India is a country of vivid cultures, identity, values, and valour. From time to time, it has given birth to various heroes who have dedicated their entire lives to safeguard the sovereignty and dignity of the country. During the colonial period, the country has seen many such heroes whose ideologies were driven by patriotism, discarding social inequalities, and empowerment of the marginals. Among these heroes, many of them have tribal identities and are forgotten in the pages of history. One such tribal unsung hero is Alluri Sitarama Raju. The nation will celebrate the 126th birthday of Alluri Sitarama Raju on 4 July 2023. Alluri Sitarama Raju is known for his enormous contribution to the Indian Independence movement and belonged to the Kondh tribal community. He was born on 4 July 1897 at Pandarangi village of Vizianagaram district in Andhra Pradesh and is known as the father of the Rampa Revolt or Alluri Rebellion which started on 22 August 1922, and ended on June 1924 with his death.
Raju was highly inspired by his father Venkata Rama Raju, a photographer for various freedom fighters like Lala Lajpat Rai, Kodi Rama Murthy, and especially the jail inmates of the freedom movement in Rajahmundry Central Jail. Raju’s exposure to his father’s footsteps perhaps encouraged him to rebel against the injustice done by the British colonial in the name of development like building bridges, railway lines, etc. The oppression increased with the initiation of the Madras Forest Act of 1882 which included captivating the forest and displacing the forest dwellers in the name of forest conservation.
To protect the rights of the local people, Raju gathered the marginalized and trained them with guerilla techniques. With this warfare technique, he carried out many police station expeditions, including those at Dammanapalli, Krishna Devi Petra, and Annavaram. In his entire raids, he tried to create political consciousness among the local tribals about their rights, thus making them resistant to external influences. Due to his unstoppable bravery and self-defense techniques, he has been honoured with the title “Manyam Veerudu”, meaning “Hero of the Jungle.”
Raju’s contribution toward awakening the people towards the British education system was also highly recommendable. Perhaps he was the first one to raise his voice against the British education system which focused on empowering the English aspects rather than creating skills among people. To awaken the local people, he often used to question, “Do you call this education? The British are simply training their clerks. One should learn the language the people speak, not English!” Thus, Raju’s focus was to inspire the common folk to stick by their own cultural values and knowledge systems.
The contribution of Alluri Sitarama Raju is immense in creating socio-economic and political awareness among the grassroots people. Keeping him in mind, in 1986, an honorary stamp was released by India Post. With the public interest of the latest government under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav where various unsung heroes were commemorated, he also got a special place in the list of forgotten heroes of India. Further, in 2022, the former Visakhapatnam district was divided to create a new district named after Alluri Sitarama Raju, with Paderu serving as its administrative head. A movie named “RRR” which brought huge felicitation to the country by winning Oscars and various other international recognitions, was inspired by the life of Raju. Apart from this, on the occasion of his 125th birthday in 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 30-feet tall bronze statue of Raju at Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district. Thus, though Raju lived only for 27 years, he has established himself as a symbol of equity, justice, heroism, due to his concrete ideologies and invincible struggles for his own people.
Prof T.V. Kattimani is Vice-Chancellor, Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh.