Voices of Resistance: A Feminist-Dalit Reading of Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You

Abstract Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife (2017) is a radical narrative that foregrounds the intersection of gendered oppression and casted social hierarchies. Written as a memoir-like account, the text documents the protagonist’s experiences of domestic violence, emotional terror, and systemic control in a patriarchal and caste-conscious society. This study applies a Feminist-Dalit lens to examine how Kandasamy negotiates power, resistance, and bodily autonomy, highlighting the ways in which gendered violence is compounded by caste and social marginalization. By foregrounding the politics of the female body, voice, and affective experience, this article situates Kandasamy’s work as a critical intervention in contemporary Indian feminist and Dalit literature.