Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju is brave son of India who laid down his life
to free mother India from the oppression of the British. He was born on
4th July 1897. While pursuing his studies at Kakinada, Sri Alluri
Seetarama Raju came in contact with a notable freedom fighter, Sri
Madduri Annapurnayya, and Rallapalli Atchuta Ramayya, a scholar of high
repute. For his further studies he went to Visakhapatnam at the age of
15. Though he didn’t have much interest in studies, he was very keen to
know more about the political condition of India at that time.
In 1857 during the first war of independence thousands of tribals of
Gond land laid their life for their country. Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju
went deep into the forests of Gond land to meet the tribals and inspire
them to fight for India’s independence
In the tribal areas, the poor and illiterate tribal people were exploited
and oppressed blatantly by the Britishers. Since the tribals were not
united against the Britishers they took advantage of it and deprived the
tribals of their rights. Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju inspired and united
the different tribes of the area, trained them in skills of guerrilla
warfare and proved to be a terror for the Britishers.
Soon he was ready to attack the enemy with his army. On 22nd August
1922, his tribal army initiated 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
huge number of guns, bayonets and cartridges and swords. They even
freed Veerayya Dora from jail who was a revolutionary.
The British Army was alerted by his actions and platoons of Police
and Army were ordered to arrest Sri Alluri Seetarama Raju. He again
attacked the British Army at Peddavalasa and defeated them as a result
of which they had to bear heavy casualties and finally retreated.
From that day onwards there was a regular warfare between Raju and
the Britishers and Raju came out triumphant in all. Nearly for two
years(1922 to 1924) he terrorized the British Army and was the ruler of
the vast area. Later Britishers were keen to kill him and deployed
battalions of Assam Rifles and others. He was killed by the British on
one fateful day.
The Department of Posts issued a 50 Paise multicolored stamp in memory of freedom fighter Sri Alluri Sitarama Raju.
