his ashram, but he rejected it and stood by the people. Rampa Freedom struggle (1922–1924) Origins After the passing of the 1882 Madras Forest Act, in an attempt to exploit the economic value of wooded areas, its restrictions on the free movement of tribal people in the forests prevented them from engaging in their traditional podu agricultural system, a form of subsistence economy which involved the system of shifting cultivation. The changes meant that they will face starvation, and their main means of avoiding it was to engage in the demeaning, arduous, foreign and exploitative coolie system being used by the government and its contractors for such things as road construction. Around the same time of the Act, the Raj authorities had also emasculated the traditional hereditary role of the muttadars, who had until then been the de facto rulers in the hills as tax collectors for the plains-living rajas. Those people were now reduced to the role of mere civil servants, with no overarching powers, no ability to levy taxes at will, and no right to inherit their position. Thus, the cultivators and the tax collectors, who once would have been in opposition to each other, were instead now broadly aligned in their disaffection with colonial power. Rama Raju harnessed this discontent of the tribal people to support his anti-colonial zeal, whilst accommodating the grievances of those muttadars sympathetic to his cause, rather than those who were selfish in their pursuit of a revived status for themselves. This meant that most of his followers were from the tribal communities, but also included some significant people from the muttadar class, who at one time had exploited them, although many muttadars remained ambivalent about fighting for what he perceived to be the greater good. To attract people's support, Alluri adopted aspects from the Non-cooperation movement such as promoting temperance, and the boycott of colonial courts in favour of local justice administered by panchayat courts. Although the movement died out in early 1922, it had by then reached the plains area as he was involved in propagation of some of its methods among the hill people so as to raise their political consciousness and desire for change. These actions caused him to be put under the surveillance of police from around February of that year; despite this move, the fact that Alluri was using his propaganda as a camouflage to foment armed