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. If you want to support the work that goes behind publishing high-quality feminist media content, please consider becoming a FII member. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. I can see small cracks beginning to appear. The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. What do these events have in common? In the popular depictions of India circulating in the US, we rarely see the stories that the nations jingoistic governments have shoved under the carpet. They both have pregnant daughters, a fact that becomes significant as the novel progresses. Is secularism a good thing? This is such an insidious conversation to have; this was even before Adani bought it. 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. Rumpus: How hard was it to write nonfiction about such a violent contemporary history? Even the diasporic experience is often told through this limited lens, without taking into account how diverse the immigrant experience in this country is. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. 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. 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. 1 author picked Midnight's Borders as one of their favorite books, . She is actively involved in circulating urgent and underrepresented news from the world through her online platform. 2:16. Like you train for a marathon, you train to be hopeful everyday. More importantly, as Babasaheb would argue, the political revolution was never accompanied by a social revolution. It is meant to manufacture an underclass of rightless subjects. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad soon claimed responsibility. Modi met with senior police officers and ordered them not to intervene as violence raged. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories. 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? Could you comment on how much our present border security policies have changed in the last few years? J.G.P. The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. The pandemic showed us that crises and recurrent disasters that annihilate our lives are here to stay. Sign in. 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. And our language helps us imagine a vision that is truly just, beautiful and ethical. 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. In this stunning work of narrative reportagefeaturing over 40 original photographswe hear from those whose stories are never told: from children playing a cricket match in no-mans-land, to an elderly man living in complete darkness after sealing off his home from the floodlit border; from a woman who fought to keep a military bunker off of her land, to those living abroad who can no longer find their family history in India. The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. Also, hope is a discipline. Atmany points in Midnight's Borders, we see several men in positions of power view the women, who cross over from the 'other' side, as violable. 6,253 Followers, 902 Following, 1,165 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitravijayan) The Indian government bears some responsibility for this: Amid this brinkmanship between the two nuclear powers, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not address the nation directly. There is also a lot of deep-seated misogyny, casteism, and anti-Black racism in our communities that need to be addressed. Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. She is the executive director of the Polis Project . But who carries the responsibility of that fear? Its a practice. While Nehru was still declaring this victory, the slaughter began. Perhaps that offers some protection? What moral and political stands we should take in the face of ongoing oppression. Can you write about loss without living? Also, a book is an act of community; it has many midwives. Suchitra Vijayan is the executive director of the Polis Project. How did writing this book affect you? 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. MacAdam reviews Suchitra Vijayan's book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Read More. Instead, we need to ask what fate awaits us. Suchitra Vijayan. Also read: Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? Categories. A relatively small group of people runs it. It is necessary to speak truth to power through our art. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister at law and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?". Chopra is popular because she satisfies a certain need for validationthe trope of brown representation where the mere act of being represented is seen as a singular virtue worth applauding. But for me hope is radical; hope is the last bastion of our defense. They dont. In 1971, East Pakistan seceded and became Bangladesh. Its a dangerous moment where the figure of the rights-bearing citizen is being reduced to a consuming subject. I am repeating what I have said before, "Kashmir is Indias greatest moral and political failure. 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. Its when we lose hope that we believe that we have lost everything. I think the way that news and mostly disinformation makes its way to us, we think of violence in very particular waysas disjointed. I want to clarify that what I witnessed or the violence inflicted on my father is not the same as what over eight million Kashmiris have endured. Anvisha Manral March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST It is here that even the most civilised amongst us begin to make excuses for repression, brutality, and violence. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. Her work looks at theories of violence, war, and human nature. I particularly loved the fact that all our couple shots were very natural and came out truly . Professor Nandita Sharmas work is an excellent way to engage with this history. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. 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 two press briefings by the foreign secretary and Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson entertained no questions. Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. Respond to our political present. I had to write and rewrite this book so many times. I left a few names out in the acknowledgment, worrying if it might direct more trouble towards them. Already a subscriber? O. What do you think the future holds? Pushback is such a benign word, isnt it? But eventually we need all kinds of stories and arguments to emerge from what is now considered Indian American writing. Bigotry is also big business. After her Twitter page was hacked in 2016, and the pictures and videos released by the hacker went viral under #suchileaks, following a spate of bad press owing to the fact that she only released a statement on Sun News saying she was focused on shutting the page down, Suchitra left for London to pursue culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu. The failure to forget affects how I use images, and texts; my photographic practice and also how I put everything together. Even those who now write about Modis India, will never write about Brahmanism or be critical of how caste works in the diaspora. 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 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. What is the function of seeing and documenting? I was much younger when I took on this project, so I wanted to prove those people wrong. History and memory is localwhich means its almost impossible to write about India. What I was most concerned about and still am are the people in the book and their safety. Its not comparable and should not be compared. 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. Barkha Dutt: India has made its point in Pakistan. India and the US are discussing the possibility of jointly developing and manufacturing an extended-range variant of the M777 ultra lightweight howitzer, Qin's first in-person meeting with EAM Jaishankar came on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers conclave in New Delhi amid the over 34-month-long border row in eastern Ladakh. Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer, lawyer, political essayist, and a lecturer. 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. 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? 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. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved. Our investigation into the Indian medias reporting on the Pulwama attack found that many reports were contradictory, biased, incendiary and uncorroborated. I have two tests. 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. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. It is the fragility of human lives that remains at the very center of the book. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . 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. 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. Speculation and conjecture were repeated ad infinitum, and several journalists even took to Twitter to encourage the Indian army. They continue to. Aruni Kashyap writes in English, and his native language Assamese. ( I hate this word, voiceless, by the way). She responded to an ad for the post of an RJ in Radio Mirchi. I havent spoken or celebrated with my friends in Kashmir or Assam. A:I dont think an ethical or moral compass exists nowI dont know if it ever existed. I have no formal training as a writer or a photographer, I taught myself and learnt by doing, failing and creating my own grammar. Then my agent said, Suchitra, you know, I think youre hiding behind your academic language. We once asked these questions, even if there were no clear answers or consensus. It offers brief historical notes on how the nations current borders came into force alongside accounts of increasing militarisation, disputes, little massacres and forgotten pogroms, no-mans-lands, and the people through whom the border runs like barbed wire. 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. You need to write what you seethats why you started this project.. But the inclination to still treat India as a democracy remains. We need to think about border practices, policing, and national security policies within the larger historical and political contexts. As a graduate student at Yale, she researched and documented stories along the Af-Pak border and was embedded with the US forces in Afghanistan. One feedback I often got was that I had to put more of myself in this book. As I say in the book, Kashmir changed me, it gave me political and moral clarity to always stand with those fighting for their peoples freedom and dignity. A consistent ethical framework within the media hasnt existed for a long time. The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. We need more writers from Indias Northeast, Kashmir, Indigenous, Dalit, and Muslim communities to tell stories that help complete the canvas of narratives about India. 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. Propaganda and poison work in far more sophisticated ways. [1] Career [ edit] 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. I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. 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. suchitrav. Keywords: LTTE love jihad Beef politics Hindu Nationalism Kashmir What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? 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. In her15,000-kilometre journey, spread over seven years, Vijayan mulls over the meaning of freedom, belongingness in a land of imagined communities, created by territorial demarcations. There was an NDTV programme, where somebody said Should Indias constitution be secularist? A lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. Its easy for Indian Americans and diaspora Desis to become tokens who speak of diversity but not equity or representation, talk of caste as culture and whitewash Hindutva. Her YouTube channel 'Suchislife' has all her updated work. Despite the failures in investigation and prosecution related to criminal trials arising out of the pogrom, the judiciary has projected itself as an able and willing neutral arbiter of justice that is not complicit with the deep structures of Hindutvas anti-Muslim prejudice https://t.co/EFf5bxYEBt, True societal change has always emerged from the ground-up, with communities fighting for their own freedom and dignity. There are instances when you and some voices in the narrative question their documentation practice. Bhawan Singh, who photographed the Nellie massacre, said he had never seen anything like it. It was not going to be easy as she quickly found out. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. I came with my privileges, also lets not forget prejudices. Suchitras account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. This was something I had to resist from the get-go. 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. 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 . 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.
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