Goparaju Ramachandra Rao (15 November 1902 – 26 July 1975), popularly known as Gora, was an Indian social reformer, atheist activist and a participant in the Indian independence movement. He authored many books on atheism and proposed atheism as self-confidence. He propagated positive atheism by his articles, speeches, books and his social work. He is the founder of Atheist Centre along with his wife Saraswathi Gora and a few volunteers. Social reformer G. Lavanam, politician Chennupati Vidya, and physician G. Samaram are his children.
Early days
Gora was born on 15 November 1902, into an orthodox Telugu Brahmin family in Chhatrapur, Odisha, India. He pursued a botany degree, eventually earning his Master's in botany at Presidency College in Madras. He married Saraswathi Gora in 1922, when she was only 10. He taught botany for fifteen years at various institutes at Madurai, Coimbatore, Colombo and Kakinada.
Life and work
Gora started his activism against superstition in the 1920s. He and his wife publicly viewed solar eclipses, as there was a superstitious belief that pregnant women should not do so. They stayed in haunted houses to dispel the myths about such places.
Gora used to run a monthly programme called "cosmopolitan dinners" every full moon night, where people of all castes and religions gathered together. Gora insisted on staying in a Harijan locality whenever he was invited to address a village. He also conducted several inter-caste and inter-religious marriages. A son and a daughter of his married spouses from untouchable castes.
In 1933, he was dismissed from the PR College in Kakinada for his atheist views. In 1939, he was dismissed from the Hindu College in Machilipatnam for the same reason.
Atheist Centre
After his dismissal in 1940 he and his wife founded the Atheist Centre in a small village called Mudunur in the Krishna district. The Atheist Centre was (and is) heavily involved in social reforms. On the eve of Independence in 1947, they moved the Atheist centre to Vijayawada. In 1941, he published his first book on atheism in Telugu, Atheism: There is no god (Telugu: Nasthikatvamu: Devudu ledu).
Throughout the 1940s, he worked in the Indian independence movement. In 1942, Gora along with his wife and eldest son were arrested during the Quit India Movement. Their 18-month son had to accompany his mother to the Royavellor jail.
Gora and Gandhi had several discussions, some of which have been recorded in the book An Atheist With Gandhi. When Gandhi asked him to differentiate between atheism and godlessness Gora replied, Gandhi supported Gora's anti-untouchability reform movement, and remarked that he wished Gora would succeed in producing a Tuskegee in India. Tuskegee in Alabama, United States, is an important site in Africa American history where Booker T. Washington established the Tuskegee University.
In 1952, he contested in the parliamentary elections to propagate his idea of party-less democracy. In 1967, he also contested in the assembly polls.
World Atheist Conference
Gora visited several nations in 1970 and 1974. He was in touch with the American atheist, Madalyn Murray O'Hair. On 5 October 1970, O'Hair mentioned Gora and his Atheist Center on her radio show. In 1970, when Gora stopped in the United States during his tour, he met O'Hair. They decided that a World Atheist Conference should be held every three years. Gora offered to host the first one in 1972. O'Hair was not able to attend as her visa was not approved in time. The first World Atheist Conference was held in 1972. After the event, Gora published a book in English called Positive Atheism.