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@article{189029,
        author = {Miss Aleesa Seemab Khot},
        title = {Voices of Resistance: A Comparative Study of Poems of Maya Angelou and Meena Kandasamy},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {7},
        pages = {4568-4573},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=189029},
        abstract = {The twentieth century was a period where societies evolved. It witnessed two parallel struggles against injustice and inhumanity. The first is the African American fight against racism and the second is the Dalit movement in India against caste system. Maya Angelou and Meena Kandasamy though oceans apart but united by oppression. They transformed their pain into art. They used poetry to portray their lived experiences. This paper compares the poems of Maya Angelou and Meena Kandasamy and studies their voices against injustice and inequality. Maya Angelou portrays in her poems the struggle faced by the Black people in America and especially black women and shows the courage of women. Meena Kandasamy is an Indian Dalit female poet who writes about the caste based violence and how the voices of Dalit women have been silenced by both society and patriarchy so much that even if they speak about their pain no one could hear the voice. With the help of poems of Angelou like ‘Phenomenal Woman’, and ‘Caged Bird’ and Kandasamy’s “Touch” this paper studies how both poets used poetry as a tool for expression. These women became the voices of resistance all over the world.
Introduction: Oppression has many voices, faces, language and colours. It speaks through the centuries of silence. It haunts those who are told they do not belong. These people are forced to be on the margins and made to believe that they are voiceless. And even if they dare to speak their voices don’t matter. But there are some strong voices that break the chains and become the verses of power. Two of the these strong voices belong to Maya Angelou and Meena Kandasamy. Maya Angelou is a Black writer and activist who fought for Black community in America and Meena Kandasamy is a Dalit woman who wrote bravely against the cast system in India. Though they come from two different parts of the world but their poems portray resistance. Both poets used stanzas as weapons but not to wound but to heal. They reminded the world that the silenced can speak too if you have the ear.
Angelou writes about black identity in the country where her ancestors were brought as slaves and sold as chattel in the markets. They were treated like livestock with no dignity and respect. Kandasamy writes about the caste oppression. She comes from a country where women are worshipped during the day and tortured at night. She belonged to the nation which has the largest working population under 30 on the whole planet yet they listen to 75 year olds with 150 year old ideas of untouchability. She belonged to a nation where God can be found in trees and rivers but not in humanity. Both stand as the warriors with their words sharp.
Their poems are not soft but sharp and cut through injustice. Their works show that the pain is universal just like the desire to live a life of freedom. Although the race and caste system are completely different but deep down they share a common belief. Both the systems share one root that some lives are more valuable than others.
The aim of this research is to study how Oppression due to race, caste and gender is portrayed in the poems of Angelou and Kandasamy. By doing a comparative study of the selected poems of both the poets this paper will show how pain is transformed into power and silence into resilience. This paper also studies how both the poets challenge the patriarchal and hierarchical structures. By studying the selected poems of Angelou such as ‘Phenomenal Woman’, and ‘Caged Bird’ and Kandasamy’s selected poems from “Touch” this paper brings forth the pain of underprivileged women of the society},
        keywords = {Meena Kandasamy, Maya Angelou, caste, race, gender, oppression, feminism, resistance.},
        month = {December},
        }