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{{Short description|1981 massacre of indigenous people in India}}

The '''Indravelli massacre''' was an incident on April 20, 1981, where a gathering of [[Gondi people|Gond]] [[Adivasi]]s, some organised by the Girijana Rythu Coolie Sangham (GRCS) [[front group]] of the [[Kondapalli Seetharamaiah]] faction of the [[Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation|CPI (ML)]]<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last1=Anjaiah |first1=T. |title=35 years on, misery still haunts Indravelli victims2 |url=https://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Telangana/2016-04-20/35-years-on-misery-still-haunts-Indravelli-victims/222812 |agency=The Hans India |date=20 April 2016}}</ref> and some attending the local market, were fired on by police officers at the village of [[Indervelly, Adilabad district|Indravelli]] in what was then [[Andhra Pradesh]], but today in the state of [[Telangana]]. The rally was organised to demand land certificates for Adivasis, and to protest encroachments by non-Adiviasis.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Harpal Singh |first=S. |date=April 20, 2018 |title=Why did police fire on Adivasis in Indervelli on April 20, 1981? |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/why-are-adivasis-and-lambadas-fighting-over-indervelli-martyrs-column/article61864595.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529055638/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/why-are-adivasis-and-lambadas-fighting-over-indervelli-martyrs-column/article61864595.ece |archive-date=2022-05-29 }}</ref> While initially granted permission to assemble, this was later revoked in fear of agitation by [[Naxalites]].

== The Incident ==

The official report claimed that a group of 30 police and five officials opened fire after they were attacked and one of their number speared to death. An investigation by M. Raghuram for the [[Economic and Political Weekly]] as well as a separate report by the Andhra Civil Liberties Committee found that the number of police officers present was substantially higher, with a large portion of the district force having been summoned to the village the previous day. On April 19 the police went round Indravelli in the evening announcing that [[section 144]] [[Code of Criminal Procedure (India)|Criminal Procedure Code]] was imposed in the area, effectively banning the meeting on April 20.<ref>{{cite book |last1=von Fürer-Haimendorf |first1=Christoph |title=Tribes of India: The Struggle for Survival |date=1982 |publisher=UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8r29p2r8&chunk.id=d0e7858&toc.id=&brand=ucpress |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523054032/https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8r29p2r8&chunk.id=d0e7858&toc.id=&brand=ucpress |archive-date=2022-05-23 }}</ref> Four [[platoon]]s of policemen occupied the local high school and camped there. On the day of the massacre, local shops were closed, the village cordoned, and passengers were prevented from disembarking buses in Indravelli. While police prevented the Gonds from entering the village and even fired on them, they escorted non-adivasi leaders of the [[Congress(I)]] towards the district centre, [[Adilabad]] where they instigated non-Adivasi traders and lower caste Hindus to come and fight the Gonds who were "burning and looting their houses in Indravelli". After the police opened fire en-masse, fleeing Gonds were run over by a police jeep whose armed occupants fired point blank. Police snipers were also allegedly positioned in trees and haystacks around the village.
[[File:Indravelli massacre Monument.jpg|thumb|Indravelli massacre Monument]]
== The Aftermath ==

The Home Ministry report on the incident claimed 13 dead and nine injured. However, according to Raghuram's report, witnesses believed that more than 60 bodies were left on the spot that day, later [[Enforced disappearance|secretly cremated]] at Abilabad. Many of the seriously injured were piled on top of each other in two vans and taken to the [[Adilabad district|Adilabad District]] Hospital. Hospital staff claimed that at least ten of the injured died en route with more than 20 dying at the hospital. Witnesses in nearby towns, including [[Congress(I)]] members reported dead bodies on the roadside left by the fleeing Gonds, or shot by pursuing police, with totals as follows. [[Utnoor]] town (30-40), Ichoda town (25) and Muthnoor village (30). Still others were said to have died hiding in the jungle, with bodies being recovered as late as April 26. The final death toll was estimated by the Andhra Civil Liberties Committee at over 100, and by EPW at nearly 250.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Raghuram |first1=M. |title=Carnage at Indravelli: A Report |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=June 13, 1981 |volume=16 |issue=24 |page=1048 |jstor=4369932 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4369932}}</ref> Many contemporary reports cite the death toll at 60.

According to former [[People's War Group]] (PWG) Abilabad district committee member Nayannagari Ravi, the massacre resulted in many Adivasis joining the armed wings of Naxalite groups. For example, the PWG which had been formed only a year prior, saw their formerly largely non-Adiviasi local "[[Guerrilla warfare|dalam]]" membership increase from a few dozen to over 250. In 1983 a memorial to the victims was constructed by GRCS president Ganji Rama Rao, who was allegedly inspired by similar columns he had seen in Beijing.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Thakor |first=Harsh |date=April 30, 2021 |title=40th anniversary of police firing on tribals in Indravelli |url=https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/40th-anniversary-of-police-firing-on-tribals-in-indravelli/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516182938/https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/40th-anniversary-of-police-firing-on-tribals-in-indravelli/ |archive-date=2021-05-16 |website=Countercurrents.org}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> In 1986, it was destroyed, allegedly by police in retaliation to a Naxalite raid on a police camp at Kadem, but was reconstructed the following year.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> The massacre is commemorated on a yearly basis by the Indravelli Amaraveerula Sadhana Samiti, although only from 2002 onwards on the date of the massacre. Prior to this, police had prevented the commemoration on the day itself.<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 April 2017 |title=Indravelli police firing: Tribals criticise state government |work=The New Indian Express |url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/telangana/2017/apr/20/indravelli-police-firing-tribals-criticise-state-government-1595616.html}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

== References ==

{{reflist}}

{{coord missing|India}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Indravelli massacre, 1981}}
[[Category:1981 murders in India]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1981]]
[[Category:1980s in Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:April 1981 in India]]
[[Category:Disasters in Telangana]]
[[Category:Massacres in India]]
[[Category:Communism in India]]
[[Category:Killings by law enforcement officers in India]]
[[Category:Police brutality in India]]
[[Category:20th-century mass murders in India]]
[[Category:1981 mass shootings]]
[[Category:Mass shootings in India]]

1981 Indravelli massacre - Revision history

Frugaltesting at 07:53, 16 March 2026