Alluri Sitarama Raju

Told in English, Telugu.

Tonight's story is a true one. It is about a young man who lived about a hundred years ago, when the British ruled our country. His name was Alluri Sitarama Raju, and even today, in the green hills of Andhra Pradesh, people say his name with love and pride.

Sitarama Raju was born in 1897. When he was still a young boy, his father passed away. That was a hard and sad time for his family. But his mother and his relatives cared for him, and he grew into a thoughtful boy who asked many questions. Why are some people rich and others so poor? Why do some people have to bow their heads to others all their lives? These questions stayed in his heart.

As a teenager, Sitarama Raju did not want an ordinary life. He travelled to many parts of India. He met holy men, read about medicine made from plants, learned about the stars, and practised riding and other skills. People who met him noticed his calm face and his kind eyes. He wore simple saffron clothes, like a sanyasi, and he did not care about money at all.

After his travels, he came to the Manyam, the forests and hills of the Eastern Ghats, in the Visakhapatnam and Godavari regions. Close your eyes and picture it. Tall trees, misty mornings, streams running over rocks, small villages tucked between the hills. The people who lived there were forest communities like the Koyas and the Konda Doras. For hundreds of years, the forest had been their home. They grew crops on the hill slopes by podu farming, they gathered honey and fruits and firewood, and they knew every path and every tree.

But life in the Manyam had become very hard. The British government had made forest laws that said the forest belonged to the government now, not to the people who lived in it. The forest people were stopped from doing podu farming in the old way. They were not allowed to collect things from the forest freely. If they did, they could be punished. On top of this, many of them were forced to work on building roads for the government, and they were paid very little, sometimes almost nothing. Some officials and contractors treated them roughly and cheated them.

Imagine how that would feel. Your family has lived in a place forever, and suddenly someone from far away says you cannot touch the trees around your own house. That is what injustice feels like.

Sitarama Raju lived among these people. He did not stay apart from them like an outsider. He ate what they ate, walked the same paths, and listened to their troubles. Because he knew about healing plants, he helped people who were sick. Slowly, the forest people began to trust him and love him. Some even thought he had special powers, but what he truly had was a big heart and a strong will.

At that time, across India, Mahatma Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement was spreading. Sitarama Raju was inspired by the call for freedom. He encouraged the people of the Manyam to give up drinking liquor, and to settle their quarrels among themselves in village panchayats instead of going to the British courts. He wanted them to feel proud and united.

But the suffering in the forest continued, and the people's patience ran out. Sitarama Raju came to believe that the forest people had to rise up and resist. This was a very serious choice. He knew the British had a big army with guns, while the hill people had mostly bows and arrows. He knew it would be dangerous. Still, he decided he could not stand by and watch his people be treated unfairly. This rising up came to be called the Rampa Rebellion, or the Manyam Rebellion, and it began in August 1922.

Many brave people joined him. Among his closest companions were two brothers, Gam Gantam Dora and Gam Mallu Dora. They and many others from the hill villages stood with him.

The rebels needed weapons, so they went to police stations in the hills, places like Chintapalli, Krishnadevipeta and Rajavommangi, and took away guns and bullets. And here is something unusual that people still remember. Sitarama Raju is said to have written down in the station's own records exactly what he had taken. He wanted everyone to know that he was not a thief who sneaked about. He was openly fighting against an unfair government, and he was not ashamed of it.

For almost two years, the British could not catch him. He and his companions fought as guerrillas. They moved quickly through the forests, struck at the British forces, and disappeared again into the hills. The forest people knew every valley, every hidden path, every stream, and they protected him. The British officers grew more and more worried. How could a small band of forest fighters hold out for so long against the mighty British Empire?

The British sent more and more soldiers, including special police forces brought in from other regions. Life became very difficult for the villages of the Manyam. The British punished villages, hoping people would tell them where Sitarama Raju was hiding. Many families suffered. This was a heavy weight on Sitarama Raju's heart, because the whole reason he had begun was to protect these people.

In May 1924, Sitarama Raju was captured near a place called Koyyuru. He was not given a trial in a court. The British took his life that same day. He was only about twenty-six years old.

It is all right to feel sad when you hear that. The people of the Manyam felt that sadness too. Many of his companions were also lost or taken to prison in the months that followed. The rebellion came to an end.

But did his story really end? Not at all. The British had shown that they could defeat a small band of fighters with a large army. Sitarama Raju had shown something much greater. He had shown that ordinary forest people, poor and with simple weapons, could stand up with courage and say, this is unfair, and we will not accept it quietly. His bravery spread from village to village, and from person to person, long after he was gone. About twenty-three years later, in 1947, India became free.

Today, people call him Manyam Veerudu, the hero of the forest. Statues of him stand in many towns of Andhra Pradesh. In 1986, the Indian government released a postage stamp in his honour. And in 2022, a new district in the hills of Andhra Pradesh was named after him, Alluri Sitarama Raju district, so that the very land he fought for carries his name.

So think about this as you fall asleep. Sitarama Raju could have chosen a comfortable life. Nobody forced him to go to the hills. He chose to stand beside people who were being treated unfairly, even though they were not rich or powerful, and even though it was dangerous.

You may never have to fight in a forest. But every day you can choose to stand beside someone who is being treated unfairly. A friend who is being teased. A classmate who is left out. When you do that, a little bit of Alluri Sitarama Raju's courage lives in you.

Good night, little hero.