Alluri Sitarama Raju ( born: 4 July 1897-death:1924), also known as Alluri Rama Raju, Rama Chandra Raju, and Alluri Seetha Rama Raju, was an Indian revolutionary from the Mogallu village in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India. He was the leader of the ill-fated Rampa Rebellion that fought against the British from 1922 to 1923. Popularly referred to as Raju, he is also known as Manyam Veerudu (Hero of the jungles).
He was so confident of the path he chose that he told a reporter (incidentally the only interview he ever gave to a reporter) that he could overthrow the British in two years.
As he organised them to defend their rights on the produce, he gained tremendous understanding of the terrain that had helped him in great deal in his future guerrilla war against the British forces. He would appear at one place this moment and disappear in moment to appear somewhere else in no time, giving sleepless nights to the British forces. Legends on his attacks and exploits on the police stations in the region have become part of the folklore. He built a strong team of followers from the area, who built a formidable army sporting traditional weapons like bow-and-arrow and spears and achieved spectacular successes against the British forces.
Major "Gudal" set aside the diplomatic courtesy made him tied to a tree and shot at in a Brutal Manner. Rama Raju laid down his life heroically and become a martyr. For every bullet when he was shot at he praised the land by giving slogans with full throat voice "VANDEMATARAM" ( I bow my head on the lotus feat of my holy mother land- "O my motherland you fed me with your spilling milk from your breast, O motherland I owe to you"). He was set like an evening setting Sun. But he had risen and stay permanently in the hearts of Millions of Indians.
