The credit goes to my agent Lucy Cleland who suggested this title. When I finished writing, I had become much richer in many waysnot in a material waybut through a community. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. The book was called ``a genre-bending book of nonfictionmade We need more such books. The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. They continue to. And that violence is often abetted by the state and goes unpunished. 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. As the author notes, here, beauty and violence coexist, but never as a binary. A. Midnights Borders is fascinating, eloquent in its insights, and unflinching in its depiction of the dark side of nation-building. A poll asked if its OK to be white. Heres why the phrase is loaded. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. At Fazilka near the Pakistan border, she ran into Sari Begum, who had a bunker on her land but had a darker story of pain and violence from the days of Partition. Abrogation Of Article 370 Jammu And Kashmir Statehood, BSF foils another Pakistan plot, shoots down drone in Punjab's Amritsar, Light on weight, heavy on damage: India will be able to hit deep inside Pakistan with THIS ultralightweight howitzer, Put issues related to border in 'proper place', work for its early normalisation: Chinese FM Qin to Jaishankar, In Midnight's Borders, Suchitra Vijayan meditates on belongingness, freedom and political implications of territorial demarcations. 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. 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. What moral and political stands we should take in the face of ongoing oppression. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. Vijayan reserves her own impressions for later, and allows us to know these people intimately. Then you sit in a room with a mother telling you that she has no idea what happened to her son and has no way of knowing if hes ever coming back. More Buying Choices 1,732.00 (16 Used & New offers) Audible Audiobook 0.00 Free with Audible trial 586.00 ( 9 ) is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. And our language helps us imagine a vision that is truly just, beautiful and ethical. There is also a lot of deep-seated misogyny, casteism, and anti-Black racism in our communities that need to be addressed. The latter is an act of violence against people whose voice you are appropriating. ). It took me 8 years to write the book. Not mine. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. Q: You frequently describe certain borders as porous. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. We live in a profoundly unequal society, where every day brings news of new devastation. Siaan On Being Queer And Being Online, FII Interviews: Journalist Meena Kotwal On Minority Politics, Journalism Today And The Caste Divide. Vijayan: Let me start heregood writing is powerful and political. This media blitzkrieg resulted in the erasure of two important political trends. What connects these messages is deep empathy and a willingness to engage with the books stories, ideas, and arguments. [8] On 7 March 2017, she applied for divorce. In the same chapter of the book, Kamal says, "If I am an Indian, then why am I afraid?" I felt the same way when I would prepare legal petitions for my clients. When fencing began, he became trapped in a no-mans land, his marriage to a girl from Bangladesh ended with each being stranded on either side and he never got out of the cycle of debt and struggle, finally losing the ability to dream. 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. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister at law and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. Then my agent said, Suchitra, you know, I think youre hiding behind your academic language. 2:16. This means that, for the longest time, the depiction of violence and marginalised communities has been problematic. 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). 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. We thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. Jawaharlal Nehrus 'Tryst with Destiny'is a speech I have returned to over the past 20 years. 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. We believe that literature builds communityand if reading The Rumpus makes you feel more connected, please show your support! 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. If it does, I have failed. We have already chosen silence and obfuscation even before the pushback has arrived. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. Reports also identified different people as the supposed masterminds of the Pulwama attack at various points without clear sourcing. I left my 18-month-old daughter to travel and finish this book. 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. This affects who gets to document, and whom. Perhaps that offers some protection? We live in a surveillance economy where we are constantly just bearing witness we are record keepers, unwitting spies, and voyeurs. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. 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. Q: You had to deal with a lot of ethical considerations as a writer and photographer, which echo throughout your and your fellow journalists work, as evaluated in your book. A consistent ethical framework within the media hasnt existed for a long time. Accompanied by this globally, democracies are becoming more authoritarian and stripping people of their citizenshipreducing them to subjects, entrenching the fault lines of inequality. In India, that arbitrariness can be seen in how differently we perceive landboundaries with multiple sovereign nations. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. This is a challenging task for the writer. India shares borders with a host of . The government, of course, denies this. I have no control over what comes next. 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. 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. They cannot be abusive or personal. And yet, the research and the history never overpowers the flow of the narrative. Nonfiction, Travel, Fiction Member Since February 2021 edit data Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. I was much younger when I took on this project, so I wanted to prove those people wrong. Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. 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. The border runs through him, his friend Jamshed had told Vijayan, He is almost gone, but I dont want his story to be gone too.. I kept detailed audio notes that I recorded each night when I traveled. We also need a fundamental reframing of language. I had a very stable home to come back to. Gokhale claimed that it struck the biggest camp and that a large number of terrorists were killed. Barkha Dutt: India has made its point in Pakistan. At worst, its navel gazing peppered with white guilt, but always politically vacuous. She never did like my then-husband, which makes her a better judge of character than I was. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. Instead, she shows the absurdity of the army apparatus that strives to comply with the narrative of patriotism. J.G.P. Sometimes lost. In terms of violence, there is also this tendency to photograph and display the bodies of marginalised communities when they experience violence. This Life Draws Attention to Life Behind Bars and the Transcendent Power of Rap, Wrestling with Reality in The Big Door Prize. In season two, a quick flashback resolves the plotline from the previous season. What do you think the future holds? Can any of theTIMEsubscribers who loved that cover tell us now whats happening in South Sudan today? The book arrived in the middle of a pandemic and a devastating second wave [of COVID-19] in India. Thoughbordersare conventionally recognised as real or artificial lines of spatial and political demarcation, there may also be an arbitrariness to them. Vijayan shows a keen eye for detail as she presents these diverse lives. She is the founder and executive director of The Polis Project, and the author of. Midnights Borders , Suchitra Vijayan includes a photo of the pillar, which becomes a cricket stump for boys on either side of the border most days. Instead, we need to ask what fate awaits us. 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). Many TV newsrooms were transformed into caricatures of military command centers, with anchors assessing military technology and strategy (sometimes incorrectly). She was part of a music band at PSG. The Indian State and the people of this Republic. They both have pregnant daughters, a fact that becomes significant as the novel progresses. Its when we lose hope that we believe that we have lost everything. ( I hate this word, voiceless, by the way). 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. Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. However, at work, Tiwari is in his element. Vijayan is no stranger to stories of violence. 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. Atmany points in Midnight's Borders, we see several men in positions of power view the women, who cross over from the 'other' side, as violable. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . A: I lost friends, saw my father go through a transplant, and I gave birth. 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. Rumpus: The book utilizes more than one medium: photography, narrative nonfiction, journalism. In recent years, the narrative of hate has escalated with the reelection of the right-wing Narendra Modi government in 2019. Follow our team of columnists and reporters who write about the media. I want to clarify that what I witnessed or the violence inflicted on my father is not the same as what over eight million Kashmiris have endured. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. 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. There is something deeply flawed in the way we live today. 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. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. 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. I have no formal training as a writer or a photographer, I taught myself and learnt by doing, failing and creating my own grammar. [4] She also worked as a dubbing artist for popular heroines like Shriya Saran and Lakshmi Rai.[5]. 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. The black and white pictures accompanying the chapters add a thousand words more. Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. 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. 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. Suchitra is a sought-after performer at corporate and other such stage shows. 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.