India - Women Martyrs of The Indian Revolution-Comrade Chinnakka

Martyrdom : 04-03-1989
Born in a poor peasant family in village Dulapuram of Venkatapuram Tehsil in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, Chinnakka was the first woman from the tribal community Koya (Dorla tribe) to join the guerrilla squad. In spite of labouring day and night in the fields, there was not enough to eat. So she worked along with her husband as a daily wage labourer. The non-tribal King residing in Wajed ruined the farmers of that region.
He took possession of all the land of the tribals in the name of repayment of debt illegally and the helpless farmers had to become labourers under the same exploiter to satiate their hunger. Seeing all this, the patience of Chinnakka reached its limit. Influenced with the struggles waged by the squad of People’s War Party in that area, Chinnakka became a member of the women’s organization in the village.
With the demand to raise the wages for the work of sowing, she mobilized all the women and led the struggle against the landlords of Wajed. She secretly provided food and water to the squads so that the landlords would not get any clue about the whereabouts of the squad. Influenced by revolutionary politics of the guerrillas, she joined the squad and chose to join her husband who had already devoted himself to the revolution.
According to the needs of the party, she was transferred to the Madded squad and left a deep impression in the hearts of the people of Bastar. Chinnakka contributed in mobilizing women in the struggles to put a stop to the plunder by the foresters and moneylenders and also to raise the wages for plucking tendu leaves. Chinnakka was expert in imbuing the women with revolutionary politics in their mother tongue through songs and dances. Due to illness, she went back home and began looking after her children. The police arrested and sent her to jail. After getting released on conditional bail from Venkatapuram sub-jail, she joined the squad and took oath not to leave the party till her last breath.
She once again became the member of Madded squad. The sarpanch of Sankanpalli village Dubba Kannayya was a leader of the Congress Party and he used to exploit the farmers with feudal traditions. The people of this area and the guerrilla squad gave warning to this enemy of the people. Then he started taking shelter in the police camp. Chinnakka participated in the annihilation of this class enemy and personally chopped off his head. People addressed Chinnakka as Rajakka. She used to compete with the male comrades to gain efficiency in military matters. At the age of 28, she trained hard with the aim of becoming a sniper.
When all the comrades in the squad got completely tired while walking continuously in the forests and climbing the mountains, she used to sacrifice her rest and prepared tea for all of them within minutes. She was always ahead in the routine works in the squad. Rajakka contributed in mobilizing the farmers in the struggle for raising the wages of labourers (for sowing) in the neighbouring villages of Madded. Along with the people she participated in seizing the grain from the godowns of landlords who had unleashed terror with the help of police. The land lords tried to sow a seed of discord in the struggle of people.
But, the conspiracies of the landlords were rendered useless. According to the needs of the Party, she went to work in the National Park squad and very soon developed close relations with the people. Rajakka went propagating from village to village mobilizing people on the demand of closure of the Indravathi Abhayaranya, which was set up for creating a sanctuary for bisons and lions by chasing away the people of Madiya Community who would be deprived of even the basic means of sustenance and would be rendered homeless. Rajakka was always ahead in taking up responsibilities. She became the rear guard of the squad.
On March 4th, 1989, the squad was in the jungle nearby Mukavelli and Rajakka was on sentry duty. Then the SAF soldiers attacked them from both the sides. Without showing any hesitation in defending the squad, Rajakka opened fire at the policemen attacking from the flank and foiled their attempts to attack the squad. But she got injured in the attack made from the flank and the policemen killed her by stabbing with bayonet. A Hawaldar was also injured in this attack. The news of martyrdom of Rajakka spread immense grief in the whole of Bastar. At many places people vented their fury by destroying government property. Rajakka left home and children, joined the revolution and proved that woman were not weak or inferior to males in fighting. The great martyr will always live in the hearts of the people.