Rampa Rebellion of 1922
The Rampa Rebellion of 1922 was a tribal uprising, led by Alluri Sitarama Raju in Godavari Agency of Madras Presidency, British India. It began in August of 1922 and lasted until the capture and killing of Raju in May 1924.
The Rampa administrative area, situated in the hills of what are now the Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh, comprised around 700 square miles (1,800 km2) and had a mostly tribal population of approximately 28,000. They had traditionally been able to support their food requirements through the use, in particular, of the podu system whereby each year some areas of jungle forest were burned to clear land for cultivation.
The British Raj authorities had wanted to improve the economic usefulness of lands in Godavari Agency, an area that was noted for the prevalence of malaria and blackwater fever. The traditional cultivation methods were greatly hindered when the authorities took control of the forests, mostly for commercial purposes such as produce for building railways and ships, without any regard for the needs of the tribal people. A 1923 government memorandum recorded one Agency Commissioner's opinion from June of the previous year that "the country had suffered from too severe restrictions on jungle clearance, that various restrictions had been overdone and much population and food grains lost for the sake of forests of doubtful value".
The tribal people had long felt that the legal system favoured zamindars (estate landowners) and merchants, which had also resulted in the earlier Rampa Rebellion of 1879. Now they objected to the Raj laws and continued actions that hindered their economic position and meant they had to find alternate means of livelihood, such as working as coolies. In particular, they objected to attempts at that time to use them as forced labour in the construction of a road in the area.
It was the prevalent diseases, to which the tribal people had acquired a tolerance, that hindered the Raj suppression of the rebellion. It broke out in August 1922 and took the form of guerilla warfare, ending in May 1924 with the capture and shooting of Raju.
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