There are instances when you and some voices in the narrative question their documentation practice. 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 trades. All along the border, the common refrain is, It feels like Partition is still alive., A story from near Jalpaiguri in north Bengal, that of a man named Ali, is heartbreaking. They continue to. Second, there were times when I ran out of money, when some said that such a book would not be published, when some declared that such a book could not be written. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. In 1971, East Pakistan seceded and became Bangladesh. I felt the same way when I would prepare legal petitions for my clients. Vijayan: The photographs were the heart of this project. As a trained barrister, I used to believe in the concept of justicebut now I simply call this freedom and dignity. First, the escalation in the counterinsurgency war within the Kashmir Valley under which hundreds of activists were arrested and several Kashmiri civilians killed in gun battles was grievously underreported. She is not alone. The photographs add another dimension to the book, and could have been used more. Early on, I was very careful to acknowledge this. You can find them on, The #GBVinMedia Campaign: Media Reportage Of Gender-Based Violence, #IndianWomenInHistory: Remembering The Untold Legacies of Indian Women, How To Write About Abortion: A Rights-Based Approach, The Crowdsourced List Of Social Justice Collectives Across Indian Campuses. In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value. My job was to make sure that their voices were centered. This is a tightrope that you walk so well. More Buying Choices 1,732.00 (16 Used & New offers) Audible Audiobook 0.00 Free with Audible trial 586.00 ( 9 ) Do you think the future is borderless? Apart from his long-suffering wife, no one else in the family knows that he is a spy. Say, for instance, do we need a James Nachtwey to fly to war-torn Bosnia? Midnight's Bordersis an exceptional read, but one that may make some uncomfortable. She perfectly captured the happiness and the intimacy of the occasion, the warmth of all the people present, and the splendor of the venue. 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. Fear seems to be a constant motif in the book we see versions and types of it. I want to flag two essays where I engage with this in an in-depth manner, Disaster Ruins Everything, on my work in Haiti, and what it means to photograph disaster, especially when it is Brown and Black bodies. In Nellie (Assam) too, where over 3,000 Muslims were killed in 1983, people stared at Vijayan in confusion, no one comes here anymore, she was told. Its a hard book to name, and I kept going back and forth. Another name that came to my mind was 'An Outline of the Republic', only to discover Siddhartha Debs excellent book by the same name. We thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? Categories. However, at work, Tiwari is in his element. The government, of course, denies this. The former is an essential act of dissent, even resistance, especially in these dark times. Not everyone rejoiced in these new freedoms. The Rumpus: It is shocking how unaware the world is about the violence the Indian government has committed since independence on its border citizens. 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. 2:16. Aruni Kashyap writes in English, and his native language Assamese. March 06, 2021 04:50 pm | Updated March 07, 2021 08:05 am IST. She lucidly explains the complicated history of the McMahon Line, how the India-China border is the result of a fabrication perpetuated by the British colonial administration. Also, hope is a discipline. It is here that even the most civilised amongst us begin to make excuses for repression, brutality, and violence. Subscribe here. A relatively small group of people runs it. Vijayan began her journey in Kolkata. And that violence is often abetted by the state and goes unpunished. In the same chapter of the book, Kamal says, "If I am an Indian, then why am I afraid?" Our investigation into the Indian medias reporting on the Pulwama attack found that many reports were contradictory, biased, incendiary and uncorroborated. What we can do is attempt micro-histories of events, timelines, or local communities. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. In her new book Second, Indias transformation into a nuclear state and the Kargil War is another critical moment of change. Who gets to shape these stories, what stories are chosen, what stories then are exiled? Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. 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. If you think about communities in resistance to immense violations, theyre all interconnected to climate justice. 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. The book arrived in the middle of a pandemic and a devastating second wave [of COVID-19] in India. The argument put forward was simple: India, like most countries, had its human rights violations, but these were characterized as the growing pains and maturation of the worlds largest democracy. 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. 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. Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). 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. She was part of a music band at PSG. 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. 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. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. Many come from immense privileges of caste, class, wealth, access, and resources. Check posts or bunkers were not part of the landscapes of my home. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. As a spy working for TASC, Tiwari has to juggle being an underpaid government employee as well as an absent husband and a perpetually late and distracted father. Follow our team of columnists and reporters who write about the media. J.G.P. Even those who now write about Modis India, will never write about Brahmanism or be critical of how caste works in the diaspora. The two officers who avert the attack narrowly escape death but are left with broken bodies and broken lives. I had a very stable home to come back to. Those notes were raw and immediate. Second, we can no longer have certain conversationsconversations are now impossible. And were there any apprehensions since you began working on this book? Its a vicious cycle. 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. 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. O. We need more such books. Author In Focus, Celebration, The Literary Journal. 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. What matters is that the book exists. She has a sister named, Sunitha. She was part of a music band at PSG. Vijayans book begins a much-needed conversation on thinking about freedom beyond the idea of nation and its illusory lines. I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. 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. I wrote a book along with it comes love, scorn, and sometimes even ridicule. First, does my work aid the powerful? Vijayan: There is an elusive distance between the photographer and the photographed that cant be bridged. Finally, Indias current transformation, the aggressive posturing of an aspiring ethno-nationalist state, will have dire consequences for the people and the region. A literary community. So the question is not: will the future be borderless? We live in a profoundly unequal society, where every day brings news of new devastation. The latter is an act of violence against people whose voice you are appropriating. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. She sang her first song for the movie, Lesa Lesa under the composition of Harris Jayaraj and her co-singer was the legendary, K. S. Chitra. From the epoch of Empire to the nation-state, border making is fundamentally a political project that creates, sustains, and reinforces inequality. 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. 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'. What are those ethical, moral, and political lines? 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. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. [2] She became known as Rj Suchi, with her popular morning show Hello Chennai. 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. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. While Nehru was still declaring this victory, the slaughter began. MacAdam reviews Suchitra Vijayan's book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Read More. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. FII Media Private Limited | All rights reserved, "Imagine how it would be for someone coming from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, working class background, who wants to come into thisit is especially difficult if youre a woman coming from these backgrounds. Take a look at theseevents: The vast infrastructure of detention centers being built in Assam and outside; a politician from a ruling party incites violence by saying, goli maaro saalon ko, and remains free; a minister, a Harvard educated technocrat, garlands and celebrates men for the grave crime of lynching; Dr Teltumbde and other BK 16 [the 16 arrests made in the Bhima Koregaon case] political prisoners remain incarcerated with little, no or manufactured evidence for being dissenting subjects; and a standup comic is arrested for the crime of existing as a Muslim. This is not the violent right wing and their siege; its centrist and liberal media that is also relitigating history, deconstructing the core values of the constitution. We once asked these questions, even if there were no clear answers or consensus. . This idea of responsibility gets obfuscated in many ways. Vijayans lens not only captures the people but also the past through objects, such as the picture of Kotwali Gate, the remains of a medieval fort that serves as a border checkpoint rife with weeds and trees growing on it, symbolic of a state bent on rewriting history rather than preserving it. Midnights Borders, a work of narrative reportage, is the fruit of this journey. You can carefully craft a narrative of immigrant success but act tone-deaf about the ongoing refugee crisis. Anvisha Manral March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST So now, how do we respond to this? Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. The Family Man has found tremendous success as a slick and funny espionage drama, particularly for its treatment of the protagonist, and even for humanising terrorists. 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. Not mine. Instead, she shows the absurdity of the army apparatus that strives to comply with the narrative of patriotism. 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. When fires burn down large swathes of what were peoples homeswhat borders will you impose when climate change will fundamentally remake them? Keywords: LTTE love jihad Beef politics Hindu Nationalism Kashmir Always. Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. India has consistently warred against its own citizens; this book is about some of these wars. Once we eliminated the spectacle, we realized that the Indian public got very little information about the Pulwama attack and its aftermath. Theyre screaming all the time, its just that we dont listen to them. 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? Instead, the Indian media has ascribed to itself the role of an amplifier of the government propaganda that took two nuclear states to the brink of war. 'Music I Like', an album of Suchitra's renditions of Mahakavi Bharatiyaar's poetry, set to contemporary tunes and music, released by Universal Music, was a turning point in her career. I came with my privileges, also lets not forget prejudices. We see that more clearly when you decide against photographing children at the India-Bangladesh border. There is something deeply flawed in the way we live today. Also, I am an unknown and insignificant entity. Why is this particular time of the day intrinsic to the book? As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. Suchitra tweets @suchitrav. She never did like my then-husband, which makes her a better judge of character than I was. It is necessary to speak truth to power through our art. They create cleavages of fear, xenophobia, and insecurity. Founder & ExecDirector: @project_polis @watchthestate ; Teach @nyugallatin Writer Manhattan, NY linktr.ee/suchitravijayan Born April 14 Joined May 2008 8,013 Following 80.8K Followers Tweets & replies I particularly loved the fact that all our couple shots were very natural and came out truly . " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST. 582.1K views. You need to write what you seethats why you started this project.. When the book finally came out, India was undergoing the deadly 2nd wave. My role, then, and this books role, is to find in their articulations a critique of the nation-state, its violence and the arbitrariness of territorial sovereignty.". Siaan On Being Queer And Being Online, FII Interviews: Journalist Meena Kotwal On Minority Politics, Journalism Today And The Caste Divide. You can claim to be patriotic but not political, you can claim to support the troops but ignore the ongoing civilian casualty. It was just a sad moment, and I couldnt celebrate a book when there was so much human tragedy playing out. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). Instead, we need to ask what fate awaits us. 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. The mortality of someone you love affects how you write. What changeshave youobserved in the way you treat your subject after finishing your journey and book? . A:I dont think an ethical or moral compass exists nowI dont know if it ever existed. Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from PSG Institute of Management. 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). Time to let the diplomats do the hard talk. In the middle of significant change, this fraught system cannot exist as it is. Vijayan: Chopra and others like her are a reflection of how popular culture and virality inform discourse and shape it. We must realise that its the grassroots media, who represent themselves, document what mainstream media ignores, and bring to notice what is important. 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. The failure to forget affects how I use images, and texts; my photographic practice and also how I put everything together. It is also the site of the worlds biggest crisis of statelessness, as it strips citizenship from hundreds of thousands of its peopleespecially those living in disputed border regions. 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. History and memory is localwhich means its almost impossible to write about India.