MANYAM REBELLION 51 the vocabulary of the hillmen. He seems to adopt it from the report of the British officials who were not sympathetic, if not hostile, to the rebels. Let us first examine the meaning of the word fituri. In Telugu-EngIish dictionary, compiled by Charles Philip Brown (New Delhi, reprint 1982), the meanings given for the word fituri are : an intrigue, plot, treason and conspiracy. In Telugu language all these words bear a negative meaning and in fact, are used nostly in a derogatory sense. By using this term the British Officials actually aimed to characterise the rebellion as mere baditry and the rebels as criminals. However, the term fituri was popular only with colonial bureaucracy and some milt-, tadars^, especially those who opposed the'rebellion, for they endorsed the British view that the rebellion was an intrigue or conspiracy masterminded by Raju to capture power in the hills Therefore, if one goes by the official records filuri appears to be the term used in general. But that is not the real truth. Then what was the term used by the people, both in the hills and plains, to describe this rebellion ? To answer this question one has to go back to the folk version of the rebellion. For it is in the folk-tradition that one could discern the reflection of the popular perception of these events. In the folk-tradition, Raju's uprising is called Manyamlo Tirugu—batu" or "Manyamlo Viplavam", which literally means "rebellion in Manyam".1 I still vividly remember how my grandfather and othet elders in the village used to narrate to us many stories about the exploits of Raju and his followers. They never used the terra fituri for "tirugu-batu", and it appears that thevwere not even aware of it. Right from my childhood davs I have also seen manv village plays and heard many ballads, especially "burrakatha^", but the term fituri was never used in their narrative of the two-year rebellion in the hills. So fascinating were those ballads on Raju and his national liberation war that he remained as a great patriot and a revered hero in our memory. Moreover, in all the folk-versions, Raju was shown as a patriot, who fought great battles with the mightv British to liberate the whole country from their misrule. So when we reconstruct historical events, a careful analysis of the meaning of the words is very essential. In our rase the acceptance of the terra fituri would mean the acceptance, consc'iouslv or unconsciously, of the colonial rulers' interpretation of the rebellion and also the denigration of that historical event. Fituri does not reflect the popular perception of the rebellion both in the hills and plains, but reflects onlv the colonial administrators' attitude towards Raju and his rebellion. The term fituridar, therefore, might invoke hostile feeling among the colonial bureaucracy, for he was a bandit and n criminal for them. But the same term, even if it was used by some of the local elite unconsciously, might invoke feelings of reverence and love in the hearts of the common people, because t\\e fituridar-was a hero and a noble s^ul who sacrificed his life to liberate them from the clutches of the 'illegitimate' British rule. Therefore, 1 used the term rebellion {"tin/gu-bafu"} but not fituri, so that we can precisely bring out, as Arnold himself puts it, the "unique historical experience of the tribals" and the real "subaltern" character of the rebellion. People would invent 01 choose their own terminology to express their world-view, aspirations, perceptions, ,md grievances. Thev pass on their unique experiences to the next generation through their folk-tradition, using this terminology. It is through the terminology of the people. not of the colonial bureaucracy, that a social historian has to reconstruct the popular perception, character and ideology of the Rampa rebellion. It is perhaps not out of place here to emphasise that an understanding of people's language and culture is