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Being a Dalit feminist on social media and illegal mining in TN | South Central 79

How does a Dalit Christian feminist navigate casteist abuse, criticism from her own communities, and the pressure of public visibility? Why does illegal mining continue despite environmental damage, deaths, and repeated evidence of political patronage?

Dhanya Rajendran, Pooja Prasanna

Published:12th Jun, 2026 at 7:08 PM

In this week’s South Central, hosts Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna first discuss politics, gender, and self-expression with prominent writer and poet Aleena. She is a Dalit feminist thinker from Kerala who won the Sahithya Academy Kanakashree Award for her poetry collection titled Silk Route.

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Dhanya starts the conversation by asking Aleena how she first started writing poetry.

“I initially liked the attention in class when something I wrote was appreciated, and slowly it became a window to my self-expression. I was not exposed to a wide variety of literature, and I mostly read Kamala Das or others, and I thought this was how we should write. It was during post-graduation that I realised I should develop my own style and tell stories from my own lived experience. But getting published was not easy despite the state award, that is how I started putting poems on Instagram,” Aleena explains.

She also speaks about castiest cyber harassment on social media from oppressor caste men and women, including body-shaming remarks and violent threats. She explains how the intersection of her lived experience as a Dalit Christian feminist makes her more prone to such cyber attacks.

“Some people may offer allyship, but they don’t like some other aspects. Some Dalits feel offended that I speak about Christianity, even as the church is caste-coded and patriarchal. Some Christians feel offended by severe criticism of the church as well,” Aleena adds.

Dhanya and Pooja note how embodying several identities is like figuring out a Rubik’s Cube. Dhanya asks Aleena about the influence of her mother and grandmother, who feature a lot in her writings.

“Those women were the only ones I had for a long time. My mother was just 20 years old when I was born, and she did not know how to raise a child. As I grew up, I could understand a lot about her. We do fight, my mother, my grandma and I. But there is a sisterhood, which is a form of love. There are also many sacrifices. I understood they would do anything for me, but they did not know how to be there for me emotionally. I feel I need to explore these layers if I want to heal,” Aleena says.

She also touches upon how her mother and grandmother are the windows to the lives of several rural Dalit women, which influences her storytelling style.

The panel further speaks about how casteism is subtle in Kerala, the evolving ideas of feminism, Aleena’s relationship with the church, and how publishers seldom invite her to prominent literary festivals in Kerala.

In the second part of the episode, the hosts discuss illegal mining and quarrying, which persist as significant issues across several states. They are joined by activists G Sundarrajan, Coordinator of Poovulagin Nanbargal and Jayaram V, Convenor of Arappor Iyakkam.

Dhanya first asks the experts to break down how illegal mining works and what its impacts are.

“To mine, you need a mining lease. The area must be identified, and it must not be near ecologically vulnerable areas or large habitat areas. Then, an environmental impact assessment plan must be submitted, following which there has to be a public hearing. Only then is the approval given. The problem starts with the same person applying for multiple leases in the names of his relatives. In Tamil Nadu, only 1600 or slightly more quarries are legal. Others operate illegally,” says Sundarrajan.

Jayaram adds that in case of illegal quarries, licenses may have expired, but they would continue operations. “But even in these legal quarries, illegal quarrying has been happening. In Thirunelveli in 2022, six people died in a quarry mishap. The administration ordered the closure of all quarries in the district. They inspected the 54 legal quarries and found 53 were operating illegally. In the mining plan, the permission may be for a particular specification of how much can be mined and for how many years. Almost 5 to 6 times more of the allowed mining limits are being mined in most quarries,” he says.

He adds that there is always severe political pressure to subvert the penalties and cover up the findings of such inspections.

Pooja shares some experiences of investigating illegal mining, including physical threats. “This requires a lot of money and power, and there is clearly a nexus,” she says.

Jayaram says that the Thirunelveli incident showed how this nexus works. “People were scared to raise it, and the closed quarries were soon reopened. The local MLA and MPs pressurised the collector to reopen the quarries. The MP’s family had quarries there. But the collector stood his ground. Then they changed the mining commissioner himself, who reduced the penalty,” he recalls.

The panel further discusses how illegal mining affects the environment, what the law says, why the government does not step in despite incurring losses and more.

Tune in to this episode here.

Audio timecodes:

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:01:48 - Headlines

00:09:21 - Self-expression with Aleena

00:52:31 - Illegal mining in TN

1:27:51 - Recommendations

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