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 Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility among the youth. This is the backdrop against which we map how border practices and policies have played out in India. They dont. The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. Second, border policies are about "performance and articulations of citizenship". Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer, lawyer, political essayist, and a lecturer. Beyond the confusion over the death tolls at Balakot, news organizations variously reported that between 25 and 350 kilograms of the explosive RDX was used in the attack, when no such information was officially released. All too often, the Indian media portrays Kashmiris as terrorists or human shields, not as a community seeking self-determination. The people in this book are eloquent advocates of their history and their struggles. Suchitra Vijayan talks to FII about Indian politics, communal violence, marginalisation and her book Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India. What are those ethical, moral, and political lines? The former is an essential act of dissent, even resistance, especially in these dark times. During the initial search, the BSF troops recovered a black coloured drone - DJI Matrice (made in China), in partially damaged condition, lying near Dhussi Bundh near Shahjada village. In Midnight's Borders, barrister, political analyst, and writer Suchitra Vijayan documentsmany such telling accounts of lives both growing and barely getting by alongIndian borderlands. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. Sayantika Mandal is an Indian writer. Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). 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. 2:16. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. Sometimes they are no more, but your storytelling is so invigorating that the reader doesnt forget them. Vijayan: Most Indian American writers, especially many of them who occupy the broad spectrum of literary to punditry, come from immense privilege of caste and class. 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. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. The book was originally going to be a photographic body of work, which changed when I started writing. Worse, we have been disciplined to accept injustice and inequality as given. Her writing and award-winning photography culminated in Midnights Borders: A Peoples History of Modern India, which was recently shortlisted for the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF book prize. This also decides who gets access, awards and accolades. Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. RT @project_polis: Writing fiction in a dystopian world - @kiccovich in conversation with @mohammedhanif https://thepolisproject.com/listen/writing-fiction-in-a . What do you think the future holds? 4 reviews of Suchitra Vijayan Photography "Huge fan of Suchitra Vijayan Photography! Chopra cleverly uses womens empowerment, diversity, and the immigrant story as a facade to parrot and promote deeply problematic ideologies, takes, and stances. We must realise that its the grassroots media, who represent themselves, document what mainstream media ignores, and bring to notice what is important. Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. Thank you! This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. I particularly loved the fact that all our couple shots were very natural and came out truly . I find that profoundly inspiring. Suchitra Vijayan undertook a 9000 mile journey over seven years to India's borderlands to write Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. Fear seems to be a constant motif in the book we see versions and types of it. Theyre screaming all the time, its just that we dont listen to them. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. Midnights Borders perhaps also critiques the widely read body of work available as Indian English Writing (IWE), a literary canon that has so far told the story of India but seldom demonstrated social responsibility by acknowledging the atrocities India has committed silently within its borders. Suchitra Vijayan. The constant making and remaking of who is a citizen, who is not, is accompanied by a profoundly dehumanising process. The emotional cost is something else altogether. They both have pregnant daughters, a fact that becomes significant as the novel progresses. 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. What do words like democracy, freedom, and citizenship mean? Suchitra is a sought-after performer at corporate and other such stage shows. 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. Your email address will not be published. So here, 'Midnight' functions as a moment of violent birth, but also perhaps the foundational violence that becomes codified in various ways, especially in the bodies of people farthest away from power. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. A literary community. Pushback is such a benign word, isnt it? The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. Includes previously unreleased investigation under #JackStraw. In this podcast, Vijayan discusses with host Alex Woodson her 9,000-mile journey through India's borderlands, which formed the basis of the book, and she discusses the violent and continuing history of the 1947 partition, the stark differences and similarities along South Asia's various borders, and what "citizenship" mean in India in 2021 and In these circumstances, the lives of people inhabiting the sketchy borderlands has become all the more vulnerable, and fragile. Good, honest and non-polemical writing has always forced us to confront the lies we tell ourselves. Suchitra Vijayan complicates and expands our understanding of the South Asian American experience, urging readers to consider stories that cast dark eyes at India, a strategic ally of many Western nations. Could you comment on how much our present border security policies have changed in the last few years? Barrister. Professor Nandita Sharmas work is an excellent way to engage with this history. 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. Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. Its about what people like me should do. Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. I think this book will change the global conversation about India and shape what gets written in the future about India. 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. Vijayan: Let me start heregood writing is powerful and political. The public is sold a lie as the attack is framed as a gas leak. Suchitra was married to actor Karthik Kumar between 2005 and 2017. We cant continue to see this in neo-liberal terms like stakeholder. I think the usage of this kind of language is ineffectual; its emptied of imagination. This is a tightrope that you walk so well. J.G.P. Suchitra Vijayan. 'Suchitra's account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. 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. So lets be very clear that Indias intellectual literary landscape is deeply problematic, feudal, and alienating," says Suchitra Vijayan to FII, Featured Image Source: 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. To repurpose an old sayingall infamy is now good virality. 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). 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.