000			01515nam a22001817a 4500
999			_c344882 _d344882
003			0
005			20210712154023.0
020			_a9788194879053
082			_a954 _bVIJ
100			_aVijayan, Suchitra
245			_aMidnight's borders : a people's history of modern India
260			_aChennai _bcontxt _c2021
300			_a162418
520			_aIndia is a land of borders, its peripheries nestling against seven countries. Over seven years, across 9,000 miles, Suchitra Vijayan travelled these borderlands. The more she travelled, the clearer it became to her that local history and memory bear no resemblance to the political history of the nation that claims these lands and peoples. From the densely populated border that India shares with Bangladesh to the highly disputed one with Pakistan, the stories in this book engage with how people live, struggle, fight and survive. A man escapes the floodlights that invade his home by blocking out all light, children use a border pillar as a handy cricket stump, and a family live out their lives beside the men who orchestrated their son’s death. These are stories that question our ideas of what freedom means and what it means to be a citizen. At a time when millions in India face loss of citizenship—the largest crisis of manufactured statelessness in human history—Vijayan’s clear-eyed, empathetic reportage provides a re-examination of the idea of territorial sovereignty.
650			_aPolitics and government
650			_aHistory
942			_cB