Husain Haqqani: Pakistan released the Indian pilot. Some of the oldest resistances in our nation are those communities who have been fighting for their own homes from militarisation who seek to exploit their mineral rich home land for mining. 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. I had to write and rewrite this book so many times. Barrister. 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'. For far too long, they and their progeny have held power to shape the political understanding of our social worlds. 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. But the number of anonymous sources willing to disclose classified and conflicting information to reporters who cited them without corroboration points to a serious crisis in how information is reported to the public. Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. Suchitra Vijayan's Midnight's Borders | Youth Ki Awaaz Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. We need to think about border practices, policing, and national security policies within the larger historical and political contexts. Vijayan researches meticulously into official documents and conducts a series of interviews in an effort to uncover the murky truths behind the death of Hilal Ahmed Mir, a supposed militant killed by the military in an encounter in the disputed territory of Kashmir, or Felani Khatun, a 15-year-old girl who was shot when trying to cross the barbed wire at the porous India-Bangladesh border. Rumpus: Can we please talk about Priyanka Chopra, and how her rise is seen as a marker of brown achievement? Vijayan: There is an elusive distance between the photographer and the photographed that cant be bridged. Suchitras account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. ""The historical unity of the ruling classes is realized in the state." Antonio Gramsci" Some things are just not discussed anymore. Suchitra Vijayan on Twitter: ""The historical unity of the ruling Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility among the youth. Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) / Twitter Follow Suchitra Vijayan @suchitrav Author: Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. Its a dangerous moment where the figure of the rights-bearing citizen is being reduced to a consuming subject. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. In the middle of significant change, this fraught system cannot exist as it is. She was part of a music band at PSG. You dont need a Leni Riefenstahl today. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan. Its an immense privilege to be able to write and be published. 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. This income helps us keep the magazine alive. It seems that they have a different eye for these women, who they describe as cunning, deceitful, and in some cases, prostitutes'. 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. Even those who now write about Modis India, will never write about Brahmanism or be critical of how caste works in the diaspora. The result is a gripping, urgent dispatch from a modern India in crisis, and the full and vivid portrait of the country weve long been missing. A literary community. Love, passion, anger, the desire to make a point about something. Suchitra Vijayan on Twitter: "Excerpts from the #BBC documentary I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. Lets start with a very simple statement that everyone can agree on: the way were living right now cannot continue. Second, Indias transformation into a nuclear state and the Kargil War is another critical moment of change. 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. A place to read, on the Internet. In Midnight's Borders (Westland Publications, 2021), author and photographer Suchitra Vijayan travels the 9,000 miles of India's borders to understand what Partition did to individual lives and . 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. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. The events in Hathras did not happen at the border; neither did the murder and gang rape of two teenage girls in the Katra village of Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh. Early on, the idea of bearing witness as a rhetorical tool and as a literary device became deeply problematic. Is secularism a good thing? This is such an insidious conversation to have; this was even before Adani bought it. Ten years later, you were in Kashmir, where you 'hoped to find answers' by talking to a family that had lost a son. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. Although Vijayan critiques the state and its complicity in violence and erasure of lives, she refrains from villainizing the men who serve the state. They cannot be abusive or personal. 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. What changeshave youobserved in the way you treat your subject after finishing your journey and book? We still argue if something should be a massacre, a pogrom, or a riot. 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. In her book, she makes her intention clear at the very beginning, claiming that this endeavor is not to give voice to the voiceless but to critique the nation-state, its violence, and the arbitrariness of territorial sovereignty. She acknowledges that a book in its limited scope cannot really encapsulate the entirety of this journey, and it will remain more of a scrapbook, a collection of images, texts, poetry, and maps. Empathy is taught by our communities; we are brought up with it. 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? Vijayan creates a constellation of micro-histories of people who have lived through the violence . The entire episode is emblematic of a broader trend in Indian media. 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. Midnights Borders, a work of narrative reportage, is the fruit of this journey. Suchitra Vijayan: The Indian state has always used excessive and extrajudicial violence on communities that resist, whether its the borderlands, peripheries, or mainland Now the international viewfor instance while the Gujarat riots of 2002 brought critical international media attention and criticism, and [current Prime Minister] Modi was banned from entering the US, India was able to effectively manage global public opinion. She has also been appreciated for her honest and positive-humour-filled judging at reality shows like Vijay TV's Airtel Super Singer, Sun TV's Sun Singer, Asianet's Music India, and Bol Baby Bol on Gemini TV and Surya TV. Q: You frequently describe certain borders as porous. Good, honest and non-polemical writing has always forced us to confront the lies we tell ourselves. 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. No one would put themselves through the agony and pain of writing. Ali lived right on the edge of the India-Bangladesh border. Second, there is a clear distinction between speaking against the powerful and claiming to speak on behalf of the "voiceless". Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. What we can do is attempt micro-histories of events, timelines, or local communities. It was not going to be easy as she quickly found out. [4] She also worked as a dubbing artist for popular heroines like Shriya Saran and Lakshmi Rai.[5]. Book reviews and author interviews with a Southern focus. How "The Family Man" champions the carceral security state 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. There are so many nonfiction books about India published yearly but few are so important and subversive. Finally, Indias current transformation, the aggressive posturing of an aspiring ethno-nationalist state, will have dire consequences for the people and the region. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). He was arrested based on fabricated evidence in the middle of a global pandemic, and he was denied bail and medical help. After being detained at one of the checkpoints for over two hours, I made my way to one of the villages closest to the Line of Control. Thoughbordersare conventionally recognised as real or artificial lines of spatial and political demarcation, there may also be an arbitrariness to them. Vijayan: A writers responsibility above all is to speak the truth and make sense of our social worlds. How violence against women and girlsand even how sexual violence against men and boys (something we dont even talk about enough) is depictedis all seriously problematic. There are instances when you and some voices in the narrative question their documentation practice. 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. 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. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. I felt the same way when I would prepare legal petitions for my clients. 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. How did writing this book affect you? I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. Why dont people see the ground shifting beneath their feet? Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India ; Suchitra Vijayan, Context/ Westland Books, 699. 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 travel, the people they encounter, and the political events they record quickly become cameos. 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. By Suchitra Vijayan, Why should I read it? Vijayan is no stranger to stories of violence. In terms of violence, there is also this tendency to photograph and display the bodies of marginalised communities when they experience violence.