# Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

Goparaju Ramachandra Rao (aka Gora) (15 November 1902 - 1975) was an Indian social reformer and atheist activist who advocated the abolition of the caste system.

## Sourced

* Further, economic systems … have never arranged themselves by themselves. It is men who do the ordering according to their attitudes, desires and understanding of things. Changes take place, not independent of man's will, but on account of man's wills. Civilization has progressed by man's interference with material conditions.
** Atheism Questions and Answers
* Human problems are more psychological than materialistic. This is not only true of individual behaviour, but in mass action also. A suggestion from a leader sparks off a revolution. Material circumstances help mass action, but in themselves do not raise action. The conditions of untouchability and of poverty in India, especially at the time of famine in Bengal in 1945-46, when thousands of destitute died of sheer hunger in the streets of Calcutta City, are such as would provoke an immediate revolution. But the revolution does not come off in the Indian masses. The reason is clear. In India there are revolutionary circumstances, but there is no revolutionary consciousness among the people. If the revolutionary consciousness is present, people would revolt against any injustice on the slightest pretext. And consciousness is essentially psychological.
** "Switzerland" in An Atheist Around The World
* Because morality is a social necessity, the moment faith in god is banished, man's gaze turns from god to man and he becomes socially conscious. Religious belief prevented the growth of a sense of realism. But atheism at once makes man realistic and alive to the needs of morality. Atheism alone is the surest way to morality. Those who oppose atheism in any form betray their vested interests in inequality of some kind of other.
** The Need of Atheism
* Positive secularism is not tolerance of all religions, but it is the total denial of religious beliefs: it is the emergence of homogeneous human outlook which is based upon verifiable facts of life.
** Rao (1996) "Significance of Secularism: Atheism is a Way of Live." The Atheist, Vol 28-29 p. 43
* Religious belief prevented the growth of a sense of realism. But atheism at once makes man realistic and alive to the needs of morality.
** Atheism: Questions and Answers
* Soul is as much a falsehood as god is. The stories connected with ghosts, spirit communication, salvation and life after death are fancies of the primitive mind which answered the question of death in a primitive way. Now we understand death as the failure of the mechanism of the body either due to wear and tear or to an accidental obstruction. Advances in medical science can repair the body and can, likely, protect it from death altogether.
** Atheism: Questions and Answers
* Real morality is possible when the sanctions for morality are also tangible and real. Therefore, atheism shifts the basis of morality from faith in god to obligations of social living. Moral conduct is not a passport to heaven; it is social necessity.
** Atheism: Questions and Answers
* Atheism ensures morality. Morality is a social necessity. The immorality of one disturbs the happiness of another in social relations. So checks and counter-checks maintain morality.
** The Need of Atheism
* We respect law, when the law respects our needs. Whenever legality clashes with morality, legality should be opposed and morality should be upheld.
** I Learn
* Right wins only when we dare and act.
** I Learn
* Who takes the blame: the leader who talks of poverty but lives in luxury, or the poor who choose a leader of that type?
** I Learn

## External links

* Writings of Gora
* Atheism in India