Unsung tribal heroes of the freedom fight: Padal and Kamayya

VISAKHAPATNAM: Many know some famous freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Bala Gangadhar Tilak, Lajpat Rai, or Jawahar Lal Nehru and others. But scores of other unsung freedom fighters who gave their everything for the country’s Independence Movement disappeared from the books of history. The Visakhapatnam district tribal area has many followers of revolutionary Alluri Sitarama Raju in the freedom struggle, but they have not got proper recognition.Tribal freedom fighters Bonangi Pandu Padal and Marri Kamayya are also in the same category and did not get their due.
Bonangi Pandu Padal played a key role in attacking police stations led by Alluri Sitarama Raju. Padal, born on 13 August 1890 in Gondipakalu village in Chintapalli mandal, took up the armed struggle led by Alluri against the British. His wife was eight months pregnant when he swung into the armed struggle. He was involved in the murders of British Army officers Colonel Neyvelli Hyter and Christopher William Scott Coward at Krishna Devi Peta, famously known as KD Peta, in September 1922. He was arrested by the British in June 1924 and sent to Cellular Jail in Andaman. The courts sentenced him to the death penalty, which was later changed to a life sentence. He settled in Andaman after completing the jail term, married a woman, and was survived by five sons and six daughters. He died in 1974 in Andaman.
Another unsung hero, Marri Kamayya of Garudapalli in Hukumpet mandal, was a Buddhist and a practitioner of herbal medicine. He had many followers in the tribal area. Kamayya raised his voice against the Muthadhari System (local representatives of the British who collected taxes from the farmers). The Muthadhars had forcibly taken lands from many tribals who approached Kamayya. Kamayya, who followed Buddhism, converted a few disciples into warriors and waged war against the British, who targeted him and sent special teams for his capture. Kamayya fought against the Muthadhari system for almost 10 years underground and died in 1959. In his last days, Kamayya took shelter at Beetubayalu village, which was named after him as Kamayyapeta. The villagers pay rich tributes to the leader on his death anniversary on 5 May every year.