Were there times when you doubted your own ability to record and document these people's stories? Vijayan began her journey in Kolkata. British India was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan on the eve of independence in August, 1947. In India, that arbitrariness can be seen in how differently we perceive landboundaries with multiple sovereign nations. What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? One feedback I often got was that I had to put more of myself in this book. What we can do is attempt micro-histories of events, timelines, or local communities. I think the way that news and mostly disinformation makes its way to us, we think of violence in very particular waysas disjointed. Do you think the future is borderless? 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. 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. 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. Your email address will not be published. In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value. Who is expendable, and the manufacturing of rightlessness to render people expendable. A place to read, on the Internet. To them he is a man who has settled into a job that has no future. I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. I was also trying to tell these stories from a repertoire of skills I had, and some I acquired. These are edited excerpts from the interview: 'Midnight' seems to be a metaphor for multiple things both freeing and frightening. Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. Sometimes the news is the story. " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. 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. The stories were a way to understand how people struggled and survived. We need to think about border practices, policing, and national security policies within the larger historical and political contexts. This means that, for the longest time, the depiction of violence and marginalised communities has been problematic. To make matters worse, between 2013 and 2019, editors of channels and publications have been sacked and replaced, primarily because of their criticism of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. It is here that we subsume all that we otherwise celebrate under the demands of freedom, progress, liberalism, liberty, and secular ideals.". Panitars division is as cruel as it is arbitrary: here, the houses on either side of one dusty lane occupy two neighbouring countries. One of the ways she upholds the humane in this book is through her interaction with the men in the security forces. She also embodies the upwardly mobile, privileged sections of the diaspora. 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. There are some notable exceptions, but they are an exception. The credit goes to my agent Lucy Cleland who suggested this title. What do you think the future holds? Aruni Kashyap writes in English, and his native language Assamese. Suchitra Vijayan's new book, Midnight's Borders: A People's 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. But who carries the responsibility of that fear? Perhaps there are lessons to learn from that. The original vision of the book also has newspaper cuttings, and found maps. 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 . Many news channels are not only owned, operated or invested in by politically influential families, but also are sometimes run for the express purpose of advancing party positions. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan falls in both categories. The Author Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. 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. Can you write about loss without living? I still do. Suchitra Vijayan. In season two, a quick flashback resolves the plotline from the previous season. You can find them onYouTube&Linkedin,and can also check out their websitehere. 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. The black and white pictures accompanying the chapters add a thousand words more. The post-Cold War and 90s rhetoric of a borderless world that accompanied globalisation also kick-started massive border fencing projects in India. [1], Suchitra joined Sify for a year, after graduating. If you want to support the work that goes behind publishing high-quality feminist media content, please consider becoming a FII member. It is truly the treason of the intellectuals. We could have attributed this to ignorance even a few years back; now its just silence thats deeply complicit in the Hindutva project. So we might never know the true extent of this loss. Thank you! We believe that literature builds communityand if reading The Rumpus makes you feel more connected, please show your support! So lets be very clear that Indias intellectual literary landscape is deeply problematic, feudal, and alienating," says Suchitra Vijayan to FII, Featured Image Source: Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. Many of the stories didnt make it to the book because it became dangerous to identify people. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . We must realise that its the grassroots media, who represent themselves, document what mainstream media ignores, and bring to notice what is important. Includes previously unreleased investigation under #JackStraw. Its a practice. RT @project_polis: Writing fiction in a dystopian world - @kiccovich in conversation with @mohammedhanif https://thepolisproject.com/listen/writing-fiction-in-a . I felt the same way when I would prepare legal petitions for my clients. 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. Perhaps thats their victory. Her work looks at theories of violence, war, and human nature. Midnights Borders is part investigation, part meditation on the lines drawn on land or water that separate India from its neighbours. Also, we shouldn't forget that the border making project is central to capitalist and neoliberal logic. 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. Love, passion, anger, the desire to make a point about something. I dont have apprehensions. There are two quotes I regularly use by Allan Sekula when I teach: "The making of a human likeness on film is a political act. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle. How do you think this shapes climate justice? You can claim to be patriotic but not political, you can claim to support the troops but ignore the ongoing civilian casualty. . 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. Rumpus: I believe your book contributes to an important conversation about India we must have right now in the United States, for its own sake. 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. We thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. 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. Commentary Politics. And that violence is often abetted by the state and goes unpunished. 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.". 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. Husain Haqqani: Pakistan released the Indian pilot. She responded to an ad for the post of an RJ in Radio Mirchi. 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. 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. There are so many nonfiction books about India published yearly but few are so important and subversive. 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. I wrote a book along with it comes love, scorn, and sometimes even ridicule. How "The Family Man" champions the carceral security state. Follow our team of columnists and reporters who write about the media. 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. The nation-state and its ruling class view borders as very different from the people who inhabit these liminal spaces or communities that have been affected by border making and policing practices.