suchitra vijayan husband

In addition, she is an award- winning photographer, the founder, and executive director of the Polis Project, a hybrid research and journalism organization. Vijayan is no stranger to stories of violence. One feedback I often got was that I had to put more of myself in this book. 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). We dont document violence against the privileged like we would report violence against those without power. [3], She started singing after a few years as RJ. In politics we will have equality, and in social and economic life, we will have inequality. We still argue if something should be a massacre, a pogrom, or a riot. In her new book Pushback is such a benign word, isnt it? Suchitra is now a singer-songwriter as well, composing music on her own and in collaboration with Singer Ranjith. How did you achieve empathy in your writing, without the privileged lens that is common in journalistic canon? To repurpose an old sayingall infamy is now good virality. Author, lawyer and journalist, Suchitra Vijayan in conversation with Cerebration editor Smita Maitra on her book Midnight's Borders, maps, fragmented identities and postcolonial nation-states. Your prose is hopeful there. 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). Without a political solution, Kashmir will undoubtedly emerge in upcoming news cycles. It's a disorienting time when your library or what books you read can become evidence of sedition . The argument put forward was simple: India, like most countries, had its human rights violations, but these were characterized as the growing pains and maturation of the worlds largest democracy. But who gets to speak for so many of us? I left my 18-month-old daughter to travel and finish this book. Legislations such as National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act threaten to render millions of people, especially Muslims, stateless. We live in a profoundly unequal society, where every day brings news of new devastation. We are all complicit in upholding and maintaining this fear. If it does, I have failed. As I say in the book, Kashmir changed me, it gave me political and moral clarity to always stand with those fighting for their peoples freedom and dignity. I had a very stable home to come back to. We're back with our flagship podcast 'Intersectional FeminismDesi Style!' Along the way, we meet the men and women of TASC, dissenting students, ISIS terrorists and Pakistani military officers. In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. Why is this particular time of the day intrinsic to the book? 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 Suchitras account of her journeys across the undefinable and ever-shifting borders between India and its neighbours is gripping, frightening, faithful and beautiful. Also read: Book Review: Looking Through Dalit Sahitya And Ambedkar. Its not comparable and should not be compared. I have never lived under military occupation, curfew, or a looming threat of violence. In season two, a quick flashback resolves the plotline from the previous season. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . In terms of violence, there is also this tendency to photograph and display the bodies of marginalised communities when they experience violence. She is currently working on her first novel. Her career as a playback singer now spans Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films and she has several hits in all these languages to her credit. A poll asked if its OK to be white. Heres why the phrase is loaded. The two officers who avert the attack narrowly escape death but are left with broken bodies and broken lives. Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) / Twitter Follow Suchitra Vijayan @suchitrav Author: Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India. You can claim to be patriotic but not political, you can claim to support the troops but ignore the ongoing civilian casualty. Is that a probable solution? You become responsible for a human being. A:I dont think an ethical or moral compass exists nowI dont know if it ever existed. Can any of theTIMEsubscribers who loved that cover tell us now whats happening in South Sudan today? You can speak of confidence and body positivity and defend selling skin-lightening creams. Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. That capacity to be able to go away and then come back profoundly affects how you write because then you are still rooted. The writing grew around the images and the visual memory of the encounters. I set out not to give voice to the voiceless, my aim was to put an ear to the ground and listen. @narendramodi & his role in the Gujarat Pogrom. Q: Since publishing the book last year, what reflections have you hadgiven that its relevance is increasingly ascertained by 2022s interpersonal and geopolitical violence? After Pulwama, the Indian media proves it is the BJPs propaganda machine, Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates, Fox News bosses scolded reporters who challenged false election claims, To fight defamation suit, Fox News cites election conspiracy theories. He writes about how when the Constitution was adopted, "We are going to enter into a life of contradictions. We are consuming subjects in a surveillance economy, not citizens. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. Suchitra Vijayan. 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. The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. 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. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. He was arrested based on fabricated evidence in the middle of a global pandemic, and he was denied bail and medical help. Her YouTube channel 'Suchislife' has all her updated work. 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. I think freedom and dignity enables us to really go beyond in our political imaginationbeyond just electoral politics. Rohini Menon for Feminism in India, FII Interviews: Suchitra Vijayan Talks About Marginalisation, Institutional Violence & Political Imagination, Ananya is a chaotic humanities student with a deep interest in the relationship between art and society, a writing obsession, and way too many bizarre ideas involving their camera. India has consistently warred against its own citizens; this book is about some of these wars. 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. What do you think the future holds? British India was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan on the eve of independence in August, 1947. Rumpus: Can we please talk about Priyanka Chopra, and how her rise is seen as a marker of brown achievement? There are so many nonfiction books about India published yearly but few are so important and subversive. I feel very uncomfortable talking about this, or rather I dont know how to discuss this without centering myself. The Rumpus is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. So lets be very clear that Indias intellectual literary landscape is deeply problematic, feudal, and alienating," says Suchitra Vijayan to FII, Featured Image Source: 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. Sayantika Mandal is an Indian writer. All too often, the Indian media portrays Kashmiris as terrorists or human shields, not as a community seeking self-determination. As Sari Begum's story [in the book] illustrates, 'A life where the violence of the border is not at the fence, or in the trenches, but at the center of 'their' and our 'universe'. These are edited excerpts from the interview: 'Midnight' seems to be a metaphor for multiple things both freeing and frightening. I think its the other way round, these communities have always been speaking, writing, documenting, teachingwe must simply listen rather than represent them in any way. The Family Man has found tremendous success as a slick and funny espionage drama, particularly for its treatment of the protagonist, and even for humanising terrorists. We need more such books. Keywords: LTTE love jihad Beef politics Hindu Nationalism Kashmir Get your Rumpus merch in our online store. [1], Suchitra joined Sify for a year, after graduating. Although Vijayan critiques the state and its complicity in violence and erasure of lives, she refrains from villainizing the men who serve the state. Find him on Twitter at @AruniKashyap. Now, border security policies are linked to domestic politics. By Suchitra Vijayan, Why should I read it? Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. She never did like my then-husband, which makes her a better judge of character than I was. Gokhale claimed that it struck the biggest camp and that a large number of terrorists were killed. More than two weeks after the attack, our analysis finds that no news site had rectified the errors in their reporting, leaving these misleading facts as a matter of public record. When I finished writing, I had become much richer in many waysnot in a material waybut through a community. Also, hope is a discipline. Respond to our political present. Were there times when you doubted your own ability to record and document these people's stories? And what does this mean for on-ground communities, governments, armed forces, and other institutional stakeholders? And this is always at the expense of others. None of this helps in telling richer, more textured stories. Sometimes lost. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan falls in both categories. You can find them onYouTube&Linkedin,and can also check out their websitehere. I have two tests. As a Bookshop affiliate, The Rumpus earns a percentage from qualifying purchases. The controversy surrounding the Rafale deal and allegations of corruption against the government were suddenly sidelined, as was the order for the eviction of more than a million forest dwellers (that was later stayed) and a hearing on the repeal of an important constitutional clause before the Supreme Court. . 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. Is photographing a woman, who was gang-raped by the Sudanese army and put on the cover of TIMEpractically naked, able to stop the war? Instead, the Indian media has ascribed to itself the role of an amplifier of the government propaganda that took two nuclear states to the brink of war. So now, how do we respond to this? We live in a surveillance economy where we are constantly just bearing witness we are record keepers, unwitting spies, and voyeurs. She was part of a music band at PSG. The Indian government bears some responsibility for this: Amid this brinkmanship between the two nuclear powers, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not address the nation directly. I was much younger when I took on this project, so I wanted to prove those people wrong. We once asked these questions, even if there were no clear answers or consensus. Even those among us who will speak of BLM will not openly challenge Hindutva or the RSS. This contributed to the long-running, brutal silencing of Kashmiris and their struggle for self-determination. 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. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. Suchitra Vijayan is an American writer, essayist, activist, and photographer working across oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. 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. We believe that literature builds communityand if reading The Rumpus makes you feel more connected, please show your support! by Suchitra Vijayan Hardcover 1,759.00 2,023.00 You Save: 264.00 (13%) Usually dispatched in 1 to 3 weeks. Early on, I was very careful to acknowledge this. The interview has been paraphrased and condensed for clarity, at the interviewers discretion. I fear we are losing that cosmopolitanism of small places. Thanks to The New India Foundation for sending across a beautiful copy of the Midnights Borders. RT @project_polis: Writing fiction in a dystopian world - @kiccovich in conversation with @mohammedhanif https://thepolisproject.com/listen/writing-fiction-in-a . Early on, the idea of bearing witness as a rhetorical tool and as a literary device became deeply problematic. She responded to an ad for the post of an RJ in Radio Mirchi. 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. Like you train for a marathon, you train to be hopeful everyday. Because you are constantly thinking about the ethical universe you are bringing this child into What values do you teach this child? But, more importantly, I wanted my readers to walk away with a sense of empathy. There are enough stories of people parachuting into communities to do human interest stories. 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. As an attorney, 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 Iraqi refugees. When I left him (the first time), I had a one-year-old daughter. I dont want to make this about me. The stories were a way to understand how people struggled and survived. How did you respond to that environment being in an extremely challenging position yourself? The emotional cost is something else altogether. Its when we lose hope that we believe that we have lost everything. That, perhaps, is the only way to avoid further destruction in the region. This was something I had to resist from the get-go. 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. It is here that we subsume all that we otherwise celebrate under the demands of freedom, progress, liberalism, liberty, and secular ideals.". The Indian State and the people of this Republic. At worst, its navel gazing peppered with white guilt, but always politically vacuous. The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. As I travelled, I was very aware of these inherent power differences. This article was published more than4 years ago. I think these are fundamental questions of freedom and dignity. I am repeating what I have said before, "Kashmir is Indias greatest moral and political failure. They continue to. Rumpus: Why do you think the ever-growing canon of Indian American literature has barely tried to engage with these conversations through their stories? Q: What struck me about your work was its immersive style. There is a lot to learn and unlearn, and a writer and a photographer should respond to a political moment, and the work should be a reflection of those practices. Vijayan: I would say I am hopeful. 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. My role, then, and this books role, is to find in their articulations a critique of the nation-state, its violence and the arbitrariness of territorial sovereignty.". And, in many cases, they are children of the literary, cultural, or political elite who have long been the beneficiaries of the Indian state. Reports also identified different people as the supposed masterminds of the Pulwama attack at various points without clear sourcing. Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running independent online literary and culture magazines. Even those who now write about Modis India, will never write about Brahmanism or be critical of how caste works in the diaspora. Why do you think India has gotten away with this so far? Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. I'mdyslexic, but have visual and episodic memory, which means I dream and relive moments. Its impossible for a writer not to be affected by their personal life. She writes about war, conflict . 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. I have no formal training as a writer or a photographer, I taught myself and learnt by doing, failing and creating my own grammar. It has taken me over a decade to get here. We need to think about border practices, policing, and national security policies within the larger historical and political contexts. Love, passion, anger, the desire to make a point about something. But who carries the responsibility of that fear? I havent spoken or celebrated with my friends in Kashmir or Assam. 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. The show deals with interesting international happenings. 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. The act of recording and documenting cannot be divorced from the inherent question of power. A lot of travel writing is still written by a particular group of people with immense privilege, and they all tend to center themselves. 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. An unprecedented militarisation of these spaces accompanied this. Fear seems to be a constant motif in the book we see versions and types of it. Especially when you can be charged with sedition for a tweet or arrested for the crime of committing comedy while being Muslim. Our borders had become a spectacle, and we the cheering mob, she says, as she calls for purging hatred for the sake of posterity. ). Stallings, Rumpus Original Fiction: The Litany of Invisible Things. The former is an essential act of dissent, even resistance, especially in these dark times. 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. If you want to support the work that goes behind publishing high-quality feminist media content, please consider becoming a FII member. 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 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 . As a lawyer, journalist, and human rights activist who has worked in conflict-ridden territories of Kosovo, Egypt, Rwanda, and elsewhere, she has often met people scrambling for bare existence, caught in a no-mans land. Rumpus: How hard was it to write nonfiction about such a violent contemporary history? suchitrav. In the same chapter of the book, Kamal says, "If I am an Indian, then why am I afraid?" 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. Second, border policies are about "performance and articulations of citizenship". ", "Documentary photography has amassed mountains of evidenceyetthe genre has simultaneously contributed much to spectacle, to retinal excitation, to voyeurism, to terror, envy, and nostalgia, and only a little to the critical understanding of the social world.". One of the reasons why this book was written was to step back: to say that this violence that you and I listen to and encounter is not new to say that this violence is not new. Indian Foreign Secretary V.K. Theyre screaming all the time, its just that we dont listen to them. Ananya is a chaotic humanities student with a deep interest in the relationship between art and society, a writing obsession, and way too many bizarre ideas involving their camera. Instead, she shows the absurdity of the army apparatus that strives to comply with the narrative of patriotism. I dont have apprehensions. It took a long time to get the voice right. The two press briefings by the foreign secretary and Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson entertained no questions. Husain Haqqani: Pakistan released the Indian pilot. The pandemic showed us that crises and recurrent disasters that annihilate our lives are here to stay. Empathy is taught by our communities; we are brought up with it. 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. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. This media blitzkrieg resulted in the erasure of two important political trends. It seems that they have a different eye for these women, who they describe as cunning, deceitful, and in some cases, prostitutes'. A: I dont agree with this kind of framing, because its not that underrepresented people dont have voices. Midnight's Borders by Suchitra Vijayan. " India's intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. Be it the teenager who is offered guns, money, and M&M candies to fight the Taliban in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, or Ali, who seeks solace in darkness as the floodlights installed on his plot of land along the India-Bangladesh border leaves him traumatized, or the nonagenarian Johinder Singh Suj from Sindh (a province in present-day Pakistan), who still cherishes his school geography textbook that shows a map of undivided British India the people are captured with deep empathy and come alive in her narration with the adept use of dialogue. Thoughbordersare conventionally recognised as real or artificial lines of spatial and political demarcation, there may also be an arbitrariness to them. NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Speculation and conjecture were repeated ad infinitum, and several journalists even took to Twitter to encourage the Indian army. It was just a sad moment, and I couldnt celebrate a book when there was so much human tragedy playing out. NONFICTIONMidnights BordersBy Suchitra VijayanMelville HousePublished May 25, 2021. 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, we shouldn't forget that the border making project is central to capitalist and neoliberal logic. 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. He drops and picks up his kids from school, pines for his old job and is concerned about the newly-formed government in Pakistanall the while trying to salvage his crumbling marriage. Commentary Politics. But the inclination to still treat India as a democracy remains. Invariably its the writer who is the protagonist. Itembodied young Indias grand ambitions and aspired to a nation made of men and women equally protected by the law. 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. But eventually we need all kinds of stories and arguments to emerge from what is now considered Indian American writing. Without any official statement on the number of casualties by the Indian government, the Indian news media reported that 300 terrorists were killed, citing government sources. 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. When Vijayan meets him, he is inside his home with all the windows closed and sealed to snuff out light. The credit goes to my agent Lucy Cleland who suggested this title. More from this author , Tags: Aruni Kashyap, Asian American, bollywood, Brahmanism, caste system, democracy, Hindu, Hinduism, Hinduphobia, Hindutva, immigrants, immigration, India, Indian American, Indian American literature, Leni Riefenstahl, Midnight's Borders, Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India, model minority, Modi, Narendra Damodardas Modi, Narendra Modi, neoliberalism, photographs, photography, Polis Project, Politics, Priyanka Chopra, south asian, South Asian American, South Asian diaspora, Stan Swamy, Suchitra Vijayan, travel writing, Filed Under: Features & Reviews, Rumpus Original. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. The pair experience similar situations in their lives: abuse, the death or absence of a husband, and the longing for a better future. So the question is not: will the future be borderless? What is the emotional and artistic cost that one pays as a writer while crafting these narratives? I had to cut those out, as my editor felt this might not work. She's a good friend and kindly agreed to take our City Hall wedding photos. As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. I wrote a book along with it comes love, scorn, and sometimes even ridicule. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. 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. As a spy working for TASC, Srikant Tiwari, played by Manoj Bajpayee, has to juggle being an underpaid government employee as well as an absent husband and a perpetually late and distracted father.

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