suchitra vijayan husband

We play an ever more important role in these times when there is a fascist authoritarian regime in India and a deeply racist police state in the US. They continue to. 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. So we might never know the true extent of this loss. Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. Suchitra was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, as the daughter of Ramadurai and Padmaja. A literary community. 10 books like The Home and the World (picked by 7,000+ authors) As a bedouin who grew up listening to beautiful stories from beautiful storytellers around a fire, I was transported by her storytelling. Suchitra Ramadurai, known by the mononym Suchitra, is an Indian radio jockey, popular playback singer, songwriter, composer, voice artist, dubbing artist and film actress. Suchitra is a BSc graduate from Mar Ivanios College (Trivandrum). While Border Pillar No 1 becomes a convenient stump for children playing cricket along the land that India shares with Bangladesh, roughly 2000 kilometers away in Punjab a woman farmer watches on as the army builds a bunker on the few acres of land she owns. What do words like democracy, freedom, and citizenship mean? Then my agent said, Suchitra, you know, I think youre hiding behind your academic language. We are consuming subjects in a surveillance economy, not citizens. In her book, she makes her intention clear at the very beginning, claiming that this endeavor is not to give voice to the voiceless but to critique the nation-state, its violence, and the arbitrariness of territorial sovereignty. She acknowledges that a book in its limited scope cannot really encapsulate the entirety of this journey, and it will remain more of a scrapbook, a collection of images, texts, poetry, and maps. This affects who gets to document, and whom. So now, how do we respond to this? This Life Draws Attention to Life Behind Bars and the Transcendent Power of Rap, Wrestling with Reality in The Big Door Prize. (Stay up to date on new book releases, reviews, and more with The Hindu On Books newsletter. Not mine. Part-time Faculty suchitra@thepolisproject.com. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan - The Bangalore Review This means that the capacity to see does not automatically become the capacity for action. Vijayan: There is an elusive distance between the photographer and the photographed that cant be bridged. Copyright 2023. Finally, Indias current transformation, the aggressive posturing of an aspiring ethno-nationalist state, will have dire consequences for the people and the region. Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer, lawyer, political essayist, and a lecturer. I feel very uncomfortable talking about this, or rather I dont know how to discuss this without centering myself. One feedback I often got was that I had to put more of myself in this book. @suchitrav. The result is a gripping, urgent dispatch from a modern India in crisis, and the full and vivid portrait of the country weve long been missing. Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. Through these real histories of the people, she gives readers another perspective on old wounds like Partition and new divisionary tactics like the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Vijayan reserves her own impressions for later, and allows us to know these people intimately. A British lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe set foot in India for the first time in July, 1947 to draw the borders and completed the task within seven weeks, engendering communal riots, a heavily militarized border, four wars and seven decades of violence and hatred between the two countries. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. Instead, she shows the absurdity of the army apparatus that strives to comply with the narrative of patriotism. She never did like my then-husband, which makes her a better judge of character than I was. 'Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India' review: A @narendramodi & his role in the Gujarat Pogrom. This is the age of erosion of citizenship rights, a kind of ongoing attrition against human rights, civil liberties, and in the case of India, an accelerated dilution of fundamental rights. Looking Beyond the Lines: Suchitra Vijayan's "Midnight's Borders" I can see small cracks beginning to appear. They took my land, they stole my life, they stole my future, they took my nightmares and they stole my dreams too. Ali went missing in 2018. The word terrorism, for instance, is used almost exclusively to refer to a particular communitybut fails to refer to state-enabled terror or the terror deployed by majority communities. 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. So I dont know if it was empathy so much as just building a relationship with people. As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. Keywords: LTTE love jihad Beef politics Hindu Nationalism Kashmir The constant making and remaking of who is a citizen, who is not, is accompanied by a profoundly dehumanising process. Vijayan is no stranger to stories of violence. Also, I am an unknown and insignificant entity. 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. 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. Vijayans lens not only captures the people but also the past through objects, such as the picture of Kotwali Gate, the remains of a medieval fort that serves as a border checkpoint rife with weeds and trees growing on it, symbolic of a state bent on rewriting history rather than preserving it. Also, a book is an act of community; it has many midwives. This means that, for the longest time, the depiction of violence and marginalised communities has been problematic. ( I hate this word, voiceless, by the way). Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitravijayan) Instagram photos and videos There is no denying that the American media landscape is deeply racist, and while the past few years have seen more brown people take center stage, its nowhere close to where we need to be. I dont have apprehensions. What is the function of seeing and documenting? He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Georgia and is the author of The House With a Thousand Stories, His Fathers Disease, and There Is No Good Time for Bad News. A memorable, humane museum of forgotten stories that we must all read and remember. M, What experiences and lives unfold in these pages. 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. Were there times when you doubted your own ability to record and document these people's stories? Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. Despite the failures in investigation and prosecution related to criminal trials arising out of the pogrom, the judiciary has projected itself as an able and willing neutral arbiter of justice that is not complicit with the deep structures of Hindutvas anti-Muslim prejudice https://t.co/EFf5bxYEBt, True societal change has always emerged from the ground-up, with communities fighting for their own freedom and dignity. These may not be perfect worlds or even equal worlds, but they strive to be. All rights reserved. As she travelled 9000 miles over seven years across Indias borders, some drawn so hastily that they cut across fields, homes and courtyards, she met men, women and children, finishing with endless notebooks, over a thousand images and more than 300 hours of recorded conversations. Her quest took her to the farthest ends of the India-Bangladesh/ China/ Myanmar/ Pakistan borders. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. It is meant to manufacture an underclass of rightless subjects. The mortality of someone you love affects how you write. I dont want to make this about me. Suchitra Vijayan | C-SPAN.org Second, as the media continued to promote government positions on the crisis, other critical political issues dropped out of public scrutiny. Q: What was your goal with writing the book in the beginning and how did it change and drive you throughout those 8 years? What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? There are instances when you and some voices in the narrative question their documentation practice. 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. Q: Since publishing the book last year, what reflections have you hadgiven that its relevance is increasingly ascertained by 2022s interpersonal and geopolitical violence? A: I lost friends, saw my father go through a transplant, and I gave birth. The people in the text fear statelessness, unknown violence, and being forgotten. Our investigation into the Indian medias reporting on the Pulwama attack found that many reports were contradictory, biased, incendiary and uncorroborated. One of the reasons I kept writing was of course all the people I met: their love and time and generosity. She has a sister named, Sunitha. I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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. Chopra is popular because she satisfies a certain need for validationthe trope of brown representation where the mere act of being represented is seen as a singular virtue worth applauding. The acts of writing, documenting, photographing, and archiving carry privileges of caste and class. I felt the same way when I would prepare legal petitions for my clients. I think these are fundamental questions of freedom and dignity. 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. Her writing has appeared in The Citron Review, Dukool Magazine, Cerebration, Feminism in India, Times of India (Spellbound edition), and others. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved. Vijayan shows a keen eye for detail as she presents these diverse lives. 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. Second, we can no longer have certain conversationsconversations are now impossible. The black and white pictures accompanying the chapters add a thousand words more. This is a tightrope that you walk so well. Rumpus: How hard was it to write nonfiction about such a violent contemporary history? 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. Many come from immense privileges of caste, class, wealth, access, and resources. You need a community of people to support you. 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. It is here that we subsume all that we otherwise celebrate under the demands of freedom, progress, liberalism, liberty, and secular ideals.". Suchitra Vijayan. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. Includes previously unreleased investigation under #JackStraw. Vijayan has travelled 9,000 miles over seven 7 across India's borderline remote areas and has collected many bone-chilling, painful, myth-breaking stories of the people caught in between inter-state disputes because of the lines created by colonial powers who ruled over us for . Q: What struck me about your work was its immersive style. What do you think the future holds? Who gets to travel, tell stories, and, more importantly, publish them are all deeply connected to questions of access, resources, and privilege. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister at law and the author of Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. 'Music I Like', an album of Suchitra's renditions of Mahakavi Bharatiyaar's poetry, set to contemporary tunes and music, released by Universal Music, was a turning point in her career. The latter is an act of violence against people whose voice you are appropriating. 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 . I particularly loved the fact that all our couple shots were very natural and came out truly . It was not going to be easy as she quickly found out. First, does my work aid the powerful? MacAdam reviews Suchitra Vijayan's book Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India Read More. I can see how religious Hindu fanaticism has started to spread its tentacles in both the Democratic and the Republican parties, and this is primarily because of an absence of balanced stories about India. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. Suchitra Vijayan on Twitter: ""Fighting for justice and human rights in Required fields are marked *. A relatively small group of people runs it. 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. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories.. Empathy is taught by our communities; we are brought up with it. This book ate into so much of my life. We must realise that its the grassroots media, who represent themselves, document what mainstream media ignores, and bring to notice what is important. In the popular depictions of India circulating in the US, we rarely see the stories that the nations jingoistic governments have shoved under the carpet. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. After being detained at one of the checkpoints for over two hours, I made my way to one of the villages closest to the Line of Control. Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). We have migrated to a new commenting platform. This discrepancy is just one example of the confusion and misinformation spread to the public by deeply flawed media reports. Many of the stories didnt make it to the book because it became dangerous to identify people. In recent years, the narrative of hate has escalated with the reelection of the right-wing Narendra Modi government in 2019. Siaan On Being Queer And Being Online, FII Interviews: Journalist Meena Kotwal On Minority Politics, Journalism Today And The Caste Divide. 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. A Seven Year, 9,000-Mile Journey Along India's Contested Land Borders With sharp political analyses, dense historical research and lyrical, image-rich prose, Vijayans journalism displays an inspiring ethic, one that is invested in the micro-histories of the small man, the one existing on the fringes of history and the one that most requires urgent representation. B, A book that will enlighten every citizen of every nation. How did writing this book affect you? From the epoch of Empire to the nation-state, border making is fundamentally a political project that creates, sustains, and reinforces inequality. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. In the same chapter of the book, Kamal says, "If I am an Indian, then why am I afraid?" Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. Co-founded the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Suchitra is also the founder of the Polis Project, a research and journalism organisation. Also, hope is a discipline. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . Unreliable Witnesses - Boston Review This might not seem like much, but it is absolutely essential. Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility among the youth. It is always Bollywood, the ascent of Priyanka Chopra, or the diasporic loneliness. I came with my privileges, also lets not forget prejudices. You become responsible for a human being. 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. Find him on Twitter at @AruniKashyap. Vijayan: I would say I am hopeful. 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. If you think about communities in resistance to immense violations, theyre all interconnected to climate justice. These are no longer contradictory; instead, even criticism can be converted to views. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike on an alleged militant training camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. I wrote a book along with it comes love, scorn, and sometimes even ridicule. 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 thank her for her time, patience, and illuminating insights into her work. You can claim to be patriotic but not political, you can claim to support the troops but ignore the ongoing civilian casualty. The pair experience similar situations in their lives: abuse, the death or absence of a husband, and the longing for a better future. Get your Rumpus merch in our online store. Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile journey along the borders of India, and interviews people living in these liminal spaces. Later on she moved to Coimbatore for her MBA from PSG Institute of Management. The emotional cost is something else altogether. It seems that they have a different eye for these women, who they describe as cunning, deceitful, and in some cases, prostitutes'. Hope Is the Last Bastion: Talking with Suchitra Vijayan What connects these messages is deep empathy and a willingness to engage with the books stories, ideas, and arguments. Mr And Mrs Howell Costumes, Oregon State Police Mustang, Calcaneocuboid Joint Fusion, Articles S