Study of Postmodernism and Politics in the Novel of Meena Kandasamy’s The Gypsy Goddess

Abstract

Meena Kandasamy's debut novel The Gypsy Goddess addresses the plight of a community of farm workers living and working in inhumane conditions, dealing with the relentless oppression and heart breaking atrocities inflicted on them by their ruthless landlords in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In particular, this novel revolves around the historic massacre that took place in the village of Kilvenmani on Christmas Day, 1968, when Marxist ideology gained popularity among disenfranchised Dalits, or untouchables, who worked in brutal conditions on rice paddies. The Green Revolution also began to change food production irrevocably, boosting harvests, but forcing farmers to depend on toxic fertilizers sold by American companies. The purpose of this article will be to analyze the various ways in which Kandasamy, so far known as a critically acclaimed poet, uses the novel as a literary genre, together with some well- known post- modern theories and strategies, in order to reveal the shortcomings of traditional linear plot- driven novels, criticize the exoticism so often shown in contemporary Indian fiction. As this analysis shows, the experimental nature of this novel which enables Kandasamy to confront readers with an unpleasant reality beyond the ability of the conventional realistic novel.