I set out not to give voice to the voiceless, my aim was to put an ear to the ground and listen. A: I lost friends, saw my father go through a transplant, and I gave birth. I test my practice of writing or being a photographer against this rule. I dont have apprehensions. I felt the same way when I would prepare legal petitions for my clients. That changes how you write and photograph a place. They create cleavages of fear, xenophobia, and insecurity. Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? The public is sold a lie as the attack is framed as a gas leak. The show deals with interesting international happenings. 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. She entered the show on day 28 as a new contestant and was evicted on day 49. The events in Hathras did not happen at the border; neither did the murder and gang rape of two teenage girls in the Katra village of Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh. Also, hope is a discipline. . 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. Modi met with senior police officers and ordered them not to intervene as violence raged. Do you think the future is borderless? 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. The black and white pictures accompanying the chapters add a thousand words more. In terms of violence, there is also this tendency to photograph and display the bodies of marginalised communities when they experience violence. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. Her writing has appeared in The Citron Review, Dukool Magazine, Cerebration, Feminism in India, Times of India (Spellbound edition), and others. The world we know is already being remade in ways we cant fathom. This also decides who gets access, awards and accolades. Its not sustainable, it fractures who we are, chips away and erodes what it fundamentally means to be human. Rumpus: What do you think is the value of well-crafted literary nonfiction in sustaining conversations about equality and justice? Vijayan: As we have this conversation, Dr. Stan Swamy, the eighty-four-year-old Jesuit priest, Indias oldest political prisoner, was murdered by the Indian state with the complicity of the judiciary. I still do. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. 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. Q: What struck me about your work was its immersive style. None of this helps in telling richer, more textured stories. Its an immense privilege to be able to write and be published. On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked in Pulwama in India-administered Kashmir, resulting in the death of 40 Indian officers. This affects who gets to document, and whom. 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. Not everyone rejoiced in these new freedoms. Suchitra Vijayanis a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. Along the way, we meet the men and women of TASC, dissenting students, ISIS terrorists and Pakistani military officers. I had to cut those out, as my editor felt this might not work. I had a very stable home to come back to. ""The historical unity of the ruling classes is realized in the state." Antonio Gramsci" This is where I believe literary nonfiction becomes a powerful tool. I have two tests. Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile journey along the borders of India, and interviews people living in these liminal spaces. Last edited on 23 February 2023, at 09:35, Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer Telugu, 2nd South Indian International Movie Awards, "Suchitra going through certain emotional condition: Husband Karthik on her tweets", "Will Trisha sound like Trisha in Mankatha? Husain Haqqani: Pakistan released the Indian pilot. But, more importantly, I wanted my readers to walk away with a sense of empathy. Anvisha Manral March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST Empathy is taught by our communities; we are brought up with it. She responded to an ad for the post of an RJ in Radio Mirchi. Qin took charge as Chinese foreign minister in December, succeeding Wang Yi. 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. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. 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. And join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . This might not seem like much, but it is absolutely essential. This discrepancy is just one example of the confusion and misinformation spread to the public by deeply flawed media reports. By looking beyond maps to create a museum of forgotten stories, Vijayan has given voice to those who live on the fringes like Ali or Sari. We still argue if something should be a massacre, a pogrom, or a riot. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. These may not be perfect worlds or even equal worlds, but they strive to be. A place to read, on the Internet. 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. Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. It definitely doesnt help when trying to hold a powerful state accountable. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. Similarly, motherhood changed me; it radicalised me. 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. And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. We must realise that its the grassroots media, who represent themselves, document what mainstream media ignores, and bring to notice what is important. 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. 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. Parts of Pakistan have already been consumed by the water. They are arriving from various cities and people I have never met. Nonfiction, Travel, Fiction Member Since February 2021 edit data Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. Good, honest and non-polemical writing has always forced us to confront the lies we tell ourselves. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. You need a community of people to support you. This Life Draws Attention to Life Behind Bars and the Transcendent Power of Rap, Wrestling with Reality in The Big Door Prize. Copyright 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. The revolutionary Constitution not only created a social world made of contradictions, but it very soon became the tool of suppressing dissent, deployed laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), and Public Safety Act (PSA) in Kashmir. 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. But Pakistan responded by rejecting these claims and told the Associated Press that the area was mostly deserted wooded area and that there were no casualties or damage on the ground. There are also those who have previously been tacit, if not active, supporters of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Indian state. 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. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan falls in both categories. It was just a sad moment, and I couldnt celebrate a book when there was so much human tragedy playing out. A: Writers are very strange creatures. Over the span of seven years, Suchitra Vijayan interviewed scores of individuals, jotted countless notes, snapped hundreds of photographs, and altogether made herself witness to the manifold absurdities (and atrocities) of who gets to say where one nation ends and another begins. Part of this process is a need to turn the lens back at the powerful. This was something I had to resist from the get-go. The Rumpus is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. 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.