Questions pertaining to “manufacturing statelessness” in the backdrop of the struggles against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and how modern governments carry out denial of citizenship were at the centre of the discussion on “Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India” written by Suchitra Vijayan, organised by Fraternity Movement, here on Wednesday.
How does it feel like writing a people’s history at a time when there’s the deep crisis of erosion of citizenship, Ms. Vijayan, who travelled across India’s border villages to write the book, wondered. The book, the discussants said, brings out the politics of the ideas of citizenship, nationalism and the question of borders.
Ms. Vijayan, founder of the New York-based Polis Project, a hybrid research organisation that makes strong social interventions on questions of ethnicity, casteism, Islamophobia and oppression by governments, is also an award-winning photographer.
