Unveiling the Spirit of Life- the Struggles of a Forest Borne Woman:

An Eco-Feministic Approach to C K Janu’s Autobiography Mother Forest: An Unfinished Story of C K Janu

Abstract

An autobiography is a self narration. It is the mirroring of one’s self. Mother Forest is the autobiography of a vibrant tribal leader C K Janu, who hails from the Wayanad district of Kerala. She is still renowned for her leadership in the forty-seven day long sit-in-strike in front of the secretariat, a historical struggle which later waged success without the help of any prominent political party in Kerala. Her autobiography- Janu: The life Story of C K Janu was written in Malayalam in 2003. Later it was translated into English by N Ravi Shankar. The book reveals her intimate connection with forest, which she considers as her step mother. As a representative of the Adivasi community, she tries to recollect her good old days spent in the forest and how her community was dependent on forest. They considered forest as a sanctum sanctorum and thus established a frequent connection with the ecology there. The term eco-feminism spots ecology within the spectacles of feminism. It is an academic movement that sees the critical connection between the domination of nature and the exploitation of women. The present study aims to analyze the struggles and hysteric situations faced by Janu, for the rights of the tribal’s, whom without forest their lives end up in a mess. Janu being the harbinger of change was the leader of Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha and stood in the frontier of agitations for the redistribution of land to the landless tribal people. The wilderness of the forest could be traced in her character too.