Vijayan has travelled 9,000 miles over seven 7 across India's borderline remote areas and has collected many bone-chilling, painful, myth-breaking stories of the people caught in between inter-state disputes because of the lines created by colonial powers who ruled over us for . The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. Modi met with senior police officers and ordered them not to intervene as violence raged. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. Empathy is taught by our communities; we are brought up with it. " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. Some people later chose not to be included because they feared repercussions, especially as the NRC process started playing out. More Buying Choices 1,732.00 (16 Used & New offers) Audible Audiobook 0.00 Free with Audible trial 586.00 ( 9 ) By Suchitra Vijayan, Why should I read it? Second, there were times when I ran out of money, when some said that such a book would not be published, when some declared that such a book could not be written. The Indian government bears some responsibility for this: Amid this brinkmanship between the two nuclear powers, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not address the nation directly. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. 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. History and memory is localwhich means its almost impossible to write about India. This was something I had to resist from the get-go. I spoke with Suchitra by email in July about Midnights Borders, the power of literary nonfiction, new possibilities of Indian American literature, neoliberal politics, and the importance of supporting underrepresented stories. 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. This book ate into so much of my life. But, more importantly, I wanted my readers to walk away with a sense of empathy. In her new book Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. 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. Barkha Dutt: India has made its point in Pakistan. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. 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.. Why dont people see the ground shifting beneath their feet? 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. Say, for instance, do we need a James Nachtwey to fly to war-torn Bosnia? 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 our language helps us imagine a vision that is truly just, beautiful and ethical. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. What do these events have in common? . One of the reasons I kept writing was of course all the people I met: their love and time and generosity. Over the past 15 years, small democratisation through social media has enabled challenging these practices. 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. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. And what does this mean for on-ground communities, governments, armed forces, and other institutional stakeholders? On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked in Pulwama in India-administered Kashmir, resulting in the death of 40 Indian officers. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan falls in both categories. 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. ( I hate this word, voiceless, by the way). Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. Chopra cleverly uses womens empowerment, diversity, and the immigrant story as a facade to parrot and promote deeply problematic ideologies, takes, and stances. There was an NDTV programme, where somebody said Should Indias constitution be secularist? What makes these lives so vivid is how Vijayan contextualizes them by placing them in the bigger picture of history. Q: You had to deal with a lot of ethical considerations as a writer and photographer, which echo throughout your and your fellow journalists work, as evaluated in your book. The book arrived in the middle of a pandemic and a devastating second wave [of COVID-19] in India. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. These are stories of massive human rights violations committed by the Indian state in the countrys margins. News organizations such as India Today, NDTV, News 18, the Indian Express, First Post, Mumbai Mirror, ANI and others routinely attributed their information to anonymous government sources, forensic experts, police officers and intelligence officers. No independent investigations were conducted, and serious questions about intelligence failures were left unanswered. 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 is the fragility of human lives that remains at the very center of the book. What changeshave youobserved in the way you treat your subject after finishing your journey and book? India shares borders with a host of . 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). This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. 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. But who gets to speak for so many of us? Thank you! 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. Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). Vijayan: Chopra and others like her are a reflection of how popular culture and virality inform discourse and shape it. Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. Siaan On Being Queer And Being Online, FII Interviews: Journalist Meena Kotwal On Minority Politics, Journalism Today And The Caste Divide. Why is this particular time of the day intrinsic to the book? Suchitra Vijayan. 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. She still does a radio show called Flight983 on Radio Mirchi, on Sunday evenings (79 pm). Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. Suchitra Vijayan is the executive director of the Polis Project. Part of this process is a need to turn the lens back at the powerful. First, does my work aid the powerful? 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. 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. A lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. 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. [2] She became known as Rj Suchi, with her popular morning show Hello Chennai. What matters is that the book exists. This is where I believe literary nonfiction becomes a powerful tool. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. Accompanied by this globally, democracies are becoming more authoritarian and stripping people of their citizenshipreducing them to subjects, entrenching the fault lines of inequality. The emotional cost is something else altogether. Rumpus: Can we please talk about Priyanka Chopra, and how her rise is seen as a marker of brown achievement? How do you think the media ought to responsibly report on peoples lives and experiences? 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. Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile . 1 author picked Midnight's Borders as one of their favorite books, . 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 . The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. We thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. That was my starting point. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. You can find them onYouTube&Linkedin,and can also check out their websitehere. A:I dont think an ethical or moral compass exists nowI dont know if it ever existed. In an interview with Firstpost,Vijayan talks about her book, the militarisation of borders, ethno-nationalism, and the politics of documentation. The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders.
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