Echoes of Defiance in the Poetic Expression of Meena Kandasamy

Abstract

Indian woman poets have offered new scope and magnitude to the literature of India. In ancient times structure of society was patriarchal in nature due to patriarchal assumption women writing undervalued. In literature of India, in course of time feminist ideologies began to influence. In 21 century Indian woman poets projecting new standpoint of life. Even though India is linguistically and culturally diverse country, after independence it has continued its mission of national integration. However, the privileged group of society dominate while working class retain its marginalization. Due to the dominance of upper caste marginalize communities come to the periphery. As resultof this centre and periphery division marginalized community has to face social exclusion.
In realm of contemporary Indian literature Kandasamy’s voice is emerged as powerful assertivevoice. She is poet, fiction writer translator and activist, based in Chennai Her poems give new dimensions to Dalit feminism, social justice and political freedom. Her poems are deeply political and person which give voice to lived experience of marginalize section of society who has been pushed to the margin of mainstream discourse They are not limited to Indian literature but represent a new voice of resistance on a global scale. The Present research paper examines selected poems of Meena Kandasamy, particularly from her collections Touch (2006) and Ms. Militancy (2010)