Gudem Hills rebellion

History glossary

Also called: Rampa rebellion 1922-24 · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India"

Meaning

The Gudem Hills rebellion (also called the Rampa or Manyam Rebellion) was an armed guerrilla war by the hill people of the Gudem Hills in Andhra, which ran from August 1922 to May 1924. It was led by Alluri Sitaram Raju and fought against the closing of forests and against begar (forced, unpaid labour) for road building [2]. It matters because it shows how a tribal group used Gandhi's name for its own idea of swaraj, while openly rejecting non-violence.

Explanation

Background and causes: the forest is closed

The government closed the forests to the hill people.
They could no longer graze cattle there.
They could not collect fuelwood or fruit.
Their way of farming was destroyed.
They lived by podu, a form of shifting cultivation: a patch of forest is cleared, farmed for a few years, and then left to grow back.
Once the forests were closed, podu became impossible.
They were also forced into begar for road building.
Begar is forced labour without wages.
The rising happened during the Non-Cooperation Movement. Congress approved it at Calcutta in September 1920 and launched it that December [3]. News of this movement and of "Gandhi" reached the hills.

The leader: Alluri Sitaram Raju

He was born on 4 July 1897 [2].
People believed he had special powers.
They said he could read the stars and heal the sick.
They also believed bullets could not kill him.
He mixed Gandhian ideas with armed struggle.
He praised Gandhi.
He told people to wear khadi (hand-spun, hand-woven cloth) and to give up drink.
But he insisted that swaraj would come by force, not by non-violence.

How the war was fought: sequence

Method: guerrilla war, meaning small bands that strike suddenly and run, avoiding open battle.
22–24 August 1922: rebels raided the police stations at Chintapalli, Krishnadevipeta and Rajavommangi and took their weapons [2].
Raju signed a note in the station diary listing what he had taken [2].
August 1922 – May 1924: the guerrilla war went on for almost two years [2].
British response: hundreds of troops from the Malabar Special Police and the Assam Rifles were sent in. The campaign cost the government over Rs 40 lakh in the money of that time [2].
7 May 1924: Raju was captured and killed [2]. NCERT says he was "executed in 1924".

Results

The armed rising was crushed.
Raju became a folk hero, and songs about him are still sung in the hills.
The rebellion showed that the forest and tribal question was a separate thread inside the national movement.

Time, place and evidence

Period: Gandhian era, during and just after the Non-Cooperation Movement (1922–24).
Place: the Gudem Hills in Andhra. In those years Andhra was part of the British-ruled Madras Presidency.
Police stations attacked: Chintapalli, Krishnadevipeta, Rajavommangi [2].
Key person: Alluri Sitaram Raju (1897–1924) [2].
Forces used against the rebels: Malabar Special Police and Assam Rifles [2].
How we know about it:
NCERT Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India", treats it as one strand of "swaraj from below".
Government records, such as the police station diary in which Raju wrote down the weapons he took [2].
Folk songs from the hills, which keep his memory alive.
A Government of India (PIB) release, "Alluri Seetha Rama Raju: A Folk Hero of Rampa Rebellion" [2].

Don't confuse with

Awadh peasant movement (Baba Ramchandra, Oudh Kisan Sabha, 1920): these peasants fought taluqdars (big landlords) over rent, cesses and begar, using nai–dhobi bandhs (barbers and washermen refusing to serve a landlord). Gudem was a tribal, armed guerrilla fight against forest laws, not a fight against landlords.
Assam plantation workers (1921): their swaraj meant leaving the tea gardens, where the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 kept them shut in. They walked out peacefully. The Gudem rebels took up arms to win back the forest.
Moplah (Malabar) rebellion, 1921: this was a rising of Muslim peasants in Malabar (Kerala). Gudem was in the Andhra hills. The Malabar Special Police were only a force sent in against Raju; they do not mean the revolt happened in Malabar.
Non-Cooperation Movement (Congress programme): that movement was officially non-violent and used boycotts. The Gudem rising used Gandhi's name but was never part of the Congress programme.

Prelims Hooks

Alluri Sitaram Raju was born on 4 July 1897 and killed on 7 May 1924. His guerrilla war ran from August 1922 to May 1924 [2].
Police stations raided on 22–24 August 1922: Chintapalli, Krishnadevipeta, Rajavommangi [2].
Other names for the rising: Rampa Rebellion and Manyam Rebellion of 1922 [2].
Suppression: Malabar Special Police and Assam Rifles, at a cost of over Rs 40 lakh [2].
Trap: Raju praised Gandhi and promoted khadi and giving up drink, but he rejected non-violence. A statement like "he led a non-violent satyagraha" is false.
Causes to remember: forest closure, the loss of podu (shifting cultivation), and begar for road building.

Mains Points

One name, many swarajs. For the Gudem hill people, swaraj meant getting the forest back. For Congress it meant self-rule. Gandhi's name linked a local fight against forest officers to an all-India movement. This explains how the movement spread so fast, and also why Congress could not always control it.
Non-violence was taken up selectively. Raju accepted some Gandhian practices, such as khadi and giving up drink, but chose armed guerrilla war. This shows that people on the edges of the movement took what suited them from Gandhian methods. It also shows that the tribal/forest question was a separate axis of anti-colonial struggle.
Colonial forest policy and tribal resistance. When forests were closed, podu and grazing were lost and begar was forced on the hill people. The state then spent heavily (over Rs 40 lakh) on troops to crush them [2]. This shows how colonial control of natural resources broke tribal livelihoods. Raju's later life as a folk hero is a good example of "history from below" and of how people remember a rebellion.

Related concepts

The people's Mahatma: differing strands of swaraj

Sources

1Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India" (primary)
2Alluri Seetha Rama Raju: A Folk Hero of Rampa Rebellionpib.gov.in · tier 1
3What made Gandhiji wear only Loincloth or Dhotipib.gov.in · tier 1