Dalit feminist poet Meena Kandasamy is no stranger to rebellion, and its accompanying dangers. Blas ufffd about the regular death threats she receives online, the young Chennai-based poet continues to pen graphic words that leave readers shocked

Meena Kandasamy is a poet, translator and writer. Above all, she is an activist. The 26 year-old author recently launched Ms Militancy, her second book of poemsu00a0 that looks at Hindu mythology from a feminist perspective.



"The struggle against caste has to be a feminist struggle if it has to be successful. Being a woman and a Dalit has made me more acutely aware of the politics of caste and the politics of the body," she says in an email interview from London where she is currently based on a residency. In her poems, the young writer uses tropes and images in unconventional and rebellious ways. Her Draupadis "strip", and Sitas "climb on a stranger's lap". Predictably, not many have taken too kindly to her brand of activism.

After listening to her recite poems at the recent Jaipur Literary Festival, one audience member went as far as calling her names online and arguing that her poems worship "group sex practice" and have little to do with feminist Dalit politics. In an interview with Sunday MiDDAY, she insists on the importance of speaking out: