>Skarmory at 06:19, 12 January 2022

2022-01-12T06:19:20Z

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{{short description|Indian revolutionary}}
{{family name hatnote|Alluri|lang=Telugu}}
{{use Indian English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alluri Sitarama Raju
| title = Manyam Veerudu
| image = Alluri Sita Rama Raju statue.jpg
| caption = Alluri's statue at the [[Tank Bund Road]]
| known_for = [[Rampa Rebellion of 1922]]
| birth_date = 4 July 1897 or 1898
| birth_place = [[Pandrangi]], [[Madras Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]] (present-day [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[India]])
| death_date = 7 May 1924 (aged 25–27)
| death_place = [[Koyyuru]], [[Madras Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]] (present-day [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[India]])
| death_cause = Executed by the British
| resting_place = [[Krishnadevipeta]], [[Andhra Pradesh]], India
}}
'''Alluri Sitarama Raju''' (4 July 1897 or 1898 – 7 May 1924){{Sfn|NCERT|2008|p=8}} was an Indian revolutionary involved in the [[Indian independence movement]]. After the passing of the 1882 Madras Forest Act, its restrictions on the free movement of tribal people in the forest prevented them from engaging in their traditional [[Podu (agriculture)|podu agricultural system]], which involved [[shifting cultivation]]. Alluri led the [[Rampa Rebellion of 1922]], during which a band of tribal people and other sympathisers fought in the border areas of the [[East Godavari]] and [[Visakhapatnam]] regions of [[Madras Presidency]], in present-day [[Andhra Pradesh]], against the [[British Raj]], which had passed the law. He was referred to as "''Manyam Veerudu''" ({{trans|'Hero of the Jungle'}}) by the local villagers.

Harnessing some aspects of the earlier [[non-cooperation movement]] and with widespread support among the tribal people, Alluri led raids on police stations in and around [[Chintapalle, Visakhapatnam|Chintapalle]], [[Rampachodavaram]], [[Dammanapalli]], [[Krishna Devi Peta]], [[Rajavommangi]], [[Addateegala]], [[Narsipatnam]] and [[Annavaram]]. With his followers, he stole guns and ammunition and killed several British police officers, including two near Dammanapalli. Alluri was eventually trapped by the British in the forests of Chintapalle, then tied to a tree and was executed by gunfire in [[Koyyuru]] village. His tomb is in [[Krishnadevipeta]] village.

==Life==
Alluri Sitarama Raju was born in a [[Telugu language|Telugu]]-speaking family to Venkata Rama Raju and Suryanarayanamma.<ref name="guha" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Seshadri|first=K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klJuAAAAMAAJ&q=Alluri+sita+rama+raju|title=Struggle for National Liberation: Role of the Telugu People from Early Days to 1947|date=1993|publisher=Uppal Publishing House|isbn=978-81-85565-34-7|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=I. Mallikarjuna |last=Sharma|title=Role of Revolutionaries in the Freedom Struggle: A Critical History of the Indian Revolutionary Movements, 1918–1934|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVwiAAAAMAAJ|year=1987|publisher=Marxist Study Forum|page=140}}</ref> Details of Alluri's early life vary. An official report suggests that he was born in [[Bhimavaram|Bhimavaram taluk]],<ref name="guha">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8gxuAAAAMAAJ&q=Bhimavaram+%22Alluri+Sita+Rama+Raju |title=Subaltern studies: writings on South Asian history and society |first=Ranajit |last=Guha |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1982 |page=134|isbn=9780195613551 }}</ref> and several sources locate it as village of [[Mogallu]], in [[West Godavari District]].<ref name="rao" /><ref name="atlury">{{cite journal|last=Murali|first=Atlury|date=April 1984|title=Alluri Sitarama Raju and the Manyam Rebellion of 1922-1924|journal=Social Scientist|volume=12|issue=4|pages=3–33|doi=10.2307/3517081|jstor=3517081}}</ref><ref name="singh" /> More recent news stories name the village of [[Pandrangi]], which lies in the [[Bheemili (Assembly constituency)|Bheemunipatnam legislative assembly constituency]], as his precise place of birth.<ref>{{cite news |title=Pandrangi, Alluri's birthplace, selected under 'adarsh gram' |work=The Hindu |date=14 January 2017 |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/Pandrangi-Alluri%E2%80%99s-birthplace-selected-under-%E2%80%98adarsh-gram%E2%80%99/article17037943.ece |access-date=17 May 2018}}</ref>

His birthdate is also disputed. Several sources report it as 4 July 1897,<ref name="rao">{{cite book|first=P. Rajeswar |last=Rao|title=The Great Indian Patriots|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04tDyxmNOhsC&pg=PA12|year=1991|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-7099-288-2|page=12}}</ref><ref name="singh">{{cite book|first=M. K. |last=Singh |title=Encyclopaedia Of Indian War Of Independence (1857-1947)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlYwAQAAIAAJ|year=2009 |publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd|isbn=978-81-261-3745-9|page=127}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=B. |last=Kesavanarayana|title=Political and Social Factors in Andhra, 1900-1956|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gI0BAAAAMAAJ|year=1976|publisher=Navodaya Publishers}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2019}} but others claim he was born in 1898<ref name="guha"/> and, more specifically, his date of birth as 4 July 1898.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-first=Georg |editor1-last=Pfeffer|editor2-first=Deepak Kumar |editor2-last=Behera|title=Contemporary society: tribal studies : Professor Satya Narayana Ratha felicitation volumes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oFmBAAAAMAAJ |year= 1998
|volume=4|publisher=Concept Pub. Co.|isbn=978-81-7022-738-0|page=151}}</ref>

Contemporary reports indicate that he had an undistinguished education but took a particular interest in astrology, herbalism, palmistry and horse-riding before becoming a [[sannyasi]] at the age of 18. His father died when he was in school and he grew up in the care of his uncle 'Rama Krishnam Raju', a tehsildar in [[Narasapuram|Narsapur]] in the [[West Godavari district]]. He studied at 'Taylor High School' in Narsapur then moved to Tuni along with his mother, brother and sister. While there, Alluri visited areas of the Visakhapatnam district and became familiar with the needs of the indigenous people.{{Sfn|Rao|2006|p=35}} At the age of 15, he moved to his mother's home town of Vishakhapatnam and enrolled at Mrs. A.V.N. College. He was dropped out of college after failing in the fourth form They note that as he then wandered around the Godavari Agency, these interests and his charismatic nature gained him a reputation among the tribal people as being someone possessed of magical powers and holy, even messianic, status - a reputation that was bolstered both by myths he created about himself and by his acceptance of ones about him that were established by others, including ones concerning his reputed invincibility. Combined with his desire to overcome the colonial presence, expressed almost as if it were [[Millenarianism|millenarian]] certainty, this was a powerful mixture.<ref name="atlury"/>

==Rampa Rebellion of 1922==
===Origins===
After the passing of the 1882 Madras Forest Act in an attempt to exploit the economic value of wooded areas, its restrictions on the free movement of tribal people in the forests prevented them from engaging in their traditional podu agricultural system, a [[subsistence economy]] which involved shifting cultivation.<ref>{{cite book |first=Atlury |last=Murali |chapter=Tribal Armed Rebellion of 1922-1924 in the Madras Presidency: A Study of Causation as Colonial Legitimation |title=Savage Attack: Tribal Insurgency in India |editor-first=Crispin |editor-last=Bates |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-35158-744-0}}</ref> The changes meant that they faced starvation and their main means of avoiding it was the demeaning, arduous, foreign and exploitative [[coolie]] system use by the government and its contractors for such things as road construction.<ref name="atlury"/>{{Sfn|NCERT|2008|p=11}}

Around the same time as the Act, the Raj authorities had also emasculated the traditional hereditary role of the muttadars, who had been de facto rulers in the hills as tax collectors for the plains-living rajas.{{Sfn|NCERT|2008|p=10}} These people were now reduced to the role of mere civil servants with no overarching powers, no ability to levy taxes at will and no right to inherit their position. Thus, the cultivators and the tax collectors, who once would have been in opposition to each other, were instead now broadly aligned in their disaffection with colonial power.<ref name="atlury"/>

Alluri harnessed the discontent of the tribal people to support his anti-colonial zeal, whilst also accommodating the grievances of those muttadars who were sympathetic to his aim rather than merely narrow-minded in their pursuit of a revived status for themselves. This meant that his followers were mostly from the tribal communities but did include some significant people from the muttadar class that at one time had exploited them, although many muttadars were ambivalent about fighting for what Alluri perceived to be the greater good.<ref name="atlury"/>

Alluri adopted aspects of the Gandhian non-cooperation movement, such as promoting temperance and the boycott of colonial courts in favour of local justice administered by [[panchayat]] courts, to attract support. Although the movement died out in early 1922, it had reached the plains area and he had been involved in the propagation of some of its methods among the [[hill people]] as a means to raise their political consciousness and desire for change. It was these actions that caused him to be put under police surveillance from around February of that year, although the fact that he was using them as a camouflage to foment armed uprising seems not to have been recognised by either the movement's political leadership or the British.<ref name="atlury"/>

===Actions===
The armed rebellion began in August when Alluri led a mob of 500 people in the looting, on consecutive days, of police stations at Chintapalle, Krishna Devi Peta and Rajavommangi, from which he gained possession of guns and ammunition. He subsequently toured the area, getting more recruits and killing a member of a British police force that had been sent to find him. The British struggled in their pursuit, in part because of the unfamiliar terrain and also because the local people in this sparsely populated area were generally unwilling to help them and often outright keen to materially assist Alluri, including with shelter and intelligence. While based in the hills, contemporary official reports suggested that the core group of rebels dwindled to between 80 and 100 but this figure rose dramatically whenever they moved to take action against the British because of the involvement of people in the villages.<ref name="atlury"/>{{Sfn|Mukherjee|2004|p=74}}

Further deaths occurred on 23 September when Alluri ambushed a police party from a high position as they went through the Dammanapalli Ghat, killing two officers and cementing his reputation among the disaffected people. There were a further two successful attacks against the police forces during the month, after which the British realised that his style of guerilla warfare would have to be matched with a similar response, for which they drafted in members of the [[Malabar Special Police|Special Malabar Police]] who were trained in such methods.<ref name="atlury"/>{{Sfn|Bommala|2001|p=182}}

Attempts to persuade local people to inform on or withdraw their support for Alluri, through both incentives and reprisals, did nothing but encourage them to further their actions.<ref name="atlury"/> Further raids were later made on police stations at Rampachodavaram, Addateegala, Narsipatnam and Annavaram.{{Sfn|Mukherjee|2004|p=137}}

==Death==
[[File:Alluri Sitarama Raju 1986 stamp of India.jpg|thumb|Alluri Sitarama Raju on a 1986 stamp of India]]

Alluri was eventually trapped by the British in the forests of Chintapalle. He was tied to a tree and shot dead in 1924 in Koyyuru Village.<ref name="Balakrishna">{{cite web|author=V. BalakrishnaG.|title=Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh|url=http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr98/fe0798/PIBF0707982.html|publisher=Government of India Press Information Bureau|access-date=28 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020113172701/http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr98/fe0798/PIBF0707982.html|archive-date=13 January 2002}}</ref>{{Sfn|Bommala|2001|p=176}} His tomb is in Krishna Devi Peta Village.<ref>{{cite news|title=Birth anniversary of Alluri celebrated|newspaper=The Hindu|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/birth-anniversary-of-alluri-celebrated/article3604750.ece|access-date=2 February 2015|date=5 July 2012}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
*The Telugu-language movie ''[[Alluri Seetarama Raju (film)|Alluri Seetharama Raju]]'' (1974), featuring actor [[Krishna (Telugu actor)|Krishna]], depicted Alluri's life.
*In 1986 the Indian Postal Department issued a commemorative stamp featuring Alluri in the series 'India's struggle for freedom'.<ref>[http://www.indianpost.com/viewstamp.php/Alpha/A/A.%20S.%20RAJU A. S. RAJU]. "Indian Post" (26 December 2016). Retrieved on 11 December 2018.</ref>
*[[Government of Andhra Pradesh]] celebrates his birthday, 4 July, annually as a state festival.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indtoday.com/ap-celebrate-117th-birthday-sri-alluri-sitarama-raju-indtoday-com/ |title=AP to celebrate 117th birthday of Sri Alluri Sitarama Raju |date=2 July 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714164252/http://www.indtoday.com/ap-celebrate-117th-birthday-sri-alluri-sitarama-raju-indtoday-com/ |archive-date=14 July 2014 }}</ref>
*[[Alluri Sitarama Raju Cricket Stadium]] in [[Eluru]] is named after him.<ref name="asr">{{cite news|last1=Nagaraja|first1=G|title=ASR Stadium to get facelift|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/asr-stadium-to-get-facelift/article6041083.ece|access-date=27 September 2015|work=The Hindu|date=23 May 2014|location=Eluru}}</ref>
* On 9 October 2017, at the request of members of parliament, [[Thota Narasimham]] and [[V. Vijayasai Reddy]], the Government of India decided to install a statue of Alluri at the precincts of the [[Parliament of India]] in recognition of his work as a freedom fighter, and for the welfare of the tribal people.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/nod-for-installing-alluris-statue-in-parliament/article19825110.ece |title=Nod for installing Alluri's statue in Parliament |date=9 October 2017 |newspaper=[[The Hindu]]}}</ref>
*In 2019, a book named "Alluri Sita Ramaraju "was written by Sheikh Abdul Hakim Jaani in [[Telugu language]] was published which describes the incidents of Alluri's life.<ref>{{Cite web|title=(T/m) Alluri Sitarama Raju: Buy (T/m) Alluri Sitarama Raju by JAANI at Low Price in India|url=https://www.flipkart.com/t-m-alluri-sitarama-raju/p/itmfh6uyv8ehnaps|access-date=2021-01-03|website=Flipkart.com|language=en}}</ref>
*''[[RRR (film)|RRR]]'' (2021) is an Indian [[Telugu language]] film. It has a fictional story directed by [[S. S. Rajamouli]] based on the lives of [[Komaram Bheem]] and Alluri Sita Ramaraju. [[Ram Charan]] portraying the role of Alluri. The film deals with a figment of imagination added to construct the undocumented life of both the rebels who fought British in India, set in 1920.
{{Clear}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category}}
*{{cite book |title=Peasants in India's Non-Violent Revolution: Practice and Theorys |first=Mridula |last=Mukherjee |publisher=SAGE |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-76199-686-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7pUJ0qmvYDkC}}
*{{Cite book|last=Rao|first=P. D.|url=https://archive.org/details/allurisitaramara025767mbp|title=Alluri Sitarama Raju|year=2006|isbn=9786132698858|location=[[Narsapuram]], [[Andhra Pradesh]]}}
*{{Cite book|last=Bommala|first=Pillala|url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/576320083539144352/|title=Alluri Sitarama Raju|publisher=Pinterest|year=2001|isbn=613269885X}}
*{{Cite book|last=NCERT|first=Jess|url=https://ncert.nic.in/ncerts/l/jess303.pdf|title=Chapter-2 Nationalism in India|work=History book (NCERT) Class-10|publisher=CBSE|year=2008|isbn=978-81-7450-489-0|location=[[New Delhi]], [[India]]|pages=8–11}}

{{Indian independence movement}}
{{Indian Revolutionary Movement}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alluri, Sitarama Raju}}
[[Category:1890s births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in India]]
[[Category:People executed by British India]]
[[Category:Telugu people]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists from Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Alluri Sitarama Raju]]

Alluri Sitarama Raju - Revision history

>Skarmory at 06:19, 12 January 2022