Paper: Dalit
and Brahmin: Issues of Caste and Subjugation in the Poems of Meena Kandasamy
Abstract
Meena
Kandasamy effortlessly weaves a sharp social critique of the suppressive nature
of caste in India into her poetry. The paper examines six of her poems, namely:
Aggression, Ekalaivan, Prayers, Reverence :: Nuisance, We Will Rebuild
Worlds and Advaita: The Ultimate Question. She delves into the
marginalization of the Dalit community in India through her words “the Caste
Gods deserve the treatment they get.” The paper undertakes an Althusserian
Neo-Marxist analysis of her poetry in order to analyse her identification of
base, superstructure and ideology in the society. In her poems, she provides
solutions to the problem of subjugation - “Sometimes, the outward signals of
inward struggles takes colossal forms, And the revolution happens because our
dreams explode.” Through the examination of such paradoxes of caste and
religion, she seeks to move towards a more compassionate and egalitarian
society, making her one of the front-runners in contemporary Dalit emancipation
movement.
This paper draws
upon various journal articles about Indian Women Writing in English in order to
place Kandasamy among other such poets in the marxist literature arena,
exploring the multiple sensibilities that the poet exhibits in her poetry and
lays down the fundamental groundwork for further research.
Sangeetha Alwar, a passionate bibliophile, a tireless blogger and an earnest student, is currently pursuing masters in English & Communication Studies at Christ University, Bangalore. Her immense interest in English and current issues has brought her numerous accolades in regional and state-level debate and essay competitions. She has written various articles for the local newspapers such as City Today & Star of Mysore. Blog: www.chotisibaatein.wordpress.com.
