Alluri Seetha Rama Raju fought for Indian Independence with the help of tribals. Since they had but bows and battle axes, he led them to raid police stations for the ‘phirangs’ or guns that the British used on the revolutionaries.
As the story goes, when he was but a boy meditating on the beach, a white boy, pushed him and leaped over him. Then Rama Raju caught up with him and did the same thing right back to him, demonstrating his fearless spirit. Having studied the conditions of the Indian people and the efforts made by various states to fight the oppressive British rule, he came up with his own model of armed resistance against the British.
He sacrificed his personal life – marriage to the girl he loved, Seetha, whose name he added to his own as well as service to his dying mother – in order that he could free his captive mother land. He was a martyr to the cause of Indian Freedom.
The song in the video link shows his call to the telugu people, to come and join him in the cause of freeing the land from the cruel foreign rule, and it shows how the people considered him to be a fighting saint (like Bharadwaja or Parasurama).
Telugu Kshatriyas are particularly proud of him, as he belongs to their community.
Today, we are at the cross-roads where one of the most ancient powerful kingdoms of India (See : Andhra historical evidence before the Satavahanas), stands to be split into two or more small parts and where brother stands to fight against brother, weakening the Telugu speaking people, and in consequence weakening India.
Gandhiji was against partition of the country because he could foresee that it would lead to a weakened south asia, which was in Britain’s interests, but not in Indian interests. I cannot imagine that a fractured Andhra Pradesh will benefit the Telugu people. Who stands to gain by the disunity of the Telugu people?
I do not deny that common people have legitimate demands which the government must address. Perhaps it is a failure to meet the demands that is a motive for the split. But the split will add a ’weakness’ factor to the problem and enhance the distress of the people.
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