Sukirtharani

In this series, I explore the many literary stalwarts of South India in a world where Northern Indian culture dominates the pop-culture scene. I see how despite years of being silenced, the voices of our greatest artists are finally recognised for their expression of identity.

Sukirtharani. Image Source: The Wire.

Sukirtharani is a Dalit poet and teacher who has published five books. Her five published works are Kaip Pattri Yen Kanavu Kel, Kaippatri Yen Kanavu Kel, Iravu Mirugam, Avalai Mozhi Peyarthal, and Theendap Pataatha Muththam. She has taken up the cause of the caste system and the hardship of women who are subjugated by it via her poetry. She has received numerous awards, including the Thevamagal Kavithoovi Award, the Puthumaipitthan Memorial Award, and the Pengal Munnani (Women's Front) Women's Achiever Award. The Sundhara Ramasamy Viruthu Award was recently handed to her by Neithal Ilakkiya Amaippu of Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu.

Many of her poems are also included in curricula in college classes across the state. She is a well-known Indian feminist poet and social activist who has made significant contributions to Dalit and Tamil literature. She's currently writing a dalit-feminist novel. In 2009, she organised a poets' protest in response to Sri Lankan violence against Tamils, at which a large number of poets read their work.

Sukirtharani holds MA, M.Phil., and B.Ed. degrees in Tamil Literature and Economics.  She also works as a Tamil teacher at Vellore's Government Girls High School. Her  works have been regarded as both a celebration of the female form and a criticism of the repressive caste system, encapsulating the dual experience of being born both a female and a Dalit. Her writing has also been praised for taking an ecofeminist perspective. In Lakshmi Holmström's translated collection 'Wild Girls Wicked Words,' she appears among poets Kutti Revathi, Malathi Maithri, and Salma. Sukirtharani, according to Holmström's anthology, is described as one who seeks

"an infant language with all the rough and physical reality of new birth, sticky with blood".

Sukirtharani reads her poem “Infant Language”. Image Source: Youtube.