{{Short description|Indian tribal leader (1900–1940)}} {{For|the biographical film|Komaram Bheem (film)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}} {{Use Indian English|date=April 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Komaram Bheem | image = Komaram_Bheem.jpg | caption = Statue of Komaram Bheem at Tank Bund Road, Hyderabad | birth_date = 22 October 1901 | birth_place = Sankepalli, Hyderabad State, British Raj (present day Telangana, India) | death_date = c.27 October 1940 (aged 38 or 39) | death_place = Jodeghat, Hyderabad State, British Raj | years_active = 1928–1940 | known_for = Rebellion against the Hyderabad State | spouse = Som Bai }}
'''Komaram Bheem''' (1901–1940), alternatively '''Kumram Bheem''',<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|last=Singh|first=S. Harpal|date=2019-08-12|title=Telangana's Babejhari valley the new spot for adrenaline junkies|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/telanganas-babejhari-valley-the-new-spot-for-adrenaline-junkies/article28988532.ece|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> was a revolutionary leader in Hyderabad State of British Raj from the Gond tribes. Bheem, in association with other Gond leaders, led a protracted low intensity rebellion against the feudal Nizams of Hyderabad in the eastern part of the princely state during the 1930s, which contributed in the culmination of the Telangana Rebellion of 1946.
He was killed by armed policemen in 1940, subsequently lionised as a symbol of rebellion, and eulogised in Adivasi and Telugu folklore. Bheem is deified as a ''pen'' in Gond culture and is credited for coining the slogan ''Jal, Jangal, Zameen'' ({{Translation|Water, Forest, Land}}) which, symbolising a sentiment against encroachment and exploitation, has been adopted by Adivasi movements as a call to action. He is also associated with the early part of the movement for Telangana statehood.
==Life== Komaram Bheem was born in Sankepalli, near Asifabad in Hyderabad State, British Raj to a family in the Gondi tribal community,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Sambaraju|first=Rahul|date=February 2018|title=Making the everyday political: The case of jānapada geyalu [folk songs] as protest-songs in. Telangana State formation movement in India|url=https://osf.io/kcj6g/download|journal=|publisher=Trinity College, Dublin|pages=1–21|via=Center for Open Science}}</ref>{{self published inline|date=January 2022}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=K |first=Janani |date=14 March 2023 |title=Meet RRR's real-life revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem — the freedom fighters |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/regional-cinema/story/who-are-alluri-sitarama-raju-and-komaram-bheem-the-real-life-revolutionaries-of-rrr-2346435-2023-03-14 |access-date=20 October 2024 |website=India Today}}</ref> on 22 October 1901.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|date=2020-11-02|title=Who Was Komaram Bheem and Why is SS Rajamouli's 'RRR' Under Fire?|url=https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/indian-cinema/komaram-bheen-jr-ntr-ss-rajamouli-rrr-film-telengana-hindu-nationalist-gond|website=The Quint|language=en}}</ref> Bheem grew up in the tribal populated forests within the traditional kingdoms of Chanda and Ballalpur, isolated from the rest of the world and received no formal education. He kept moving from place to place throughout his life as the Gondi people were being increasingly victimised and exploited by ''zamindars'' ({{Translation|landlords}}) and businessmen, and through extortion by the ''jangaalat'' police ({{Translation|forest police}}).<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Poyam|first=Akash|date=2016-10-16|title=Komaram Bheem: A forgotten Adivasi leader who gave the slogan 'Jal Jangal Jameen'|url=http://www.adivasiresurgence.com/komaram-bheem-a-forgotten-adivasi-leader-who-gave-the-slogan-jal-jangal-jameen/|website=Adivasi Resurgence|language=en-US|access-date=19 April 2017|archive-date=14 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414000117/http://www.adivasiresurgence.com/komaram-bheem-a-forgotten-adivasi-leader-who-gave-the-slogan-jal-jangal-jameen/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
During the 1900s, there was expansion of mining activities and strengthening of state authority in the Gondi region. Regulations introduced and enforced hampered the subsistence activities of the Gondis. ''Zamindars'' were granted lands in their regions and imposed taxes on Gondi podu farming activities, non-compliance often resulting in severe measures including forced amputations. Gondis began migrating from their traditional villages, the situation led to occasional retaliations and protests; Bheem's father was killed by forest officials in one such incident.<ref name=":0">{{Cite thesis|last=Tyagi|first=Juhi|date=May 2016|title=Organizational Structure and Class: Examining resilience in the Maoist Movement in India|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/97a411d021ee55100a69d3ae7807aa09/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750|journal=|publisher=State University of New York|pages=15–26}}</ref><ref name=":3" />
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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />
Bheem was forced to run away again after Vitoba was arrested, on this occasion, to a tea plantation in Assam with an acquaintance at the Manchiryal railway station. He worked in the plantations for four and a half years. While doing so he became involved in labour union activities and was eventually arrested for such. Bheem escaped jail within four days, boarded a goods train and returned to Balharshah in the Nizamate. Bheem had heard of Ramji Gond in his childhood, so he decided to initiate his own struggle for the rights of the Adivasis on his return to the Nizamate. Bheem moved to Kakanghat with family and started working for Lacchu Patel who was the head of a village called Devadam. Leveraging his experience in Assam, he helped Patel in a land litigation against the Asifabad estate which made him well known in the nearby villages and in return he was granted permission by Patel to marry.<ref name=":3" />
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.<ref name=":3" /> He formed clandestine associations with the banned Communist Party of India,<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Parenti|first=Christian|title=Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence|date=2011-06-28|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=978-1-56858-662-5|language=en|chapter=Deep roots of rebellion}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />
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'' ({{Translation|Water, Forest, Land}}) during this period.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Poyam|first=Akash|date=24 February 2020|title=BJP is exploiting the conflict between Adivasis and Lambadas to grow its base in Telangana|url=https://caravanmagazine.in/communities/adivasi-lambada-reservation-telangana-bjp|website=The Caravan|language=en}}</ref>
Bheem's whereabouts were eventually discovered by Kurdu Patel and he was killed in an encounter with armed policemen led by the talukdar of Asifabad, Abdul Sattar. Fifteen others were killed in the encounter.<ref name=":3" /> The date of his death is disputed, it's officially recognised to have occurred in October 1940 but Gondi people commemorate it on 8 April 1940.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sebastia|first=Brigitte|title=Eating Traditional Food: Politics, identity and practices|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|isbn=978-1-317-28593-9|pages=124|language=en}}</ref>
==Legacy== 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.<ref name=":1" /> Bheem has been deified among the animistic Gond Adivasi community through the worship of ''Bheemal Pen''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Vibhavari|first=Sruthi|date=2020-10-31|title=RRR row: Komaram Bheem's appropriation and right-wing outrage|url=https://www.siasat.com/rrr-row-komaram-bheems-appropriation-and-right-wing-outrage-2012332/|website=The Siasat Daily|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Singh|first=S. Harpal|date=2017-01-05|title=A tribal photographer in Telangana turns the lens inward|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/A-tribal-photographer-in-Telangana-turns-the-lens-inward/article16992496.ece|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":3" />
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."<ref name=":5">{{Cite news|last=Rao|first=M. Malleswara|date=2011-11-19|title=Komaram Bheem project launch today|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/komaram-bheem-project-launch-today/article2640810.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127165331/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/komaram-bheem-project-launch-today/article2640810.ece|archive-date=27 January 2021|issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|last=Shobha|first=V|date=2018-07-04|title=Struggle for the Soil|url=https://openthemagazine.com/features/dispatch/struggle-for-the-soil/|website=Open magazine|language=en-GB}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7" />
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.<ref name=":3" /> The slogan of ''Jal, Jangal, Zameen'', symbolising a sentiment against encroachment and exploitation,<ref name=":6" /> 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.<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Dillane|first1=Aileen|title=Songs of Social Protest: International Perspectives|last2=Power|first2=Martin J.|last3=Devereux|first3=Eoin|last4=Haynes|first4=Amanda|date=2018-09-30|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-78660-127-8|pages=250|language=en}}</ref> In popular culture, the film ''Komaram Bheem'' (1990) directed by Allani Sridhar was created based on his life and won two Nandi Awards.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2016-06-02|title=Komaram Bheem to be screened|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/Komaram-Bheem-to-be-screened/article14378955.ece|issn=0971-751X}}</ref>
In the 21st century, with growing support and prominence of the demand for the new state of Telangana, the legacy of Bheem was brought back into the spotlight and was featured in more mainstream political discourse and rhetoric. In 2011, the Andhra Pradesh government announced the construction of a dam and reservoir named Sri Komaram Bheem Project and the installation of a statue at Tank Bund Road in the city of Hyderabad.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{cite news | title=Komaram Bheem statue to be installed in city | date=2009-12-18 | url =http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/18/stories/2009121860130400.htm | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20091221233100/http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/18/stories/2009121860130400.htm | url-status =dead | archive-date =2009-12-21 | accessdate = 2010-01-03 | work=The Hindu | location=Chennai, India}}</ref> Following the establishment of the Telangana state in 2014, the state government allocated {{INRConvert|25|c|year=2014}} for the construction of a Komaram Bheem museum for tribal history at Jodeghat and a memorial at Jodeghat hill rock.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-10-10|title=Rs 25 crore granted for Jodeghat|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/141010/nation-current-affairs/article/rs-25-crore-granted-jodeghat|website=Deccan Chronicle|language=en}}</ref> The museum and memorial were inaugurated in 2016, and in the same year the Adilabad district was reorganised, part of it carved out as the Komaram Bheem district. The location near Jodeghat has become a major tourism destination in Telangana.<ref name=":4" />
In 2018, S. S. Rajamouli, the director of the ''Baahubali'' series, announced the film ''RRR'' to feature Komaram Bheem and his contemporary Alluri Sitarama Raju as characters, with N. T. Rama Rao Jr. playing the role of Bheem. The plot is a work of fiction depicting a friendship between the two contemporaries and taking place in the less documented part of their lives in the 1920s.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-02-06|title=SS Rajamouli's 'RRR' theatrical rights to be sold for a record price?|url=https://www.deccanherald.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/ss-rajamoulis-rrr-theatrical-rights-to-be-sold-for-a-record-price-948170.html|access-date=2021-08-12|website=Deccan Herald|language=en}}</ref>
==See also== * Birsa Munda * Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bheem, Komaram}} Category:People from Hyderabad State Category:Activists from Telangana Category:1900s births Category:1940 deaths Category:Deaths by firearm in India Category:People from Komaram Bheem district