In her rewriting, of the diabolical and so-called Hindu (i.e., Brahmanical) moralism, through her verse, she brings what has been missing in the history of Bahujan activism for long, since Dr. Her writings, though dipped in molten lava of rage, are untouched by the dictation of arrogance or perils of ignorance. Not one sentence from any page of Meena's writings is carrying guilt of the trauma that she bears. Her subject-matter is clearly transfixed at the ethos surrounding her state, her country and her people, but her meditations carry universalism similar to Habba Khatoon, the peasant-queen-poetess from the late 16th century Kashmir, who paved a new way for the revival of Kashmiri Poetry. I call her a phenomenon, because she cannot be compartmentalized in any sense. To say, that she is the raging expression in the now upheaving Dalit-Bahujan discourse, getting some recognition in this era of social-media reformation, is again an understatement and an act of negligence. To say that she is an emerging representation of resistance in Indian English Poetry is not only a mediocre thing but such an insult that I had to alter my title to this article, and put it the way it is. Like a Tamil mother, as she herself said with a smirk, whose "curses are very coarse" but loves in a "devout manner". Meena comes from a place where she has countered worse commentaries and even more bitter reactions. In fact, by the end of one of these sessions, as I was exiting and eavesdropping, I heard a girl say "What is a Dalit activist anyway, huh!" in disgust and uff-it's-hot-outside tone. Unlike anyone visiting a festival as big as this one, Meena offends way too often, makes the audience click their tongues, makes them shake their heads in disbelief or admiration or whatever, in the most subtle manner with obviously, a child-like giggle. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Jhalak Prize and the Hindu Lit Prize. Her latest work is a collection of essays, The Orders Were to Rape You: Tamil Tigresses in the Eelam Struggle (2021). Militancy (2010), as well as her three novels, The Gypsy Goddess (2014), When I Hit You (2017), and Exquisite Cadavers (2019). She explores this in her poetry and prose, most notably in her books of poems such as Touch (2006) and Ms. Her writing aims to deconstruct trauma and violence, while spotlighting the militant resistance against caste, gender, and ethnic oppressions. To do what hosts are asked to do at such events: Meena Kandasamy is a poet, translator, novelist, essayist, and Bahujan activist-cum-scholar, based in Madras, India. My senses were too smitten to have observed a brief outline of her appearance, but keywords for her character-sketch could be: fiery, motherly and definitely a familiar voice if one pays attention. Meena Kandasamy for the first time, in realtime, echoing the ditto of what Shakur has to say. On 12th of March, in an air-conditioned hall, at the illustrious Jaipur Literature Festival, thankfully saved by the horrid heatwave and anxiety that scurrying footsteps emulate, I am listening to Dr.
But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows.
In her autobiography, which she wrote after escaping to Cuba, Shakur wrote: In my days of navigating lives of fugitives and refugees around the world, I found Assata Shakur, the current political exile, former member of the Black Liberation Army, convicted in the first-degree murder, also the first woman to be on the list of FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists, who also happens to be the godmother of Tupac Shakur.