Alluri Sita Rama Raju

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Jump to: navigation, search This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (July 2009) Alluri Sita Rama Raju (Telugu: b. 4 July 1897-d.1924), also known as Aluri Rama Raju, Rama Chandra Raju, and Alluri Seetha Rama Raju, was a young Indian revolutionary during the freedom struggle,and to this day he remains an inspiring role model for those who fight against oppression. His father was from Mogallu village in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India and was an official photographer in the central jail at Rajahmundry.Sita Rama Raju was born in Pandrangi,a village near Visakhapatnam which happened to be his mother's native place. Raju led the ill-fated Rampa Rebellion joined by many tribal leaders and their sympathisers in the fight against the British from 1922 to 1923. He was adoringly referred to Manyam Veerudu (Hero of the jungles)by the Telugus

Alluri Sita Rama Raju

Contents
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1 Birth and education 2 The Rampa Rebellion 3 Legacy 4 Miscellany 5 References

[edit] Birth and education

He was born on July 4 1897. He was educated in Kakinada,Tuni and Rama-chandrapuram in the East Godavari district. His father died when Alluri was in elementary school and he grew up in the care of his uncle, Rama Chandra Raju, a Tahsildar in Narsapur. He then studied in Taylor High School, Narsapur. Then, he shifted to Tuni along with his mother, brother and sister, on the transfer of his uncle. He joined Mrs A.V.N. College in Visakhapatnam on September 20, 1912. He dropped out of the college after having failed in the fourth form (Std. IX). While in Tuni, Alluri used to

frequent the agency areas of the Visakhapatnam district and became familiar with the tribal folks. He was deeply moved by the plight of the tribals, whose rights were infringed upon by the British with the implementation of the Madras Forest Act of 1882 which placed restrictions on their free movement in the forest areas and prevented them from engaging in their traditional Podu (shifting) cultivation, and use of the forest produce for their livelihood. The repressive measures and policies of the British Raj, coupled with the deeds of the greedy contractors who exploited and oppressed the forced labourers of the hill areas of the Visakhapatnam district, brought Alluri Sita Rama Raju into direct conflict with the bureaucrats and police who supported these contractors. This eventually culminated in the Rampa Rebellion or Rampa Pituri (Pituri means complaints in Telugu).

[edit] The Rampa Rebellion

Sita Rama Raju carried out his campaign in the border areas of East Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh. Inspired by the patriotic zeal of the revolutionaries in Bengal, and the decisions taken by them at a meeting in Chittagong in 1921, Sita Rama Raju raided many police stations in and around Chintapalli, Krishna-devi-peta and Raja-vommangi, carrying off guns and powder, and killing several British army officers, including the Scott Coward and Hites, near Damanapalli. Between August and October 1922, he and his men attacked the Chintapalli, Rampa-choda-varam, Rajavommangi and Addati-gala and Annavaram police stations and blasted the Chintapalli police station. Despite having fewer men and weapons, Alluri and his men exacted tremendous damage on the British, as they were much more familiar with the hilly terrain and adept in guerilla tactics. In the 1920s, the British Raj offered a Rs. 10,000 award for his capture. Under the leadership of Saunders, the British deployed a company of the Assam Rifles, near Pedagaddapalem, in December 1922. Sita Rama Raju, who had by then gone underground, resurfaced after some four months and continued the fight, strengthened by tribal volunteers, using bows and arrows. He was assisted by two brothers, Mallu Dora and Gantam Dora, who were tribal leaders. Other leaders like Chitikela Bhaskarudu from krishna-devi-peta helped sita rama raju during this period. On September 18, 1923, Sita Rama Raju raided the Annavaram police outpost. Subsequently, Mallu Dora was arrested. The Government entrusted the task of containing Sita Rama Raju's activities to Rutherford,the then Collector of Vizagpatam District who fired the first salvo when his forces arrested Surya Narayana Raju Pericherla, popularly known as Aggiraju, a strong follower of Sita Rama Raju. The British campaign lasted nearly one year from December 1922. Sita Rama Raju was trapped by the British in the forests of Chintapalli. He was tied to a tree and shot dead with a rifle in Mampa village.This was irony as the British were proud of their justice system but followed the law of the jungle in this instance. After the martyrdom of Alluri, the tribal revolt lost its momentum petered off by October 1923.

[edit] Legacy

Today a statue of Raju stands at Seethammadhara Junction and on the beach road near The Park Hotel in Visakhapatnam. A statue of him in pandringi which is his grand mothers village near bhemili about 20 km from vizag. The Indian Postal Department issued a commemorative stamp on Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju in the series 'India's struggle for freedom' in 1986.[1] There is one statue in kukatpalli housing board, Hyderabad. Recently one statue of sita Rama Raju has been placed in Chinchinada village in West Godavari. A Telugu movie was made about Raju's life, entitled Alluri Sita Rama Raju. Krishna starred as Raju and V. Rama Chandra Rao directed the film. The popular song 'Telugu Veera Levara' was included in this film and has inspired generations of the Telugu community. Mantena Satyanarayana Raju a dietician and a NATUROPATH is said to be a relative of Sri Alluri Sitarama Raju. The only photograph of Raju, which was taken after his death is preserved in the A.P. State Archives, Hyderabad.

[edit] Miscellany
The railway station 'Narsipatnam Road' between Waltair and Tuni was built specially to deal with the rebellion and the unusually long platform for a way-side station was to facilitate offloading of troops and reserve police forces Gam Mallu Dora, who was interned at the Andaman jail after his capture, became a Member of Parliament from Viskhapatnam after the first general elections. Jawaharlal Nehru said he was honoured to introduce this proud son of our motherland to the first Lok Sabha.

Leaders from South India

Alluri Sita Rama Raju Amarajeevi Potti Sreeramulu Chakravarti Rajgopalachari Sardar Vedaratnam Kayyara Kinyanna Rai Krishna Menon Mathai Manjooran P. J. Sebastian Pattabhi Sitarammiaya Kandukuri Veeresalingam Sarojini Naidu Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan

S. Srinivasa Iyengar S. K. Amin Kalvakuntla Chandrasena Gupta Pinnamaneni Sreeramachandra Rao Pulapa Posayya Geda Raghunayakulu Krovvidi Lingaraju Thiruppur Kumaran K. Kunhambu Tanguturi Prakasham Panthulu Puli Thevar, Polygar chieftain who fought the British East India Company in the 1750s and 1760s. First general of Tamil origin to fight against the British. Kattabomman (1760-1799), Polygar chief of Panchalakurichi who fought the British in the First Polygar War. He was captured by the British at the end of the war and hanged. The Maruthu Pandiyar brothers Periya Marudhu and Chinna Marudhu who fought the British in the First and Second Polygar Wars. Dheeran Chinnamalai (1756-1805), Polygar chieftain and feudatory of Tipu Sultan who fought the British in the Second Polygar War. Sir S. Subramania Iyer (1842-1925), lawyer, jurist and theosophist who cofounded the Home Rule Movement along with Annie Besant, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He is affectionately called Grand Old Man of South India. G. Subramania Iyer (1855-1916), Freedom fighter and founder of "The Hindu" English newspaper. V.O. Chidambaram Pillai (18721936), independence fighter, who launched the first Indian ship on Indian waters under British Rule. V. V. S Iyer (1881-1925) Tamil scholar and freedom fighter. Subramanya Bharathy (1882-1921), Indian freedom fighter, Tamil poet and social reformer. Often regarded as the national poet of Tamil Nadu. Sathyamurthy (1887-1943), Indian freedom fighter and leader of the Congress party in the erstwhile Madras presidency. Vanchinathan (1886-1911), Patriot who killed General Ash and committed suicide at Maniyachi. Kalki Sadasivam (1902-1997), Freedom fighter and husband of famous singer M.S. Subbulakshmi. Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar (19081964), independence fighter and All India Forward Bloc Leader. Quaaid-E-Milath Mohamed Ismail, independence fighter, Member of Parliament and was the President of Indian Muslim League. Lakshmi Sehgal (1914-), Head of Rani Jhansi Brigade, women's wing of the INA and a close associate of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. Presidential candidate in 2002 President's election. A. Vaidyanatha Iyer Thyagaraja Sivam Chidambara Bharathi Subramanya Siva N. Somayajulu Krishna Kundu Munagala Pattabhiramaiah

Mattapparai Venkatrama Iyer Dr. Rukmini Lakshmipathy K.S. Subramaniam N.S. Varadachari K. Santhanam Mannargudi K. Bhashyam George Gheverghese Joseph IDF Sundararaja Iyengar Salem C. Vijayaraghavachariar Sangu Subramaniam 'Va.Ra.' V. Ramaswami Valangaiman S. Srinivasa Sastri N.M.R. Subburaman Krishnaswami Bharathi 'Vastaad' Sundaram Pillai Dr. Pichamuthu Ammaal Bharathamuthu Thevar Maulana Sahib Srinivasavaradhan Dindigul T.R. Mahadeva Iyer Nityananda Adigal Dr. Varadarajulu Naidu G.A. Natesan Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy Pandit Muthaiya Das Thootukudi Masilamani Pillai Yagneswara Sarma Vignesh Sridharan

The Hindu made its presence felt for the first time since its inception, during the Chingleput Ryots case in 1881 when it launched a vehement attack on the Governor of Madras Mountstuart Grant-Duff. Three years later, lashing out at the Governor and the judiciary, following the Salem Riots of 1884, The Hindu thundered: As late as 1903, at the Silver Jubilee celebrations of The Hindu, he was speaking out in favour of "change, reforms and progress" and warning that "blind and thoughtless conservatism lead to stagnation and eventual ruin." Long before The Hindu was founded on September 20, 1878, by six young men irate at the campaign waged by the Anglo-Indian Press against the appointment of the first Indian, T. Muthuswamy Iyer to the bench of the Madras High Court. So the 'Triplicane Six' as they were called (G. Subramania Aiyer of Tiruvaiyyar, M. Veeraraghavachariar of Chingleput,both tutors at Pachaiyappa's College and four law students, T.T. Rangachariar, P.V. Rangachariar, D. Kesava Rao Pant and N. Subba Rao Pantulu) borrowed a rupee and twelve annas and founded The Hindu, printing 80 copies at the Srinidhi Press in Mint Street, Black Town, and promising every

Wednesday evening an eight-page paper, each a quarter of today's page size, for four annas. In the 1890s and 1900s Indias independence movement and the Swadeshi movement, initiated by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai of Indian National Congress (INC), were at their peak. Mahatma Gandhi was yet to land in India. They were against the British Imperial coercion of trade, which was damaging traditional Indian industries and the communities dependent on them. This is the essence of the Swadeshi movement. In Madras Presidency the Independence movement was championed by the likes of Subramanya Siva, the poet Subramanya Bharathi, and Aurobindo Gosh later to be joined by V.O.C. He entered politics in 1905 following the partition of Bengal, joining the Indian National Congress and taking a hardliner stand. He also presided at the Salem District Congress session

Shipping company
V.O.C., drawing inspiration from Ramakrishnananda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, resorted to Swadeshi work. Following requests by local citizens, he initiated steps to break the monopoly of British shipping in the coastal trade with Ceylon. On 12 November 1906, V.O.C. formed the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company, by purchasing two steamships S.S.Gaelia and S.S.Lawoe, thanks to the assistance and support of Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo Ghose. The ships commenced regular service between Tuticorin and Colombo (Srilanka), against the opposition of the British traders and the Imperial Government. V.O.C. was thus laying the foundation for a comprehensive shipping industry in the country, more than just a commercial venture. Until then the commerce between Tuticorin and Colombo was a monopoly enjoyed by the British India Steam Navigation Company (BISN). This was later to be merged with P&O Lines and its Tuticorin agents, A.& F. Harvey. The British had assumed the Indian venture would collapse like a house of cards, but soon found the Indian company to be a formidable challenge. To thwart the new Indian company they resorted to the monopolistic trade practice of reducing the fare per trip to Re.1 (16 annas) per head. Swadeshi company responded by offering a fare of Re.0.5 (8 Annas). The British company went further by offering a free trip to the passengers plus a free umbrella, which had S.S.Gaelia and S.S.Lawoe running nearly empty. By 1909 the company was heading towards bankruptcy.

[edit] Conflict with the British

To widen the swadeshi base and to create awareness of British Imperialism V.O.C. became instrumental in mobilising the workers of Coral Mills (also managed by A. & F. Harvey) (now part of Madura Coats) in Tirunelveli. This brought him into increasing conflict with the British Raj. On 12 March, 1908, he was arrested on charges of sedition and for two days, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin witnessed

unprecedented violence, quelled only by shooting four people to death (a Muslim, a Dalit, a baker and a Hindu temple priest). Punitive police forces were brought in from neighboring districts.

Second Anglo-Boer War

Main article: Second Anglo-Boer War The Second Anglo-Boer War (18991902), by contrast, was a lengthy war - involving large numbers of troops from many British possessions - which ended with the conversion of the Boer republics into British colonies (with a promise of limited selfgovernment). These colonies later formed part of the Union of South Africa. Unlike many colonial conflicts, the Boer War lasted three years and was very bloody. The British fought directly against the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The bloodshed that was seen during the war was alarming and many of the British soldiers faced unfit conditions.