Meena Kandasamy

Last updated

Dr.

Meena Kandasamy

Ph.D. (Anna) (2010)
MeenaKandasamy.jpg
Meena in 2016
BornIlavenil Kandasamy
1984 (age 40–41)
Tamil Nadu, India
Pen nameMeena
OccupationWriter, activist, translator
NationalityFlag of India.svg  India
Education
Alma mater Madras University and Anna University, Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
PeriodTwenty-first century
Genre Indian writing in English
SubjectsSocial justice and human rights
Literary movement Dalit literature
Notable works The Orders Were to Rape You (2021)
Notable awards2022 Hermann Kesten Prize
ParentsDrs. W. B. Vasantha Kandaswamy (Mother) and K. Kandaswamy (Father)
Website
www.kandasamy.co.uk

Ilavenil Meena Kandasamy (born 1984) is an Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and activist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. [1]

Contents

Meena published two collections of poetry, Touch (2006) and Ms. Militancy (2010). From 2001 to 2002, she edited The Dalit, a bi-monthly alternative English magazine of the Dalit Media Network. [2]

She represented India at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program and was a Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom. She writes columns for platforms including Outlook India [3] and The Hindu . [4] [5] [6]

Early life and education

Born in 1984 to Tamil parents, both university professors, [1] [7] [8] she developed an early interest in poetry, and later adopted the name Meena. [9] She completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in Socio-linguistics from Anna University, Chennai. [1] She began writing poetry at the age of 17 [10] and began translating books by Dalit writers and leaders into English. [11]

Professional career

Meena in 2012 Meena Kandasamy.jpg
Meena in 2012

As a writer, Meena's focus was mainly on caste annihilation, feminism and linguistic identity. [12] She says, "Poetry is not caught up within larger structures that pressure you to adopt a certain set of practices while you present your ideas in the way that academic language is," and thus, prefers to use it for her activism. [13] One of her first collections, Touch, was published in August 2006, with a foreword by Kamala Das. [1] Ms. Militancy was published the following year. [1] In this book, Meena adopts an anti-caste and feminist lens to retell Hindu and Tamil myths. [13] The title poem of this volume is based on Kannaki, the heroine of the Tamil Classic Silapathikaram. Other works, such as "Mascara" and "My Lover Speaks of Rape", won her prizes in India poetry competitions. [14]

Touch was criticised for its English language errors, though its challenging themes were described as "interesting". [15] Ms. Militancy was described as an improvement in her use of the English language but "disastrous, if not worse" in terms of themes and content. [15] A review in The Hindu put the negative criticism into context, describing Meena's work as difficult for anyone whose politics were "mainstream". [8] Her poetry is "about the female self and body in ways not 'allowed' by this discourse". [8] An analysis of Touch and Ms Militancy in the Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies concludes that Meena "authors a poetic discourse that not only castigates the prevalent modes of subjugation but also resolutely strives towards futures that are yet to be born." [16] In an interview with Sampsonia Way Magazine, Meena said "My poetry is naked, my poetry is in tears, my poetry screams in anger, my poetry writhes in pain. My poetry smells of blood, my poetry salutes sacrifice. My poetry speaks like my people, my poetry speaks for my people." [13]

Her work has been published in anthologies and journals that include Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry, [17] The Little Magazine, Kavya Bharati , Indian Literature, Poetry International Web , Muse India , Quarterly Literary Review, Outlook , Tehelka and The New Indian Express . [18] She was also invited to participate in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2009 [12] [1] Two years later, Meena was made the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent. [12] She was a featured poet at the City of Asylum Jazz Poetry Concert held in Pittsburgh, the 14th Poetry Africa International Festival (2010), Durban, and the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival (2011). [19]

She co-authored AYYANKALI: A Dalit leader of Organic Protest, a biography of Ayyankali, a dalit leader in Kerala. The foreword was written by Kancha Ilaiah). Meena was shortlisted among 21 short fiction women writers aged less than 40 from South Asia for an anthology published by Zubaan Books, New Delhi. [20] In 2014, she published a novel about the Kilvenmani massacre titled The Gypsy Goddess, influenced by the figure of Kurathi Amman, her "ancestral goddess". [10] [21] From January 2013, she began working on a book titled Caste and the City of Nine Gates, her first non-fiction work. [12] When I Hit You, her 2017 novel, was shortlisted for the Women's Prize in 2018. [22]

As activist

Meena works closely with issues of caste and gender and how society puts people into stereotypical roles on the basis of these categories. [23] She has faced threats for her fearless criticism of the Hindu society, to which she says: "This threat of violence shouldn’t dictate what you are going to write or hinder you in any manner." [11]

In 2012, a group of Dalit students of Osmania University, Hyderabad, organised a beef eating festival to protest against the "food fascism" in hostels. The right-wing student group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged protests against the event and organisers. [24] Meena attended the festival and spoke in support of it. She faced incessant abuse online as a result. [11] [25] The Network of Women in Media India (NWMI) released a press statement condemning the attack on her. [26] [27]

As translator

Meena has translated prose and poetry from Tamil. [28] She has translated the work of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, Thol. Thirumavalavan and Tamil Eelam writers such as Kasi Anandan, Cheran and VIS Jayapalan into English. [19] Speaking about her role as translator, she says: "I know that there is no limit, no boundary, no specific style guide to poetry—that you are free to experiment, that you are free to find your own voice, that you are free to flounder and also free to fail once in a while because all this happens all the time when you translate." [9] In 2023, she released Thirukkural: The Book of Desire, a feminist translation of Book III of the Tirukkural. [29]

As actor

Meena made her acting debut in the 2014 Malayalam film Oraalppokkam . [30] It was the first online crowdfunded independent Malayalam feature film. [31]

Awards

Bibliography

Poetry

  • Kandasamy, Meena (2005). The Eighth Day of Creation. Slow Trains.
  • Kandasamy, Meena (2006). TOUCH. Mumbai: Peacock Books. ISBN   978-8188811878.
  • Kandasamy, Meena (2015). #ThisPoemWillProvokeYou & Other Poems. India: HarperCollins.
  • Kandasamy, Meena (2018). We Are Not The Citizens. London: Tangerine Press.
  • Kandasamy, Meena (2019). Ms. Militancy. New Delhi: Navayana. ISBN   978-8189059903.
  • Kandasamy, Meena (2023). Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You. London: Atlantic Books. ISBN   978-1838959029. [33]

Novels

Non-Fiction

Translations

  • Thirumavalavan, Tholkappiyan (2003). Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation. Translated by Kandasamy, Meena. Kolkata: Samya Books. ISBN   978-8185604688.
  • Thirumavalavan, Tholkappiyan (2004). Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers . Translated by Kandasamy, Meena. Kolkata: Samya Books. ISBN   978-8185604794.
  • Ramasamy, Periyar E.V. (2007). Why Were Women Enslaved?. Translated by Kandasamy, Meena. Chennai: The Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution. ISBN   978-9395268325.
  • Ravikumar, D. (2010). Waking is Another Dream: Poems on the Genocide in Tamil Eelam. Translated by Kandasamy, Meena; Ravishannker. New Delhi: Navayana. ISBN   978-8189059378.
  • Maithri, Malathi; Salma, Rajathi; Revathi, Kutti; Sukirtharani (2018). Desires Become Demons: Poems of Four Tamil Women Poets. Translated by Kandasamy, Meena. Sheffield: Tilted Axis Press. ISBN   978-1911284260.
  • Thiruvalluvar (2023). Thirukkural: The Book of Desire. Translated by Kandasamy, Meena. New Delhi: Penguin Random House. ISBN   978-0670097081.

See also

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The Orders Were to Rape You: Tigresses in the Tamil Eelam Struggle is a book by Meena Kandasamy about the violence, particularly sexual violence, faced by the female fighters of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War. She narrates the suffering faced by first-person accounts by women who moved abroad to Malaysia and Indonesia after the end of the Sri Lankan Civil war. She narrates the suffering of a woman married to an LTTE member who had no direct connection with the movement, she speaks of the questioning, harassment, and torture by Army personnel and female fighter of the LTTE who narrated her ordeal of being repeatedly raped by army personnel and contemplated suicide but decided against for the sake of her child during there detention in camps after the end of the Civil War in 2009. In the other part she writes about the resistance poems written by the female fighters.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "INDIA Being Untouchable (press release)" (PDF). Christian Solidarity Worldwide. 27 September 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  2. ↑ "Poetry International Rotterdam". Archived from the original on 25 March 2019.
  3. ↑ "Outlook India". Archived from the original on 9 October 2016.
  4. ↑ Kandasamy, Meena (18 January 2016). "The Hindu". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 18 January 2016.
  5. ↑ "Porterfolio". Archived from the original on 10 October 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  6. ↑ "Osmania University Beef Festival Leads To Violence". HuffPost. 17 April 2012.
  7. ↑ Warrier, Shobha (21 May 2012). "They don't like women who are flamboyant about sexuality". Rediff.com . Retrieved 9 March 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 Jeyan, Subash (6 March 2011). "In a language darkly..." The Hindu . Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  9. 1 2 Singh, Pallavi (8 March 2010). "Dalits look upon English as the language of emancipation". Mint . HT Media Ltd. Archived from the original on 3 August 2015. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  10. 1 2 Rangan, Baradwaj (29 April 2011). "The Politics of Poetry". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  11. 1 2 3 Kidd, James. "Meena Kandasamy interview: 'I don't know if I'm idiotic – or courageous'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 October 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Meena Kandasamy". The Hindu. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 "Sampsonia Way". Archived from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  14. ↑ "Poetry collection". The Hindu . 19 February 2007. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  15. 1 2 Tellis, Ashley (30 January 2011). "Poems of an outdated, designer feminism". The New Indian Express . Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  16. ↑ Chakraborty, Abin; Jana, Ujjwal (2012). "Venomous Touch: Meena Kandasamy and the Poetics of Dalit Resistance" (PDF). Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies. 3. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  17. ↑ "Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry". BigBridge.Org. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  18. ↑ International Writing Program (IWP). "Meena Kandasamy – 2009 Resident". University of Iowa. Archived from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  19. 1 2 "Poetry Connections feat. K. Satchidanandan" (PDF). Arts Council England. 1 July 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2013.[ permanent dead link ]
  20. ↑ "21 under 40: New Stories for a New Generation". Zubaan. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
  21. ↑ Maranovna, Tuppence (9 May 2014). "The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy". tuppencemagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  22. ↑ Faleiro, Sonia (19 May 2017). "When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy — murder on the mind". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 21 May 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  23. ↑ "A Female Dalit Poet Fights Back in Verse". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2 October 2016.
  24. ↑ "NDTV". Archived from the original on 9 October 2016.
  25. ↑ "Storyful". Archived from the original on 9 October 2016.
  26. ↑ "Feminists India". Archived from the original on 12 June 2017.
  27. ↑ "Outlook". Archived from the original on 9 October 2016.
  28. ↑ Nair, Supriya (9 August 2012). "In verse proportion". Mint . HT Media Ltd. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  29. ↑ Narang, Gaurvi (15 February 2023). "'Only thing you read to your lover in bed'—Meena Kandasamy's modern book on ancient Tamil text". The Print. New Delhi. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  30. ↑ "Moving the Masses". The New Indian Express. 14 November 2013. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  31. ↑ "Crowd-funded movie in the making". The Hindu. 12 November 2013. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  32. ↑ Gopalakrishnan, Manasi (19 September 2022). "Meena Kandasamy wins Hermann Kesten prize". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  33. ↑ Gupta, Saachi (17 February 2024). "Meena Kandasamy wrote 'Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You' over the course of 14 years". Vogue India. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
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