Gora (Goparaju Ramachandra Rao)

Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, known as Gora, was a teacher and social reformer who lived at Patamata in Vijayawada.¹ He was jailed during the Second World War for his part in the national movement.² He was also an atheist who campaigned against caste and untouchability.² The source for this page is a short entry in the Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, published by the state government in 1980.¹

Teacher, to 1940

According to the Who’s Who, he was born on 15 November 1902 at Chatrapur, which is now in Odisha.¹ He was the son of Venkata Subba Rao.¹ He took the M.Sc. degree.¹ For fifteen years, until 1940, he taught as a lecturer in colleges in South India and Sri Lanka.¹

Jail during the war, 1943

On 30 April 1943 the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Machilipatnam sentenced him to three months’ simple imprisonment.² The charge was under the Defence of India Rules, for celebrating Independence Day.² He served the sentence in the Alipuram camp jail.² During the Quit India movement he was also detained twice, for a week each time.²

Reformer and atheist

The Who’s Who says he worked for the removal of untouchability and for social equality.² It says he encouraged his children to marry across caste lines.² It describes him as an atheist who argued for a democracy without political parties.²

He edited a Telugu weekly, Sangham, for five years.² He also edited an English monthly, The Atheist, and wrote a book called Positive Atheism.² He attended international humanist conferences at Boston in 1970 and at Amsterdam in 1974.²

The Who’s Who calls him an associate of Gandhi, and says he was closely linked with the Sarvodaya movement.² He died on 26 July 1975.²

Footnotes

1. Sarojini Regani (ed.), Who’s Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh, Vol. II (1980), p. 236 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Regani (ed.), Who’s Who, Vol. II (1980), p. 237 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴