A significant event which took place on January 26, 1831 is either forgotten or belittled. Sangolli Rayanna, the leader of the peasant army, who fought against not only the British but also feudal landlords was hanged by the British after being betrayed by the henchmen of local landlords on January 26, 1831.
When India is at the verge of becoming ‘Ram Rajya‘, an euphemism for the tyranny of Brahminical and capitalist rule, the valiant struggle of Rayanna is also being misrepresented as a battle for the restoration of monarchical power.
There are systemic efforts to reduce him to the status of a leader of a caste group by the contemporary casteist monarchs and thereby erase the memory of a great chapter in Karnataka’s anti-colonial and anti-feudal history.
Not just a Kuruba leader
In this modern era, politics driven by caste is diminishing the stature of towering leaders into narrow confines of caste and religion. By doing so, it commits a betrayal to both history and the present.
Depicting Tipu Sultan as only a Muslim leader, presenting Rayanna as only a leader of the Kuruba community and Ambedkar as only a Dalit leader are the outcomes of this systemic casteist politics. The modern lords who exploit communities, erect statues of historical figures, claiming them as leaders of their respective communities in a deceptive strategy.
As a part of this agenda, these modern rulers depict Rayanna solely as a leader of the Kuruba community. But Rayanna mobilised exploited peasants of all the sections against the British and their local lords three decades before the “first war of Indian Independence” in 1857 by mobilising oppressed peasants from various communities including Kuruba, Beda, Jain, Lingayat, Siddhi, Muslim and Panchamasali in Kittur region of Karnataka.
Within a short span of time he built a formidable patriotic and anti-feudal army of peasants and landless which became a nightmare for the British for some time.
Saketh Rajan, a great scholar and revolutionary, who studied Karnataka’s history extensively and died a martyr for a similar cause in 2005 pointed out in his book “Making History” that Rayanna’s struggle was not just for the landless but also for the oppressed communities. Rayanna was cognizant of caste hierarchy among the oppressed peasants also. Saketh explained how he implemented a system of dasoha–collective sharing of food–to eliminate caste differences and built a bond of fraternity among his warriors. This fact is a testament to Rayanna’s commitment beyond caste and religion.
The peasant commander
The accolades that the opportunistic politicians of the current times shower on Rayanna and the manner is which they choose to honour this great leader is appalling.
For instance, in 2010, then BJP chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa in Bengaluru, while unveiling Rayanna’s statue, announced, “By awarding police officers who have rendered exceptional service in the name of Rayanna, we honour the sacrifice, devotion and loyalty of Rayanna, the soldier of Rani Kittur Chennamma.” Thus, Rayanna’s virtue for these modern feudal lords was not his uncompromising and assertive anti feudalism but just loyalty, devotion and sacrifice as a soldier to the kingdom of high priests.
Many kings and chieftains fought against the British, primarily to preserve their sovereignty. But, Rayanna was not a chieftain or a prince. He was a soldier in the army of queen Chennamma of Kittur principality.
Before 1857, many like Kittur Chennamma and Lakshmibai, although from royal families, refused to succumb to humiliating treaties offered by the British and chose to fight and die honourably. However, after learning lessons from the rebellion of 1857, the British ensured comfort and luxuries of the kings. Most kings then refrained from joining the freedom struggle, after 1857. Not only that, many betrayed their people to retain the tutelage of British rulers.
Similarly, the British, through its draconian policy of subsidiary alliance hatched a conspiracy to annex the Kittur kingdom, after the demise of the ruler Mallasarja, husband of Chennamma. She fought against the British but was captured and imprisoned and subsequently died on February 21, 1829. Rayanna was witness to the imprisonment of Chennamma whom he met during her confinement in Bailhongal, posing as a peasant relative of hers, and drew inspiration from her longing for the repossession of Kittur.
After the capture of Chennamma, the British introduced barbaric land revenue system which pauperised the peasantry and empowered the corrupt upper caste record keeping Kualakarnis and the feudatories of the British rule. Rayanna himself being the victim of the new regime retreated into the forests and built an army of exploited peasants guerrillas against the British and subsequently against Landlords.
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Guerrilla warfare
Starting with just a hundred men in the early 1830, his army grew to 5,000 within months. Due to its constant fight against oppressors, it quickly took the form of a people’s army and a people’s struggle.
Saketh Rajan through his wide field work and meticulous and laborious library work provides a glimpse in volume two of Making History of how Sangolli Rayanna operated:
“Thus the people were mobilised in armed actions that Rayanna led. Of the innumerable such actions that the guerrillas initiated, most were attacks on government property, burning of the new land records and the extraction of returns from notorious landlords and bureaucrats who had pillaged the people consequent to the onset of British rule. The fact that people participated in large numbers in these actions goes to demonstrate not just that guerrillas were addressing the burning issues of the masses, but also that in doing so, they mobilised the peasantry in such large numbers that no sooner that an action had been conducted and the guerrillas planned to leave the spot, they had already spontaneously recruited fighters for their cause. The raid on Sampgaon is a case in point.
“This pattern in their armed actions thus explains the rapid growth of Rayanna’s force. Popular support for Rayanna’s armed uprising was also expressed in the noncooperation of the people and particularly the other shetsanadis who refused to share intelligence about Rayanna’s movements with the government. When government forces were on his pursuit after the raid on Sampgaon, Nisbet, the Collector wrote: “The Amildar and others repeat that the peons of some of the villages in that part of the country did not afford any assistance against the insurgents. They appear to act in concert with them, furnishing them with information and offering no resistance to their attacks….”
Thus, Rayanna was indeed a leader of the oppressed masses and a great leader of the peasant army. His sacrifice in the battle was not as a soldier or commander of a king’s army, but a conscious sacrifice for the people, to build a people’s army. Therefore, realising they couldn’t capture Rayanna through direct combat, the British conspired with the landlord class. They infiltrated his army with a landlord named Krishnarao. The result was betrayal, Rayanna’s capture, and his execution.
Rewards for traitors
Krishnarao was rewarded with money for aiding in Rayanna’s capture. The landlords who betrayed the peasant struggle were also awarded. They received cash rewards and entire villages as gifts from the British government.
While Linganna Gowda received the village of Kaloli near Kittur, Yenkan Gowda got the village of Dhong near Dharwad. But Rayanna and his companions from various communities, including Kuruba, Beda, Jain, Lingayat, Siddhi, Muslim and Panchamasali, faced execution. These gifts by the British were also honoured by the independent India and thus the betrayers continued as new rulers in the new regime both in Delhi and Kittur. Whereas Rayanna, his memory and martyrdom is either belittled or erased.
Today, the same Brahminical-landlord-capitalist system , repacked as Ramarajya-Modirajya continues under the guise of a republic. The cruel role played by loyalist police officers in suppressing people in this highly anti-people administration is being honoured in the name of the people’s leader, Sangolli Rayanna. They are disrespecting Rayanna’s legacy by awarding such prizes.
Hence, when January 26 is paraded as the demonstration of military prowess of the new Ram Rajya, it is absolutely necessary to remind the martyrdom of Rayana who dreamt of new people’s raj , shambhuka’s and sita’s raj but was hanged to death on January 26.
Shivasundar is an activist and a freelance journalist based in Bengaluru.
