Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. 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). I spoke with Suchitra by email in July about Midnights Borders, the power of literary nonfiction, new possibilities of Indian American literature, neoliberal politics, and the importance of supporting underrepresented stories. Barkha Dutt: India has made its point in Pakistan. March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST. On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked. 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. Your prose is hopeful there. I find that profoundly inspiring. 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. Early on, I was very careful to acknowledge this. More importantly, as Babasaheb would argue, the political revolution was never accompanied by a social revolution. 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. Creative . Not everyone lived to see its promises. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. Author, lawyer and journalist, Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Cerebration editor Smita Maitra on her book Midnight's Borders, maps, fragmented identities and postcolonial nation-states. Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. 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? 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. 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. Rumpus: What do you think is the value of well-crafted literary nonfiction in sustaining conversations about equality and justice? I had to write and rewrite this book so many times. The constant making and remaking of who is a citizen, who is not, is accompanied by a profoundly dehumanising process. The government, of course, denies this. In this podcast, Vijayan discusses with host Alex Woodson her 9,000-mile journey through India's borderlands, which formed the basis of the book, and she discusses the violent and continuing history of the 1947 partition, the stark differences and similarities along South Asia's various borders, and what "citizenship" mean in India in 2021 and I think the way that news and mostly disinformation makes its way to us, we think of violence in very particular waysas disjointed. Even those who now write about Modis India, will never write about Brahmanism or be critical of how caste works in the diaspora. Itembodied young Indias grand ambitions and aspired to a nation made of men and women equally protected by the law. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? More from this author , Tags: Aruni Kashyap, Asian American, bollywood, Brahmanism, caste system, democracy, Hindu, Hinduism, Hinduphobia, Hindutva, immigrants, immigration, India, Indian American, Indian American literature, Leni Riefenstahl, Midnight's Borders, Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, model minority, Modi, Narendra Damodardas Modi, Narendra Modi, neoliberalism, photographs, photography, Polis Project, Politics, Priyanka Chopra, south asian, South Asian American, South Asian diaspora, Stan Swamy, Suchitra Vijayan, travel writing, Filed Under: Features & Reviews, Rumpus Original. 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. 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. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. All rights reserved. The emotional cost is something else altogether. Unreliable Witnesses - Boston Review Midnights Borders, a work of narrative reportage, is the fruit of this journey. When I left him (the first time), I had a one-year-old daughter. Looking Beyond the Lines: Suchitra Vijayan's "Midnight's Borders" 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. More Buying Choices 1,732.00 (16 Used & New offers) Audible Audiobook 0.00 Free with Audible trial 586.00 ( 9 ) In addition, she is an award- winning photographer, the founder, and executive director of the Polis Project, a hybrid research and journalism organization. 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. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. 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. Second, we can no longer have certain conversationsconversations are now impossible. By Suchitra Vijayan, Why should I read it? Vijayan: Chopra and others like her are a reflection of how popular culture and virality inform discourse and shape it. And join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member. 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. 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. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. I now think twice about calling friends, worried if this might put them at risk. Its an immense privilege to be able to write and be published. Her career as a playback singer now spans Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films and she has several hits in all these languages to her credit. We need more such books. Aruni Kashyap writes in English, and his native language Assamese. 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. I wrote a book along with it comes love, scorn, and sometimes even ridicule. 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. I particularly loved the fact that all our couple shots were very natural and came out truly . Lets take Indias English language media, cultural-artistic elite, and publishing. 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. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. Vijayan reserves her own impressions for later, and allows us to know these people intimately. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. Is that a probable solution? A Seven Year, 9,000-Mile Journey Along India's Contested Land Borders We once asked these questions, even if there were no clear answers or consensus. Once we eliminated the spectacle, we realized that the Indian public got very little information about the Pulwama attack and its aftermath. Some people later chose not to be included because they feared repercussions, especially as the NRC process started playing out. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. Vijayan began her journey in Kolkata. In an early chapter of the book, you talk about how new worlds are created by the people at Indias borders. History and memory is localwhich means its almost impossible to write about India. Her writing and award-winning photography culminated in Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India, which was recently shortlisted for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF book prize. What do these events have in common? We are consuming subjects in a surveillance economy, not citizens. You need a community of people to support you. In another essay from 2019, I write about the banality of bearing witness as an excuse to produce extractive work. These questions about documentation practices started long before I started this book project, and I learnt along the way. Also, I am an unknown and insignificant entity. Dear reader, this article is free to read and it will remain free but it isnt free to produce. 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. Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. 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. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. Part-time Faculty suchitra@thepolisproject.com. The photographs add another dimension to the book, and could have been used more. What it means to photograph, write, report and document is an ongoing process. A memorable, humane museum of forgotten stories that we must all read and remember. M, What experiences and lives unfold in these pages. MacAdam reviews Suchitra Vijayan's book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Read More. Copyright 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. Empathy is taught by our communities; we are brought up with it. To repurpose an old sayingall infamy is now good virality. The complexities of the Naga peace process were apparent on a visit to remote villages of Tuensang district where many of the women remained silent with others admitting they had never encountered an outsider, except Indian soldiers. This affects who gets to document, and whom. 1 author picked Midnight's Borders as one of their favorite books, . Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. 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). @suchitrav. Growing up I was surrounded by people who emphasised the community over anything else. In her new book 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. 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. When your investigations in Kashmir came to an end, what changes did you observe in your 'grammar of dissent'? He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Georgia and is the author of The House With a Thousand Stories, His Fathers Disease, and There Is No Good Time for Bad News. And our language helps us imagine a vision that is truly just, beautiful and ethical. It definitely doesnt help when trying to hold a powerful state accountable. 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. Then my agent said, Suchitra, you know, I think youre hiding behind your academic language. Opinion | After Pulwama, the Indian media proves it is the BJP's I havent spoken or celebrated with my friends in Kashmir or Assam. 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. How did you respond to that environment being in an extremely challenging position yourself? One feedback I often got was that I had to put more of myself in this book. Suchitra Vijayan, Newspapers in a Kashmiri home In August 2014 I travelled to the border town of Uri while researching my upcoming book, Borderlands. Suchitra is a sought-after performer at corporate and other such stage shows. One of the reasons I kept writing was of course all the people I met: their love and time and generosity. Many come from immense privileges of caste, class, wealth, access, and resources. Also read: Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? She has a sister named, Sunitha. She is currently working on her first novel. So lets be very clear that Indias intellectual literary landscape is deeply problematic, feudal, and alienating," says Suchitra Vijayan to FII, Featured Image Source: Updated Date: Firstpost - All Rights Reserved. The world we know is already being remade in ways we cant fathom. I wanted to make sure that I was writing in a way that was honest and true to my initial reactions, and capture that without centering myself. 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. I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. They continue to. [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]. We have already chosen silence and obfuscation even before the pushback has arrived. Rumpus: Were you trying to write a hybrid-genre book? It is always Bollywood, the ascent of Priyanka Chopra, or the diasporic loneliness. Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? Acted as the General Manager for a day and motivated employees to work for the same purpose to reinforce team . Thats part of the political imagination that I believe we need for political movements or any sustained acts of resistance. I think these are fundamental questions of freedom and dignity. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories.. As a trained barrister, I used to believe in the concept of justicebut now I simply call this freedom and dignity. Also, hope is a discipline. There was an NDTV programme, where somebody said Should Indias constitution be secularist? This is a challenging task for the writer. How did you achieve empathy in your writing, without the privileged lens that is common in journalistic canon? suchitrav. Also, a book is an act of community; it has many midwives. They all have very specific and carefully curated origin/immigrant stories that cleverly exploit the model minority trope. If it does, I have failed. Professor Nandita Sharmas work is an excellent way to engage with this history. Is secularism a good thing? This is such an insidious conversation to have; this was even before Adani bought it. The Rumpus is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. But the inclination to still treat India as a democracy remains. None of this helps in telling richer, more textured stories. Suchitra Vijayan | The Nation Global Ethics Review: Midnight's Borders, with Suchitra Vijayan India shares borders with a host of . 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. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. Over the past 15 years, small democratisation through social media has enabled challenging these practices. Q: You had to deal with a lot of ethical considerations as a writer and photographer, which echo throughout your and your fellow journalists work, as evaluated in your book.
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