The pandemic showed us that crises and recurrent disasters that annihilate our lives are here to stay. Already a subscriber? The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. This might not seem like much, but it is absolutely essential. Many news channels are not only owned, operated or invested in by politically influential families, but also are sometimes run for the express purpose of advancing party positions. 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. When Vijayan meets him, he is inside his home with all the windows closed and sealed to snuff out light. Get your Rumpus merch in our online store. Chopra has long been neoliberalisms reluctant feminist, hawking giving a voice and sisterhood while silencing those who question her. 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. 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. 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. In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value. Also read: The History Of The Colonial State And The Unmaking Of The Tawaif. The world we know is already being remade in ways we cant fathom. Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. However, at work, Tiwari is in his element. 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. She writes about war, conflict . This is where I believe literary nonfiction becomes a powerful tool. Listen to Season 3 on Apple, Spotify and Google podcasts. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. The book is a prelude to what was coming, and is also a impassioned plea to my readers to ask some fundamental questions of what it means to live in a country like Indiawhat is the function of a state when its primary preoccupation is no longer the citizen but a performance of an ideology? @narendramodi & his role in the Gujarat Pogrom. Rumpus: What do you think is the value of well-crafted literary nonfiction in sustaining conversations about equality and justice? 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. At worst, its navel gazing peppered with white guilt, but always politically vacuous. There was an NDTV programme, where somebody said Should Indias constitution be secularist? Some even dressed for the occasion in combat gear. I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. This idea of responsibility gets obfuscated in many ways. 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. Her work looks at theories of violence, war, and human nature. 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. One of the ways she upholds the humane in this book is through her interaction with the men in the security forces. Vijayans book begins a much-needed conversation on thinking about freedom beyond the idea of nation and its illusory lines. 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? The book was called ``a genre-bending book of nonfictionmade In Midnight's Borders, Suchitra Vijayan meditates on belongingness, freedom and political implications of territorial demarcations 'The border making project is central to the capitalist and neoliberal logic,' Vijayan says. Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me, Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, FUNNY WOMEN: Excerpts from George Eliots, Rumpus Original Poetry: Two Poems by John A. Nieves, RUMPUS POETRY BOOK CLUB EXCERPT: WHY I WRITE LOVE POETRY IN A BURNING WORLD by Katie Farris, The Freedom of Form & Re-Entering Myths: An interview with A.E. Worse, we have been disciplined to accept injustice and inequality as given. I think the way that news and mostly disinformation makes its way to us, we think of violence in very particular waysas disjointed. 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. 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. These are stories of massive human rights violations committed by the Indian state in the countrys margins. The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. Its not sustainable, it fractures who we are, chips away and erodes what it fundamentally means to be human. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? She has a sister named, Sunitha. I find that profoundly inspiring. More Buying Choices 1,732.00 (16 Used & New offers) Audible Audiobook 0.00 Free with Audible trial 586.00 ( 9 ) Many TV newsrooms were transformed into caricatures of military command centers, with anchors assessing military technology and strategy (sometimes incorrectly). The Author Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. Jawaharlal Nehrus 'Tryst with Destiny'is a speech I have returned to over the past 20 years. We play an ever more important role in these times when there is a fascist authoritarian regime in India and a deeply racist police state in the US. The interview has been paraphrased and condensed for clarity, at the interviewers discretion. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike on an alleged militant training camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. Panitars division is as cruel as it is arbitrary: here, the houses on either side of one dusty lane occupy two neighbouring countries. A: This is a very loaded question. 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. Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. Suchitra was married to actor Karthik Kumar between 2005 and 2017. Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer, lawyer, political essayist, and a lecturer. I have no control over what comes next. We removed an image just before the printing to make sure the person was protected. Perhaps that offers some protection? Midnights Borders is part investigation, part meditation on the lines drawn on land or water that separate India from its neighbours. 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. Another name that came to my mind was 'An Outline of the Republic', only to discover Siddhartha Debs excellent book by the same name. Suchitra tweets @suchitrav. It took a long time to get the voice right. Vijayan creates a constellation of micro-histories of people who have lived through the violence . Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. India and its Borderlands: Suchitra Vijayan in Conversation with Sharjeel Usmani, Book talk with Suchitra Vijayan, author of Midnights Borders, Crisis at the Border: Contestation, Sovereignty, and Statelessness. This also decides who gets access, awards and accolades. ", "Documentary photography has amassed mountains of evidenceyetthe genre has simultaneously contributed much to spectacle, to retinal excitation, to voyeurism, to terror, envy, and nostalgia, and only a little to the critical understanding of the social world.". She has a sister named, Sunitha. How violence against women and girlsand even how sexual violence against men and boys (something we dont even talk about enough) is depictedis all seriously problematic. A memorable, humane museum of forgotten stories that we must all read and remember. M, What experiences and lives unfold in these pages. 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. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan falls in both categories. As Sari Begum's story [in the book] illustrates, 'A life where the violence of the border is not at the fence, or in the trenches, but at the center of 'their' and our 'universe'. From the epoch of Empire to the nation-state, border making is fundamentally a political project that creates, sustains, and reinforces inequality. 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. I am repeating what I have said before, "Kashmir is Indias greatest moral and political failure. You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. 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. This was something I had to resist from the get-go. But its also important to constantly take account of who is writing about this India to an Indian and global audience. Part-time Faculty suchitra@thepolisproject.com. Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. History and memory is localwhich means its almost impossible to write about India. 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. Check posts or bunkers were not part of the landscapes of my home. O. When fires burn down large swathes of what were peoples homeswhat borders will you impose when climate change will fundamentally remake them? Why dont people see the ground shifting beneath their feet? 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. 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. suchitrav. This is the age of erosion of citizenship rights, a kind of ongoing attrition against human rights, civil liberties, and in the case of India, an accelerated dilution of fundamental rights. As I travelled, I was very aware of these inherent power differences. I'mdyslexic, but have visual and episodic memory, which means I dream and relive moments. What is the function of seeing and documenting? [1] Career [ edit] What we can do is attempt micro-histories of events, timelines, or local communities. Q: Since publishing the book last year, what reflections have you hadgiven that its relevance is increasingly ascertained by 2022s interpersonal and geopolitical violence? This is a tightrope that you walk so well. But your book lays bare how differently India's borders are guarded from southern Bengal to the Line of Control. ). 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. They are arriving from various cities and people I have never met. There is something deeply flawed in the way we live today. Early on, the idea of bearing witness as a rhetorical tool and as a literary device became deeply problematic. 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. I felt the same way when I would prepare legal petitions for my clients. Stallings, Rumpus Original Fiction: The Litany of Invisible Things. 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 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? As she travelled 9000 miles over seven years across Indias borders, some drawn so hastily that they cut across fields, homes and courtyards, she met men, women and children, finishing with endless notebooks, over a thousand images and more than 300 hours of recorded conversations. Her quest took her to the farthest ends of the India-Bangladesh/ China/ Myanmar/ Pakistan borders. Not everyone rejoiced in these new freedoms. Your email address will not be published. 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). Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). [4] She also worked as a dubbing artist for popular heroines like Shriya Saran and Lakshmi Rai.[5]. What I was most concerned about and still am are the people in the book and their safety. Vijayan: A writers responsibility above all is to speak the truth and make sense of our social worlds. 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. Keywords: LTTE love jihad Beef politics Hindu Nationalism Kashmir Rumpus: The book derives its emotional strength and narrative energy from the stories of people you encounter at the borders. Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. 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 lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. There are also those who have previously been tacit, if not active, supporters of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Indian state. Acted as the General Manager for a day and motivated employees to work for the same purpose to reinforce team . Why do you think India has gotten away with this so far? Excellent interview, brave insights and critical reflections! Chopra cleverly uses womens empowerment, diversity, and the immigrant story as a facade to parrot and promote deeply problematic ideologies, takes, and stances. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. Perhaps there are lessons to learn from that. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. 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. 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.