1871 – 2022
History of Chirala
Chirala's history is anchored by one extraordinary event — the Chirala-Perala Sathyagraha of 1919–21 — but its story as a municipality and a weaving town runs longer. Dates below are drawn from public records; where sources disagreed, we've flagged it rather than guess.
1871
First granted municipal status
Under British colonial administration, Chirala was first constituted as a municipality.
1919
Chirala and Perala merged, taxes raised tenfold
The Madras Presidency government merged the neighbouring villages of Chirala and Perala into a single municipality and raised the annual tax levy from about ₹4,000 to ₹40,000 to fund municipal works — the spark for what followed.
1920–21
A no-tax movement, then a mass exodus
Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya organised a no-tax civil disobedience campaign. In 1921 Mahatma Gandhi visited and endorsed a bolder plan: instead of resisting in place, residents would leave the town entirely.
1921–22
Ramanagar: eleven months outside the municipality
Roughly 13,000 residents — men, women and children — voluntarily abandoned their homes for about eleven months, living in a purpose-built camp called Ramanagar on the town's outskirts, to force the abolition of the tax order.
1938–1940
Municipal status suspended
Public records note a suspension of Chirala's municipal status for roughly two years in this period.
1948
Municipality reconstituted
Chirala Municipality was formally reconstituted on 1 April 1948, in the early years of Indian independence.
2022
Moves from Prakasam to the new Bapatla district
Following the reorganisation of Andhra Pradesh's districts (Gazette dated 26 January 2022), Chirala mandal was transferred from Prakasam district into the newly created Bapatla district, formally constituted on 4 April 2022.
The Chirala-Perala Sathyagraha (1919–1921)
In 1919 the colonial government's decision to merge Chirala and Perala into one municipality — and multiply the annual tax roughly tenfold — provoked outrage among residents already strained by the aftermath of the First World War. What began as a local grievance grew, over the next two years, into one of the most striking demonstrations of Gandhian non-cooperation in the Andhra region.
The campaign was led by Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya, who had studied economics at the University of Edinburgh and returned to India to become a full-time nationalist organiser after the 1920 Calcutta Congress session embraced non-cooperation. In 1921 he met Gandhi in Vijayawada, who offered two paths forward: continue resisting under state pressure, or empty the town so the municipal order had nothing left to govern. Gandhi personally visited Chirala-Perala on 6 April 1921 to endorse the evacuation plan.
What followed was extraordinary: an estimated 13,000 residents — entire families — voluntarily left their homes and moved to Ramanagar, a camp built on the town's outskirts, living there for roughly eleven months. It was reported nationally as an unprecedented display of collective resolve.
The satyagraha did not achieve its immediate goal — it eventually collapsed as resources ran out, Gopalakrishnayya was imprisoned, and residents returned to the municipality — but it left a lasting mark on the freedom movement's organisational memory in Andhra. At the 1921 Bezwada (Vijayawada) Congress session, Gopalakrishnayya's saffron-clad volunteer corps, the Rama Dandu ("Rama's Army"), was reportedly described by Maulana Mohammad Ali as "the Red Army of India."
"Andhra Ratna" (Jewel of Andhra), 1889–1928
Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya
Born in Penuganchiprolu, Krishna district, and educated at Bapatla Municipal High School before earning a postgraduate degree in economics at the University of Edinburgh. He led the Chirala-Perala Sathyagraha, later served as the first Andhra leader to be Secretary of the All India Congress Committee, and co-translated the classical dance treatise Abhinayadarpana into English as The Mirror of Gesture. He died in Guntur in 1928, aged 39. A statue of him, unveiled by K. Kamaraj, stands in Chirala.
A note on titles: Gopalakrishnayya's honorific is "Andhra Ratna" — not "Andhra Kesari," a title that belongs to Tanguturi Prakasam, after whom the former Prakasam district was named. The two are easy to conflate and we've corrected that here after cross-checking multiple sources.