POWER OF POETRY

BODIES, caste, sexuality, desire, and violence—these topics filled the poems penned by Malathi, Kutty Revathi, Salam, and Sukirtharani, in the early 2000s. A new vocabulary of feminist writing slowly solidified.

- ARCHITA RAGHU

BODIES, caste, sexuality, desire, and violence—these topics filled the poems penned by Malathi, Kutty Revathi, Salam, and Sukirtharani, in the early 2000s. A new vocabulary of feminist writing slowly solidified. As translator Lakshmi Holstrom writes in Wild Women, Wicked Words, "for the moral police, such language was not permissible for Tamil women. So the poets were condemned and vilified."

And soon, threats, anger and mass outrage followed. "Our poetry was asking questions and many men began issuing threats online. One said they would make us stand on Mount Road and light us on fire with petrol. In a society filled with patriarchy, caste and religious divide, feminist writing is needed. Our writing and poetry should show the way," recalls Sukirtharani. But, what is poetry if not challenging the norm?