C. K. Janu

Janu was born in chekot, near Mananthavady, a tribal village, in Wayanad to poor tribal parents from Ravula community, called Adiya due to their historical background, one of the several tribal groups in Kerala who used to be indentured labourers. Adiya literally means slave and are mostly landless agricultural labourers. She did not have any formal education but learned to read and write through a literacy campaign that was conducted in Wayanad.[4]

Janu started her career as a domestic servant at a local school teacher's house, at the age of seven, and spent five years there. By the age of 13, she started working as a labourer for a daily wage of Indian Rupess 2 (3.5 US cents). Later, she learned tailoring and started a small shop, which had to be closed down due to financial constraints.[5]

C K Janu was influenced by her uncle P K Kalan, a member of Communist Party of India (Marxist), and became a part of the left party.[6] She became an activist through Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union (KSKTU), associated with the Communist Party of India in the 1970s, who led a tribal uprising in Tirunelli forest in Wyanad, and speaking out from personal experience soon became identified as the voice of tribal people. She worked as a campaigner for the Union until 1987.[4] She then embarked on a tribal tour to understand their problems and to mobilise them for struggle.[3]

Janu's stint with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) helped her to gain experience in party politics. In 2001, Janu led a protest march through the state and held a kudil ketti samaram in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram to demand land for landless tribal people which lasted 48 days and resulted in convincing Kerala Government to distribute land to the tribal people.[5]

On February 19, 2003, Janu also led the occupation of land at Muthanga.[7] The occupation ended with massive police violence in which a policeman and a tribal were killed.[8] It came to be known as the Muthanga incident and Janu had to undergo imprisonment and face 75 cases filed against her.[4]

The Muthanga incident refers to an incident of police firing on the tribal people in the Muthanga village of Wayanad. On 19 February 2003, the tribal people had gathered under Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS) to protest the Kerala government's delay in allotting them land, which had been contracted in October 2001. During the protest, Kerala police fired 18 rounds resulting in two immediate fatalities (one of which was a police officer). In a subsequent statement, the government placed the official death toll at five. A video of the firing was aired on several television news programs[9] and prompted noted author, Arundhati Roy, into writing You have blood on your hands.[4]

The agitation was deemed a success as, according to Janu, nearly 10,000 tribal families have received land following the 2001 agreement and over 4,000 hectares of land including the Aralam Farm land in Kannur district has been assigned to the landless Adivasis.

After the Muthanga agitation, Janu shifted her concentration onto occupying land at Aralam farm, a huge cooperative farm that the government had promised to distribute amongst landless tribal people.

Janu is sometimes described as the first 'organic' leader of tribal people in Kerala[10] and holds status among notable women politicians in Kerala such as KR Gowriamma and Kunnikkal Ajitha. She is reported to be devoid of abstract political dogmas. She has often cooperated with national and international indigenous people's organisations but was always very wary of being funded by any organisation. Most of the activities of the Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha are funded entirely through the solidarity of poor tribal people and former untouchables.

An autobiography, a small book consisting of only 56 pages, 'Janu: The Life Story of CK Janu, was published in Malayalam by DC Books in 2003. The book was later translated into English by N Ravi Shankar under the name, Mother Forest: The Unfinished Story of CK Janu.[11]

C K Janu is a single mother. The tribal leader adopted a three-year-old daughter from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh and named her as C K Janaki. The mother and daughter stay at Panavally with Janu's mother and sister.[12]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to C. K. Janu.

• Profile on Tehelka
• from Justice Documentary

• C. K. Janu (as told to Bhaskaran) (2003). Janu: The Life Story of C.K. Janu. D C Books.
• C. K. Janu (as told to Bhaskaran) (2004). Mother Forest: The Unfinished Story of C.K. Janu (translated by N. Ravi Shankar). Kali for Women. ISBN 81-88965-01-4.
• Luisa Steur (2011). "Traveling models of indigenism and Kerala's emergent 'adivasi' politics". Anthropological Notebooks. Slovene Anthropological Society. 17 (2): 91–109. ISSN 1408-032X.
• Darley Kjosavik. Articulating identities in the struggle for land (PDF).
• C R Bijoy, Ravi Raman (2002). Muthanga: The Real Story (PDF). Economic and Political Weekly.
• Brigitte Schulz (2004). I am that woman!. Archived from the original on 26 November 2006. Retrieved 25 October 2007.
• C.K Janu and M. Geethanandan (2003). The return to Muthanga. People's Union for Civil Liberties. Archived from the original on 6 May 2006. Retrieved 28 October 2005.
• Mukundan C Menon. C K Janu: Experience is my guide. Archived from the original on 11 August 2002.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• Subhash Gatade. Interview with C K Janu: 'No land even for burial...'.
• Luisa Steur (2006). "The Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha in Kerala: Resistance and the Reproduction of Political Hegemonies". IDPAD Newsletter. 4 (1): 74–78.
• R. Krishnakumar (2001). For land and livelihoods. Frontline. Archived from the original on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2007.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• K. J. Baby (1993). Nadugadhika. Visthar Bangalore.
• Nanjappa, K. Yeshoda (2013). "In a Voice of Her Own: C. K. Janu's Autobiographical Narrative Mother Forest". Writers Editors Critics. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
• Harsh Verma (March 2013). The Avatar Way of Leadership. Vol. 3. Rupa Publications. p. 144. ISBN 9788129126931.