Mary Shieler Oak Hill, West Virginia, John Deere Gator 620i Water Pump Replacement, Marla Lewan Mrs Pennsylvania 1998, Articles S

This is a serious, often funny and deeply revealing book. M, An essential, beautifully written report from the hellish margins of a modern mega-state struggling to be a nation, of people whose lives continue to be shaped by violent political marches across age-old homes and habitats. Chopra cleverly uses womens empowerment, diversity, and the immigrant story as a facade to parrot and promote deeply problematic ideologies, takes, and stances. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). We are all complicit in upholding and maintaining this fear. MacAdam reviews Suchitra Vijayan's book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Read More. An unprecedented militarisation of these spaces accompanied this. I have no control over what comes next. Qin took charge as Chinese foreign minister in December, succeeding Wang Yi. 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). Its a hard book to name, and I kept going back and forth. The former is an essential act of dissent, even resistance, especially in these dark times. Is photographing a woman, who was gang-raped by the Sudanese army and put on the cover of TIMEpractically naked, able to stop the war? Sometimes the news is the story. 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. This is the age of erosion of citizenship rights, a kind of ongoing attrition against human rights, civil liberties, and in the case of India, an accelerated dilution of fundamental rights. Midnights Borders is part investigation, part meditation on the lines drawn on land or water that separate India from its neighbours. ""The historical unity of the ruling classes is realized in the state." Antonio Gramsci" Some people later chose not to be included because they feared repercussions, especially as the NRC process started playing out. 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? [2] She became known as Rj Suchi, with her popular morning show Hello Chennai. Parts of Pakistan have already been consumed by the water. Legislations such as National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act threaten to render millions of people, especially Muslims, stateless. Anvisha Manral March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked. In the same chapter of the book, Kamal says, "If I am an Indian, then why am I afraid?" Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. Theyre screaming all the time, its just that we dont listen to them. Also, a book is an act of community; it has many midwives. You will see very little critical commentary or public positions on Hindutva, its corrosive role in India, or how RSS works here in the USfunding and now interfering in US elections. Also, we shouldn't forget that the border making project is central to capitalist and neoliberal logic. 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. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. So the question is not: will the future be borderless? We're back with our flagship podcast 'Intersectional FeminismDesi Style!' Although Vijayan critiques the state and its complicity in violence and erasure of lives, she refrains from villainizing the men who serve the state. British India was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan on the eve of independence in August, 1947. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. Suchitras account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. 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 believe it can teach us to ask these questions again. A: This geopolitical violence is not new, theres a long bloody, brutal history to thisa cyclical, ongoing and never-ending history. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. And yet, the research and the history never overpowers the flow of the narrative. There are also those who have previously been tacit, if not active, supporters of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Indian state. " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. Indian Foreign Secretary V.K. Second, we can no longer have certain conversationsconversations are now impossible. What it means to photograph, write, report and document is an ongoing process. We dont document violence against the privileged like we would report violence against those without power. Updated Date: She also embodies the upwardly mobile, privileged sections of the diaspora. One of the reasons why this book was written was to step back: to say that this violence that you and I listen to and encounter is not new to say that this violence is not new. So I dont know if it was empathy so much as just building a relationship with people. Vijayan: Its a very generous reading, and thanks for that. But eventually we need all kinds of stories and arguments to emerge from what is now considered Indian American writing. The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. How did writing this book affect you? The constant making and remaking of who is a citizen, who is not, is accompanied by a profoundly dehumanising process. More importantly, reporters need to engage with what it means to administer what has been called the worlds most militarized zone. Only then can the country answer a more fundamental question: Just what should be done to create conditions that allow Kashmiris to choose their destiny? Excerpts from the #BBC documentary telecast about PM . The emotional cost is something else altogether. Early on, the idea of bearing witness as a rhetorical tool and as a literary device became deeply problematic. 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. There are instances when you and some voices in the narrative question their documentation practice. As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. The Author Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. The word terrorism, for instance, is used almost exclusively to refer to a particular communitybut fails to refer to state-enabled terror or the terror deployed by majority communities. Sharing borders with six countries and spanning a geography that extends from Pakistan to Myanmar, India is the worlds largest democracy and second most populous country. Vijayan began her journey in Kolkata. The book arrived in the middle of a pandemic and a devastating second wave [of COVID-19] in India. 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. The world we know is already being remade in ways we cant fathom. 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 . There is also a lot of deep-seated misogyny, casteism, and anti-Black racism in our communities that need to be addressed. Why do you think India has gotten away with this so far? She has a sister named, Sunitha. Without any official statement on the number of casualties by the Indian government, the Indian news media reported that 300 terrorists were killed, citing government sources. In season two, a quick flashback resolves the plotline from the previous season. You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. Three hundred million people who had been considered less than subjects under the British rule, divided for years by religion, language, class, and caste, would all be united under one book: the revolutionary Constitution given to India by Babasaheb Ambedkar. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. He was arrested based on fabricated evidence in the middle of a global pandemic, and he was denied bail and medical help. The latter is an act of violence against people whose voice you are appropriating. Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. What makes these lives so vivid is how Vijayan contextualizes them by placing them in the bigger picture of history. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. 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. Francesca Recchia, a researcher and writer and former director of the Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture, is the editor and creative director of The Polis Project.. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister, researcher and the author of "Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India." She is the executive director of the Polis Project. Lets start with a very simple statement that everyone can agree on: the way were living right now cannot continue. 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.. When Vijayan meets him, he is inside his home with all the windows closed and sealed to snuff out light. The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. 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. When I left him (the first time), I had a one-year-old daughter. We know that the purpose of borders has kept changing for nations. I had to cut those out, as my editor felt this might not work. 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. In an interview with Firstpost,Vijayan talks about her book, the militarisation of borders, ethno-nationalism, and the politics of documentation. Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. What are those ethical, moral, and political lines? Barrister. For instance, a border security personnel tells her how he failed to capture a photograph of a porcupine after spending half an hour trying to fit a helmet on its head, because he is bored and lonely. Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility among the youth. Its not comparable and should not be compared. Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. 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. 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 emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. A: This is a very loaded question. You dont need a Leni Riefenstahl today. 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. I have no formal training as a writer or a photographer, I taught myself and learnt by doing, failing and creating my own grammar. These may not be perfect worlds or even equal worlds, but they strive to be. Copyright 2023. This income helps us keep the magazine alive. 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. There are so many nonfiction books about India published yearly but few are so important and subversive. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? 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? Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. 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 How did you arrive at this stylistic juncture where you manage to tell the stories of these people who are radically less privileged than you without appropriating them? [3], She started singing after a few years as RJ. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. A t a time when right-wing nationalism is crescendoing in India and across the world, Suchitra Vijayan's Midnight's Borders raises pertinent questions about the very foundations of India's nationalism the cartography of South Asian nation-states defined by arbitrary lines drawn hastily by the British colonial administration. . We also need a fundamental reframing of language. He writes TPS reports for an overbearing boss who calls him the minimum guy. He has replaced eating vada pav at ungodly hours on the streets with overpriced salads. Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. The interview has been paraphrased and condensed for clarity, at the interviewers discretion. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. Speculation and conjecture were repeated ad infinitum, and several journalists even took to Twitter to encourage the Indian army. He writes about how when the Constitution was adopted, "We are going to enter into a life of contradictions. Suchitra Vijayan. Also, hope is a discipline. A Barrister by training, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to . Where India ends and Bangladesh begins is a question confused by history, family and the border pillars themselves. Panitar has a one-foot-high concrete block on the side of the mighty Ichamati river marked Border Pillar No.1. Rohini Menon for Feminism in India, FII Interviews: Suchitra Vijayan Talks About Marginalisation, Institutional Violence & Political Imagination, Ananya is a chaotic humanities student with a deep interest in the relationship between art and society, a writing obsession, and way too many bizarre ideas involving their camera. Book reviews and author interviews with a Southern focus. If it does, I have failed. Suchitra Vijayan. There is something deeply flawed in the way we live today. It is here that even the most civilised amongst us begin to make excuses for repression, brutality, and violence. Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me, Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, FUNNY WOMEN: Excerpts from George Eliots, Rumpus Original Poetry: Two Poems by John A. Nieves, RUMPUS POETRY BOOK CLUB EXCERPT: WHY I WRITE LOVE POETRY IN A BURNING WORLD by Katie Farris, The Freedom of Form & Re-Entering Myths: An interview with A.E. She is the founder and executive director of The Polis Project, and the author of Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India, recently published by Context, Westland. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister at law and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. From the epoch of Empire to the nation-state, border making is fundamentally a political project that creates, sustains, and reinforces inequality. The original vision of the book also has newspaper cuttings, and found maps. Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. The travel, the people they encounter, and the political events they record quickly become cameos. But who carries the responsibility of that fear? Always. Why dont people see the ground shifting beneath their feet? History and memory is localwhich means its almost impossible to write about India. My job was to make sure that their voices were centered. Includes previously unreleased investigation under #JackStraw. Vijayan: There is an elusive distance between the photographer and the photographed that cant be bridged. The people in this book are eloquent advocates of their history and their struggles. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. As an attorney, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to Iraqi refugees. I set out not to give voice to the voiceless, my aim was to put an ear to the ground and listen. How did you respond to that environment being in an extremely challenging position yourself? (Stay up to date on new book releases, reviews, and more with The Hindu On Books newsletter. Professor Nandita Sharmas work is an excellent way to engage with this history. No one is a stakeholder herethese are people, humans, citizens, who have been deprived of what the Ambedkarite constitution promised them. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. This contributed to the long-running, brutal silencing of Kashmiris and their struggle for self-determination. We need more such books. She still does a radio show called Flight983 on Radio Mirchi, on Sunday evenings (79 pm). Rumpus: What do you think is the value of well-crafted literary nonfiction in sustaining conversations about equality and justice? Ananya is a chaotic humanities student with a deep interest in the relationship between art and society, a writing obsession, and way too many bizarre ideas involving their camera.