Parts of Pakistan have already been consumed by the water. Second, we can no longer have certain conversationsconversations are now impossible. 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. According to a new World Health Organization report, we lost as many as 4.7 million people in India. 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. 10 books like The Home and the World (picked by 7,000+ authors) 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. Q: Since publishing the book last year, what reflections have you hadgiven that its relevance is increasingly ascertained by 2022s interpersonal and geopolitical violence? The credit goes to my agent Lucy Cleland who suggested this title. Unreliable Witnesses - Boston Review In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value. You become responsible for a human being. I have two tests. 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 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. 6,253 Followers, 902 Following, 1,165 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitravijayan) 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. 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. When your investigations in Kashmir came to an end, what changes did you observe in your 'grammar of dissent'? Rumpus: What do you think is the value of well-crafted literary nonfiction in sustaining conversations about equality and justice? [2] She became known as Rj Suchi, with her popular morning show Hello Chennai. They dont. 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. 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. Suchitra Vijayan undertook a 9000 mile journey over seven years to India's borderlands to write Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. Why the Modi government lies. What we can do is attempt micro-histories of events, timelines, or local communities. Suchitra was married to actor Karthik Kumar between 2005 and 2017. The emotional cost is something else altogether. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. Suchitra Vijayan. Once we eliminated the spectacle, we realized that the Indian public got very little information about the Pulwama attack and its aftermath. Vijayan shows a keen eye for detail as she presents these diverse lives. 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. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. So here, 'Midnight' functions as a moment of violent birth, but also perhaps the foundational violence that becomes codified in various ways, especially in the bodies of people farthest away from power. Our borders had become a spectacle, and we the cheering mob, she says, as she calls for purging hatred for the sake of posterity. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. 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. The Indian State and the people of this Republic. Second, there were times when I ran out of money, when some said that such a book would not be published, when some declared that such a book could not be written. Check posts or bunkers were not part of the landscapes of my home. Instead, she shows the absurdity of the army apparatus that strives to comply with the narrative of patriotism. British India was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan on the eve of independence in August, 1947. In the same chapter of the book, Kamal says, "If I am an Indian, then why am I afraid?" The act of recording and documenting cannot be divorced from the inherent question of power. We once asked these questions, even if there were no clear answers or consensus. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories. Rumpus: The book utilizes more than one medium: photography, narrative nonfiction, journalism. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. Also read: Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? Gokhale claimed that it struck the biggest camp and that a large number of terrorists were killed. But for me hope is radical; hope is the last bastion of our defense. 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. [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]. 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. The original vision of the book also has newspaper cuttings, and found maps. It's a disorienting time when your library or what books you read can become evidence of sedition . Categories. " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. She lives in New York. I now think twice about calling friends, worried if this might put them at risk. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. The people whose lives are not just materials for the book, who are, in some ways, your co-conspirators in trying to make sense of the social reality. The two officers who avert the attack narrowly escape death but are left with broken bodies and broken lives. Is secularism a good thing? This is such an insidious conversation to have; this was even before Adani bought it. If you think about communities in resistance to immense violations, theyre all interconnected to climate justice. 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. Theyre screaming all the time, its just that we dont listen to them. 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. As a Bookshop affiliate, The Rumpus earns a percentage from qualifying purchases. You've mentioned in the text that you've spent your entire adult life thinking about state violence and justice because of a troubling incident in 1994 when your father was attacked. He was arrested based on fabricated evidence in the middle of a global pandemic, and he was denied bail and medical help. I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. 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. The public is sold a lie as the attack is framed as a gas leak. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. 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. Listen to Season 3 on Apple, Spotify and Google podcasts. She also embodies the upwardly mobile, privileged sections of the diaspora. A lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. 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. In Assam, Vijayan met people devastated by the National Register of Citizens process, with names of long-time residents missing from the final list, and in Kashmir she spent time with a family mourning the loss of their son in an encounter. Now, along with the medias legitimization of an ideology that promotes violence including riots and lynchings its performance after Pulwama leaves severe doubts as to whether it is engaged in journalism or the propagation of Hindu majoritarianism. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. How did you respond to that environment being in an extremely challenging position yourself? Thank you! We are consuming subjects in a surveillance economy, not citizens. Do you think the future is borderless? 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. This is the backdrop against which we map how border practices and policies have played out in India. O. Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. Author In Focus, Celebration, The Literary Journal. 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. Looking Beyond the Lines: Suchitra Vijayan's "Midnight's Borders" And join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member. How do you think the media ought to responsibly report on peoples lives and experiences? Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan - The Bangalore Review 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. Not everyone rejoiced in these new freedoms. No one would put themselves through the agony and pain of writing. I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. There was an NDTV programme, where somebody said Should Indias constitution be secularist? Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. 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. 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. The government, of course, denies this. Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from PSG Institute of Management. And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. In her new book 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. But who carries the responsibility of that fear? Suchitra Vijayan. 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