Alluri Sitarama Raju

Why is in news? President of India Graces the Closing Ceremony of 125th Birth Anniversary of Alluri Sitarama Raju

Alluri Sitarama Raju (1897 – 1924) was an Indian revolutionary who waged an armed campaign against British colonial rule in India.

He was nicknamed “Manyam Veerudu” (Hero of the Jungle) by local villagers for his heroic exploits.

He was born in present-day Andhra Pradesh in 1897 or 1898.

He became a sanyasi at the age of 18, and gained a mystical aura among the hill and tribal peoples with his austerity, knowledge of astrology and medicine, and his ability to tame wild animals.

At a very young age, Raju channelled the discontent of the hill people in Ganjam, Visakhapatnam, and Godavari into a highly effective guerrilla resistance against the British.

Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility, to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military.

Colonial rule threatened the tribals’ traditional podu (shifting) cultivation, as the government sought to secure forest lands.

He became involved in anti-British activities in response to the 1882 Madras Forest Act, which effectively restricted the free movement of Adivasis (tribal communities) in their forest habitats and prevented them from practicing a traditional form of agriculture known as podu (shifting cultivation).

Rising discontent towards the British led to the Rampa Rebellion/Manyam Rebellion of 1922, in which he played a major part as a leader.

The Rampa Rebellion coincided with Mahatma Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement. He persuaded people to wear khadi and give up drinking.

But at the same time, he asserted that India could be liberated only by the use of force, not non-violence.

In 1924, Raju was taken into police custody and shot by a public execution, effectively ending the armed rebellion.