Sri Alluri Sita Rama Raju

Sri Alluri Sita Rama Raju

(A great leader of our country)

04 July 1897 – 06 May 1924

Raju was born on July 4, 1897 in Mogallu, near the town of Bhimavaram in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. His mother was from Visakhapatnam while his father was a native of Mogallu, near Bhimavaram and an official photographer in the central jail at Rajahmundry. The young Raju lived mainly in Mogallu^[1] and was educated in Rajahmundry at the Vullithota Bangarayya school, as well as in Kakinada, Tuni and Ramachandrapuram in the East Godavari district.

Raju's father died when he was in elementary school and he grew up in the care of his uncle, Rama Chandra Raju, a tehsildar in 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.

When Raju turned 15, he moved to his mother's home town of Vishakhapatnam and enrolled at Mrs. A.V.N. College.^[2] He dropped out of college after failing in the fourth form (Std. IX).

After the passing of the 1882 Madras Forest Act, its restrictions on the free movement of tribal peoples in the forest prevented them from engaging in their traditional "Podu" agricultural system, which involved shifting cultivation.

The policies of the British Raj, coupled with the deeds of the exploited tribal peoples of the Visakhapatnam district, brought Sita Rama Raju into direct conflict with the bureaucrats and police who supported contractors working in the forest.^{[citation needed]} This eventually led to the 1922 Rampa Rebellion or Rampa Pituri ("Pituri" meaning "complaints" in Telugu).

Rampa Rebellion of 1922

Sita Rama Raju led the movement in the border areas of the East Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh. Inspired by the patriotic zeal of revolutionaries in Bengal, Raju raided police stations in and around Chintapalle, Rampachodavaram, Dammanapalli, Krishna-devi-peta, Rajavommangi, Addateegala, Narsipatnam and Annavaram.

Raju and his followers stole guns and ammunition and killed several British army officers, including Scott Coward near Dammanapalli.Despite being outnumbered and having fewer weapons, Raju's group caused tremendous damage to the British, since they were adept in guerilla tactics and much more familiar with the hilly terrain. At the time, the British Raj offered a Rs. 10,000 award for Raju's capture.

In December 1922, the British deployed a company of Assam Rifles, near Pegadapalle under the leadership of Saunders. Sita Rama Raju, who had by then gone underground, resurfaced after about four months and continued the fight, strengthened by tribal volunteers using bows and arrows under the leadership of Gam Mallu Dora and Gantam Dora.

Following a raid led by Sita Rama Raju on the Annavaram police outpost on September 18, 1923, Gam Mallu Dora was arrested. The Government entrusted the task of containing Sita Rama Raju's activities to District Collector of Visakha patnam District Rutherford, who then fired the first salvo when his forces arrested Surya Narayana Raju Pericherla, popularly known as Aggiraju, a devoted follower of Sita Rama Raju.

The British campaign lasted for nearly a year from December 1922. Sita Rama Raju was eventually trapped by the British in the forests of Chintapalli then tied to a tree and shot dead with a rifle in Mampa village. Following the martyrdom of Alluri, the tribal revolt lost its momentum and petered out by October 1923. Police officer Mr. N. Ganeswara Rao responsible for Sita Rama Raju's entrapment was awarded Rao Bahadur.