“My last wish is to be born again in this country to fight against the British and drive them away from the sacred soil.”
– Sangolli Rayanna
(before his execution)
Sangolli Rayanna (15 August, 1798 – 26 January, 1831) was a revolutionary and guerrilla commander of a peasant uprising against the British, whose struggle was not merely against British rule, but also against the feudal order that crushed the peasantry. Rayanna fought against colonial plunder to defend peasants, herders, and artisans from exploitation.
Colonial Shock and Peasant Ruin in Karnataka
After the death of Tipu Sultan in 1799, Karnataka was subjected to British colonial restructuring through subsidiary treaties, indirect rule, and revenue extraction. The British did not abolish feudalism, rather, strengthened it using landlords and elite castes as intermediaries. All the progress under Tipu was overturned. Land was taxed regardless of yield, irrigation systems declined, village commons and rural markets were eroded, and peasants were subjected to coercive tax-collection. Peasant-soldiers were disbanded, customary rights were ignored, and moneylenders flourished. This transformation created a semi-feudal, colonial rural order, which destroyed Karnataka’s agrarian economy. Resistance was inevitable, and in the first half of the nineteenth century, a string of armed uprisings against the British occurred, in which the peasantry took the initiative. Their anti-colonial and anti-feudal struggle charted the course of guerrilla warfare based on the peasantry as a way out for liberation. Rayanna’s struggle was not an isolated revolt, but part of a broader wave of peasant insurgencies in Karnataka.
Kittur Uprising (1824-25)
Sangolli Rayanna was born in Sangolli village, in the Belagavi district of the Kittur principality, to a shepherd community (Kuruba Gowda). His family had a fighting tradition and was loyal to the Desais of Kittur. Rayanna rose to the rank of Shetsanadie (Commander-in-Chief) of the Kittur armed forces during Rani Chennamma’s rebellion against British Colonialism (1824). After her defeat and imprisonment (1825), most feudal leaders surrendered, but Rayanna did not. Rayanna was imprisoned, half of his land was confiscated, and heavy taxes were imposed on the other half. After his release in 1826, he returned to his village, where he witnessed the suffering of peasants. This experience increased his anger against the feudal-colonial masters and shaped his later strategy of warfare.
Sangolli Rayanna’s Guerrilla Warfare (1829-31): A Peasant Military Innovation
Rayanna organised small guerrilla formations and started guerrilla warfare in 1829. This allowed flexibility, secrecy, and survival against a better-equipped colonial force. Forests, hills, ravines, and rural paths of Nandgad (Malnad Terrain) and the surrounding regions were used as natural fortresses. Guerrillas disappeared into familiar terrain after striking the targets. They did stealth attacks on British outposts, government offices, revenue officials, usurers, landlords, enemy supply lines, and informers. Rayanna’s army lived among the people, villagers provided them with food, shelter, and intelligence. This social base, not weapons, sustained the struggle. He started with 100 men, and in a few months, his army had ~5000 members. His army had a broad caste composition (Bedas, Lingayats, Kurubas, Muslims, Siddis, Bovis, etc.) and none of them were landlords.
He ensured the practice of inter-dining and non-seclusion among his army. Betrayed by a spy, Rayanna was captured by the British army and later hanged from a banyan tree outside Nandgad village on January 26, 1831. But Rayanna’s execution did not end the resistance, instead, it ignited a wider peasant revolt. Sangolli Rayanna became a martyr championing the people’s cause.
Sangolli Rayanna: A Symbol of the Struggle of the Oppressed
The history of India’s struggle for freedom from British imperialism has long been dominated by revolts of Kings and Queens, as well as elite leaders of the Congress. Colonial and post-colonial historiography has systematically erased the movements of peasants and workers, and mass leaders who emerged directly from the oppressed and waged armed struggle. British imperialism and its feudal collaborators killed Rayanna. But he lives on among the people. He lives in the collective memory and resistance of the oppressed peasant communities. Rayanna’s glory and bravery are reflected in the ‘gee gee padas’ (native folk songs) and dramas. These songs were orally transmitted, sung during jatras, village gatherings, agricultural work, and martyr commemorations at Nandgad. Sangolli Rayanna was not only a freedom fighter– he was a pioneer of peasant guerrilla warfare, a leader forged by class struggle. At a time when peasants fight to survive under neoliberalism, state support to agriculture is withdrawn, increasing debts are leading to farmer suicides, and corporate control over agriculture is increasing, Sangolli Rayanna’s struggle inspires. He stands as a reminder that true democracy and freedom cannot exist without agrarian justice, and that the oppressed have always found ways to fight back.
