THE THREE PATRIARCHS OF EMBATTLED LOVE: CASTE, RELIGION AND STATE

A talk by Meena Kandasamy

In this talk, Meena Kandasamy, Gallatin’s Global Faculty-in-Residence and author of The Gypsy Goddess (Harper, 2014), discusses her site-responsive chronicle of the Dharmapuri atrocity which occurred in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. On one day in October 2012, in response to the love affair between a caste-Hindu Vanniyar woman and a Dalit man, the homes of 300 Dalit people were burned. Kandasamy reflects on the event, explores how one bears witness to violence and the social realities of India’s caste-embattled terrain, and considers what it means to be a politically engaged writer who seeks to unravel the specifics of caste violence in contemporary Tamil history.

This event is co-sponsored by SouthAsiaNYU.