24/03/2023
Via Mohan Guruswamy
RAMJI GOND!
Mangam Visham Rao is a Gond activist and journalist. He owns and runs the Jangubai TV Channel in Gondi language and plays a vital role in fostering the Gond identity. In this program he recalls the heroism of Ramji Gond, who was the inspiration for Kumram Bheem.
Ramji Gond was a Gond chief who ruled the tribal areas in present-day Adilabad district of Telangana. The areas under his rule included Nirmal, Utnoor, Chennuru, and Asifabad. He fought against British rule, for which he was caught and hanged on April 9,1860.
Ramji Gond fought a guerrilla campaign against the British Indian government to preserve his Gond kingdom. The British feudatory (Nizam) of the region wanted to capture the Gond kingdom. Ramji took up arms against the Britisher soldiers. His army of Gond soldiers defeated the British forces.
Later, some British soldiers entered the Gond Kingdom illegally and damaged public property. Ramji Gond killed these soldiers. The British Government appointed Colonel Robert to subdue Ramji Gond. On 9 April 1860, Colonel Robert got information that Ramji Gond was at Nirmal village, Adilabad. He attacked and defeated Ramji, who was captured along with his 1000 soldiers.
On that day Ramji Gond and his accomplices were hanged to death on a Banyan tree in Nirmal village. The tree came to be known as Veyyi Purrela (skull) Chettu or Veyyi Purrela Marri.
The hanging of 1000 Gonds of Telangana was a more brutal and earlier event than the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. At the time this mass hanging of Gonds did not get widespread attention.
Telangana was an important territory with respect to tribal freedom struggles. As early as 1857, when the Sepoy Mutiny took place, the tribal tracts north of Godavari were rebellious under the leadership of Ramji Gond against the then rulers of Hyderabad State - the Nizam and the British Resident. Ramji Gond was successful in rallying around 500 Gond and joining hands with over 500 Rohillas and Deccanis against these rulers.
Initially, Ramji Gond was successful with his guerilla warfare techniques for over two years in the large forest tracts stretching from Nirmal-Narayankhed in the west and Chennur in the east bordering the River Godavari in the south.
The then British Resident of Hyderabad State, who urged the Taluqdar (Collector) of Nirmal to arrest Ramji Gond, was also unaware of the date of his hanging. He was quoted in a report on October 15, 1860, published in the daily Englishman on October 27, 1860 as: ". what has become of Ramji Gond of Ghoolab Khan, and Najuff Khan, the last of the leaders of banditti. We know of their capture, but nothing more. We require to know of punishments for the sake of example, and we require, whenever that is capital, that it should be inflicted at the city of Hyderabad". (Hyderabad Affairs, Vol. III, 1883, pp. 245-246).
In the same report, its writer stated that 'additional strength' was given to the existing 'force' so that "no person (like Ramji Gond) known as likely to rise up in their place to renew the disorder". It is clear that either the Nizam or the British forces or both captured Ramji Gond and his fellow revolutionaries and put them to death sometime before October 15, 1860, the date of the report.
