Interview # 7: Siddharth Sehgal

Sincerely Art – Interview Series
 

Sy Albright interviews Siddharth Sehgal writer/poet/editor-in-chief Indian Periodical

http://indianperiodical.com

 

SA: First allow me to congratulate you on your nomination for poetry at Best of the New Awards. When did you start writing in your life?

SS: Thank you very much, I’d also like to thank Sincerely Art for consider me for this prestigious series. I’d say my interest in reading eventually developed into writing. When I was a kid, my parents thought that surrounding me with books will keep me away from video games. I would always get pocket money for books but never for video games, it was a sort of starting point. When I was in college, sometimes I’d write poems or experiences of growing up in an Indian middle-class family, but I never thought about submitting them to any journals.

It was only when I came to United States as a student to pursue graduate studies at University of Alabama at Birmingham that I thought to give writing a try, I came to know about resources that were available to students such as student newspapers, magazines, English classes etc. Though I had to work on my grammar, but I knew that it’s an obstacle I can overcome. Initially, there were a lot of rejections but slowly my articles started appearing in e-zines, I also sent some of my works to student newspaper of UAB, The Kaleidoscope, most were rejected except one I wrote on Mahatma Gandhi. I was thrilled when my first article appeared in a newspaper, it felt like receiving the Nobel for literature, that was a small but encouraging start to me. I became a regular contributor in the newspaper and ultimately, I was hired as a columnist. That was the year 2010 and hopefully and the journey continues to this day. Hopefully, I will continue to write to my end of days.  

SA: Mr Rossi is fond of saying “ignoring India on any level is a foolish gamble.” What do you feel about India makes it such an important player on the world stage?

Mr. Rossi is 100% correct in his assessment and there is a very good reason for that. India is located in one of the most significant regions of the world from an economic and security point of view. Our immediate neighbors are China and Pakistan and extended neighbor are countries like North Korea, Afghanistan, Japan among others. Be it the threat of communism or radical Islam, both give western governments nightmares, it’s our everyday reality. We live in a rough neighborhood but despite our challenges in and around our country, we remain a democratic nation at heart. Which is why we are indispensable to world community. This role also becomes critical as US, at least under President Trump, tries to remove itself as an active world player and China filling the gap. Strategic implications are very high for the region and the wider world.

SA:  these rifts and sacrilege

 

if men are equal by birth

 

not by the virtue of our name

 

These lines from your poem “A Nation of Tribes” published by Ariel Chart, May 2018. This is powerful and possible personal. Are you implying your homeland might get over its prejudices if it were to drop the tribalism or is it something deeper I am missing?

SS: First a little background, caste is the dividing line in an Indian Society just as Race is in United States and castism is the ugly outcome of that divide. In our bygone days, a whole section of society was denied rights, dignity and opportunities. People from these disenfranchised sections would face discrimination at every front, I’d say African Americans still fared better as compared to Dalits (people from backward castes) in my country who were at the last rung of social ladder. Conditions didn’t change even during the British rule but after our independence in 1947, as people became more educated and awareness increased, we tried to correct this social wrong and have come far from our past.

 I’d not say that casteism is completely gone as we still have vestiges of that ugly past in many parts of my country but conditions are not as grim as it used to be. At least in an urban setting this divide is next to minimal and in our generation is it virtually non-existent but there is a different kind of divide that exist now, which I mentioned in my poem.

 In order to solve the problem of reservation our lawmakers introduced the concept of Reservation, in this concept every govt. dept, school, office will have certain position reserved for deprived sections or castes in Indian society. It was a necessary remedy as these communities were far behind in education, development and standard of living but there is a catch involved.

I’ll explain with an example, let’s say, I am from a backward caste and struggling with extreme poverty, it makes sense that I get scholarship for education, admission into schools and colleges where I cannot afford to go or have any remote chance of acceptance and easy entry into govt. jobs such as diplomats, bureaucrats and administrators, once I graduate so that I can be a part of mainstream. But once I become part of that mainstream instead of leaving the benefits to others who need it much more than I do, I start exploiting this benefit for my own personal gain and let my children and grandchildren get an easy access to top schools and jobs without much hard work. It’s just like exploitation of unemployment benefit in US by some people at the expense of everyone else.

 The aim of reservation was to eliminate the divide of caste so that everyone has an equal seat at the table but because of vested political interest the reservation was continued and now it has ballooned to the proportions that the remedy itself has become a problem, the bridge became a divide.

SA: You are Editor in Chief of Indian Periodical which mostly publishes nonfiction, but some fiction and poetry. What are your views on Art and Advocacy? (I am asking for a view on each.)

SS: Yes, though our focus is more on non-fiction but we do get a sizeable number of poetry submissions regularly, fiction submission still constitutes a very low percentage but we do give them space whenever we get them.

 I believe art and advocacy goes hand in hand, which is one reason we concentrate more on non-fiction. Throughout history, people have used art to express their views on social issues. Be it Russian Revolution, American Civil War or Indian Independence struggle, art always acts as a galvanizing tool. A cartoon, an article, poem, song, drama or a movie the medium can be diverse but the object has always been to connect with other person on common grounds.

 Art is a mirror of a society’s conscience and artists have both opportunity and responsibility to use their gift for a positive change in their surroundings. In my own country and in Indian Periodical I see that a lot, whether its violence against women, environment, corruption, inequality or something else, people send in poems, cartoons, articles on these issues, doing their part in a democratic process.

I think in this age with all the technical advances, we’d see a greater impact of art in social sphere.

SA: It’s not hard to tell that Indian Periodical is more proper than a number of publications. You don’t allow profanity or unsavory verbal antics. It has a more serious tone. From the poems you have published your work is quite serious and enlightening about your Indian past. Do you have a certain artistic goal in mind or is it about capturing slices of autobiography?

SS: Its bit of both, one of the main reason we started Indian Periodical was that we’d give platform to voices that we might not see in mainstream media. Unfortunately, in Indian media and literary circles the name is everything, which means that until a person has a substantial following or established credentials, his or her work will not make it to the newspapers or magazines. I myself has experienced that a lot. A lot of times there are ideological, political or commercial pressures that dictate what get and what doesn’t get published.

So we decided to keep our doors open to both emerging and established writers, poets and artists. If the language or content is not objectionable, we’d not deny someone a fair chance. Moreover, we believe that just because someone is not known doesn’t mean they don’t have anything interesting to tell. Besides this I also like featuring interviews of people who are making a difference through their work.

 Poems, articles, cartoons are not only an important form of expression but they are also a personal story, a personal experience that others can learn from. In my poems I try to capture things that are around me. I have to admit, I always find it difficult to put my thoughts and emotions in words but I feel thrilled by writing about things that concern me.

 My artistic goal is to tell the story of my country and society. I see my life and experiences as a reflection of the culture I live in. If my work can help others understand, identify and correct the problems in my society, I’d consider my life redeemed.

 

SA: Are Indian literary publications free from the caste system that is still part of Indian society?

SS: I haven’t seen any bias that I can allude to castism but I won’t say that its not there. Just like racism, casteism does exist in some nooks and corners of Indian literary scene but it’s definitely not a prevalent problem. But having said that, the divide of caste is replaced by divide of ideology. Left vs Right, Private vs. Public etc. It is true that writers from marginalized communities find it a bit more difficult to get their stories across to the big names in Indian publishing sphere but that is true for almost any emerging writer on Indian literary scene regardless of his or her background.

The internet has changed things however, now it’s up to a writer to make his presence felt. It all boils down to content and little bit of marketing strategy. Technology has leveled the playing field a bit.     

SA: Does writing bring you a sense of purpose or is it more a basic version of self-therapy?

SS: It was originally a way to let off steam, a way to let go the worries of life but now it has morphed into a pursuit of a goal. My aim is to make people aware of the problems of my country. Inequality, poverty, divide of caste, violence against women and whole lot of other things. I see my pen as a tool in fight against these ills. In Indian Periodical, I am glad that writers and artists who are part of the journal share my beliefs.

 I think as writers we share a collective responsibility to take mankind ahead. Poems, speeches and paintings have inspired people in the past and will continue to do so in future, so it’s up to us what kind of legacy we want to leave behind.

SA: Do you have writers who have influenced you over the years and can you name a few?

SS: Yes, off course. My favorite book is “The Old Man and the Sea” by Earnest Hemingway. Whenever I feel let down, I pick up this book. I get the same recharge from another art form, it’s the movie “Mongol”, by Russian director Sergei Bodrov. It’s a fictional autobiographical account of Genghis Khan but quiet compelling.

 Besides these I like reading military history, treatises on war, ancient Indian philosophical texts such as ‘Anushansa Parv’, ‘Udyog Parv’ from Mahabharata, works on philosophy of Vedanta by Swami Vivekananda. I also like reading works of Indian revolutionaries and freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi, S. Radhakrishnan and Vinayak D. Savarkar.

During my student days in Birmingham, Alabama, I came across ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’, an open letter by Dr. Martin Luther King. It clarified lot my doubts on issues such as divisions in society, justness of law and moral responsibilities of a nation. Life and works of American founding fathers, of activists, writers, leaders and combatants in Civil War, of entrepreneurs and innovators have also influenced me a lot.

 Here I’d also like to mention some of the writers and artists who regularly contribute in Indian Periodical. Mark Antony Rossi, Terence Wynne, Ranjit Sahu, Sudha Dixit, Shobha Diwakar, Anuradha S. Bannore and others. Often while reading their articles, stories and works I’d get solutions & perspectives that I never thought of before. As a person, as a writer, I feel enriched by such ideas and voices.

I hold these people, writers in high esteem.