The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. A poll asked if its OK to be white. Heres why the phrase is loaded. 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'. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. But it needs to do more for peace. A place to read, on the Internet. We also need a fundamental reframing of language. 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. 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. One of the ways she upholds the humane in this book is through her interaction with the men in the security forces. 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. From the epoch of Empire to the nation-state, border making is fundamentally a political project that creates, sustains, and reinforces inequality. How does one think of violence, how does one make sense of all this, how does one retain a sense ofnot exactly humanity, but ratherempathy for the other? ( I hate this word, voiceless, by the way). Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile journey along the borders of India, and interviews people living in these liminal spaces. We live in a profoundly unequal society, where every day brings news of new devastation. 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. Suchitra Vijayan undertook a 9000 mile journey over seven years to India's borderlands to write Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister at law and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. Suchitra Vijayan Early on, I was very careful to acknowledge this. So the first reflection is this idea of where we are right now: as people, as a society, as a community. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. FII Interviews: Suchitra Vijayan Talks About Marginalisation I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. You can carefully craft a narrative of immigrant success but act tone-deaf about the ongoing refugee crisis. Empathy is taught by our communities; we are brought up with it. There are some notable exceptions, but they are an exception. Stallings, Rumpus Original Fiction: The Litany of Invisible Things. 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. Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility among the youth. Aruni Kashyap writes in English, and his native language Assamese. In season two, a quick flashback resolves the plotline from the previous season. It is necessary to speak truth to power through our art. I'mdyslexic, but have visual and episodic memory, which means I dream and relive moments. In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. While Border Pillar No 1 becomes a convenient stump for children playing cricket along the land that India shares with Bangladesh, roughly 2000 kilometers away in Punjab a woman farmer watches on as the army builds a bunker on the few acres of land she owns. 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. How do you protect this child? Thank you! Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. 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. And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. 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. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. Over the past 15 years, small democratisation through social media has enabled challenging these practices. I dont have apprehensions. The public is sold a lie as the attack is framed as a gas leak. Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. A literary community. What makes these lives so vivid is how Vijayan contextualizes them by placing them in the bigger picture of history. Suchitra Vijayan - Amazon The book was originally going to be a photographic body of work, which changed when I started writing. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. These are edited excerpts from the interview: 'Midnight' seems to be a metaphor for multiple things both freeing and frightening. All rights reserved. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike on an alleged militant training camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 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. The interview has been paraphrased and condensed for clarity, at the interviewers discretion. So we might never know the true extent of this loss. I think these are fundamental questions of freedom and dignity. Can you write about loss without living? It was just a sad moment, and I couldnt celebrate a book when there was so much human tragedy playing out. 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. The Author Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. How did you achieve empathy in your writing, without the privileged lens that is common in journalistic canon? 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. This article was published more than4 years ago. Suchitra Vijayan | C-SPAN.org It is also the site of the worlds biggest crisis of statelessness, as it strips citizenship from hundreds of thousands of its peopleespecially those living in disputed border regions. We have already chosen silence and obfuscation even before the pushback has arrived. 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. They all have very specific and carefully curated origin/immigrant stories that cleverly exploit the model minority trope. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan. The entire episode is emblematic of a broader trend in Indian media. This means that the capacity to see does not automatically become the capacity for action. Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer, lawyer, political essayist, and a lecturer. That changes how you write and photograph a place. 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. We no longer ask if this will lead to a better society, if it will benefit the vast majority of those farthest away from power. But who carries the responsibility of that fear? A: This is a very loaded question. Sayantika Mandal is an Indian writer. I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. The pair experience similar situations in their lives: abuse, the death or absence of a husband, and the longing for a better future. 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. This book ate into so much of my life. 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. Book reviews and author interviews with a Southern focus. Suchitra Vijayan on Twitter: "RT @project_polis: Writing fiction in a She is not alone. Categories. But its also important to constantly take account of who is writing about this India to an Indian and global audience. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. Perhaps there are lessons to learn from that. 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. Vijayan: The photographs were the heart of this project. The photographs add another dimension to the book, and could have been used more. 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. 4 reviews of Suchitra Vijayan Photography "Huge fan of Suchitra Vijayan Photography! Copyright 2023. 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. Again, in the India-China border, she finds a young army officer closely referring to a book that contradicts the official version of the Indo-China war of 1962, and concludes that perhaps, he recognizes that most of soldiering involved cynical subordination to ideas that no longer made sense.. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. 1 author picked Midnight's Borders as one of their favorite books, . I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. Where does that leave us? 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. She is the founder and executive director of The Polis Project, and the author of. Vijayan: A writers responsibility above all is to speak the truth and make sense of our social worlds. Her work looks at theories of violence, war, and human nature. Thoughbordersare conventionally recognised as real or artificial lines of spatial and political demarcation, there may also be an arbitrariness to them. British India was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan on the eve of independence in August, 1947. And what does this mean for on-ground communities, governments, armed forces, and other institutional stakeholders? Then my agent said, Suchitra, you know, I think youre hiding behind your academic language. In an interview with Firstpost,Vijayan talks about her book, the militarisation of borders, ethno-nationalism, and the politics of documentation. Time to let the diplomats do the hard talk. I now think twice about calling friends, worried if this might put them at risk. I test my practice of writing or being a photographer against this rule. Global Ethics Review: Midnight's Borders, with Suchitra Vijayan The book was called ``a genre- bending book of nonfictionmade of stories, encounters, vignettes, and photographsabout home, belonging, and displacement.`` Her essays, photographs, and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Nation, The Boston Review, Foreign Policy, Lit Hub, Rumpus, Electric literature, NPR, NBC, and BBC. Creative . The original vision of the book also has newspaper cuttings, and found maps. As I say in the book, Kashmir changed me, it gave me political and moral clarity to always stand with those fighting for their peoples freedom and dignity. Suchitra Acharjee - Graduate Assistant - The University of Texas Rio Jawaharlal Nehrus 'Tryst with Destiny'is a speech I have returned to over the past 20 years. Yes, Chopra does take a huge share of attention, but the real danger is how people like her whitewash Hindutva, and now increasingly co-opt the language of Hinduphobia to counter any critique of Hindutva. You become responsible for a human being. But the inclination to still treat India as a democracy remains. 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. 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. 6,253 Followers, 902 Following, 1,165 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitravijayan) At Fazilka near the Pakistan border, she ran into Sari Begum, who had a bunker on her land but had a darker story of pain and violence from the days of Partition. We know that the purpose of borders has kept changing for nations. Author, lawyer and journalist, Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Cerebration editor Smita Maitra on her book Midnight's Borders, maps, fragmented identities and postcolonial nation-states. How did you respond to that environment being in an extremely challenging position yourself? Suchitra Vijayan on Twitter: ""The historical unity of the ruling 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. Many TV newsrooms were transformed into caricatures of military command centers, with anchors assessing military technology and strategy (sometimes incorrectly). 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. 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. Especially when you can be charged with sedition for a tweet or arrested for the crime of committing comedy while being Muslim. I had to write and rewrite this book so many times. 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. Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile . I had a very stable home to come back to. A Barrister by training, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to . When the book finally came out, India was undergoing the deadly 2nd wave. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitravijayan) Instagram photos and videos What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. Rumpus: In such a climate, what do you think is the responsibility of the diasporic Indian writer? Professor Nandita Sharmas work is an excellent way to engage with this history. We're back with our flagship podcast 'Intersectional FeminismDesi Style!' Opinion | After Pulwama, the Indian media proves it is the BJP's Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. 'Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India' review: A We have migrated to a new commenting platform. Suchitra Vijayan - New Lines Institute When fires burn down large swathes of what were peoples homeswhat borders will you impose when climate change will fundamentally remake them? Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India: Vijayan Its not sustainable, it fractures who we are, chips away and erodes what it fundamentally means to be human. The mask is off. The arrest of Khurram Parvez shows that India is no The nation-state and its ruling class view borders as very different from the people who inhabit these liminal spaces or communities that have been affected by border making and policing practices. The mortality of someone you love affects how you write. @suchitrav. Its when we lose hope that we believe that we have lost everything. Fear seems to be a constant motif in the book we see versions and types of it. Not mine. You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. Chopra is popular because she satisfies a certain need for validationthe trope of brown representation where the mere act of being represented is seen as a singular virtue worth applauding. Vijayan shows a keen eye for detail as she presents these diverse lives. 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. 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. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved. Suchitra tweets @suchitrav. Hope Is the Last Bastion: Talking with Suchitra Vijayan The book arrived in the middle of a pandemic and a devastating second wave [of COVID-19] in India. Vijayan is no stranger to stories of violence. They dont. There was an NDTV programme, where somebody said Should Indias constitution be secularist? We see that more clearly when you decide against photographing children at the India-Bangladesh border. By Suchitra Vijayan, Why should I read it? And that violence is often abetted by the state and goes unpunished. 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. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. The stories were a way to understand how people struggled and survived. It's a disorienting time when your library or what books you read can become evidence of sedition . 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.". Excerpts from the #BBC documentary telecast about PM . But, more importantly, I wanted my readers to walk away with a sense of empathy. Also read: The History Of The Colonial State And The Unmaking Of The Tawaif. I think the way that news and mostly disinformation makes its way to us, we think of violence in very particular waysas disjointed. is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. Lets take Indias English language media, cultural-artistic elite, and publishing. Vijayan: Chopra and others like her are a reflection of how popular culture and virality inform discourse and shape it. 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. Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad soon claimed responsibility. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. 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. A consistent ethical framework within the media hasnt existed for a long time. Vijayans book begins a much-needed conversation on thinking about freedom beyond the idea of nation and its illusory lines. [8] On 7 March 2017, she applied for divorce. Suchitra Vijayan. 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. 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. He writes TPS reports for an overbearing boss who calls him the minimum guy. He has replaced eating vada pav at ungodly hours on the streets with overpriced salads. This Life Draws Attention to Life Behind Bars and the Transcendent Power of Rap, Wrestling with Reality in The Big Door Prize. 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. What do words like democracy, freedom, and citizenship mean? Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. India has consistently warred against its own citizens; this book is about some of these wars. So the question is not: will the future be borderless? There are instances when you and some voices in the narrative question their documentation practice. 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. I am repeating what I have said before, "Kashmir is Indias greatest moral and political failure. 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. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). 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.