Not everyone rejoiced in these new freedoms. 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. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. Its a vicious cycle. Includes previously unreleased investigation under #JackStraw. So we might never know the true extent of this loss. She digs deep into colonial history to show how years of violence and consequential suffering has shaped these lives across generations. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. This contributed to the long-running, brutal silencing of Kashmiris and their struggle for self-determination. She was part of a music band at PSG. She never did like my then-husband, which makes her a better judge of character than I was. She perfectly captured the happiness and the intimacy of the occasion, the warmth of all the people present, and the splendor of the venue. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. Second, we can no longer have certain conversationsconversations are now impossible. You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. Early on, the idea of bearing witness as a rhetorical tool and as a literary device became deeply problematic. But your book lays bare how differently India's borders are guarded from southern Bengal to the Line of Control. 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. Vijayan: Let me start heregood writing is powerful and political. You've mentioned in the text that you've spent your entire adult life thinking about state violence and justice because of a troubling incident in 1994 when your father was attacked. Vijayan shows a keen eye for detail as she presents these diverse lives. 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. But the number of anonymous sources willing to disclose classified and conflicting information to reporters who cited them without corroboration points to a serious crisis in how information is reported to the public. Her work looks at theories of violence, war, and human nature. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. Ali lived right on the edge of the India-Bangladesh border. First, does my work aid the powerful? Dear reader, this article is free to read and it will remain free but it isnt free to produce. It is truly the treason of the intellectuals. We could have attributed this to ignorance even a few years back; now its just silence thats deeply complicit in the Hindutva project. Suchitra Vijayan. by Suchitra Vijayan Hardcover 1,759.00 2,023.00 You Save: 264.00 (13%) Usually dispatched in 1 to 3 weeks. Do you think the future is borderless? 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. 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. I'mdyslexic, but have visual and episodic memory, which means I dream and relive moments. Aruni Kashyap writes in English, and his native language Assamese. As a bedouin who grew up listening to beautiful stories from beautiful storytellers around a fire, I was transported by her storytelling. Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. Jawaharlal Nehrus 'Tryst with Destiny'is a speech I have returned to over the past 20 years. Once we eliminated the spectacle, we realized that the Indian public got very little information about the Pulwama attack and its aftermath. [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]. We need more such books. There are also those who have previously been tacit, if not active, supporters of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Indian state. 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. 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. How do you think your book contributes to the larger conversation about India? Anvisha Manral March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. It offers brief historical notes on how the nations current borders came into force alongside accounts of increasing militarisation, disputes, little massacres and forgotten pogroms, no-mans-lands, and the people through whom the border runs like barbed wire. Why the Modi government lies. Q: What struck me about your work was its immersive style. Suchitras account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. She completed her MFA in Writing (Fiction) from the University of San Francisco where she was awarded the Jan Zivic Fellowship and is about to begin her PhD in English with a Creative Dissertation from the University of Georgia, Athens. You can find them on, The #GBVinMedia Campaign: Media Reportage Of Gender-Based Violence, #IndianWomenInHistory: Remembering The Untold Legacies of Indian Women, How To Write About Abortion: A Rights-Based Approach, The Crowdsourced List Of Social Justice Collectives Across Indian Campuses. In the same chapter of the book, Kamal says, "If I am an Indian, then why am I afraid?" Often, we settle comfortably into describing things as communal riots instead of saying that it was a state-abetted violence, a pogrom, or a brutal massacre. During the initial search, the BSF troops recovered a black coloured drone - DJI Matrice (made in China), in partially damaged condition, lying near Dhussi Bundh near Shahjada village. Bhawan Singh, who photographed the Nellie massacre, said he had never seen anything like it. You will see very little critical commentary or public positions on Hindutva, its corrosive role in India, or how RSS works here in the USfunding and now interfering in US elections. This means that the capacity to see does not automatically become the capacity for action. We dont document violence against the privileged like we would report violence against those without power. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad soon claimed responsibility. An unprecedented militarisation of these spaces accompanied this. 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. 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. 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. A poll asked if its OK to be white. Heres why the phrase is loaded. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. We're back with our flagship podcast 'Intersectional FeminismDesi Style!' Rumpus: Were you trying to write a hybrid-genre book? Stallings, Rumpus Original Fiction: The Litany of Invisible Things. 2:16. Even those among us who will speak of BLM will not openly challenge Hindutva or the RSS. They cannot be abusive or personal. 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. Parts of Pakistan have already been consumed by the water. Suchitra Vijayan. Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan falls in both categories. I have never lived under military occupation, curfew, or a looming threat of violence. Instead, she shows the absurdity of the army apparatus that strives to comply with the narrative of patriotism. 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. Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. It is the fragility of human lives that remains at the very center of the book. 582.1K views. Suchitra Vijayan. It's a disorienting time when your library or what books you read can become evidence of sedition . In retaliation, the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike on an alleged militant training camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The Rumpus is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. [8] On 7 March 2017, she applied for divorce. A lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. Categories. Heartbreaking, and still, something we must all notice and understand. M, Unique and ambitious, Vijayans project gains urgency and significance from our moment of resurgent nationalisms, when borders are being aggressively reasserted, in India and across the globe. G, An intervention like no other when it comes to thinking through not just the history of India but for reflections on borders, migration, the elusory nature of nations. It is necessary to speak truth to power through our art. The people in the text fear statelessness, unknown violence, and being forgotten. 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. On the C-SPAN Networks: Suchitra Vijayan is a Founder and Executive Director for the Project Polis, The with one video in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first appearance was a . The book was originally going to be a photographic body of work, which changed when I started writing. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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. We know that the purpose of borders has kept changing for nations. Updated Date: 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. O. Her YouTube channel 'Suchislife' has all her updated work. Is photographing a woman, who was gang-raped by the Sudanese army and put on the cover of TIMEpractically naked, able to stop the war? Not everyone lived to see its promises. And our language helps us imagine a vision that is truly just, beautiful and ethical. Its not comparable and should not be compared. Sign in. Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from PSG Institute of Management. I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. Like most women, I learnt to navigate this toxic misogyny, the threat of sexual violence, and patriarchy by merely existing as a dark-skinned woman in this country. On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked in Pulwama in India-administered Kashmir, resulting in the death of 40 Indian officers. I find that profoundly inspiring. Similarly, motherhood changed me; it radicalised me. 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. When your investigations in Kashmir came to an end, what changes did you observe in your 'grammar of dissent'? She has also been appreciated for her honest and positive-humour-filled judging at reality shows like Vijay TV's Airtel Super Singer, Sun TV's Sun Singer, Asianet's Music India, and Bol Baby Bol on Gemini TV and Surya TV. Rumpus: The book derives its emotional strength and narrative energy from the stories of people you encounter at the borders. I dont have apprehensions. 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. NONFICTIONMidnights BordersBy Suchitra VijayanMelville HousePublished May 25, 2021. Vijayan: Most Indian American writers, especially many of them who occupy the broad spectrum of literary to punditry, come from immense privilege of caste and class. 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. 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. Commentary Politics. One of the reasons I kept writing was of course all the people I met: their love and time and generosity. Professor Nandita Sharmas work is an excellent way to engage with this history. What is the function of seeing and documenting? The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. At worst, its navel gazing peppered with white guilt, but always politically vacuous. But Pakistan responded by rejecting these claims and told the Associated Press that the area was mostly deserted wooded area and that there were no casualties or damage on the ground. This article was published more than4 years ago. Second, there is a clear distinction between speaking against the powerful and claiming to speak on behalf of the "voiceless". Then my agent said, Suchitra, you know, I think youre hiding behind your academic language. 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. The public is sold a lie as the attack is framed as a gas leak. Q: Since publishing the book last year, what reflections have you hadgiven that its relevance is increasingly ascertained by 2022s interpersonal and geopolitical violence? is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. The world we know is already being remade in ways we cant fathom. She is currently working on her first novel. 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. Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from PSG Institute of Management. The failure to forget affects how I use images, and texts; my photographic practice and also how I put everything together. We perform rituals of freedom in a right-less societywe dont ask if the rules, laws, and policies that are put in place are fair, just, right or equitable. A: This is a very loaded question. She also embodies the upwardly mobile, privileged sections of the diaspora. Our investigation into the Indian medias reporting on the Pulwama attack found that many reports were contradictory, biased, incendiary and uncorroborated. Suchitra Vijayan talks to FII about Indian politics, communal violence, marginalisation and her book Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India. When I finished writing, I had become much richer in many waysnot in a material waybut through a community. Suchitra Vijayan is the executive director of the Polis Project. Take a look at theseevents: The vast infrastructure of detention centers being built in Assam and outside; a politician from a ruling party incites violence by saying, goli maaro saalon ko, and remains free; a minister, a Harvard educated technocrat, garlands and celebrates men for the grave crime of lynching; Dr Teltumbde and other BK 16 [the 16 arrests made in the Bhima Koregaon case] political prisoners remain incarcerated with little, no or manufactured evidence for being dissenting subjects; and a standup comic is arrested for the crime of existing as a Muslim. The constant making and remaking of who is a citizen, who is not, is accompanied by a profoundly dehumanising process. 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. I wrote a book along with it comes love, scorn, and sometimes even ridicule. ( I hate this word, voiceless, by the way). 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? (Stay up to date on new book releases, reviews, and more with The Hindu On Books newsletter. 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. What are those ethical, moral, and political lines? NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study. The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. Accompanied by this globally, democracies are becoming more authoritarian and stripping people of their citizenshipreducing them to subjects, entrenching the fault lines of inequality. Sari Begum, born of rape during the Partition and married off to a violent, alcoholic man twenty years older than her, is forced to part with her land to make space for an army bunker, while Natasha Javed stumbles upon a piece of family history that reveals her ancestor being killed in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919 and the subsequent trauma and loss of having to be forcefully emptied of history when they crossed over to Pakistan, and how talking about this would make them traitors in their homeland. Sometimes they are no more, but your storytelling is so invigorating that the reader doesnt forget them. Vijayan began her journey in Kolkata. The photographs add another dimension to the book, and could have been used more. I havent spoken or celebrated with my friends in Kashmir or Assam. Book reviews and author interviews with a Southern focus. Were there times when you doubted your own ability to record and document these people's stories? She has a sister named, Sunitha. A: I lost friends, saw my father go through a transplant, and I gave birth. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . The emotional cost is something else altogether. It is here that we subsume all that we otherwise celebrate under the demands of freedom, progress, liberalism, liberty, and secular ideals.". Worse, we have been disciplined to accept injustice and inequality as given. Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. Vijayan: The photographs were the heart of this project. 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. Keywords: LTTE love jihad Beef politics Hindu Nationalism Kashmir Sayantika Mandal is an Indian writer. None of this helps in telling richer, more textured stories. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. Chopra has long been neoliberalisms reluctant feminist, hawking giving a voice and sisterhood while silencing those who question her. The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. No one would put themselves through the agony and pain of writing. Excerpts from the #BBC documentary telecast about PM . [1], Suchitra joined Sify for a year, after graduating. Listen to Season 3 on Apple, Spotify and Google podcasts. We must realise that its the grassroots media, who represent themselves, document what mainstream media ignores, and bring to notice what is important. A t a time when right-wing nationalism is crescendoing in India and across the world, Suchitra Vijayan's Midnight's Borders raises pertinent questions about the very foundations of India's nationalism the cartography of South Asian nation-states defined by arbitrary lines drawn hastily by the British colonial administration. It definitely doesnt help when trying to hold a powerful state accountable. Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. Suchitra Vijayanis a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. 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. Instead, we need to ask what fate awaits us. A consistent ethical framework within the media hasnt existed for a long time. 1 author picked Midnight's Borders as one of their favorite books, . 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.. In India, that arbitrariness can be seen in how differently we perceive landboundaries with multiple sovereign nations. Yes, men who act as petty sovereigns are everywhere. No one can write a book alone. There is no denying that the American media landscape is deeply racist, and while the past few years have seen more brown people take center stage, its nowhere close to where we need to be. However, at work, Tiwari is in his element. If you think about communities in resistance to immense violations, theyre all interconnected to climate justice. Suchitra tweets @suchitrav. We also need a fundamental reframing of language. Invariably its the writer who is the protagonist. No one is a stakeholder herethese are people, humans, citizens, who have been deprived of what the Ambedkarite constitution promised them. But the inclination to still treat India as a democracy remains. [4] She also worked as a dubbing artist for popular heroines like Shriya Saran and Lakshmi Rai.[5]. In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. In terms of violence, there is also this tendency to photograph and display the bodies of marginalised communities when they experience violence. Chopra cleverly uses womens empowerment, diversity, and the immigrant story as a facade to parrot and promote deeply problematic ideologies, takes, and stances. You can claim to be patriotic but not political, you can claim to support the troops but ignore the ongoing civilian casualty. I can see how religious Hindu fanaticism has started to spread its tentacles in both the Democratic and the Republican parties, and this is primarily because of an absence of balanced stories about India. 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. My job was to make sure that their voices were centered. Sometimes lost. Ten years later, you were in Kashmir, where you 'hoped to find answers' by talking to a family that had lost a son. Part-time Faculty suchitra@thepolisproject.com. Vijayan: A writers responsibility above all is to speak the truth and make sense of our social worlds. Its a dangerous moment where the figure of the rights-bearing citizen is being reduced to a consuming subject. What makes these lives so vivid is how Vijayan contextualizes them by placing them in the bigger picture of history. 4 reviews of Suchitra Vijayan Photography "Huge fan of Suchitra Vijayan Photography! Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan. Second, border policies are about "performance and articulations of citizenship". I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. She writes about war, conflict . 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. While that incident had a profound impact on me, my politics, how I think about violence, its relationship to justice, or the lack of it, this is not the same kind of violence Kashmiris have been subjugated to.