Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju is the brave son of India who sacrificed his life to free mother India from the harsh treatment of the British. The great revolutionary hero led a rebellion against the British in the tribal regions of Andhra Pradesh.
His story will give you goosebumps. Let’s learn his story which was easily ignored by History books. Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju was born on 4th July 1897. Sitaram Raju faced many problems in his early age after the demise of his father and became the sole warrior to support his family.
He pursued his studies at Kakinada and for further studies, he went to Visakhapatnam at 15. Though he didn’t have a big interest in studies, he was really interested to know more about the political condition of the country at that time.
In 1857 during the first war of independence thousands of tribals of Gond land sacrificed their lives for their country. Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju willingly went deep into the forests of Gond land to meet the tribals and inspired them to fight for the country’s independence.
In the tribal regions, the less unfortunate ones were exploited and treated harshly by the Britishers. Since the tribal people were not united against the Britishers, they took advantage of it and then deprived the poor people of their rights.
Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju stepped into the scene and then inspired them and united the different tribes of the area. After which, he deftly trained them in skills of guerrilla warfare tactics which indeed proved to be an ultimate terror for the Britishers.
Soon he was also ready to attack the enemy with his brave tribal army. On 22nd August 1922, his army started their struggle by raiding three police stations Chintapalli Police Station, Krishnadevipeta Police Station, and Rajavommangi on three consecutive days.
After the raids, they captured a handful number of guns, bayonets and cartridges, swords and other important weapons. They also freed Veerayya Dora from jail who was a revolutionary freedom fighter.
The British Army was warned by his actions and Police squadron and Army were ordered to seize Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju. But the latter assaulted the British Army at Peddavalasa without even caring about his life and went on to defeat them because of which they had to bear casualties and eventually retreated.
Since that day onwards, there was a regular conflict between Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju and the Britishers. The rivalry turned out to be one-sided as it was only Raju who came victorious in all battles.
We will just leave it to your imagination as to how he managed to get the better of the British Army. Well, for two years (1922 to 1924), he simply terrorized the British Army and became the proud ruler of the colossal area.
Annoyed by Raju’s repeated success, later Britishers sketched a masterplan to kill Raju as they deployed battalions of Assam Rifles and others. He was martyred by the British on May 7 1924, Mampa village, Visakhapatnam.
In memory of freedom fighter Sri Alluri Sitarama Raju, the Department of Posts issued a 50 Paise multicoloured stamp.
The great revolution of him was that he was involved in the killing of many British army officers, like Scott Coward and Hites. In his tribute and honour, two statues of Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju have been positioned, one at Seethammadhara Junction and the other one on the beach road situated near The Park Hotel in Visakhapatnam.
Another great hero who did not get his due as History books ignored him. Kindly forward this article to others. His story needs to be told!
