactics like the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Suchitra Vijayan Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile . Even as 70% of the border with Bangladesh has been fenced, "smugglers, drug couriers, human traffickers and cattle rustlers continue to cross to ply their. There was an NDTV programme, where somebody said Should Indias constitution be secularist? 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. 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. In another essay from 2019, I write about the banality of bearing witness as an excuse to produce extractive work. These questions about documentation practices started long before I started this book project, and I learnt along the way. The photographs add another dimension to the book, and could have been used more. One feedback I often got was that I had to put more of myself in this book. Copyright 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. The interview has been paraphrased and condensed for clarity, at the interviewers discretion. What moral and political stands we should take in the face of ongoing oppression. The mask is off. The arrest of Khurram Parvez shows that India is no My job was to make sure that their voices were centered. In an early chapter of the book, you talk about how new worlds are created by the people at Indias borders. India shares borders with a host of . Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? I left a few names out in the acknowledgment, worrying if it might direct more trouble towards them. We see that more clearly when you decide against photographing children at the India-Bangladesh border. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? Even the diasporic experience is often told through this limited lens, without taking into account how diverse the immigrant experience in this country is. So here, 'Midnight' functions as a moment of violent birth, but also perhaps the foundational violence that becomes codified in various ways, especially in the bodies of people farthest away from power. The images, however, are not all bereft of hope, as children from both India and Bangladesh use a border pillar as a cricket stump, while men on opposing sides of the war on terror in Afghanistan gather around in a cold evening, smoking and sharing stories. In season two, a quick flashback resolves the plotline from the previous season. She never did like my then-husband, which makes her a better judge of character than I was. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan - The Bangalore Review Suchitra tweets @suchitrav. By Suchitra Vijayan, Why should I read it? Suchitra Vijayans new book, Midnights Borders: A Peoples 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. Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. The original vision of the book also has newspaper cuttings, and found maps. We cant continue to see this in neo-liberal terms like stakeholder. I think the usage of this kind of language is ineffectual; its emptied of imagination. As she travelled 9000 miles over seven years across Indias borders, some drawn so hastily that they cut across fields, homes and courtyards, she met men, women and children, finishing with endless notebooks, over a thousand images and more than 300 hours of recorded conversations. Her quest took her to the farthest ends of the India-Bangladesh/ China/ Myanmar/ Pakistan borders. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. 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. 'Music I Like', an album of Suchitra's renditions of Mahakavi Bharatiyaar's poetry, set to contemporary tunes and music, released by Universal Music, was a turning point in her career. 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? 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. Tamil Movie Articles Trisha | Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya | Tamannah | Anniyan | Aishwarya Rai", "Bigg Boss Awards for each contestant in Bigg Boss Tamil 4", Suchitra: I can sound sweet, sexy, bold or sensual, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Suchitra&oldid=1141096550, Crossover episode with Bigg Boss Tamil; Fearless Award, Nominated: Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer Telugu for the song 'Nijamena' from, Nominated: SIIMA Award for Best Female Playback Singer|Best Female Playback Singer for the song 'Sir Osthara' from, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 09:35. Indian Foreign Secretary V.K. Early on, the idea of bearing witness as a rhetorical tool and as a literary device became deeply problematic. 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. But who carries the responsibility of that fear? 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. 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. Suchitra Vijayan. While Nehru was still declaring this victory, the slaughter began. She writes about war, conflict . What I was most concerned about and still am are the people in the book and their safety. Suchitra Vijayan is the executive director of the Polis Project. These are stories of massive human rights violations committed by the Indian state in the countrys margins. It is the fragility of human lives that remains at the very center of the book. 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). 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. You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. As a bedouin who grew up listening to beautiful stories from beautiful storytellers around a fire, I was transported by her storytelling. 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. India and its Borderlands: Suchitra Vijayan in Conversation with Sharjeel Usmani, Book talk with Suchitra Vijayan, author of Midnights Borders, Crisis at the Border: Contestation, Sovereignty, and Statelessness. Your prose is hopeful there. Our investigation into the Indian medias reporting on the Pulwama attack found that many reports were contradictory, biased, incendiary and uncorroborated. Francesca Recchia, a researcher and writer and former director of the Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture, is the editor and creative director of The Polis Project.. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister, researcher and the author of "Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India." She is the executive director of the Polis Project. There are so many nonfiction books about India published yearly but few are so important and subversive. The book was originally going to be a photographic body of work, which changed when I started writing. The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. And what does this mean for on-ground communities, governments, armed forces, and other institutional stakeholders? Second, there were times when I ran out of money, when some said that such a book would not be published, when some declared that such a book could not be written. 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. Suchitra Vijayan, Newspapers in a Kashmiri home In August 2014 I travelled to the border town of Uri while researching my upcoming book, Borderlands. I was much younger when I took on this project, so I wanted to prove those people wrong. Vijayan: A writers responsibility above all is to speak the truth and make sense of our social worlds. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. 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. 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. Why the Modi government lies. 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 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. All too often, the Indian media portrays Kashmiris as terrorists or human shields, not as a community seeking self-determination. 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. 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. And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. Instead, we need to ask what fate awaits us. Vijayan: I would say I am hopeful. 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. The book is a prelude to what was coming, and is also a impassioned plea to my readers to ask some fundamental questions of what it means to live in a country like Indiawhat is the function of a state when its primary preoccupation is no longer the citizen but a performance of an ideology? Even those who now write about Modis India, will never write about Brahmanism or be critical of how caste works in the diaspora. And this is always at the expense of others. Excellent interview, brave insights and critical reflections! This media blitzkrieg resulted in the erasure of two important political trends. 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.. Is that a probable solution? We need more such books. Midnights Borders, a work of narrative reportage, is the fruit of this journey. Each of these subscription programs along with tax-deductible donations made to The Rumpus through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, helps keep us going and brings us closer to sustainability. She is the founder and executive director of The Polis Project, and the author of. It was not going to be easy as she quickly found out. But also, to be clear in terms of what I wanted to accomplish: as I say in the book, I wasnt bearing witness or giving voice to the voicelessthe people in this book are eloquent and political voices of their lives and realities. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. How "The Family Man" champions the carceral security state. What do you think the future holds? [4] She also worked as a dubbing artist for popular heroines like Shriya Saran and Lakshmi Rai.[5]. 1 author picked Midnight's Borders as one of their favorite books, . 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. The word terrorism, for instance, is used almost exclusively to refer to a particular communitybut fails to refer to state-enabled terror or the terror deployed by majority communities. Its an immense privilege to be able to write and be published. 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. Suchitra Vijayan traveled Indias vast land border to explore how these populations live, and document how even places just a few miles apart can feel like entirely different countries.. She's a good friend and kindly agreed to take our City Hall wedding photos. [1], Suchitra joined Sify for a year, after graduating. Theyre screaming all the time, its just that we dont listen to them. In the same chapter of the book, Kamal says, "If I am an Indian, then why am I afraid?" Her work looks at theories of violence, war, and human nature. The people in the text fear statelessness, unknown violence, and being forgotten. More importantly, as Babasaheb would argue, the political revolution was never accompanied by a social revolution. Gokhale claimed that it struck the biggest camp and that a large number of terrorists were killed. These are edited excerpts from the interview: 'Midnight' seems to be a metaphor for multiple things both freeing and frightening. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. Its a dangerous moment where the figure of the rights-bearing citizen is being reduced to a consuming subject. Husain Haqqani: Pakistan released the Indian pilot. Suchitra Vijayan - KeyWiki Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. 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. In Suchitra Vijayan's new book, borders are as arbitrary as history Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) / Twitter We play an ever more important role in these times when there is a fascist authoritarian regime in India and a deeply racist police state in the US. In this stunning work of narrative reportagefeaturing over 40 original photographswe hear from those whose stories are never told: from children playing a cricket match in no-mans-land, to an elderly man living in complete darkness after sealing off his home from the floodlit border; from a woman who fought to keep a military bunker off of her land, to those living abroad who can no longer find their family history in India. How did writing this book affect you? The publishing landscape, including Indian publishing, is deeply flawedit is upper class, upper caste, and deeply alienating for anyone who doesnt come from already established and existing networks of privilege. If she wasnt real she would be a marriage between a meme and parody. Good, honest and non-polemical writing has always forced us to confront the lies we tell ourselves. Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. Copyright 2023. Perhaps that offers some protection? I have no control over what comes next. Why dont people see the ground shifting beneath their feet? Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. Suchitra was married to actor Karthik Kumar between 2005 and 2017. 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. Pushback is such a benign word, isnt it? We thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. It is meant to manufacture an underclass of rightless subjects. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. When the book finally came out, India was undergoing the deadly 2nd wave. If you think about communities in resistance to immense violations, theyre all interconnected to climate justice. Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. I think this book will change the global conversation about India and shape what gets written in the future about India. There are instances when you and some voices in the narrative question their documentation practice. One of the ways she upholds the humane in this book is through her interaction with the men in the security forces. Find him on Twitter at @AruniKashyap. I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. Could you comment on how much our present border security policies have changed in the last few years? Suchitra Vijayan 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. 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. They cannot be abusive or personal. At a time when right-wing nationalism is crescendoing in India and across the world, Suchitra Vijayans Midnights Borders raises pertinent questions about the very foundations of Indias nationalism the cartography of South Asian nation-states defined by arbitrary lines drawn hastily by the British colonial administration. I had a very stable home to come back to. How "The Family Man" champions the carceral security state

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