01The Rampa rising
The forest laws of the Madras Presidency had shut the Koya and Konda Dora hill people out of their own forests and put them to forced labour on roads. Alluri Sitarama Raju, a young sannyasi who had lived among them, gathered them in August 1922 and raided the police stations at Chintapalle, Krishnadevipeta and Rajavommangi for guns. For nearly two years his bands fought in the hills of the Godavari and Visakhapatnam agencies, and the Madras government had to bring in the Malabar Special Police and Assam Rifles.
027 May 1924
In May 1924, with the hills full of troops and the villages punished for feeding him, Raju was taken near Koyyuru. He was tied to a tree and shot on 7 May while in custody, not yet twenty-seven. His body was cremated, and his samadhi stands at Krishnadevipeta, the scene of one of his first raids. In 2022 the new district carved out of the agency was named after him.
The life of this place
- August 1922Raju’s men raid the Chintapalle police station and the Rampa rising begins.
- 7 May 1924Alluri Sitarama Raju is captured near Koyyuru and shot.
- 2022The Alluri Sitharama Raju district is formed.
