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""The historical unity of the ruling classes is realized in the state." Antonio Gramsci" Your prose is hopeful there. Suchitra Vijayan's debut book, Midnight's Borders, is a genre-bending book of nonfictionmade of stories, encounters, vignettes, and photographsabout home, belonging, and displacement.The book recounts the author's recent journey across India's land borders covering 9000 miles over a span of seven years. In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value. Also read: Examining My Caste And Its History Is Eye-Opening: A Personal Essay On Casteism And Ancestry. I had a very stable home to come back to. Suchitra Vijayan, Newspapers in a Kashmiri home In August 2014 I travelled to the border town of Uri while researching my upcoming book, Borderlands. With the phone armed with a camera, everyone is a photographer; we are all witnesses. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. This is a tightrope that you walk so well. Another name that came to my mind was 'An Outline of the Republic', only to discover Siddhartha Debs excellent book by the same name. 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. How did you respond to that environment being in an extremely challenging position yourself? What matters is that the book exists. You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. 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. @narendramodi & his role in the Gujarat Pogrom. Love, passion, anger, the desire to make a point about something. 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. Rumpus: Were you trying to write a hybrid-genre book? 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. Even the diasporic experience is often told through this limited lens, without taking into account how diverse the immigrant experience in this country is. It seems that they have a different eye for these women, who they describe as cunning, deceitful, and in some cases, prostitutes'. In addition, she is an award- winning photographer, the founder, and executive director of the Polis Project, a hybrid research and journalism organization. Part of this learning was also why photographer Asim Rafiqui and I created the free UN/DO Photography workshops to think about image-making in relationship to power. ). So I dont know if it was empathy so much as just building a relationship with people. I'mdyslexic, but have visual and episodic memory, which means I dream and relive moments. We know that the purpose of borders has kept changing for nations. Reports also identified different people as the supposed masterminds of the Pulwama attack at various points without clear sourcing. This book ate into so much of my life. The book is a prelude to what was coming, and is also a impassioned plea to my readers to ask some fundamental questions of what it means to live in a country like Indiawhat is the function of a state when its primary preoccupation is no longer the citizen but a performance of an ideology? It took me 8 years to write the book. A consistent ethical framework within the media hasnt existed for a long time. It has taken me over a decade to get here. But it needs to do more for peace. Its about what people like me should do. Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). I feel very uncomfortable talking about this, or rather I dont know how to discuss this without centering myself. 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 had to cut those out, as my editor felt this might not work. Vijayan creates a constellation of micro-histories of people who have lived through the violence . These new worlds are already herethey are maps of survival, maps of resistance. Book reviews and author interviews with a Southern focus. Vijayans book begins a much-needed conversation on thinking about freedom beyond the idea of nation and its illusory lines. ", "Documentary photography has amassed mountains of evidenceyetthe genre has simultaneously contributed much to spectacle, to retinal excitation, to voyeurism, to terror, envy, and nostalgia, and only a little to the critical understanding of the social world.". 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. She lives in New York. Often, we settle comfortably into describing things as communal riots instead of saying that it was a state-abetted violence, a pogrom, or a brutal massacre. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. 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. We removed an image just before the printing to make sure the person was protected. Suchitra is a sought-after performer at corporate and other such stage shows. The book arrived in the middle of a pandemic and a devastating second wave [of COVID-19] in India. Again, in the India-China border, she finds a young army officer closely referring to a book that contradicts the official version of the Indo-China war of 1962, and concludes that perhaps, he recognizes that most of soldiering involved cynical subordination to ideas that no longer made sense.. 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. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike on an alleged militant training camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. If she wasnt real she would be a marriage between a meme and parody. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. Her work looks at theories of violence, war, and human nature. Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. So now, how do we respond to this? Midnights Borders perhaps also critiques the widely read body of work available as Indian English Writing (IWE), a literary canon that has so far told the story of India but seldom demonstrated social responsibility by acknowledging the atrocities India has committed silently within its borders. Respond to our political present. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. 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. She entered the show on day 28 as a new contestant and was evicted on day 49. We still argue if something should be a massacre, a pogrom, or a riot. Are you expecting any pushback at all? As Sari Begum's story [in the book] illustrates, 'A life where the violence of the border is not at the fence, or in the trenches, but at the center of 'their' and our 'universe'. Stallings, Rumpus Original Fiction: The Litany of Invisible Things. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. Especially when you can be charged with sedition for a tweet or arrested for the crime of committing comedy while being Muslim. Sign in. Thank you! [1], Suchitra joined Sify for a year, after graduating. There is no denying that the American media landscape is deeply racist, and while the past few years have seen more brown people take center stage, its nowhere close to where we need to be. We perform rituals of freedom in a right-less societywe dont ask if the rules, laws, and policies that are put in place are fair, just, right or equitable. Already a subscriber? Some even dressed for the occasion in combat gear. NONFICTIONMidnights BordersBy Suchitra VijayanMelville HousePublished May 25, 2021. Suchitra Vijayanis a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. She completed her MFA in Writing (Fiction) from the University of San Francisco where she was awarded the Jan Zivic Fellowship and is about to begin her PhD in English with a Creative Dissertation from the University of Georgia, Athens. And what does this mean for on-ground communities, governments, armed forces, and other institutional stakeholders? I am repeating what I have said before, "Kashmir is Indias greatest moral and political failure. O. One of the ways she upholds the humane in this book is through her interaction with the men in the security forces. A: Writers are very strange creatures. 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. This contributed to the long-running, brutal silencing of Kashmiris and their struggle for self-determination. My friend Ritesh Uttamchandani said this once, the lens that elusive distance between the photographer and the photographed is often impossible to bridge. How do you think this inspiration from a variety of genres allowed you to tell underrepresented stories? The controversy surrounding the Rafale deal and allegations of corruption against the government were suddenly sidelined, as was the order for the eviction of more than a million forest dwellers (that was later stayed) and a hearing on the repeal of an important constitutional clause before the Supreme Court. How did writing this book affect you? 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. Its a dangerous moment where the figure of the rights-bearing citizen is being reduced to a consuming subject. 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. They are arriving from various cities and people I have never met. Vijayan: The photographs were the heart of this project. We live in a profoundly unequal society, where every day brings news of new devastation. Find him on Twitter at @AruniKashyap. I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. March 06, 2021 04:50 pm | Updated March 07, 2021 08:05 am IST. Some things are just not discussed anymore. There are some notable exceptions, but they are an exception. 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. Thats part of the political imagination that I believe we need for political movements or any sustained acts of resistance. Updated Date: 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? And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. 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 Midnight's Borders, barrister, political analyst, and writer Suchitra Vijayan documentsmany such telling accounts of lives both growing and barely getting by alongIndian borderlands. Could you comment on how much our present border security policies have changed in the last few years? Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. With sharp political analyses, dense historical research and lyrical, image-rich prose, Vijayans journalism displays an inspiring ethic, one that is invested in the micro-histories of the small man, the one existing on the fringes of history and the one that most requires urgent representation. B, A book that will enlighten every citizen of every nation. And were there any apprehensions since you began working on this book? She has a sister named, Sunitha. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? However, at work, Tiwari is in his element. 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. The pandemic showed us that crises and recurrent disasters that annihilate our lives are here to stay. Q: Since publishing the book last year, what reflections have you hadgiven that its relevance is increasingly ascertained by 2022s interpersonal and geopolitical violence? Siaan On Being Queer And Being Online, FII Interviews: Journalist Meena Kotwal On Minority Politics, Journalism Today And The Caste Divide. 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. A memorable, humane museum of forgotten stories that we must all read and remember. M, What experiences and lives unfold in these pages. 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 have two tests. 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. When Vijayan meets him, he is inside his home with all the windows closed and sealed to snuff out light. What I was most concerned about and still am are the people in the book and their safety. Suchitra tweets @suchitrav. Rumpus: Why do you think the ever-growing canon of Indian American literature has barely tried to engage with these conversations through their stories? Do you think the future is borderless? Vijayan began her journey in Kolkata. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. Suchitra Vijayan. A: I lost friends, saw my father go through a transplant, and I gave birth. 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. Yes, men who act as petty sovereigns are everywhere. The Author Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. Husain Haqqani: Pakistan released the Indian pilot. The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views.
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