Meena Kandasamy

Born in 1984 to Tamil parents, both university professors,{{cite web |last=Warrier |first=Shobha |title=They don't like women who are flamboyant about sexuality |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/report/they-dont-like-women-who-are-flamboyant-about-sexuality/20120521.htm |publisher=Rediff.com |access-date=9 March 2013 |date=21 May 2012}}{{cite news |last=Jeyan |first=Subash |title=In a language darkly... |url=http://www.hindu.com/lr/2011/03/06/stories/2011030650050200.htm |access-date=2 March 2013 |newspaper=The Hindu |date=6 March 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106040052/http://www.hindu.com/lr/2011/03/06/stories/2011030650050200.htm |archivedate=6 November 2012}} she developed an early interest in poetry, and later adopted the name Meena.{{cite news |last=Singh |first=Pallavi |title=Dalits look upon English as the language of emancipation |url=http://www.livemint.com/Politics/ItCo2HSpKjf98VvW8X4yAO/Dalits-look-upon-English-as-the-language-of-emancipation.html |access-date=8 March 2013 |newspaper=Mint |publisher=HT Media Ltd |date=8 March 2010 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150803000743/http://www.livemint.com/Politics/ItCo2HSpKjf98VvW8X4yAO/Dalits-look-upon-English-as-the-language-of-emancipation.html |archivedate=3 August 2015}} She completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in Socio-linguistics from Anna University, Chennai. She began writing poetry at the age of 17{{cite news |last=Rangan |first=Baradwaj |title=The Politics of Poetry |url=http://www.hindu.com/mp/2011/04/29/stories/2011042950920800.htm |access-date=2 March 2013 |date=29 April 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016085222/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2011/04/29/stories/2011042950920800.htm |newspaper=The Hindu |archivedate=16 October 2013}} and began translating books by Dalit writers and leaders into English.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/meena-kandasamy-interview-i-don-t-know-if-i-m-idiotic-or-courageous-9238644.html |title=Meena Kandasamy interview: 'I don't know if I'm idiotic – or courageous' |work=The Independent |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009193254/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/meena-kandasamy-interview-i-don-t-know-if-i-m-idiotic-or-courageous-9238644.html |first=James |last=Kidd |archive-date=9 October 2016}}

File:Meena Kandasamy.jpg

As a writer, Meena's focus was mainly on caste annihilation, feminism and linguistic identity.{{cite news |title=Meena Kandasamy |url=http://www.thehindu.com/books/meena-kandasamy/article4344176.ece |access-date=8 March 2013 |newspaper=The Hindu |date=28 January 2013}} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.sampsoniaway.org/literary-voices/2010/09/22/meena-kandasamy-angry-young-women-are-labelled-hysterics/ |title=Sampsonia Way |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009185312/http://www.sampsoniaway.org/literary-voices/2010/09/22/meena-kandasamy-angry-young-women-are-labelled-hysterics/ |archivedate=9 October 2016 |access-date=8 October 2016}} One of her first collections, Touch, was published in August 2006, with a foreword by Kamala Das. Ms. Militancy was published the following year. In this book, Meena adopts an anti-caste and feminist lens to retell Hindu and Tamil myths. 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.{{cite news |title=Poetry collection |url=http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/02/19/stories/2007021901330300.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125064658/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/02/19/stories/2007021901330300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 January 2013 |date=19 February 2007 |newspaper=The Hindu |access-date=3 March 2013}}

Touch was criticised for its English language errors, though its challenging themes were described as "interesting".{{cite news |last=Tellis |first=Ashley |title=Poems of an outdated, designer feminism |url=http://newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/article412416.ece |access-date=8 March 2013 |newspaper=The New Indian Express |date=30 January 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023133808/http://newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/article412416.ece |archivedate=23 October 2013}} 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. A review in The Hindu put the negative criticism into context, describing Meena's work as difficult for anyone whose politics were "mainstream". Her poetry is "about the female self and body in ways not 'allowed' by this discourse". 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."{{cite journal |last1=Chakraborty |first1=Abin |title=Venomous Touch: Meena Kandasamy and the Poetics of Dalit Resistance |journal=Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and Societies |year=2012 |volume=3 |last2=Jana |first2=Ujjwal |url=http://www.jpcs.in/upload/1766251931Meena%20Kandasamy.pdf |access-date=2 March 2013}} 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."

Her work has been published in anthologies and journals that include Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry,{{cite web |title=Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry |url=http://bigbridge.org/BB17/poetry/indianpoetryanthology/Meena_Kandasamy.html |publisher=BigBridge.Org |access-date=9 June 2016 |archive-date=19 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019054257/http://bigbridge.org/BB17/poetry/indianpoetryanthology/Meena_Kandasamy.html |url-status=dead}} The Little Magazine, Kavya Bharati, Indian Literature, Poetry International Web, Muse India, Quarterly Literary Review, Outlook, Tehelka and The New Indian Express.{{cite web |author=International Writing Program (IWP) |title=Meena Kandasamy – 2009 Resident |url=http://iwp.uiowa.edu/writers/meena-kandasamy |publisher=University of Iowa |access-date=3 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130106161758/http://iwp.uiowa.edu/writers/meena-kandasamy |archivedate=6 January 2013}} She was also invited to participate in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2009 Two years later, Meena was made the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent. 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).{{cite web |title=Poetry Connections feat. K. Satchidanandan |url=http://sustainedtheatre.org.uk/domains/sustainedtheatre.org.uk/local/media/images/medium/poetry_connections_feat_ks___profiles.pdf |publisher=Arts Council England |access-date=8 March 2013 |date=1 July 2011}}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=Vensatry |fix-attempted=yes }}

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.{{cite web |title=21 under 40: New Stories for a New Generation |url=http://www.zubaanbooks.com/zubaan_books_details.asp?BookID=108 |publisher=Zubaan |access-date=9 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328091820/http://www.zubaanbooks.com/zubaan_books_details.asp?BookID=108 |archivedate=28 March 2013}} In 2014, she published a novel about the Kilvenmani massacre titled The Gypsy Goddess, influenced by the figure of Kurathi Amman, her "ancestral goddess".{{cite web |last=Maranovna |first=Tuppence |title=The Gypsy Goddess by Meena Kandasamy |url=http://tuppencemagazine.co.uk/entertainment-news/the-gypsy-goddess-meena-kandasamy/ |publisher=tuppencemagazine.co.uk |access-date=9 May 2014 |date=9 May 2014}} From January 2013, she began working on a book titled Caste and the City of Nine Gates, her first non-fiction work. When I Hit You, her 2017 novel, was shortlisted for the Women's Prize in 2018.{{cite web |last=Faleiro |first=Sonia |title=When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy — murder on the mind |url=https://www.ft.com/content/d34732ee-3654-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3 |work=Financial Times |access-date=19 May 2017 |date=19 May 2017 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170521063033/https://www.ft.com/content/d34732ee-3654-11e7-99bd-13beb0903fa3 |archivedate=21 May 2017}}

Meena works closely with issues of caste and gender and how society puts people into stereotypical roles on the basis of these categories.{{cite web |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/01/23/a-female-dalit-poet-fights-back-in-verse/ |title=A Female Dalit Poet Fights Back in Verse |work=The Wall Street Journal |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002184615/https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/01/23/a-female-dalit-poet-fights-back-in-verse/ |archivedate=2 October 2016}} 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."

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.{{cite web |url=http://www.ndtv.com/south/osmania-university-tense-after-beef-festival-clashes-476849 |title=NDTV |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009184415/http://www.ndtv.com/south/osmania-university-tense-after-beef-festival-clashes-476849 |archivedate=9 October 2016}} Meena attended the festival and spoke in support of it. She faced incessant abuse online as a result.{{cite web |url=https://storyful.com/stories/26719-indian-poet-s-abuse-condemned-after-beef-controversy |title=Storyful |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009235708/https://storyful.com/stories/26719-indian-poet-s-abuse-condemned-after-beef-controversy |archive-date=9 October 2016}} The Network of Women in Media India (NWMI) released a press statement condemning the attack on her.{{cite web |url=http://feministsindia.com/right-wing-men-bash-woman-writer-on-twitter/ |title=Feminists India |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170612111632/http://feministsindia.com/right-wing-men-bash-woman-writer-on-twitter/ |archive-date=12 June 2017 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/a-cowed-down-nation/280608 |title=Outlook |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009174553/http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/a-cowed-down-nation/280608 |archivedate=9 October 2016}}

Meena has translated prose and poetry from Tamil.{{cite news |last=Nair |first=Supriya |title=In verse proportion |url=http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/TIaTuVIgjWGkEcimBbfumM/In-verse-proportion.html?facet=print |newspaper=Mint |publisher=HT Media Ltd |access-date=8 March 2013 |date=9 August 2012 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304075239/http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/TIaTuVIgjWGkEcimBbfumM/In-verse-proportion.html?facet=print |archivedate=4 March 2016}} 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. 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." In 2023, she released Thirukkural: The Book of Desire, a feminist translation of Book III of the Tirukkural.{{cite news |last=Narang |first=Gaurvi |title='Only thing you read to your lover in bed'—Meena Kandasamy's modern book on ancient Tamil text |newspaper=The Print |location=New Delhi |date=15 February 2023 |url=https://theprint.in/features/only-thing-you-read-to-your-lover-in-bed-meena-kandasamys-modern-book-on-ancient-tamil-text/1372536/ |access-date=21 February 2023}}

Meena made her acting debut in the 2014 Malayalam film Oraalppokkam.{{cite news |title=Moving the Masses |url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/malayalam/Moving-the-Masses/2013/11/14/article1885376.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108045402/http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/malayalam/Moving-the-Masses/2013/11/14/article1885376.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 January 2014 |access-date=15 April 2014 |newspaper=The New Indian Express |date=14 November 2013}} It was the first online crowdfunded independent Malayalam feature film.{{cite news |title=Crowd-funded movie in the making |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/crowdfunded-movie-in-the-making/article5340148.ece |access-date=15 April 2014 |newspaper=The Hindu |date=12 November 2013 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107201403/http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/crowdfunded-movie-in-the-making/article5340148.ece |archivedate=7 January 2014}}

• Hermann Kesten Prize (2022) by PEN Centre Germany.{{cite news |title=Meena Kandasamy wins Hermann Kesten prize |url=https://www.dw.com/en/indian-author-meena-kandasamy-to-receive-pen-germany-prize/a-63171611 |first=Manasi |last=Gopalakrishnan |access-date=19 September 2022 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=19 September 2022}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = The Eighth Day of Creation | publisher = Slow Trains | year = 2005}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = TOUCH | publisher = Peacock Books | location = Mumbai | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-8188811878}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = #ThisPoemWillProvokeYou & Other Poems | publisher = HarperCollins | location = India | year = 2015}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = We Are Not The Citizens | publisher = Tangerine Press | location = London | year = 2018}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = Ms. Militancy | publisher = Navayana | location = New Delhi | year = 2019 | isbn = 978-8189059903}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You | publisher = Atlantic Books | location = London | year = 2023 | isbn = 978-1838959029}}{{Cite web |last=Gupta |first=Saachi |date=2024-02-17 |title=Meena Kandasamy wrote ‘Tomorrow Someone Will Arrest You’ over the course of 14 years |url=https://www.vogue.in/content/meena-kandasamy-wrote-tomorrow-someone-will-arrest-you-over-the-course-of-14-years |access-date=2024-10-18 |website=Vogue India |language=en-IN}}

{{refend}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = The Gypsy Goddess | publisher = Atlantic Books | location = London | year = 2014 | isbn = 978-1782391784}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife | publisher = Atlantic Books | location = London | year = 2017 | isbn = 978-9386228840}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = Exquisite Cadavers | publisher = Atlantic Books | location = London | year = 2019 | isbn = 978-1786499653}}

{{refend}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | last2 = Nisar | first2 = M.| title = Ayyankali: A Dalit leader of Organic Protest | publisher = Sahithi Books | location = Calicut | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-81-90388764}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = The Orders Were To Rape You : Tigresses in the Tamil Eelam Struggle | publisher = Navayana | location = New Delhi | year = 2021 | isbn = 978-8194865445}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Kandasamy | first1 = Meena | title = A Wise One, a Warrior | series = Objects Talk Back | publisher = University of Chicago Press | location = Chicago | year = 2025 | isbn = 978-3035807547}}

{{refend}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book | last1 = Thirumavalavan | first1 = Tholkappiyan | translator1-last = Kandasamy | translator1-first = Meena | title = Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation | publisher = Samya Books | location = Kolkata | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-8185604688}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Thirumavalavan | first1 = Tholkappiyan | translator1-last = Kandasamy | translator1-first = Meena |title = Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers | publisher = Samya Books | location = Kolkata | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-8185604794}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Ramasamy | first1 = Periyar E.V. | translator1-last = Kandasamy | translator1-first = Meena | title = Why Were Women Enslaved? | publisher = The Periyar Self-Respect Propaganda Institution | location = Chennai | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-9395268325}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Ravikumar | first1 = D. | translator1-last = Kandasamy | translator1-first = Meena | translator2 = Ravishannker | title = Waking is Another Dream: Poems on the Genocide in Tamil Eelam | publisher = Navayana | location = New Delhi | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-8189059378}}
• {{cite book | last1 = Maithri | first1 = Malathi | last2 = Salma | first2 = Rajathi | last3 = Revathi | first3 = Kutti | author4 = Sukirtharani | translator1-last = Kandasamy | translator1-first = Meena | title = Desires Become Demons: Poems of Four Tamil Women Poets | publisher = Tilted Axis Press | location = Sheffield | year = 2018 | isbn = 978-1911284260}}
• {{cite book | author = Thiruvalluvar | translator1-last = Kandasamy | translator1-first = Meena | title = Thirukkural: The Book of Desire | publisher = Penguin Random House | location = New Delhi | year = 2023 | isbn = 978-0670097081}}

{{refend}}

• Dalit literature

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• [https://www.kandasamy.co.uk/ Official website]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kandasamy, Meena}}

Category:1984 births

Category:21st-century Indian poets

Category:21st-century Indian women writers

Category:Actresses in Malayalam cinema

Category:English-language poets from India

Category:Indian feminist writers

Category:Indian women poets

Category:International Writing Program alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Poets from Tamil Nadu

Category:Women writers from Tamil Nadu

Category:Writers from Chennai