suchitra vijayan husband

She has a sister named, Sunitha. Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. A: I lost friends, saw my father go through a transplant, and I gave birth. If she wasnt real she would be a marriage between a meme and parody. India has consistently warred against its own citizens; this book is about some of these wars. A memorable, humane museum of forgotten stories that we must all read and remember. M, What experiences and lives unfold in these pages. The complexities of the Naga peace process were apparent on a visit to remote villages of Tuensang district where many of the women remained silent with others admitting they had never encountered an outsider, except Indian soldiers. Perhaps thats their victory. Indian Foreign Secretary V.K. It is the fragility of human lives that remains at the very center of the book. Also, I am an unknown and insignificant entity. 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. 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. 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. We perform rituals of freedom in a right-less societywe dont ask if the rules, laws, and policies that are put in place are fair, just, right or equitable. The Indian media must learn to portray the conflict and human rights violations in the region in a more nuanced way, and not reduce Kashmir to a catalogue of death, destruction and emergency laws. Its feudal, entitled, and cannibalistic. But its also important to constantly take account of who is writing about this India to an Indian and global audience. 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 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 emotional cost is something else altogether. Chopra has long been neoliberalisms reluctant feminist, hawking giving a voice and sisterhood while silencing those who question her. The Rumpus: It is shocking how unaware the world is about the violence the Indian government has committed since independence on its border citizens. Suchitra Vijayan Also, we shouldn't forget that the border making project is central to capitalist and neoliberal logic. 2:16. 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. Could you comment on how much our present border security policies have changed in the last few years? The book was originally going to be a photographic body of work, which changed when I started writing. 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. Early on, the idea of bearing witness as a rhetorical tool and as a literary device became deeply problematic. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. Her work looks at theories of violence, war, and human nature. In terms of violence, there is also this tendency to photograph and display the bodies of marginalised communities when they experience violence. The two press briefings by the foreign secretary and Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson entertained no questions. That changes how you write and photograph a place. Suchitra is a sought-after performer at corporate and other such stage shows. Whose Stories Are Told In Indian History? I believe it can teach us to ask these questions again. Vijayan researches meticulously into official documents and conducts a series of interviews in an effort to uncover the murky truths behind the death of Hilal Ahmed Mir, a supposed militant killed by the military in an encounter in the disputed territory of Kashmir, or Felani Khatun, a 15-year-old girl who was shot when trying to cross the barbed wire at the porous India-Bangladesh border. 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. Always. But it needs to do more for peace. Especially when you can be charged with sedition for a tweet or arrested for the crime of committing comedy while being Muslim. @suchitrav. Why is this particular time of the day intrinsic to the book? How "The Family Man" champions the carceral security state. Christopher Clary: India and Pakistan resort to the diplomacy of violence and flirt with catastrophe, Hafsa Kanjwal: As India beats its war drums over Pulwama, its occupation of Kashmir is being ignored. Vijayan undertakes a seven-year long, 9,000-mile journey along the borders of India, and interviews people living in these liminal spaces. Categories. Many TV newsrooms were transformed into caricatures of military command centers, with anchors assessing military technology and strategy (sometimes incorrectly). Vijayan creates a constellation of micro-histories of people who have lived through the violence . How did you respond to that environment being in an extremely challenging position yourself? I almost never forget, I remember entire episodes or events since I was six years old. Along the way, we meet the men and women of TASC, dissenting students, ISIS terrorists and Pakistani military officers. Growing up I was surrounded by people who emphasised the community over anything else. 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. Midnights Borders, a work of narrative reportage, is the fruit of this journey. Now imagine how it would be for someone from a Dalit/Bahujan, Muslim, Adivasi, or working community to try to make inroads. 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. Required fields are marked *. Rumpus: The book utilizes more than one medium: photography, narrative nonfiction, journalism. As a Bookshop affiliate, The Rumpus earns a percentage from qualifying purchases. They create cleavages of fear, xenophobia, and insecurity. At worst, its navel gazing peppered with white guilt, but always politically vacuous. In these circumstances, the lives of people inhabiting the sketchy borderlands has become all the more vulnerable, and fragile. Although Vijayan critiques the state and its complicity in violence and erasure of lives, she refrains from villainizing the men who serve the state. When your investigations in Kashmir came to an end, what changes did you observe in your 'grammar of dissent'? The world we know is already being remade in ways we cant fathom. Having been trained in law, Suchitra Vijayan initially worked at the United Nations war tribunals in Yugoslavia. Midnights Borders is part investigation, part meditation on the lines drawn on land or water that separate India from its neighbours. Zoya, a young female officer, is now confined to her wheelchair, and Milind, who also makes it out alive, is seen at home with drawn curtains, battling trauma. Indias intellectual, journalistic, and literary landscape is profoundly problematic and alienating. India and its Borderlands: Suchitra Vijayan in Conversation with Sharjeel Usmani, Book talk with Suchitra Vijayan, author of Midnights Borders, Crisis at the Border: Contestation, Sovereignty, and Statelessness. J.G.P. To make matters worse, between 2013 and 2019, editors of channels and publications have been sacked and replaced, primarily because of their criticism of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Hindu, and Foreign Policy, and she has appeared on NBC news. The entire episode is emblematic of a broader trend in Indian media. They all have very specific and carefully curated origin/immigrant stories that cleverly exploit the model minority trope. Suchitra Vijayan - New Lines Institute We live in a surveillance economy where we are constantly just bearing witness we are record keepers, unwitting spies, and voyeurs. Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) / Twitter 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. So the question is not: will the future be borderless? Also, a book is an act of community; it has many midwives. How "The Family Man" champions the carceral security state Vijayan began her journey in Kolkata. It is necessary to speak truth to power through our art. Her distinct and bold voice made her very popular with the younger crowd. She also embodies the upwardly mobile, privileged sections of the diaspora. Why dont people see the ground shifting beneath their feet? 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. 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. The events of 9/11 had profound effects on how border security projects and politics played out. 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. 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. But eventually we need all kinds of stories and arguments to emerge from what is now considered Indian American writing. The images, however, are not all bereft of hope, as children from both India and Bangladesh use a border pillar as a cricket stump, while men on opposing sides of the war on terror in Afghanistan gather around in a cold evening, smoking and sharing stories. Rumpus: Were you trying to write a hybrid-genre book? 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 . Vasundhara Sirnate Drennan is director of research at the Polis Project. As such, very few media establishments in India have been able to stand against the influence of political leaders. What I was most concerned about and still am are the people in the book and their safety. Last edited on 23 February 2023, at 09:35, Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer Telugu, 2nd South Indian International Movie Awards, "Suchitra going through certain emotional condition: Husband Karthik on her tweets", "Will Trisha sound like Trisha in Mankatha? We live in a profoundly unequal society, where every day brings news of new devastation. By looking beyond maps to create a museum of forgotten stories, Vijayan has given voice to those who live on the fringes like Ali or Sari. 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 lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. On Feb. 14, an Indian paramilitary convoy was attacked in Pulwama in India-administered Kashmir, resulting in the death of 40 Indian officers. I set out not to give voice to the voiceless, my aim was to put an ear to the ground and listen. NONFICTIONMidnights BordersBy Suchitra VijayanMelville HousePublished May 25, 2021. He was arrested based on fabricated evidence in the middle of a global pandemic, and he was denied bail and medical help. The third thing is: were going back to relitigating everything. I test my practice of writing or being a photographer against this rule. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions?". 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. In her new book Vijayan: I wasnt trying to write a hybrid book; I was trying to tell the stories I encountered as a way to think about the moral and political realities of our lives. How do you think the media ought to responsibly report on peoples lives and experiences? I feel very uncomfortable talking about this, or rather I dont know how to discuss this without centering myself. L.L.B., Law, The University of Leeds, 2004 M.A., International Relation . @narendramodi & his role in the Gujarat Pogrom. Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Clubs (poetry, prose, or both) and Letters in the Mail from authors (for adults and kids). The first true peoples history of modern India, told through a seven-year, 9,000-mile journey along its many contested borders. I think these are fundamental questions of freedom and dignity. Why do you think India has gotten away with this so far? She still does a radio show called Flight983 on Radio Mirchi, on Sunday evenings (79 pm). 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 . It is here that even the most civilised amongst us begin to make excuses for repression, brutality, and violence. 42, Moss Rose Heights, M.M Ali road, WASA Circle, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittogong 4000. For far too long, they and their progeny have held power to shape the political understanding of our social worlds. Excerpts from the #BBC documentary telecast about PM . Can any of theTIMEsubscribers who loved that cover tell us now whats happening in South Sudan today? 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. 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. The interview has been paraphrased and condensed for clarity, at the interviewers discretion. I was also trying to tell these stories from a repertoire of skills I had, and some I acquired. 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. Thoughbordersare conventionally recognised as real or artificial lines of spatial and political demarcation, there may also be an arbitrariness to them. A:I dont think an ethical or moral compass exists nowI dont know if it ever existed. Her writing has appeared in The Citron Review, Dukool Magazine, Cerebration, Feminism in India, Times of India (Spellbound edition), and others. Like most women, I learnt to navigate this toxic misogyny, the threat of sexual violence, and patriarchy by merely existing as a dark-skinned woman in this country. 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. I particularly loved the fact that all our couple shots were very natural and came out truly . Once we eliminated the spectacle, we realized that the Indian public got very little information about the Pulwama attack and its aftermath. And were there any apprehensions since you began working on this book? 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. 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. Love, passion, anger, the desire to make a point about something. And join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member. The stories were a way to understand how people struggled and survived. Also, hope is a discipline. Second, there were times when I ran out of money, when some said that such a book would not be published, when some declared that such a book could not be written. These are edited excerpts from the interview: 'Midnight' seems to be a metaphor for multiple things both freeing and frightening. 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.