Sacrifice of Gond martyr noticed by Centre

Kumram Bheem had fought against the Nizam of Hyderabad to get rights on lands tilled by his aboriginal compatriots

Honouring the brave:The bust of Kumram Bheem that was made in 1984 has been removed to make way for a new statue of the Gond hero at Jodeghat in Adilabad district.— File photo

The legendary Gond martyr from Adilabad district, Kumram Bheem, will finally get the recognition that was due to him when Union Minister Prakash Javadekar visits Jodeghat village in Kerameri mandal on Saturday as part of the Centre’s endeavour to make the 70th Independence Day a special event.

The Adivasi leader, whose actual name was Kumra Bheemu, had fought against the Nizam of Hyderabad to get rights on lands tilled by his aboriginal compatriots, until he was gunned down by the police on September 1, 1940, at Jodeghat. It was in 1983 that the then Project Officer of Utnoor Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) M.V.P.C. Shastry came up with the idea of bringing into light the sacrifice made by the Adivasi leader. He ordered erecting statues of the martyr at Jodeghat and Utnoor.

Sculptor B. Ramakrishna Das was given the task of making the busts of Kumram Bheem, for which he camped in Adilabad’s Kala Ashram and took its founder Guruji Ravinder Sharma, himself a sculptor, on board. “We had nothing to start with except the memories of Bheem’s colleagues,” Mr. Sharma said, recalling the initial days when the duo struggled to get an idea on what the martyr looked like.

“As many of the Adivasis, who belonged to the Bheem period, said he resembled one Sone Rao, we decided to base the sculpture on him. We also spent considerable time with Kumra Suru and Maru master, Bheem’s lieutenants, in trying to understand the personality of the Gond leader,” the Kala Ashram founder added.

The bust was installed in 1985, giving the Adivasis an icon to look up to. The ITDA also observed the martyrdom anniversary of Bheem at Jodeghat, which saw many aboriginals turn up for the event. The turn out has been growing steadily since that year.

The Gonds come to Jodeghat to pay their respect to the martyr, who had succeeded in highlighting the issues faced by the Adivasis of Adilabad. The Nizam had taken cognisance of the fact after the death of the leader, and appointed famous anthropologist Christopher von Furer-Haimendorf to study the problems faced by the aboriginal tribes in 1941.