We have been pushed into a corner - Interview with Meena Kandasamy 

In the wake of the UK leg of her book tour, Indian writer and activist Meena Kandasamy sat down with Tamil Guardian to discuss her latest novel, Fieldwork as a Sex Object, delving into topics such as the internet and misogyny in the 21st century.

Speaking to Tamil Guardian, she shared her thoughts on her previous works and, having also written and translated works focusing on the Tamil Eelam struggle, spoke of her lifelong attachment to the movement. 

Inspiration for the novel

When asked about the inspiration to write Fieldwork as a Sex Object, Meena Kandasamy said she started writing the novel in 2020. She commented on how women are forced to “pay a huge price” for their end of sharing intimate images, with their pictures being used against them as “revenge porn”. She predicted that women and girls would be further endangered as a result of technological advancements:

“I read a lot of incidents happening in Tamil Nadu at the time, where I am from, where this cost women heavily: there was a lot of shaming, there was doxxing, there was blackmail, there was concerted gang activity that became like an entire web with no escape. I thought we have to write about this because this is going to affect - I could really feel this happening - affect a lot of young women and going to affect a lot of young people with no control.”

Concerned by these social inequalities, she predicted that rapid technological advancements would increase the vulnerability of women and girls, exposing them to new and evolving forms of harm: 

“Into the future and as I kept writing, every single technological advancement that happened proved my hunch right.”

Online hate and censorship in India 

For Kandasamy, one of the intentions of this novel is to expose the organised and co-ordinated nature of online hate, encouraging readers to recognise it as a structured phenomenon rather than solely the work of isolated individuals. 

She distinguishes between two separate levels of online hate: a personalised hate where there is a direct target and an unseen “organised, almost like a syndicate type of hate” run by “people on a payroll” and “recruited for this purpose”. 

“There are different types of IT cells doing this, so I wanted to also lay bare this almost corporate-type-structure that lies behind this hate against women, especially very politically outspoken women and the price they pay online for that.” 

When questioned about whether the novel might face censorship due to its unflinching portrayal of social realities in India, she explained that she chose to publish it in the UK first as a means of avoiding such restrictions.

“One of the ways I thought in which to get some breathing space was [to] have this book released in the UK first…to get a little bit of a buffer so the book couldn’t be shut down and was actually read.”

Kandasamy argues that the problem is not the result of socio-cultural expectations alone, but the failure of major technology corporations to embed safeguarding mechanisms within their platforms, which contributes to the exploitation and endangerment of women and girls in digital spaces. 

“It is not just about the home ground or India where the problem is. I think the problem is big tech itself. I just think for all the investments and for all the amount of money they manage to get investments, big tech has not addressed the issue of women’s safety. They could do it in the blink of an eye if they really cared about it but they have not done it and that is a big danger for all of us.”

Writing in the Digital Age

Speaking about the unique structure and form of chapters in the novel, Kandasamy stated that she was keen to reflect the digital space in the novel as she believes that “writers have to be of their time”. She explained that the pace of the storyline set in the digital age is much more accelerated in comparison to Victorian and historical novels where letter correspondence was the main form of communication. 

“The chapters mimic the doomscrolling effect but also mimic the 30-second videos - it mimics our dying attention span.”
Enduring dedication to the Tamil Eelam struggle

Kandasamy is also the author of ‘The Orders Were to Rape You’, a book depicting the sexual violence faced by female fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the end of the armed conflict. Speaking about her connection to the Tamil Eelam movement, she credits her parents for their loyal support to the struggle and acknowledged the sacrifices made by the liberation fighters to achieve an independent state.

“My parents were very, very, very big supporters of the struggle, and in fact, it was seen as almost an aspirational thing to give yourself to the struggle: to understand this idea of martyrdom, to understand there are things bigger than you for which you sacrifice yourself. There are things worth fighting for and the things worth fighting for were not about individual achievements. It was not about becoming a doctor or becoming an engineer, but it was a new vision of state, this vision of dignity and this vision of self-determination.”

Kandasamy expressed criticism towards the foreign policy decisions made by the Indian government at the time, calling them “flawed”, and stated that these poor political decisions “weighed heavily” upon Indian Tamils as they felt helpless about being unable to contribute more to the freedom struggle. She further added that the general opinion in India had become increasingly critical of the deployment of the Indian Peacekeeping Force to Sri Lanka from 1987-1990 as “nothing could justify rapes, occupation or the mindless violence” they perpetrated in the Tamil homeland. 

“I genuinely believe that the struggle that happened there is an integral part of how I look at the word.”

Work as Poet and Translator

Referring to her work as a poet and translator, Kandasamy spoke of the juxtaposition of the female LTTE cadres, who gave their lives to fight for the Tamil Eelam struggle, also wrote poetry from a political standpoint. Quoting a line in Tamil from Kamathupal from the Thirukkural in the ‘Book of Desire’ which translates to “I did not know what was death in those times, but now I know that death is in a woman’s striking eyes”, Kandasamy explains the similarity between the object the of desire in this ancient text and a female combatant who is fighting on the ground with a purpose. She states that history repeated itself when Tamil women took on the role of fighters and they must be given the opportunity to represent themselves in political and philosophical discussions. 

Kandasamy insists that the artist has a responsibility to be political. She states that history is constantly repeating itself and the far-right across the world is funding propaganda to cause divide and tension. Therefore, it is important to present the counter-argument to challenge this, and it can no longer be a question of “Is it a safe thing?” because “we have been pushed into a corner where we have no other go except being political.” 

Watch the full interview here.

Fieldwork as a Sex Object is available to buy now.