Komaram Bheem

Komaram Bheem (1901–1940), alternatively Kumram Bheem,

During the 1900s, there was expansion of mining activities and strengthening of state authority in the Gondi region, regulations were introduced and enforced which hampered the subsistence activities of the Gondis. Zamindars were granted lands in their regions and they imposed taxes on Gondi podu farming activities, non-compliance often resulting in severe arbitration including forced amputations. Gondis began migrating out of their traditional villages, the situation led to occasional retaliations and protestations; Bheem's father was killed by forest officials in one such incident.^[5][4]

Following the death of his father, Bheem and his family moved out to Sankepalli to Sardapur near Karimnagar. The Gonds who had migrated to Sardapur settled in barren land owned by the zamindar Laxman Rao; they began subsistence farming on the land and subsequently became a target for tax extraction. In a confrontation in October 1920, Bheem killed a senior official of the Nizamate, Siddiquesaab who was sent by Rao to enforce the confiscation of crops during the time of harvest. To escape capture, he ran away on foot to the city of Chanda with his friend named Kondal (known variously as Routa Kondal, Komaram Kondal and Edla Kondal). The two were granted refuge by a local publisher Vitoba who operated a printing press and distribution network across the regional railways for an anti–British anti–Nizamate magazine. Bheem learned to speak and read English, Hindi and Urdu during time working with Vitoba.^[5][4]

Bheem was forced to run away again after Vitoba was arrested, on this occasion, to a

Bheem married a woman named Som Bai, moved to Bhabejhari in the interior of the Gond lands and settled down to cultivate a piece of land. During the time of harvest, he was again approached by forest officials who tried to force him to leave arguing that the land belonged to the state. Bheem then tried to lobby the Nizam directly and sought to present the grievances of the Adivasis before him but he received no response. Bheem then decided to engage in armed revolution.[4] He formed clandestine associations with the banned Communist Party of India,^[6] and started mobilising the Adivasi population at Jodeghat, eventually calling a council of tribal leaders from the twelve traditional districts of Ankusapur, Bhabejhari, Bhimangundi, Chalbaridi, Jodeghat, Kallegaon, Koshaguda, Linepatter, Narsapur, Patnapur, Shivaguda and Tokennavada. The council decided to form a guerilla army to protect their lands. Bheem also proposed they declare themselves an independent Gond kingdom. Some see this as a predecessor to more recent attempts to form an autonomous Gondwana.^[5][4]

The council was followed by an uprising in the Gondi region which began in 1928. The forces mobilised to attack the zamindars in Babejhari and Jodeghat. In response, the Nizam recognised Bheem as leader of the Gond rebels and sent the collector at Asifabad to negotiate with him, offering assurances of land grants to the Gonds. Bheem rejected the initial offer stating that they sought justice and instead demanded regional autonomy for the Gonds, eviction of the forest officials and zamindars, and the release of all Gond prisoners in the penal system of Hyderabad state. The demands were rejected and the conflict continued as a low intensity guerilla campaign over the following decade. Bheem directly commanded 300 men under him and operated out of Jodeghat. He is said to have coined the slogan Jal, Jangal, Zameen (transl. Water, Forest, Land) during this period.^[5][4][7]

Bheem's whereabouts were eventually discovered by

Komaram Bheem was lionised as a symbol of the Gond rebellion following his death and, over the years, was eulogised into Adivasi and Telugu folk songs.[2] Bheem has been deified among the animistic Gond Adivasi community through the worship of Bheemal Pen.^[9][10] His death anniversary is commemorated by the Gonds every year on Aswayuja Powrnami, where an event is organized at Jodeghat, the place of his death and his center of operations during the rebellion. His aides Bhadu master and Maru master are considered to have been instrumental in lionising him following his death, in order to motivate demoralised combatants.^[4]

Following the death of Bheem, the Hyderabad State employed the Austrian ethnologist Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf to study the causes of the rebellion. Haimendorf's work enabled the enactment of the Hyderabad Tribal Areas Regulation 1356 Fasli in 1946. Haimendorf remarked at the time that "rebellions of aboriginal tribesmen against the authority of the government are among the most tragic conflicts between ruler and ruled" and that "it is always a hopeless struggle of the weak against the strong, the illiterate and uninformed against the organised power of a sophisticated system."^[11][12] The rebellion itself persisted for years after Bheem's death till it merged with the Telangana Rebellion, a peasants uprising led by the communists against the Nizamate.^[5][6]

Bheem's legacy was largely ignored in the mainstream beyond the folk culture of the impoverished Adivasis of central eastern India and the Telangana movement in Andhra Pradesh. His marginalised status in Indian mainstream history contrasted with his idolisation as a revolutionary figure among Adivasis, for whom he became an exemplification of their own marginalised and exploited status in India even after independence.^[4] The slogan of Jal, Jangal, Zameen, symbolising a sentiment against encroachment and exploitation,^[12] has been adopted by Adivasi communities, particularly the Gonds for their social and political struggles, including as a war cry in the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency.^[6][13] In popular culture, the film Komaram Bheem (1990) directed by Allani Sridhar was created based on his life and won two Nandi Awards.^[14]

In the 21st century, with growing support and prominence of the demand for the new state of

• Birsa Munda
• Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu

References