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. 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. Suchitra Vijayan is the executive director of the Polis Project. The world we know is already being remade in ways we cant fathom. 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). 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. History and memory is localwhich means its almost impossible to write about India. From the epoch of Empire to the nation-state, border making is fundamentally a political project that creates, sustains, and reinforces inequality. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. How did writing this book affect you? 'Music I Like', an album of Suchitra's renditions of Mahakavi Bharatiyaar's poetry, set to contemporary tunes and music, released by Universal Music, was a turning point in her career. They are arriving from various cities and people I have never met. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. 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? 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. He writes TPS reports for an overbearing boss who calls him the minimum guy. He has replaced eating vada pav at ungodly hours on the streets with overpriced salads. And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. 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. Find him on Twitter at @AruniKashyap. 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. Also read: Examining My Caste And Its History Is Eye-Opening: A Personal Essay On Casteism And Ancestry. Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. The book was called ``a genre- bending book of nonfictionmade of stories, encounters, vignettes, and photographsabout home, belonging, and displacement.`` Her essays, photographs, and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Nation, The Boston Review, Foreign Policy, Lit Hub, Rumpus, Electric literature, NPR, NBC, and BBC. First, does my work aid the powerful? Some even dressed for the occasion in combat gear. Nonfiction, Travel, Fiction Member Since February 2021 edit data Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. At worst, its navel gazing peppered with white guilt, but always politically vacuous. This article was published more than4 years ago. 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. Another name that came to my mind was 'An Outline of the Republic', only to discover Siddhartha Debs excellent book by the same name. Similarly, motherhood changed me; it radicalised me. Rumpus: In such a climate, what do you think is the responsibility of the diasporic Indian writer? Where does that leave us? Chopra has long been neoliberalisms reluctant feminist, hawking giving a voice and sisterhood while silencing those who question her. The images, however, are not all bereft of hope, as children from both India and Bangladesh use a border pillar as a cricket stump, while men on opposing sides of the war on terror in Afghanistan gather around in a cold evening, smoking and sharing stories. 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. She was part of a music band at PSG. As a spy working for TASC, Srikant Tiwari, played by Manoj Bajpayee, has to juggle being an underpaid government employee as well as an absent husband and a perpetually late and distracted father. Vijayan reserves her own impressions for later, and allows us to know these people intimately. And join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member. 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. More Buying Choices 1,732.00 (16 Used & New offers) Audible Audiobook 0.00 Free with Audible trial 586.00 ( 9 ) Its a vicious cycle. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. How do you think the media ought to responsibly report on peoples lives and experiences? The photographs add another dimension to the book, and could have been used more. 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. How did you achieve empathy in your writing, without the privileged lens that is common in journalistic canon? Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile . 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. A literary community. When I finished writing, I had become much richer in many waysnot in a material waybut through a community. Were there times when you doubted your own ability to record and document these people's stories? 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. British India was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan on the eve of independence in August, 1947. Its a dangerous moment where the figure of the rights-bearing citizen is being reduced to a consuming subject. A place to read, on the Internet. So I try to learn and listen, and again, as I say in this book, "It is not my goal to 'bear witness' or 'give voice to the voiceless'. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. 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. 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. These may not be perfect worlds or even equal worlds, but they strive to be. In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. Part of this process is a need to turn the lens back at the powerful. Vijayan: Chopra and others like her are a reflection of how popular culture and virality inform discourse and shape it. I still do. No one is a stakeholder herethese are people, humans, citizens, who have been deprived of what the Ambedkarite constitution promised them. Theyre screaming all the time, its just that we dont listen to them. How do you think this inspiration from a variety of genres allowed you to tell underrepresented stories? 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. The failure to forget affects how I use images, and texts; my photographic practice and also how I put everything together. [1], Suchitra joined Sify for a year, after graduating. This affects who gets to document, and whom. In her new book The Rumpus: It is shocking how unaware the world is about the violence the Indian government has committed since independence on its border citizens. Rumpus: I believe your book contributes to an important conversation about India we must have right now in the United States, for its own sake. The book was called ``a genre-bending book of nonfictionmade There are some notable exceptions, but they are an exception. The travel, the people they encounter, and the political events they record quickly become cameos. This is not the violent right wing and their siege; its centrist and liberal media that is also relitigating history, deconstructing the core values of the constitution. 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. Indian Foreign Secretary V.K. She still does a radio show called Flight983 on Radio Mirchi, on Sunday evenings (79 pm). How do you think your book contributes to the larger conversation about India? In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile journey along the borders of India, and interviews people living in these liminal spaces. Invariably its the writer who is the protagonist. Apart from his long-suffering wife, no one else in the family knows that he is a spy. The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. 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. They are also essentially bureaucratic, judicial, and procedural acts of terror. Contributions for the charitable purposes ofThe Rumpus must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Creative . That, perhaps, is the only way to avoid further destruction in the region. Sayantika Mandal is an Indian writer. She lucidly explains the complicated history of the McMahon Line, how the India-China border is the result of a fabrication perpetuated by the British colonial administration. Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. It's a disorienting time when your library or what books you read can become evidence of sedition . It was not going to be easy as she quickly found out. Midnights Borders is part investigation, part meditation on the lines drawn on land or water that separate India from its neighbours. Rumpus: The book utilizes more than one medium: photography, narrative nonfiction, journalism. Could you comment on how much our present border security policies have changed in the last few years? Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). 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. Having been trained in law, Suchitra Vijayan initially worked at the United Nations war tribunals in Yugoslavia. Our borders had become a spectacle, and we the cheering mob, she says, as she calls for purging hatred for the sake of posterity. We thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. What is the function of seeing and documenting? 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. I dont think theres just one emotion that drives a writer to finish writing.