We have already chosen silence and obfuscation even before the pushback has arrived. But, more importantly, I wanted my readers to walk away with a sense of empathy. I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. I felt the same way when I would prepare legal petitions for my clients. We dont document violence against the privileged like we would report violence against those without power. I dont have apprehensions. This is a tightrope that you walk so well. Vijayan: I wasnt trying to write a hybrid book; I was trying to tell the stories I encountered as a way to think about the moral and political realities of our lives. More importantly, as Babasaheb would argue, the political revolution was never accompanied by a social revolution. I still do. Is that a probable solution? She also embodies the upwardly mobile, privileged sections of the diaspora. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad soon claimed responsibility. 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 government, of course, denies this. 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. A consistent ethical framework within the media hasnt existed for a long time. Instead, she shows the absurdity of the army apparatus that strives to comply with the narrative of patriotism. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. I can see small cracks beginning to appear. @suchitrav. Second, border policies are about "performance and articulations of citizenship". A: This is a very loaded question. You need to write what you seethats why you started this project.. They dont. Finally, Indias current transformation, the aggressive posturing of an aspiring ethno-nationalist state, will have dire consequences for the people and the region. So the question is not: will the future be borderless? Over the past 15 years, small democratisation through social media has enabled challenging these practices. Part of this process is a need to turn the lens back at the powerful. Good, honest and non-polemical writing has always forced us to confront the lies we tell ourselves. 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. Although Vijayan critiques the state and its complicity in violence and erasure of lives, she refrains from villainizing the men who serve the state. She is the founder and executive director of The Polis Project, and the author of. 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. Sometimes they are no more, but your storytelling is so invigorating that the reader doesnt forget them. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. 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. It took me 8 years to write the book. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. 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. Vijayan creates a constellation of micro-histories of people who have lived through the violence . Aruni Kashyap writes in English, and his native language Assamese. When the book finally came out, India was undergoing the deadly 2nd wave. In recent years, the narrative of hate has escalated with the reelection of the right-wing Narendra Modi government in 2019. Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. She digs deep into colonial history to show how years of violence and consequential suffering has shaped these lives across generations. 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. All rights reserved. Find him on Twitter at @AruniKashyap. Say, for instance, do we need a James Nachtwey to fly to war-torn Bosnia? If you want to support the work that goes behind publishing high-quality feminist media content, please consider becoming a FII member. This is a challenging task for the writer. I dont want to make this about me. 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. 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. In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. He writes about how when the Constitution was adopted, "We are going to enter into a life of contradictions. She never did like my then-husband, which makes her a better judge of character than I was. [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]. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories. Indian Foreign Secretary V.K. Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? Our investigation into the Indian medias reporting on the Pulwama attack found that many reports were contradictory, biased, incendiary and uncorroborated. Sign in. 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. The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. 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. Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. They are arriving from various cities and people I have never met. Book reviews and author interviews with a Southern focus. The book was originally going to be a photographic body of work, which changed when I started writing. Worse, we have been disciplined to accept injustice and inequality as given. She studied Law, Political Science and International Relations, and was trained as a Barrister-at-Law and called to Bar at the Honourable Society of Inner Temple. Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). Time to let the diplomats do the hard talk. While Nehru was still declaring this victory, the slaughter began. Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value. We also need a fundamental reframing of language. 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 . Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan falls in both categories. A relatively small group of people runs it. In 1971, East Pakistan seceded and became Bangladesh. 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. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. She has a sister named, Sunitha. Q: Since publishing the book last year, what reflections have you hadgiven that its relevance is increasingly ascertained by 2022s interpersonal and geopolitical violence? One of the ways she upholds the humane in this book is through her interaction with the men in the security forces. And this is always at the expense of others. 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. As a Bookshop affiliate, The Rumpus earns a percentage from qualifying purchases. You dont need a Leni Riefenstahl today. 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. At worst, its navel gazing peppered with white guilt, but always politically vacuous. (Stay up to date on new book releases, reviews, and more with The Hindu On Books newsletter. These are edited excerpts from the interview: 'Midnight' seems to be a metaphor for multiple things both freeing and frightening. As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. From the epoch of Empire to the nation-state, border making is fundamentally a political project that creates, sustains, and reinforces inequality. That, perhaps, is the only way to avoid further destruction in the region. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. That changes how you write and photograph a place. Suchitra is a sought-after performer at corporate and other such stage shows. 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. We are consuming subjects in a surveillance economy, not citizens. Qin took charge as Chinese foreign minister in December, succeeding Wang Yi. In these circumstances, the lives of people inhabiting the sketchy borderlands has become all the more vulnerable, and fragile. Its not comparable and should not be compared. The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. I fear we are losing that cosmopolitanism of small places. This also decides who gets access, awards and accolades. She is currently working on her first novel. [1], Suchitra joined Sify for a year, after graduating. There is also a lot of deep-seated misogyny, casteism, and anti-Black racism in our communities that need to be addressed. Suchitra Vijayan: The Indian state has always used excessive and extrajudicial violence on communities that resist, whether its the borderlands, peripheries, or mainland Now the international viewfor instance while the Gujarat riots of 2002 brought critical international media attention and criticism, and [current Prime Minister] Modi was banned from entering the US, India was able to effectively manage global public opinion. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. How did you arrive at this stylistic juncture where you manage to tell the stories of these people who are radically less privileged than you without appropriating them? Chopra cleverly uses womens empowerment, diversity, and the immigrant story as a facade to parrot and promote deeply problematic ideologies, takes, and stances. 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. 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. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. 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 trades. All along the border, the common refrain is, It feels like Partition is still alive., A story from near Jalpaiguri in north Bengal, that of a man named Ali, is heartbreaking. 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? In her new book We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. A:I dont think an ethical or moral compass exists nowI dont know if it ever existed. India has consistently warred against its own citizens; this book is about some of these wars. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved. What moral and political stands we should take in the face of ongoing oppression. 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. You can find them onYouTube&Linkedin,and can also check out their websitehere. No one is a stakeholder herethese are people, humans, citizens, who have been deprived of what the Ambedkarite constitution promised them. 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. 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. Suchitra Vijayan. It is here that even the most civilised amongst us begin to make excuses for repression, brutality, and violence. The two officers who avert the attack narrowly escape death but are left with broken bodies and broken lives. Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. Its an immense privilege to be able to write and be published. What connects these messages is deep empathy and a willingness to engage with the books stories, ideas, and arguments. You can carefully craft a narrative of immigrant success but act tone-deaf about the ongoing refugee crisis. How did you achieve empathy in your writing, without the privileged lens that is common in journalistic canon? There is something deeply flawed in the way we live today. What do these events have in common? In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. What we can do is attempt micro-histories of events, timelines, or local communities. 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. Growing up I was surrounded by people who emphasised the community over anything else. 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. In Nellie (Assam) too, where over 3,000 Muslims were killed in 1983, people stared at Vijayan in confusion, no one comes here anymore, she was told. But it needs to do more for peace. Check posts or bunkers were not part of the landscapes of my home. No one would put themselves through the agony and pain of writing. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister at law and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. What are those ethical, moral, and political lines? 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. My friend Ritesh Uttamchandani said this once, the lens that elusive distance between the photographer and the photographed is often impossible to bridge. Early on, I was very careful to acknowledge this. We still argue if something should be a massacre, a pogrom, or a riot. But your book lays bare how differently India's borders are guarded from southern Bengal to the Line of Control. A lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. 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 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. I cant think in terms of the future being borderless, I can only think in terms of fracturing. There are already about 20 million climate refugees around South Asias borderlands. Lets take Indias English language media, cultural-artistic elite, and publishing. When Vijayan meets him, he is inside his home with all the windows closed and sealed to snuff out light.

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