It is necessary to speak truth to power through our art. No one can write a book alone. It is the fragility of human lives that remains at the very center of the book. In Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India, from one dangerous conflict zone to another, she spoke with people, ate with them, and listened to their stories. 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. 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. And this is always at the expense of others. They both have pregnant daughters, a fact that becomes significant as the novel progresses. Why the Modi government lies. On the C-SPAN Networks: Suchitra Vijayan is a Founder and Executive Director for the Project Polis, The with one video in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first appearance was a . The publishing landscape, including Indian publishing, is deeply flawedit is upper class, upper caste, and deeply alienating for anyone who doesnt come from already established and existing networks of privilege. As a trained barrister, I used to believe in the concept of justicebut now I simply call this freedom and dignity. Q: Since publishing the book last year, what reflections have you hadgiven that its relevance is increasingly ascertained by 2022s interpersonal and geopolitical violence? Also, we shouldn't forget that the border making project is central to capitalist and neoliberal logic. We see that during the journey, in a number of places, people stood in lines to speak with you, to show their paperwork to youhow did you negotiate the weight ofthose expectations, which might not have been explicit, but were still very much present? The show deals with interesting international happenings. 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? I still do. Q: As you wrote this book, you dont hesitate to meditate on how your personal life bidirectionally impacted the book. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister-at-law, writer and researcher. That was my starting point. Q: You frequently describe certain borders as porous. The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. Part of this learning was also why photographer Asim Rafiqui and I created the free UN/DO Photography workshops to think about image-making in relationship to power. When Vijayan meets him, he is inside his home with all the windows closed and sealed to snuff out light. Francesca Recchia, a researcher and writer and former director of the Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture, is the editor and creative director of The Polis Project.. Suchitra Vijayan is a barrister, researcher and the author of "Midnight's Borders: A People's History of Modern India." She is the executive director of the Polis Project. Anvisha Manral March 20, 2021 09:50:40 IST 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. An unprecedented militarisation of these spaces accompanied this. On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked in Pulwama in India-administered Kashmir, resulting in the death of 40 Indian officers. The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Supreme Court forms expert panel to probe any regulatory failure on Adani issue, India makes renewed push for consensus at G20 Foreign Ministers meeting, Hindenburg Research report on Adani Group | Supreme Court verdict on expert committee on March 2, High debt on Vedanta books puts investors on tenterhooks, Employees Provident Fund: How to activate UAN online, 1947: Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act passed, RMA 0-1 FCB, El Clasico highlights: Barcelona leads on aggregate after beating Real Madrid courtesy of a Militao own goal. It seems that they have a different eye for these women, who they describe as cunning, deceitful, and in some cases, prostitutes'. When I left him (the first time), I had a one-year-old daughter. She is currently working on her first novel. Suchitra Vijayan. 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. 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. Nine years ago, she began documenting stories from her travels along the borders of India. After her Twitter page was hacked in 2016, and the pictures and videos released by the hacker went viral under #suchileaks, following a spate of bad press owing to the fact that she only released a statement on Sun News saying she was focused on shutting the page down, Suchitra left for London to pursue culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu. She still does a radio show called Flight983 on Radio Mirchi, on Sunday evenings (79 pm). They are also essentially bureaucratic, judicial, and procedural acts of terror. This is a profoundly alienating place for anyone without the networks of privilege and resources. In the middle of significant change, this fraught system cannot exist as it is. Again, in the India-China border, she finds a young army officer closely referring to a book that contradicts the official version of the Indo-China war of 1962, and concludes that perhaps, he recognizes that most of soldiering involved cynical subordination to ideas that no longer made sense.. Suchitra Vijayan traveled Indias vast land border to explore how these populations live, and document how even places just a few miles apart can feel like entirely different countries.. In retaliation, the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike on an alleged militant training camp in Balakot in Pakistans Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. He writes about how when the Constitution was adopted, "We are going to enter into a life of contradictions. They cannot be abusive or personal. For instance, a border security personnel tells her how he failed to capture a photograph of a porcupine after spending half an hour trying to fit a helmet on its head, because he is bored and lonely. Like you train for a marathon, you train to be hopeful everyday. In recent years, the narrative of hate has escalated with the reelection of the right-wing Narendra Modi government in 2019. But it needs to do more for peace. 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. On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. You need a community of people to support you. Over the past 15 years, small democratisation through social media has enabled challenging these practices. 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. Abrogation Of Article 370 Jammu And Kashmir Statehood, BSF foils another Pakistan plot, shoots down drone in Punjab's Amritsar, Light on weight, heavy on damage: India will be able to hit deep inside Pakistan with THIS ultralightweight howitzer, Put issues related to border in 'proper place', work for its early normalisation: Chinese FM Qin to Jaishankar, In Midnight's Borders, Suchitra Vijayan meditates on belongingness, freedom and political implications of territorial demarcations. Gokhale claimed that it struck the biggest camp and that a large number of terrorists were killed. Rumpus: The book utilizes more than one medium: photography, narrative nonfiction, journalism. Barkha Dutt: India has made its point in Pakistan. Not mine. She lucidly explains the complicated history of the McMahon Line, how the India-China border is the result of a fabrication perpetuated by the British colonial administration. 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. A literary community. This Life Draws Attention to Life Behind Bars and the Transcendent Power of Rap, Wrestling with Reality in The Big Door Prize. First, the escalation in the counterinsurgency war within the Kashmir Valley under which hundreds of activists were arrested and several Kashmiri civilians killed in gun battles was grievously underreported. Also read: Examining My Caste And Its History Is Eye-Opening: A Personal Essay On Casteism And Ancestry. Rumpus: Can we please talk about Priyanka Chopra, and how her rise is seen as a marker of brown achievement? I dont have apprehensions. 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. I wrote the book, but those who have lived through this hell continue to live and navigate this hell. So we might never know the true extent of this loss. The border runs through him, his friend Jamshed had told Vijayan, He is almost gone, but I dont want his story to be gone too.. So now, how do we respond to this? I have two tests. Thoughbordersare conventionally recognised as real or artificial lines of spatial and political demarcation, there may also be an arbitrariness to them. As a graduate student at Yale, she researched and documented stories along the Af-Pak border and was embedded with the US forces in Afghanistan. The second season of The Family Man begins with Srikant Tiwari, a former intelligence officer of TASCa fictitious intelligence agency akin to the Research & Analysis Wingworking at an IT company. Its when we lose hope that we believe that we have lost everything. I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. 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. What connects these messages is deep empathy and a willingness to engage with the books stories, ideas, and arguments. This is the backdrop against which we map how border practices and policies have played out in India.