Venkat Rao was a resident of Raipur of Madhya Pradesh. He was the Landlord of Arpally. Subjected to harsh over-assessment and consequently to economic distress, the peasants were intensely aggrieved with the Government and poised for standing up against it. The time of their unrest reached a flash-point in 1857, an ignition provided by the British-Indian army’s mutinous sepoys – many of whom came from among them. The great revolt of 1857-58 proved to be the turning point in the history of the landlords and feudal elements in India, both for their stakes in the current situation as well as for their progress in the future. The existing situation offered the opportunity to take on their tormentor – the Company raj – frontally in conjunction with an aroused rural society. Venkat Rao took an active part in the First War of Independence in 1857 against the British. He organized armed forces involving Gonds, Marias, and Rohillas and joined his forces with the Rajput rebels under Hanuman Singh. They jointly carried out attacks against the British positions. Hanuman Singh was a Magazine Lashkar in the British Army. He assassinated Major Cidwel at his residence on 18 January 1858. Subsequently, Hanuman Singh was arrested by the British and tried. He was convicted and sentenced to death; hanged in Raipur on 22 January 1858. Venkat Rao after the capture of one of his associates Babu Rao escaped to Bastar. As a result of the betrayal by the Raja of Bastar leaking information about his hideout, he was captured by the British in 1860. He was trialed and awarded life imprisonment and transported for life to the Andaman Islands. He died in Andaman.