MEG-13 Writings From the Margins Indira Gandhi National Open University School of Humanities Block 7 FICTION AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY UNIT 1 Mother Forest: The Unfinished Story of C.K. Janu 5 UNIT 2 Kocharethi: The Araya Woman – Background to the Text and Context 19 UNIT 3 Kocharethi: The Araya Woman – A Study of the Novel 24 EXPERT COMMITTEE Prof. Shyamla Narayan (Retired) Prof. Satyakam Jamia Millia Islamia Director (SOH). Dr. Anand Prakash (Retired) English Faculty, SOH Delhi University Prof. Anju Sahgal Gupta Prof. Neera Singh Dr. Payal Nagpal Prof. Malati Mathur Janki Devi College Prof. Nandini Sahu Delhi University Dr. Pema E Samdup Dr. Ivy Hansdak Ms. Mridula Rashmi Kindo Jamia Millia Islamia Dr. Parmod Kumar Dr. Malthy A. Dr. Richa Bajaj Hindu College Delhi University COURSE COORDINATION AND EDITING Ms. Mridula Rashmi Kindo Dr. Anand Prakash (Retd. DU.) IGNOU Ms. Mridula Rashmi Kindo COURSE PREPARATION Dr. Ivy Hansdak Prof. Anand Mahanand (Unit 2 & 3) Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi Hyderabad University and Ms. Rajitha Venugopal (Unit 1) Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi PRINT PRODUCTION C. N. Pandey Section Officer (Publication) SOH, IGNOU, New Delhi January, 2019 Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2019 ISBN : 978-93-88498-61-6 All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission in writing from the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Further information on Indira Gandhi National Open University courses may be obtained from the University's office at Maidan Garhi. New Delhi-110 068 or visit University’s web site http://www.ignou.ac.in Printed and published on behalf of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi by Prof. Satyakam, Director, School of Humanities. Cover Page Artist & Cover Design: Ritu Bhutani, an independent artist, conducts regular art workshops at Pathways School, Gurgaon and The Social Canvas, a weekly art program. Cover Design by A.D.A. Graphics, New Delhi Laser Typeset by : Tessa Media & Computers, C-206, A.F.E.-II, Okhla, New Delhi Printed at : BLOCK INTRODUCTION Block 7 Unit 1 discusses the tribal Autobiography Mother Forest: The Unfinished Story of C.K.Janu. The unit begins by commenting on the uniqueness of the authorship of the text. The unit also critically analyses the text by discussing its important features. Unit 2 deals with the background of the text Kocharethi: The Araya Woman while placing it in its context. The unit also familiarizes us with the life and experiences of the Araya people. Unit 3 discusses the novel Kocharethi: The Araya Woman in detail. It takes up important issues of the text and explains them in detail. Fiction and Autobiography 4 Mother Forest: The UNIT 1 MOTHER FOREST: THE Unfinished Story of C.K. Janu UNFINISHED STORY OF C.K. JANU Structure 1.0 Objectives 1.2 Introduction: A Comment on Authorship and the Nature of the Text 1.3 A Brief Introduction of C.K. Janu 1.4 Structure 1.5 A Critical Reading of the text 1.6 Some important Issues 1.7 Let Us Sum Up 1.8 Glossary 1.9 Questions 1.10 Suggested Readings 1.0 OBJECTIVES This unit will familiarize you with the text Mother Forest: The Unfinished Story of C.K. Janu. Beginning with a comment on the unique nature of the text’s authorship, the following sections will deal with a brief introduction to C.K. Janu and the text under discussion. Finally, a summary of the text and some critical reflections would be offered that the text may invoke in its readers. 1.2 INTRODUCTION: A COMMENT ON AUTHORSHIP AND THE NATURE OF THE TEXT Although we have included this text under the category of ‘Autobiography and Fiction’ in this Block, this text is not purely autobiographical, in the sense that it is not written by C.K. Janu herself. The content of the text has been narrated to and transcribed by Bhaskaran. The text is a form of documented oral testimony. C.K. Janu engages in a monologue about her life and experiences as an Adivasi woman and activist, and about her hopes and visions for her community at large. 1.3 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF C.K. JANU C.K. Janu is an Adivasi social activist who belongs to the Adiya community of Wayanad, Kerala. She was born in Trissileri, Wayanad in 1970. Janu is the leader of the Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha (AGMS) which works for the reclamation of lost lands of the Adivasis in Kerala. Having had no formal education, Janu learnt reading and writing through a literacy campaign that was conducted in Wayanad. She had been an active member of the Kerala State Karshaka Tozhilali Union, affiliated to the ruling communist party. After being disillusioned with the party and its failed promises, Janu began to engage in grass root politics at her own individual level. 5 Fiction and Autobiography She started the Adivasi Vikasana Pravarthaka Samiti (Organisation for Tribal Development Workers) in 1992. Since then she has been vigorously working for the mobilization of Adivasis in their joint struggle to reclaim the lost lands, which in turn is pivotal to the subsistence of the Adivasis. Janu won the State government’s award for the Best Scheduled Tribe Social Worker in 1994. However, she returned the award in response to the government’s persistent callousness towards the tribal demands for land. Janu was the only Indian representative to participate in the indigenous people’s conference organized by the UN at Geneva. She has also delivered talks in over 120 locations in various European cities, as part of the Global Action Group. In 2001 she organized a historical protest in front of the State Secretariat demanding justice and redistribution of lands for the landless and starving Adivasis of Wayanad. In 2003, following several cases of starvation deaths occurring in her community, Janu organized a landmark tribal agitation against the continuing apathy of the Government by occupying the Muthanga reserve forest. The police force opened fire at the Adivasi settlements as a means of evacuating them from the forest. This event turned brutal and violent leading to the death of one Adivasi and a policeman. The incident marked a shameful episode in the history of Kerala for the State’s attempt at suppressing the peaceful agitation. A series of cases were filed against Janu and other activists. However, the agitation was not completely a failure. It brought to the notice of mainstream society. Adivasi predicaments in an unprecedented manner. It brought to the limelight the continuous marginalization, suppression and injustice meted out by the State government to the Adivasis over a period of several decades. Although redistribution of land had begun on a small scale, the government continued on its trail of failed promises, and hence Janu and her community still struggle to reclaim their livelihood and get their rightful voice and space in the socio-political fabric of Kerala. Their struggle for survival is still on, and hence the significance of the title of the text, The Unfinished Story of C.K. Janu. The text under discussion was published in Malayalam in 2003 as The Life Story of C.K. Janu and was translated into English by N. Ravi Shankar in 2004. It is perhaps the first instance of a life writing from the margins by an Adivasi in Kerala and is thus significant in nature. Literatures from the margins engage in a form of ‘authentic’ representation of the lives and conditions of the societies and communities situated at the periphery of social spectrum. It is a kind of rewriting or countering the representations by mainstream literature. Thus, literatures from the margin are not merely fictitious or imaginative but highly socio-political. These reflect the predicament and existential struggles of the marginalized community in the face of hegemonic oppression. Thus Mother Forest can be seen as providing a short glimpse of the life of Adivasis, and the socio-political struggles they have been going through for a long period of time. As the name of the genre suggests, autobiography or life writing refers to the subject writing her/his own life. It is different from other genres of fictional representation as it contains mostly events that happen in the life of the subject, inspirations that dawn upon the subject, the achievements, failures, hopes, aspirations and visions and worldviews that form the totality of the subject’s life till the point of writing the text. Often, one sees the subject as having had a great impact and influence on his/ her community and as having brought a major difference in their lives. Also, in the genre of life writing, the subject is considered to have the sole agency for self-representation, as he/she decides what and how to represent. At the same time, it is contestable whether the subject has the absolute agency of self- 6 representation or not. Here, we have C.K. Janu, an Adivasi woman who narrates Mother Forest: The her story to Bhaskaran who transcribes it, and then the text is translated into English. Unfinished Story of C.K. Janu To us, the text is doubly mediated, one by the transcriber and another by the translator, and we are thrice removed from Janu, the subject, the ‘self’ of this autobiography. We will discuss this further in the section on critical reflections. 1.4 STRUCTURE The text begins with a note by the author which gives a very brief background of how the Adivasis of Wayanad (which is located in the northern part of Kerala) began losing their lands to the migrants from Travancore (which is located in the southern part Kerala), how they began to be dislocated, territorially marginalized and pushed to the interiors of the forests, the “worthless wastelands” (vii).