Person · Rampa rebellion leader · India
Alluri Sītārāma Rāju
Also known as Alluri Sitarama Raju, Manyam Veerudu, Rampa rebellion
A young man from the Godavari plains who organised the Koya and Konda Reddi communities of the Eastern Ghats against the forest laws and the podu cultivation ban, and fought a guerrilla campaign from August 1922 until he was captured and shot in May 1924. He raided police stations for their rifles first.
- Date
- 1897–1924
- Function
- Military & resistance
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 17.450, 81.780
Worth knowing
The Madras government had to bring in the Assam Rifles to end it, and the campaign cost more than any other single operation against an Adivasi rising in the south. He is remembered in Telugu as Manyam Veerudu, the hero of the forest tracts, and the district he fought in now carries his name.
About the place
Placed in the Rampa country of the Eastern Ghats, the forest tract he organised and fought in; he was shot at Koyyuru in May 1924.
Connections (1)
- CampaignPaderu
The Rampa country of the Eastern Ghats rose in 1879 and again under Alluri in 1922, both times against the forest department rather than the revenue department: the reservation of forest, the ban on podu shifting cultivation, and forced labour on road gangs. The agency administration that still governs these hills as a Scheduled Area is the settlement that followed.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Alluri Sitarama Raju”. Madras Government confidential reports on the Rampa Rebellion 1922–24; David Arnold, “Rebellious Hillmen: the Gudem-Rampa Risings”, Subaltern Studies I (1982).
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