They are arriving from various cities and people I have never met. We removed an image just before the printing to make sure the person was protected. Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? ). The two officers who avert the attack narrowly escape death but are left with broken bodies and broken lives. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Supreme Court forms expert panel to probe any regulatory failure on Adani issue, India makes renewed push for consensus at G20 Foreign Ministers meeting, Hindenburg Research report on Adani Group | Supreme Court verdict on expert committee on March 2, High debt on Vedanta books puts investors on tenterhooks, Employees Provident Fund: How to activate UAN online, 1947: Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act passed, RMA 0-1 FCB, El Clasico highlights: Barcelona leads on aggregate after beating Real Madrid courtesy of a Militao own goal. It is here that we subsume all that we otherwise celebrate under the demands of freedom, progress, liberalism, liberty, and secular ideals.". Vijayan: Let me start heregood writing is powerful and political. 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.. The Rumpus: It is shocking how unaware the world is about the violence the Indian government has committed since independence on its border citizens. Chopra cleverly uses womens empowerment, diversity, and the immigrant story as a facade to parrot and promote deeply problematic ideologies, takes, and stances. 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.
In Midnight's Borders, Suchitra Vijayan meditates on belongingness In the middle of significant change, this fraught system cannot exist as it is. The Family Man has found tremendous success as a slick and funny espionage drama, particularly for its treatment of the protagonist, and even for humanising terrorists. A relatively small group of people runs it. The mortality of someone you love affects how you write. Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. Modi met with senior police officers and ordered them not to intervene as violence raged. What matters is that the book exists. She's a good friend and kindly agreed to take our City Hall wedding photos. Vijayan: Chopra and others like her are a reflection of how popular culture and virality inform discourse and shape it. 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. Over the past 15 years, small democratisation through social media has enabled challenging these practices. 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. A: I dont agree with this kind of framing, because its not that underrepresented people dont have voices. Especially when you can be charged with sedition for a tweet or arrested for the crime of committing comedy while being Muslim. She responded to an ad for the post of an RJ in Radio Mirchi. 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.
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. There are also those who have previously been tacit, if not active, supporters of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Indian state. What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? 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. ( I hate this word, voiceless, by the way). We live in a surveillance economy where we are constantly just bearing witness we are record keepers, unwitting spies, and voyeurs. Categories. Also, I am an unknown and insignificant entity. 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. We have already chosen silence and obfuscation even before the pushback has arrived. 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. You become responsible for a human being. Time to let the diplomats do the hard talk. ""The historical unity of the ruling classes is realized in the state." Antonio Gramsci" [1] Career [ edit] Suchitra Vijayan talks to FII about Indian politics, communal violence, marginalisation and her book Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India. 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. Vijayan researches meticulously into official documents and conducts a series of interviews in an effort to uncover the murky truths behind the death of Hilal Ahmed Mir, a supposed militant killed by the military in an encounter in the disputed territory of Kashmir, or Felani Khatun, a 15-year-old girl who was shot when trying to cross the barbed wire at the porous India-Bangladesh border. Also read: Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? [2] She became known as Rj Suchi, with her popular morning show Hello Chennai. What connects these messages is deep empathy and a willingness to engage with the books stories, ideas, and arguments. Although Vijayan critiques the state and its complicity in violence and erasure of lives, she refrains from villainizing the men who serve the state. Follow our team of columnists and reporters who write about the media. For far too long, they and their progeny have held power to shape the political understanding of our social worlds. Perhaps thats their victory. Like you train for a marathon, you train to be hopeful everyday. Barkha Dutt: India has made its point in Pakistan. 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. Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) / Twitter Follow Suchitra Vijayan @suchitrav Author: Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. How did you achieve empathy in your writing, without the privileged lens that is common in journalistic canon? When the book finally came out, India was undergoing the deadly 2nd wave. We thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. Vijayan reserves her own impressions for later, and allows us to know these people intimately. Perhaps there are lessons to learn from that. 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. Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. Such writings have long been implicated in the history of colonial ethnographic practices, where native informants are poised to become the voices of the empire. More importantly, as Babasaheb would argue, the political revolution was never accompanied by a social revolution. It has taken me over a decade to get here. Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India ; Suchitra Vijayan, Context/ Westland Books, 699. No one can write a book alone. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). It is always Bollywood, the ascent of Priyanka Chopra, or the diasporic loneliness. This discrepancy is just one example of the confusion and misinformation spread to the public by deeply flawed media reports. 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. Ali lived right on the edge of the India-Bangladesh border. Yes, men who act as petty sovereigns are everywhere. 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. 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? As an attorney, 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 Iraqi refugees. Not mine. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. She is actively involved in circulating urgent and underrepresented news from the world through her online platform. There are some brilliant writers writing on these issuesthe problem is always that these voices dont make it to the mainstream. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. I test my practice of writing or being a photographer against this rule. The Author Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. 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 (Author of Midnight's Borders) - Goodreads The pandemic showed us that crises and recurrent disasters that annihilate our lives are here to stay. 2:16.
Unreliable Witnesses - Boston Review There are some notable exceptions, but they are an exception. Keywords: LTTE love jihad Beef politics Hindu Nationalism Kashmir Vijayan shows a keen eye for detail as she presents these diverse lives.
Suchitra Vijayan on Twitter: ""The historical unity of the ruling 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. How do you think this shapes climate justice? If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. Were there times when you doubted your own ability to record and document these people's stories?
Suchitra Vijayan | The Caravan Is that a probable solution? Includes previously unreleased investigation under #JackStraw. Beyond the confusion over the death tolls at Balakot, news organizations variously reported that between 25 and 350 kilograms of the explosive RDX was used in the attack, when no such information was officially released. Excellent interview, brave insights and critical reflections! 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. Midnights Borders, a work of narrative reportage, is the fruit of this journey. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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. In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value. 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. The show deals with interesting international happenings. Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. But it needs to do more for peace. 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. We know that the purpose of borders has kept changing for nations. The post-Cold War and 90s rhetoric of a borderless world that accompanied globalisation also kick-started massive border fencing projects in India. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. 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.
Opinion | After Pulwama, the Indian media proves it is the BJP's Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. A: Writers are very strange creatures. Excerpts from the #BBC documentary telecast about PM . 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.
FII Interviews: Suchitra Vijayan Talks About Marginalisation 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.. 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. However, at work, Tiwari is in his element.
A Seven Year, 9,000-Mile Journey Along India's Contested Land Borders . 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. They cannot be abusive or personal. In recent years, the narrative of hate has escalated with the reelection of the right-wing Narendra Modi government in 2019. 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 . 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. 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. It definitely doesnt help when trying to hold a powerful state accountable. Also, we shouldn't forget that the border making project is central to capitalist and neoliberal logic. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. 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. 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. Good, honest and non-polemical writing has always forced us to confront the lies we tell ourselves. This book ate into so much of my life. 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. I think the way that news and mostly disinformation makes its way to us, we think of violence in very particular waysas disjointed. Your email address will not be published. MacAdam reviews Suchitra Vijayan's book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Read More. She is currently working on her first novel. The Indian media must learn to portray the conflict and human rights violations in the region in a more nuanced way, and not reduce Kashmir to a catalogue of death, destruction and emergency laws. suchitrav. The constant making and remaking of who is a citizen, who is not, is accompanied by a profoundly dehumanising process. 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. The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. I havent spoken or celebrated with my friends in Kashmir or Assam. 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. In an early chapter of the book, you talk about how new worlds are created by the people at Indias borders. The two press briefings by the foreign secretary and Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson entertained no questions. Q: What struck me about your work was its immersive style. Q: You frequently describe certain borders as porous. Suchitra Vijayanis a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. When fires burn down large swathes of what were peoples homeswhat borders will you impose when climate change will fundamentally remake them? 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. There is a lot to learn and unlearn, and a writer and a photographer should respond to a political moment, and the work should be a reflection of those practices. I now think twice about calling friends, worried if this might put them at risk. 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. 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. Invariably its the writer who is the protagonist. 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.". In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. Rumpus: Can we please talk about Priyanka Chopra, and how her rise is seen as a marker of brown achievement? 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. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. 6,253 Followers, 902 Following, 1,165 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitravijayan) First, the escalation in the counterinsurgency war within the Kashmir Valley under which hundreds of activists were arrested and several Kashmiri civilians killed in gun battles was grievously underreported. We are all complicit in upholding and maintaining this fear. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. Itembodied young Indias grand ambitions and aspired to a nation made of men and women equally protected by the law. You can find them onYouTube&Linkedin,and can also check out their websitehere. They all have very specific and carefully curated origin/immigrant stories that cleverly exploit the model minority trope. How do you protect this child? 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.. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. Suchitras account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful.
Suchitra Vijayan Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). The result is a gripping, urgent dispatch from a modern India in crisis, and the full and vivid portrait of the country weve long been missing.
Global Ethics Review: Midnight's Borders, with Suchitra Vijayan 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. 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. Similarly, motherhood changed me; it radicalised me. Rumpus: Why do you think the ever-growing canon of Indian American literature has barely tried to engage with these conversations through their stories? 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. If she wasnt real she would be a marriage between a meme and parody. And join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member. 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. I had a very stable home to come back to. On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked in Pulwama in India-administered Kashmir, resulting in the death of 40 Indian officers. [8] On 7 March 2017, she applied for divorce. This is the backdrop against which we map how border practices and policies have played out in India. It took me 8 years to write the book. 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.