An art installation of the tribal uprising of 1860 at Veyyi Urula Marri of Nirmal town, at Parade Grounds in Hyderabad in 2022.
The release of a trailer of movie Razakar-The Silent Genocide of Hyderabad has kicked up a storm and worries about communal polarisation. Reacting to the development, Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T. Rama Rao took to X (formerly Twitter) to say, “We will take up the matter with Censor Board and also the Telangana police to ensure that the law and order situation of Telangana is not affected.” The movie is produced by Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gudur Narayan Reddy.
“The Censor Board should not approve the film as any attempt to screen such a provocative film would lead to further divisions in society,” said Majlis Bachao Tehreek leader Amjedullah Khan. He demanded that the movie be banned by the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) in the State if it was serious about maintaining peace and communal harmony.
One of the frames of the trailer shows a banyan tree with hundreds of bodies hanging from it. “The hangings from the banyan tree is known to most people in Telangana. It is an important facet of the Indian Freedom Struggle. But that is from 1860. The Razakar terror is in 1948,” says historian and author Sreeramoju Haragopal, adding that it would be wrong to link India’s freedom struggle with the fight against Razakars.
“The Veyyi Urula Marri or the banyan of thousand nooses was some 15 miles from Nirmal town. On April 9, 1860, freedom fighters who banded together under Adivasi leader Ramji Gond were caught… About 30 of them were hanged,” says Mr. Haragopal as he narrates the sequence of events from 1857 to 1860 when India’s First War of Independence spilled over to the Nizam’s Dominion.
Named in dictionary of martyrs
These freedom fighters, who fought against the British forces, are named in the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle. Ramji Gond is named as a leader of the Gond tribesmen of Adilabad. “He enlisted the help of the Rohilla inhabitants and started a revolt against the British in 1860. With his armed force of 300 Gonds and Deccanies and 200 Rohillas, he fought a pitched battle against the British forces, headed by the collector of Nirmal on April 9, 1860… Gond escaped but was caught and hanged from a banyan tree at Nirmal,” says the book, which is considered the final word on India’s freedom fighters.
Among the entries in the ‘Who’s Who Of Freedom Struggle In Andhra Pradesh Vol-II’ is this: “Mian Saheb Khurd: Resident of Narayankhed; Rohilla Chieftain; Helped Ramji Gond of Nirmal, Adilabad District in waging a rebellion against the British in 1860; Was shot dead on 9-4-1860 near Nirmal by the police force of the District Collector, while fighting on the side of Ramji Gond.”
