You might have seen his name across TV channels in 2018. He is Ragala Venkat Rahul, who won the Gold in weightlifting at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Australia. But while his achievement is justly being applauded, there is another aspect that not many know about.
Rahul comes from a village called Stuartpuram in Andhra Pradesh. Lying on the Chennai- Vijayawada route, it seems like any other village, paddy fields, tiled homes, narrow streets. But the village has a very dark past and a painful history, that is not known to many outside Andhra Pradesh. And when you look at it, the magnitude of Rahul’s achievement becomes even more apparent.
Stuartpuram used to have a particularly notorious reputation, it is where the British settled criminal tribes, ostensibly to reforrm them. But actually it's more a tale of how British colonialism and missionaries wrecked Indian society with their "Good Samaritianism". Beyond it's rather notorious reputation, Stuartpuram has a very painful history, of an entire community that was devastated by colonial prejudices. Of a community whose way of life was ruined by do gooder British and Christian missionaries.
The inhabitants of Stuartpuram are primarily Yerukulas, one of the so called "criminal tribes" created by British Raj. In reality they were basically nomadic traders in grain and salt, carrying goods from the coast to the interiors on their bullock carts. Two developments badly affected the Yerukulas, one was the introduction of the Railways, that affected their business of carrying goods from one place to another. The other one, far more worse, was something called the Forest Conservation Act.Apart from being traders, the Yerukulas also used to deal in forest produce.
The Forest Conservation Act meant they cud no longer get raw material to make baskets, mats, brooms and brushes, it was a double blow to their livelihood already affected by Railways. Like most nomadic communities, the Yerukulas were also good acrobats, dancers, singers, and the British rulers were nervous of the large crowds they used to draw. This along with prejudice from the zamindars, led to the Yerukulas being branded as a criminal tribe.
The Yerukulas at best were a marginal, nomadic community, living from hand to mouth, but served a valuable purpose as a supply chain to remote settlements. The British broke that, by declaring the entire community as a criminal tribe, under one of the most discriminatory Acts. The person responsible for this was Frederick Booth Tucker, of the Salvation Army. He authored a book, stating that certain tribes and communities had a criminal bent of mind. The Yerukulas were one of them, and that devastated their life like nothing else.
The Salvation Army, was a typical Christian do gooder charity, that acted as a stooge of the British Raj , and in the process indulge in large scale conversions. They claimed expertise in reforming nomadic tribes, by settling them at one place, which nothing but conversion. Booth Tucker in fact classified the so called Criminal Tribes into other categories, and the Yerukulas were classified as "hereditary criminal" which sort of like was the worst of the lot. The nomadic tribe was classified as very dangerous by the British Raj and likes of Tucker.
Given the job of restraining the so called "criminal tribes" in South, Harold Stuart, then in charge of Home, asked the Salvation Army to set up small colonies for these tribes, to "reform" them, and make them engage in other activities.The Salvation Army had something called "criminocurology" a highly dubious method, by which it claimed to reform criminals. And so settlements were set up for these "criminal tribes" which in reality were mostly ghettos.
The influential zamindars, most of whom were stooges of the British Raj, saw these Yerukulas as a source of cheap farm labor. And so in 1911, the British passed the Criminal Tribes Act, which allowed the Govt to set up reformatory colonies for these tribes. The Criminal Tribes Act, if any, was one of the most discriminatory pieces of legislation, that declared entire communities as criminal, primarily in the South. Pasumpon Thevar was one of the freedom fighters who gained fame fighting agaisnt this Act.
Stuartpuram was set up in 1913 , the Salvation Army was given 2000 acres of land for their reformatory project. Around 6000 Yerukulas were resettled here, most were employed at ITLD, in effect these were like the Aboriginal colonies in Australia.Basically what the British did with the "criminal tribes" in India, was the same as what the Australian Govt did with the Aborigines, resettling them in colonies, away from their native lands, ostensibly to reform them.
The fact there was very little to show that the Yerukulas indulged in any criminal activity. What resettlement colonies like Stuartpuram did were to disrupt their independent life, turn them into no better than bonded life, destroy their culture.It was not just that, the Yerukulas, who had their own culture, were forcibly converted into Christianity, their history totally erased, and they were forced to learn the history taught by the Salvation Army.
In the name of "reformation" the Yerukulas were completely stripped of their identity, their culture, their traditions, their history, brainwashed into believing they were being civilized by the Salvation Army.The "reformation" was a farce by itself, because the Yerukulas were not the ones to indulge in any criminal activity. Basically it was an excuse by the British and their missionary stooges like Salvation Army to conver them, brainwash them, make them forget their roots.
And for all the "reformation" by Salvation Army, the Yerukulas were not given any rights over their own land. In effect they were totally made into slaves by the civilized British. One of the examples of how they devastated native cultures.Most Yerukulas have no knowledge of their past, as grain traders, no idea of their own history, they have been very succesfully brainwashed into believing they were no good savages, who were civilized by the benevolent British and the Padres.
Sadly with not much income opportunities available, most of the Yerukulas again took to crime particularly in the 70s, and Stuartpuram acquired a notorious reputation. They were particularly adept at robberies.In 1976, AP Govt under Jalagam Vengal Rao, declared that Stuartpuram was no longer a reformatory center, but a free village like many. The inhabitants got land ownership rights, and the Govt took special interest in developing the place.The Govt intervention worked, from a time, when every inhabitant of Stuartpuram was listed in police records, it is now very much minimal. Most of the men and women here, have had higher education, compared to their fathers.
Rahul and his brother Varun, both from Stuartpuram, had already won gold earlier at Australian Weightlifting Championship.
This is the family of Rahul, his brother Varun, sister Madhu Priya and father Madhu, a former Kabbadi player himself. His father sold their home, so that his sons could attend the best sporting schools in Hyderabad.
"Though I am a sportsman myself, I never got any encouragement, and that made me determined to train my sons”- Madhu, Rahul’s father.
And this is what Rahul himself has to say
"We grew up hearing stories about dacoits from our village. From now one I hope people remember Stuartpuram for gold medallists, instead of being called a land of criminals. My village is facing a huge perception problem. They are fighting to regain their dignity. I hope this medal is helpful in achieving that."
Rahul now works as a ticket collector with Indian Railways, and wishing that he attains more laurels in the future. When you consider the rather painful history of his home town, his achievement against all odds is even more inspiring. We have had sports champions, who battled poverty, to attain glory. Ragala Venkat Rahul had to battle not just poverty, but even social stigma to attain glory.
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