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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. This discrepancy is just one example of the confusion and misinformation spread to the public by deeply flawed media reports. 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. Accompanied by this globally, democracies are becoming more authoritarian and stripping people of their citizenshipreducing them to subjects, entrenching the fault lines of inequality. I can see how religious Hindu fanaticism has started to spread its tentacles in both the Democratic and the Republican parties, and this is primarily because of an absence of balanced stories about India. 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. 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. 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. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. Ten years later, you were in Kashmir, where you 'hoped to find answers' by talking to a family that had lost a son. The travel, the people they encounter, and the political events they record quickly become cameos. Thank you! No one can write a book alone. I feel very uncomfortable talking about this, or rather I dont know how to discuss this without centering myself. I particularly loved the fact that all our couple shots were very natural and came out truly . Copyright 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. To them he is a man who has settled into a job that has no future. We know that the purpose of borders has kept changing for nations. Midnight's Bordersis an exceptional read, but one that may make some uncomfortable. 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. @suchitrav. Can any of theTIMEsubscribers who loved that cover tell us now whats happening in South Sudan today? We need more such books. Q: What struck me about your work was its immersive style. Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer, lawyer, political essayist, and a lecturer. If you think about communities in resistance to immense violations, theyre all interconnected to climate justice. 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 . 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. But it needs to do more for peace. 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. 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. History and memory is localwhich means its almost impossible to write about India. India shares borders with a host of . When your investigations in Kashmir came to an end, what changes did you observe in your 'grammar of dissent'? Always. The credit goes to my agent Lucy Cleland who suggested this title. The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. Although Vijayan critiques the state and its complicity in violence and erasure of lives, she refrains from villainizing the men who serve the state. This book ate into so much of my life. 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. 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. Then my agent said, Suchitra, you know, I think youre hiding behind your academic language. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle. 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. I set out not to give voice to the voiceless, my aim was to put an ear to the ground and listen. The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. Vijayan shows a keen eye for detail as she presents these diverse lives. Rumpus: Why do you think the ever-growing canon of Indian American literature has barely tried to engage with these conversations through their stories? We live in a profoundly unequal society, where every day brings news of new devastation. The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. I have no formal training as a writer or a photographer, I taught myself and learnt by doing, failing and creating my own grammar. Perhaps that offers some protection? Not everyone lived to see its promises. With sharp political analyses, dense historical research and lyrical, image-rich prose, Vijayans journalism displays an inspiring ethic, one that is invested in the micro-histories of the small man, the one existing on the fringes of history and the one that most requires urgent representation. B, A book that will enlighten every citizen of every nation. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. The world we know is already being remade in ways we cant fathom. Instead, she shows the absurdity of the army apparatus that strives to comply with the narrative of patriotism. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. 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. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. From the epoch of Empire to the nation-state, border making is fundamentally a political project that creates, sustains, and reinforces inequality. Part of this process is a need to turn the lens back at the powerful. Speculation and conjecture were repeated ad infinitum, and several journalists even took to Twitter to encourage the Indian army. In these circumstances, the lives of people inhabiting the sketchy borderlands has become all the more vulnerable, and fragile. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. Thats part of the political imagination that I believe we need for political movements or any sustained acts of resistance. He drops and picks up his kids from school, pines for his old job and is concerned about the newly-formed government in Pakistanall the while trying to salvage his crumbling marriage. They cannot be abusive or personal. With profound empathy and a novelistic eye for detail, Vijayan brings us face to face with the brutal legacy of colonialism, state violence, and government corruption. The second season of The Family Man begins with Srikant Tiwari, a former intelligence officer of TASCa fictitious intelligence agency akin to the Research & Analysis Wingworking at an IT company. We still argue if something should be a massacre, a pogrom, or a riot. She has a sister named, Sunitha. Especially when you can be charged with sedition for a tweet or arrested for the crime of committing comedy while being Muslim. I have no control over what comes next. Theyre screaming all the time, its just that we dont listen to them. Are you expecting any pushback at all? O. To make matters worse, between 2013 and 2019, editors of channels and publications have been sacked and replaced, primarily because of their criticism of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. They dont. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. 1 author picked Midnight's Borders as one of their favorite books, . 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. 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. 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. As a bedouin who grew up listening to beautiful stories from beautiful storytellers around a fire, I was transported by her storytelling. We believe that literature builds communityand if reading The Rumpus makes you feel more connected, please show your support! 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. Parts of Pakistan have already been consumed by the water. A consistent ethical framework within the media hasnt existed for a long time. When I left him (the first time), I had a one-year-old daughter. I dont have apprehensions. The argument put forward was simple: India, like most countries, had its human rights violations, but these were characterized as the growing pains and maturation of the worlds largest democracy. How do you protect this child? ", "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.". I think this book will change the global conversation about India and shape what gets written in the future about India. And our language helps us imagine a vision that is truly just, beautiful and ethical. For instance, if you went to school with, say, Indias most powerful publisher, or your dad plays golf or socialised at the Gymkhana with the politically powerful and the culturally influential, then that system is built to get you the resources. 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. We see that during the journey, in a number of places, people stood in lines to speak with you, to show their paperwork to youhow did you negotiate the weight ofthose expectations, which might not have been explicit, but were still very much present? We have already chosen silence and obfuscation even before the pushback has arrived. First, does my work aid the powerful? What it means to photograph, write, report and document is an ongoing process. How did you achieve empathy in your writing, without the privileged lens that is common in journalistic canon? is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. But its also important to constantly take account of who is writing about this India to an Indian and global audience. Itembodied young Indias grand ambitions and aspired to a nation made of men and women equally protected by the law. We are consuming subjects in a surveillance economy, not citizens. Already a subscriber? And yet, the research and the history never overpowers the flow of the narrative. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. Vijayan: There is an elusive distance between the photographer and the photographed that cant be bridged. I am repeating what I have said before, "Kashmir is Indias greatest moral and political failure. I had to cut those out, as my editor felt this might not work. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister at law and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST. . 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. Lets take Indias English language media, cultural-artistic elite, and publishing. 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. 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. Firstly, when we talk about violence, we often talk about it only as communal violence, as if both communities have equal strength and power. Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. Yes, men who act as petty sovereigns are everywhere. Copyright 2023. My job was to make sure that their voices were centered. The two officers who avert the attack narrowly escape death but are left with broken bodies and broken lives. 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. The controversy surrounding the Rafale deal and allegations of corruption against the government were suddenly sidelined, as was the order for the eviction of more than a million forest dwellers (that was later stayed) and a hearing on the repeal of an important constitutional clause before the Supreme Court. On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked in Pulwama in India-administered Kashmir, resulting in the death of 40 Indian officers. She writes about war, conflict . [4] She also worked as a dubbing artist for popular heroines like Shriya Saran and Lakshmi Rai.[5]. 582.1K views. Why dont people see the ground shifting beneath their feet? You become responsible for a human being. Siaan On Being Queer And Being Online, FII Interviews: Journalist Meena Kotwal On Minority Politics, Journalism Today And The Caste Divide. At the end of it, I felt that I learnt more about myself, more about my home, I had becomeif not a better writer, an infinitely better human being, which is to say that one realises that theres always a Longue dure that one needs to consider, crave out time and space to think, train oneself not to always react. India has consistently warred against its own citizens; this book is about some of these wars. 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. 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'. Instead, we need to ask what fate awaits us. After Pulwama, the Indian media proves it is the BJPs propaganda machine, Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates, Fox News bosses scolded reporters who challenged false election claims, To fight defamation suit, Fox News cites election conspiracy theories. Gokhale claimed that it struck the biggest camp and that a large number of terrorists were killed. That, perhaps, is the only way to avoid further destruction in the region. Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from PSG Institute of Management. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . We must realise that its the grassroots media, who represent themselves, document what mainstream media ignores, and bring to notice what is important. 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. How do you think this shapes climate justice? 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. In Midnight's Borders, barrister, political analyst, and writer Suchitra Vijayan documentsmany such telling accounts of lives both growing and barely getting by alongIndian borderlands. In terms of violence, there is also this tendency to photograph and display the bodies of marginalised communities when they experience violence. Suchitra Vijayan. ). Christopher Clary: India and Pakistan resort to the diplomacy of violence and flirt with catastrophe, Hafsa Kanjwal: As India beats its war drums over Pulwama, its occupation of Kashmir is being ignored. 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 test my practice of writing or being a photographer against this rule. When fires burn down large swathes of what were peoples homeswhat borders will you impose when climate change will fundamentally remake them? Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). 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. 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: Its a very generous reading, and thanks for that. Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. Its a vicious cycle. A poll asked if its OK to be white. Heres why the phrase is loaded. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. 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. She digs deep into colonial history to show how years of violence and consequential suffering has shaped these lives across generations. The book was originally going to be a photographic body of work, which changed when I started writing. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. Updated Date: We see that more clearly when you decide against photographing children at the India-Bangladesh border. 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. Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. He was arrested based on fabricated evidence in the middle of a global pandemic, and he was denied bail and medical help. Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile journey along the borders of India, and interviews people living in these liminal spaces. Suchitra Vijayan. In an interview with Firstpost,Vijayan talks about her book, the militarisation of borders, ethno-nationalism, and the politics of documentation. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. 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). While Nehru was still declaring this victory, the slaughter began. She perfectly captured the happiness and the intimacy of the occasion, the warmth of all the people present, and the splendor of the venue. Also, a book is an act of community; it has many midwives. Your email address will not be published. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. Three hundred million people who had been considered less than subjects under the British rule, divided for years by religion, language, class, and caste, would all be united under one book: the revolutionary Constitution given to India by Babasaheb Ambedkar. We live in a surveillance economy where we are constantly just bearing witness we are record keepers, unwitting spies, and voyeurs. Rumpus: The book utilizes more than one medium: photography, narrative nonfiction, journalism. 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. Many TV newsrooms were transformed into caricatures of military command centers, with anchors assessing military technology and strategy (sometimes incorrectly). Also, we shouldn't forget that the border making project is central to capitalist and neoliberal logic. Her writing has appeared in The Citron Review, Dukool Magazine, Cerebration, Feminism in India, Times of India (Spellbound edition), and others. She is not alone. For instance, a border security personnel tells her how he failed to capture a photograph of a porcupine after spending half an hour trying to fit a helmet on its head, because he is bored and lonely. It is truly the treason of the intellectuals. We could have attributed this to ignorance even a few years back; now its just silence thats deeply complicit in the Hindutva project. In recent years, the narrative of hate has escalated with the reelection of the right-wing Narendra Modi government in 2019. We also need a fundamental reframing of language. Get your Rumpus merch in our online store. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. As a lawyer, journalist, and human rights activist who has worked in conflict-ridden territories of Kosovo, Egypt, Rwanda, and elsewhere, she has often met people scrambling for bare existence, caught in a no-mans land. 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. By Suchitra Vijayan, Why should I read it? Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. I find that profoundly inspiring. This was something I had to resist from the get-go. Why is this particular time of the day intrinsic to the book? 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. Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia In this era when Indian armed forces and the police act with absolute impunity, a handful of local news outlets play an essential role in reporting and. She responded to an ad for the post of an RJ in Radio Mirchi. A: I dont agree with this kind of framing, because its not that underrepresented people dont have voices. Vijayan: I would say I am hopeful. The Indian State and the people of this Republic. March 06, 2021 04:50 pm | Updated March 07, 2021 08:05 am IST. Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? Aruni Kashyap writes in English, and his native language Assamese. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. More Buying Choices 1,732.00 (16 Used & New offers) Audible Audiobook 0.00 Free with Audible trial 586.00 ( 9 ) I think these are fundamental questions of freedom and dignity. The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. Bhawan Singh, who photographed the Nellie massacre, said he had never seen anything like it. Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India ; Suchitra Vijayan, Context/ Westland Books, 699. A: This is a very loaded question. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. 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. Book reviews and author interviews with a Southern focus. And join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member. There was an NDTV programme, where somebody said Should Indias constitution be secularist? We need to think about border practices, policing, and national security policies within the larger historical and political contexts. But, more importantly, I wanted my readers to walk away with a sense of empathy. This Life Draws Attention to Life Behind Bars and the Transcendent Power of Rap, Wrestling with Reality in The Big Door Prize. What is the function of seeing and documenting? The Author Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. Travel to States like Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland in the Northeast which share borders with China and Myanmar required Inner Line Permits, BSF soldiers followed her everywhere on the West Bengal/ Bangladesh border, and in Kashmir she was summoned to meet the local inspector at Uri. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. My friend Ritesh Uttamchandani said this once, the lens that elusive distance between the photographer and the photographed is often impossible to bridge. Required fields are marked *.