Alluri Sitaram Raju was born on 15 May 1897 of middle-class Kshatriya parents who lived in the village of Mogallu, West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh. His father was Venkatarama Raju and his mother Suryanarayanamma.

Very little authentic information is available about his boyhood or education. For some reasons which is not clear he seems to have been sent from one place to another for his schooling, to Rajamundry (1910), Ramachandrapuram (1911), Cocanada (1912), Vizagapatnam (1913), Narsapur (1914) and finally Tuni. Though he was promoter from a lower to a higher class from year to year, there was a little progress in his studies.

He, however, took much interest in horse-riding, astrology and the study of medicinal herbs. It is said that he came under the influence of one Rama Raju, a relation of his and a student of Philosophy at the Rajamundry College, and that in consequence he became a Sannyasi at the age of eighteen and began practicing yoga and acquiring spiritual powers.

As an ascetic and a yogi he wandered about in the hilly tribal areas of the Agency in Vizagapatam and Godavari districts. His austerity, his knowledge of medicine and astrology and his well-known ability to tame wild animals secured for him a large following from among the simple tribal folk.

By 1920 Raju seems to have come under the influence of some Gandhiji’s teachings and was inspired by his messages of Swaraj. He persuaded his tribal followers to give up drink and to have their disputes settled through Panchayats. This roused the suspicion of the British authorities and he was placed under police surveillance. Agency Assistant Commissioner, a Muslim, freedom to move about. It was then that he began to think seriously of Swaraj.

He felt that Gandhiji’s experiment of winning Swaraj within one year through the weapon of non-violence had failed and that it was only through a violent war waged in the true spirit of the Kshatriya tradition that it could achieved. At a first step in this direction he decided to lead a tribal revolt against the British and establish a kingdom in the Agency area.

Tribals welcomed the idea as they had their own grievances against the British officials who extracted forced labour from them and placed numerous obstacles in the way of their customary methods of cultivation, grazing cattle in the forests and cutting timber and collecting produce from the reserves.rising in revolt against the authorities was nothing new to the tribals. There had been several such revolts in the past. But the revolt of 1922-24 differed from the previous rising in that it was inspired by a political motive with an outside Kshatriya saint to lead them.

As the official report puts it: “Raju had the courage as well as the influence to work up this combustible material and start the Fituri as his contribution to the overflow of the British Government.” Raju began the campaign on 22 August 1922 by attacking the Chintapalli police station and

capturing the arms and ammunitions stocked in it. This was followed by more raids on police stations and collecting more firearms. The normal police forces became unequal to the task of putting him down.

His successful raids attracted to his camp two able tribal leaders, Gam Mallu Dora and Gam Gantam Dora, who became his trustworthy lieutenants. Along with them came several hundreds of tribals. With their help Raju organized an excellent intelligence service aimed at monitoring the movements of the police and to elude them successfully. The police suffered a severe defeat at his hands at Onjeri Ghat (3 September) and a worse one with heavy losses at Damanapalli Ghat a little later.

The Government realized the seriousness of the situation and brought in a contingent of Malabar police to deal with him. But he eluded them also and continued his raids. Among the places raided were Rampa Chodavaram (16 October), Makaram (3 November), Rampol and Chaparthipalem palem (17 November), Anantasagaram and Velagapalem (30 November). In December, Raju suffered reverses at Peddaguddapalem (6 December) and at Lingapuram a few days later. This led to loss of his popularity and the campaign slowed down. By March 1923 the Government thought that the campaign was over and withdrew the special armed police.

Raju had anticipated all this and he made his reappearance at Annavaram on 18 April 1923. He renewed his campaign of raids against several places- Koyyur (31 May), Konda Kambery and Malkanagiri (15 June) and Ebulu (21 June).

A police party which attacked him at Ramavaram was forced to beat a hasty retreat. Misfortune overtook him when Gam Mallu Dora was captured by the police. All the same, the raids continued and places far away in the interior were attacked successfully. But such attacks ceased to pay as they had done in the past, as the Government no longer stocked firearms in police station. Naturally Raju was unable to get an adequate supply of arms.

At the beginning of 1924 the Government brought in the military in the form of the Assam Rifles. Raju’s work consequently became more difficult. Moreover, Ruthrerford, one of the ablest of civilian officers, was appointed the Agency Commissioner. He adopted terriorist tactics to seize and punish Raju’s followers and this alerted the situation. All the same Raju continued to elude the military also till 6 May 1924. On that day a group of his followers and Aggiraju, his right-hand man were captured.

On 7 May Raju himself fell into the hands of the officer in charge of the special police. He was brought to Koyyur where a party of Assam Rifles was stationed under Major Goodall. The official Report said: “Raju, when given sufficient liberty to ease himself, made a futile attempt to escape and was shot down and killed.” The body was taken to Krishna-devipeta and creameted on 8 May. Raju’s greatness consisted in his keeping the British authorities at bay for nearly two years and displaying military and organizing ability of high order.