Andhra Pradesh: Alluri Sitharama Raju was first to unite tribal muttas against British, say historians

‘Manyam Veerudu did not get support from the Congressmen from plains’

The Rampa and Gudem regions which have been merged into the newly formed Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) district have witnessed many fituris (rebellions or skirmishes) against the power that be and between tribal clans from 1839 to 1924. But, the seventh and the last of the fituris led by revolutionary freedom fighter Alluri Sitharama Raju against the British was unique.

Except for the brief Rampa-Gudem rebellion of 1886, led by Rajanna Anantayya, who was said to be from the plain areas, the rest all apart from Alluri were led by tribal leaders.

Being a non-tribal leader, Alluri was the first to try to unite all tribal muttas (groups) and wage a war against the British.

Though there were anti-British feeling in all the earlier rebellions, but it was not the primary objective and other issues such as tyranny of the local government and police officials, access to forest and right to podu cultivation, were the focal points of the rebellion. But Alluri trained the guns against the Colonial rulers for freedom.

Apart from the disputes on Alluri’s birth year and place of birth, there is also a disagreement on his visit to the Manyam or the Agency area of Rampa and Gudem.

As per a historical account of M. Venkatarangaiya, a historian, Alluri might have witnessed the Lagarayi Fituri of 1915-16, and the seed of rebellion was sown, when he was barely 18.

Venkatarangaiya immortalises Alluri by saying that the tribals of the Rampa and Gudem region treated him as a man ‘possessed by the God’. He also mentions that Alluri had a grip on astrology and medicine and had the uncanny ability to tame wild animals, which gained him instant acceptance, respect and admiration among the tribals. But the British called him ‘mentally unstable’, primarily for his hatred for anything ‘British’.