Alluri Sitarama Raju (4 July 1897 or 1898 – 7 May 1924) was an Indian revolutionary who waged an armed rebellion against the British colonial rule in India. He engaged in guerilla campaigns against the British forces across the border regions of present-day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, and led the Rampa rebellion in 1922. He was known by the title "Manyam Veerudu" (hero of the jungle) to the local people.
Born into a Telugu family in Pandrangi in Madras Presidency (present day Andhra Pradesh) as Alluri Rama Raju, he prefixed the name "Sita" to his name in memory of a girl whom he loved during his youth and whose untimely demise at a young age left him heartbroken. He later took up sannyasa at the age of 18 and became a leader of the tribal people in the early 20th century colonial India. In the backdrop of the Non-cooperation movement (1909–22) across the country, the Rampa rebellion was born from rising discontent towards the British rule amongst the tribals. The Madras Forest Act exploited the economic value of the forests and restricted the free movement of the tribals in their forest habitats, prevented them from practicing their traditional form of agriculture called podu, and threatened their way of life. Rama Raju harnessed these grievances and mustered a combined force consisting of tribals and other sympathisers to the cause, and engaged in guerilla campaigns against the British across the border regions of present-day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
Rama Raju sought to expel the British forces from the Eastern Ghats region in the erstwhile Madras Presidency. During the rebellion he led numerous raids on police stations of the imperial police to acquire firearms for his forces, which resulted in significant police casualties. After each raid, he would leave a written note in the station signed by him informing the police about the details of his plunder there, including details of the weaponry he acquired daring them to stop him if they could. In response to these raids and to quell the rebellion, the British colonial authorities undertook a two year long manhunt and spent over ₹4 million (equivalent to ₹820 million or US$8.5 million in 2023) to capture Rama Raju. Eventually, in 1924, he was captured in Chintapalli forests, and was tied to a tree, and summarily executed by a firing squad at Koyyuru. A mausoleum housing his final remains was later built at Krishnadevipeta.
The Alluri Sitharama Raju district, and the Alluri Sitarama Raju International Airport in the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region are named after Rama Raju.
Alluri Rama Raju was born into a Telugu family in the erstwhile Madras Presidency (current Indian state of Andhra Pradesh). He was born on 4 July and his year of birth is reported by some sources as 1897 and others as 1898. Details of his place of birth also vary, with various sources suggesting it as Bhimavaram, Mogallu, or Pandrangi. His father, Alluri Venkata Rama Raju, was a professional photographer, who later settled in Rajahmundry, and his mother, Surya Narayanamma, was a housewife. His father was an advocate of self respect and freedom of Indians, and once chided a young Rama Raju for practicing the then prevalent custom of Indian people saluting the Europeans in acknowledgement of their superiority. Venkata Rama Raju died when his son was eight years old.
Rama Raju completed his primary education and joined high school in Kakinada. There he met Madduri Annapurnaiah (1899–1954), who later grew up to be another Indian revolutionary. In his teens, Rama Raju, in accordance with his reticent and meditative nature, contemplated taking sannyasa. At the age of 15, he moved to his mother's home town of Visakhapatnam to pursue further studies, and got enrolled at Mrs. A. V. N. College. During his time there, he visited remote hilly regions got familiarised himself with various problems faced by the adivasis under the British colonial rule.
Around this time, Rama Raju developed a love for his friend's sister named, Sita, whose untimely demise at a young age left him heartbroken. To commemorate her memory, Rama Raju prefixed her name to his and came to be known as Sita Rama Raju. He eventually dropped out of school, and at the insistence of his uncle, Rama Krishnam Raju, who was a tehsildar in Narsapur, and under whose tutelage Rama Raju grew up, he was admitted in the Taylor high school at Narsapur. However, he eventually gave up formal education and privately read literature in various languages such as Telugu, Sanskrit, Hindi, and English. As per contemporary reports, he took a particular interest in astrology, herbal medicine, palmistry, and equestrianism. He became a sannyasi (religious ascetic) at the age of 18.
After becoming an ascetic, Rama Raju practiced various spiritual disciplines to gain moral stature and became an expert healer with herbs. In 1921, he undertook a pilgrimage to Gangotri and Nashik, birthplaces of the holy rivers Ganga and Godavari respectively. During his travel, he met various Indian revolutionaries in Chittagong. He then settled down in the Papi hills near Rajahmundry, dominated by tribal population. He lived an austere life amongst the tribal people, and took only food items such as fruits and honey from them, while returning others back to the tribals with his blessings. His charismatic nature gained him a reputation among the tribals of being someone possessed with holy powers, and a messianic status–a reputation that was bolstered both by myths he created about himself and by his acceptance of ones about him that were established by others, including those concerning his invincibility.
The Madras Forest Act was passed in 1882, which exploited the economic value of the forests, and imposed restrictions on the free movement of tribal people. The tribes were made to pay dues for activities like grazing cattle, collecting fruit and fuel wood, and trading with the outsiders. They were also prevented them from engaging in their traditional "podu" agricultural system, a form of subsistence economy, which involved the system of shifting cultivation. The changes meant that they faced starvation, and threat to their livelihood, which forced them to engage in the demeaning, arduous, and exploitative coolie system being used by the government and its contractors for activities such as road construction.
The British authorities also emasculated the traditional hereditary role of the muttadars, who until then had been the de facto rulers in the hills as tax collectors for the local rules. Their roles were now reduced and though they were designated as civil servants, they had no overarching powers, no ability to levy taxes, and no right to inherit their position. Thus, the tribal people and the tax collectors, who once were in opposition to each other, were instead aligned in their disaffection with the colonial power.
Rama Raju pleaded with the colonial officials for concession, which earned no dividends. During this time, the efforts of Christian missionaries to gain convert the tribal people by any means annoyed him as he saw conversion as a tool to perpetuate imperialism. Concerned over the socio-economic conditions of the tribals, he felt that the only way out was through rebellion and decided to start a movement for their emancipation from the British rule. As the oppressive practices of the British continued, he became the natural leader of the rebellion. He harnessed the discontent of the tribal people to support his anti-colonial movement while also accommodating the grievances of some of the muttadars, who were sympathetic to his cause. While most of his followers were from the tribal communities, it also included some muttadars, although many of the muttadars remained ambivalent about fighting for what him.
Rama Raju noted the grievances of the tribals, and tried finding solutions to their problems. To attract people's support, he adopted aspects from the Non-cooperation movement such as promoting temperance, khadi, and boycott of colonial courts in favour of panchayat courts. Though the actual movement died out in early 1922, he used some of the methods used for the propagation of the movement, to raise awareness among the tribal people and fuel their desire for change. He started to organise them into a group and educate them about their rights. Around this time, the Koya tribal brothers, Gam Malludora and Gam Gantamdora joined the ranks of Rama Raju and became his lieutenants.