A Movie About a Bad Time in History
People are interested in the upcoming historical drama Ranabaali, which stars Rashmika Mandanna and Vijay Deverakonda, for more than just its size. Southern India, especially Rayalaseema, was hit hard by the Great Famine of 1876–1878. The strong story and beautiful pictures make this little-known part of Indian history come to life.
View this post on Instagram
The movie is set in a time when people were starving because of bad laws, bad monsoons, and bad behaviour. What looks like a dramatic scene on screen is what people in British colonies really went through in the 1800s.
Rayalaseema changed because of the Great Famine.
By the middle of the 1870s, Rayalaseema was already weak because it had been through so many dry spells. Because there was no monsoon, the crops failed and food ran out quickly in 1876. Farmers lost their jobs and crops almost overnight, leaving whole villages hungry.
View this post on Instagram
Historians, on the other hand, say that other things were also to blame for the disaster. Colonial economic policies made the situation worse. India kept sending grain to other countries even though people in famine-stricken areas were hungry. They cared more about trading with other countries than their own safety. There were also rules about how much food could be given out in famine camps, which made it harder for people to get help.
The results were awful. People say that about seven lakh people died in Rayalaseema alone. In all of India, the famine killed more than 10 million people.
Folklore tells stories of people who fought back.
Official colonial records often call such desperate actions crimes, but local stories don’t match up with them. As the famine got worse and taxes kept coming in, some towns and communities started to fight back against the government in any way they could. To stay alive, the villagers staged small uprisings, refused to pay unfair taxes, and stole grain that had been stored.
These acts of defiance don’t show up in official records very often. But Rayalaseema’s oral history still calls them brave people who lived through one of the worst times of colonial rule.
Ranabaali wants to use these lost stories to show how strong normal people are, even though most people don’t know what they’re going through.
