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What do words like democracy, freedom, and citizenship mean? 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? Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. We believe that literature builds communityand if reading The Rumpus makes you feel more connected, please show your support! You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. 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. Chopra has long been neoliberalisms reluctant feminist, hawking giving a voice and sisterhood while silencing those who question her. In terms of violence, there is also this tendency to photograph and display the bodies of marginalised communities when they experience violence. Barkha Dutt: India has made its point in Pakistan. Author In Focus, Celebration, The Literary Journal. 2:16. 6,253 Followers, 902 Following, 1,165 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitravijayan) In politics, we will be recognising the principle of one man, one vote, and one vote, one value. 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. 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. Sari Begum, born of rape during the Partition and married off to a violent, alcoholic man twenty years older than her, is forced to part with her land to make space for an army bunker, while Natasha Javed stumbles upon a piece of family history that reveals her ancestor being killed in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919 and the subsequent trauma and loss of having to be forcefully emptied of history when they crossed over to Pakistan, and how talking about this would make them traitors in their homeland. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. She also embodies the upwardly mobile, privileged sections of the diaspora. At the end of it, I felt that I learnt more about myself, more about my home, I had becomeif not a better writer, an infinitely better human being, which is to say that one realises that theres always a Longue dure that one needs to consider, crave out time and space to think, train oneself not to always react. This is a tightrope that you walk so well. 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. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. We need to think about border practices, policing, and national security policies within the larger historical and political contexts. Updated Date: So now, how do we respond to this? Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. A literary community. Book reviews and author interviews with a Southern focus. NONFICTIONMidnights BordersBy Suchitra VijayanMelville HousePublished May 25, 2021. Global Ethics Review: Midnight's Borders, with Suchitra Vijayan One of the ways she upholds the humane in this book is through her interaction with the men in the security forces. India's Press Crackdown: The Silencing of Journalists in Kashmir This might not seem like much, but it is absolutely essential. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. Its when we lose hope that we believe that we have lost everything. Many come from immense privileges of caste, class, wealth, access, and resources. Barrister. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This discrepancy is just one example of the confusion and misinformation spread to the public by deeply flawed media reports. 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. Suchitra Vijayan on Twitter: ""Fighting for justice and human rights in Its not comparable and should not be compared. Invariably its the writer who is the protagonist. And were there any apprehensions since you began working on this book? Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. She's a good friend and kindly agreed to take our City Hall wedding photos. 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. Firstly, when we talk about violence, we often talk about it only as communal violence, as if both communities have equal strength and power. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike on an alleged militant training camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. I was also trying to tell these stories from a repertoire of skills I had, and some I acquired. They create cleavages of fear, xenophobia, and insecurity. The act of recording and documenting cannot be divorced from the inherent question of power. There are some brilliant writers writing on these issuesthe problem is always that these voices dont make it to the mainstream. I dont have apprehensions. She digs deep into colonial history to show how years of violence and consequential suffering has shaped these lives across generations. Suchitra Vijayan's Midnight's Borders | Youth Ki Awaaz 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. 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. 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 Indian Foreign Secretary V.K. Vijayan: Chopra and others like her are a reflection of how popular culture and virality inform discourse and shape it. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan - The Bangalore Review Why is this particular time of the day intrinsic to the book? For far too long, they and their progeny have held power to shape the political understanding of our social worlds. With profound empathy and a novelistic eye for detail, Vijayan brings us face to face with the brutal legacy of colonialism, state violence, and government corruption. The Rumpus is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Suchitra Vijayan's debut book, Midnight's Borders, is a genre-bending book of nonfictionmade of stories, encounters, vignettes, and photographsabout home, belonging, and displacement.The book recounts the author's recent journey across India's land borders covering 9000 miles over a span of seven years. We must realise that its the grassroots media, who represent themselves, document what mainstream media ignores, and bring to notice what is important. She has sung in multiple languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. Who is expendable, and the manufacturing of rightlessness to render people expendable. They dont. Second, Indias transformation into a nuclear state and the Kargil War is another critical moment of change. The people in the text fear statelessness, unknown violence, and being forgotten. Good, honest and non-polemical writing has always forced us to confront the lies we tell ourselves. We also need a fundamental reframing of language. You've mentioned in the text that you've spent your entire adult life thinking about state violence and justice because of a troubling incident in 1994 when your father was attacked. 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. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. This article was published more than4 years ago. The emotional cost is something else altogether. Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. What we can do is attempt micro-histories of events, timelines, or local communities. How do you think your book contributes to the larger conversation about India? The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. How violence against women and girlsand even how sexual violence against men and boys (something we dont even talk about enough) is depictedis all seriously problematic. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. With the phone armed with a camera, everyone is a photographer; we are all witnesses. Why dont people see the ground shifting beneath their feet? Rumpus: The book derives its emotional strength and narrative energy from the stories of people you encounter at the borders. Acted as the General Manager for a day and motivated employees to work for the same purpose to reinforce team . I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. Suchitra Vijayan Thats part of the political imagination that I believe we need for political movements or any sustained acts of resistance. I had to cut those out, as my editor felt this might not work. Gokhale claimed that it struck the biggest camp and that a large number of terrorists were killed. The book was called ``a genre- bending book of nonfictionmade of stories, encounters, vignettes, and photographsabout home, belonging, and displacement.`` Her essays, photographs, and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Nation, The Boston Review, Foreign Policy, Lit Hub, Rumpus, Electric literature, NPR, NBC, and BBC. There is something deeply flawed in the way we live today. 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. If you think about communities in resistance to immense violations, theyre all interconnected to climate justice. Ten years later, you were in Kashmir, where you 'hoped to find answers' by talking to a family that had lost a son. J.G.P. Sign in. When fires burn down large swathes of what were peoples homeswhat borders will you impose when climate change will fundamentally remake them? Categories. 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? Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. None of this helps in telling richer, more textured stories. Suchitra Vijayan > Faculty > People > NYU Gallatin Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We're back with our flagship podcast 'Intersectional FeminismDesi Style!' The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. IWE is a body of work where the voices of Indias marginalized are still kept on the fringes; Midnights Borders is anarrative nonfiction book depicting a world that novels from mainland India have failed to depict.