Overview

Love after Babel is a collection of poems that deal with themes such as caste, the resistance of Dalit people, Dalit literature, islamophobia and other political themes, with almost one hundred poems divided into three sections (Call Me Ishmail Tonight; Name Me a Word; Love after Babel). The introduction is by Suraj Yengde (award-winning scholar and activist from India, author of the bestseller Caste Matters, inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Initiative for Institutional Anti-racism and Accountability, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School).

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9781988832371

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Reviews

Love after Babel is a book not to miss. ... [it] is a highly charged political treatise best told in the language no other art form could have managed to--in poetry. -- Suraj Yengde, Harvard University. Chandramohan's poetry is an extraordinary combination of a strong individual voice, crying out against a deeply felt sense of personal abuse, and a sophisticated understanding of the long history and mythology of such abuse, in India but also in the world at large. ... The poems are by turns shocking, moving, and exhilarating. -- Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions, University of Chicago Chandramohan's lines are direct, and even angry. But that does not matter. This is poetry -- at its best. He is perhaps now one of the very few, if not the only Indian poet in English, to have taken the burden of social and political repression, as a distinct and livid political idiom. To read his poems is also painful, but the poetry is in the pain!-- Ananya S Guha, Senior Academic in the Indira Gandhi National Open University Chandramohan's poems are dialogues of the 'self' with the 'other'. He brings to life a world that subverts myths, literary canons, gender and caste stereotypes by pooling in sparklingly new metaphors with sensitivity and care. He draws his images from contemporary incidents as well as myths and legends of yore, and delves deep into the politicized realm, thus 'rupturing the hymen of demarcations' of identity, resistance, repression and love. -- Babitha Marina Justin, academic, writer and artist

Love after Babel is a book not to miss. ... [it] is a highly charged political treatise best told in the language no other art form could have managed to--in poetry. -- Suraj Yengde, Harvard University. Chandramohan's poetry is an extraordinary combination of a strong individual voice, crying out against a deeply felt sense of personal abuse, and a sophisticated understanding of the long history and mythology of such abuse, in India but also in the world at large. ... The poems are by turns shocking, moving, and exhilarating. -- Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions, University of Chicago Chandramohan's lines are direct, and even angry. But that does not matter. This is poetry -- at its best. He is perhaps now one of the very few, if not the only Indian poet in English, to have taken the burden of social and political repression, as a distinct and livid political idiom. To read his poems is also painful, but the poetry is in the pain!-- Ananya S Guha, Senior Academic in the Indira Gandhi National Open University Chandramohan's poems are dialogues of the 'self' with the 'other'. He brings to life a world that subverts myths, literary canons, gender and caste stereotypes by pooling in sparklingly new metaphors with sensitivity and care. He draws his images from contemporary incidents as well as myths and legends of yore, and delves deep into the politicized realm, thus 'rupturing the hymen of demarcations' of identity, resistance, repression and love. -- Babitha Marina Justin, academic, writer and artist

Author Information

Chandramohan S (Sathyanathan) is a Dalit Indian poet, short story writer and a social critique based in the south Indian state of Kerala. He is pursuing research in mathematics, apart from being a translator, editor and a social activist. He is a member of the P.K. Rosi foundation, a cultural collective (named after the legendary, pioneering Dalit actress) that seeks to demarginalize Dalit-Bahujans. His poetry collections Warscape Verses (2014) and Letters to Namdeo Dhasal (2016), were shortlisted for the Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize and the Harish Govind Memorial Prize. Chandramohan coordinates English-language poetry readings in Kerala as well as a subaltern cultural collective there; in 2016 Outlook Magazine listed him as Dalit Achiever of the Year. Dr. Suraj Yengde is an award-winning scholar and activist from India. He is an author of bestseller Caste Matters. The book went to reprint within a week of it's publication date. Caste Matters was recently featured in the prestigious Best Non-fiction Books of the Decade list by The Hindu. Suraj is an inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Initiative for Institutional Anti-racism and Accountability, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Suraj is India's first Dalit Ph.D. holder from an African university (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) in the nation's history. Suraj is a published author in the field of Caste, Race, Ethnicity studies, and inter-regional labor migration in the global south. Currently, he is involved in developing a critical theory of Dalit and Black Studies. Suraj is nominated to India's highest literary award, Sahitya Akademi and is a recipient of Dr. Ambedkar Social Justice Award Canada 2019, Rohith Vemula Memorial Scholar Award 2018. Suraj was recently featured in a multi-part series on Caste in America sponsored by the Pulitzer Center at WGBH. Suraj inaugurated a popular column 'Dalitality' at the Indian Express that centers on the issues of caste in India. Dalitality is the currently the only column in the print media to have Dalit centric opinions. Suraj is an academic activist and a noted public intellectual in the transnational movement of Dalit rights. He is actively involved in building solidarities of Dalit, Black, Roma, Indigenous, Buraku and Refugee people's solidarities in the Fourth World project of marginalized peoples. He is a passionate Human Rights attorney by qualification from India and the UK, who is also an anti-caste and anti-racism advocate, syndicated columnist at The Hindustan Times, The Huffington Post, The Print, The Citizen, Globe & Post, The Mexican Times, The Conversation, among others. His writings have appeared in Al Jazeera, BBC, The Hindu, LiveMint, The Sunday World, The Wire.in, Mail & Guardian Africa, Saturday Star, Open Democracy. He is frequently invited by the media to offer expert advice on the issues of caste, migration, race relations and international law. He was featured in the Independence Day special of The Economic Times magazine and BBC series on caste. Suraj has worked with leading international organizations in Geneva, London, and New York. Suraj is also an activist in the transnational movement of Dalit rights. He is a co-convener of Dalit-Black Lives Matter symposium and Dalit and Black Power Movement. He runs a monthly Ambedkar Lecture Series at Harvard. He is the co-editor of The Radical in Ambedkar: Critical Reflections (Allen Lane, 2018), and associate editor of Southern Journal of Contemporary History, and CASTE: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion published by Brandies University Library. His recent work with the philosopher Cornel West has received global attention and calls for unity between the African Americans and the Dalits. Suraj has delivered over 200 lectures including keynotes at international academic conferences and seminars across the world on the issues of casteism, racism, institutionalized discrimination, diversity and inclusion. Suraj offers consultations to the government and non-governmental policy-making bodies on the issues of human rights, social justice, cross-border migration and organizational strategies for campaigns and advocacy. He is a convenor of India For Diversity movement. Suraj also holds a research associate position with the department of African and African American Studies, and a Non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. He is also a convenor of the Dalit Film Festival.

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