Gam Mallu Dora

Gam Mallu Dora was a Koya leader from Battapanukulu, in Golugonda taluk of Visakhapatnam district.¹ With his elder brother Gam Gantam Dora, he was one of the two chief lieutenants of Alluri Sitarama Raju in the Rampa rebellion of 1922–1924.²³ He spent about seventeen years in prison and internment.⁴ In 1952 he was elected to the first Lok Sabha.⁴¹

Before the rising

According to the Lok Sabha Who’s Who of 1952, he was born at Battapanukulu in 1900, the son of Gam Jogi Dora.¹ He was a farmer.⁵ The police history of 1961 says the brothers belonged to the Makaram mutha (group of hill villages).⁴ It calls the elder brother the village munsif (headman) of Battapanukulu.⁴

Sarojini Regani gives a different account of the office.³ She writes that Mallu Dora himself was dismissed as village munsif of Battapanukulu, and that both brothers lost their lands.³ She counts this among the causes of the rising.³ In her account, the brothers helped to persuade Sitarama Raju to lead the hill people against the British.³

The Rampa rebellion, 1922–1923

The rising began with a raid on the police station at Chintapalli on 22 August 1922.³ Regani writes that the Gam brothers helped Sitarama Raju to gather men and ammunition.³ The government offered Rs. 1,500 for the capture of Sitarama Raju and Rs. 1,000 each for the Gam brothers.⁶

Capture and sentence, 1923–1937

On the night of 17 September 1923, a police party under Mr. Kearns arrested Mallu Dora.² The police history places the arrest in the villages of Nadimpalem and Krishnadevipeta.² It calls his capture the first major success of the government forces.⁴

He was charged with waging war against the King.⁴ On 12 May 1924 the Agency Additional Judge sentenced him to death.⁴ On appeal the sentence was reduced to transportation for life (exile to a penal settlement).⁴

He spent thirteen and a half years in the Andaman Islands.⁴ He then spent about three and a half years in an internment camp at Visakhapatnam.⁴⁵ The police history says he was released after the first Congress government took office in Madras in 1937.⁴

In the Lok Sabha, 1952

In the first general elections he was elected to Parliament.⁴ The Lok Sabha Who’s Who lists him as an Independent member for the Visakhapatnam seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes.¹ Its entry describes him as Sitarama Raju’s chief lieutenant.⁵ It gives archery as his hobby, and shooting and hunting as his pastimes.⁵

Where the sources disagree

The sources differ on two details:

• The date of his capture. The police history says he was arrested on the night of 17 September 1923.² Regani gives 18 September and names the village as Nadimpalli.⁷
• Who was the village munsif. The police history says the elder brother, Gantam Dora, held the post.⁴ Regani says Mallu Dora was dismissed from it.³

Footnotes

1. House of the People: Who’s Who, 1952 (1952), p. 164 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. The History of the Andhra Pradesh Police (1861–1961) (1961), pp. 210–211 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. Sarojini Regani, Highlights of the Freedom Movement in Andhra Pradesh (1956), p. 96 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

4. History of the Andhra Pradesh Police (1961), p. 212 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³

5. House of the People: Who’s Who (1952), p. 165 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 98 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

7. Regani, Highlights (1956), p. 99 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩