Saraswathi Gora was an Indian social activist. Notable as the leader of the Atheist Centre for many years, she campaigned against untouchability

Untouchability

Untouchability is the social practice of ostracizing a minority group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate. The excluded group could be one that did not accept the norms of the excluding group and historically included foreigners, nomadic tribes, law-breakers...

 and the caste

Caste

Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...

 system.

Born on September 28, 1912 at Vizianagaram

Vizianagaram

Vizianagaram is the main city of the Vizianagaram District of north-eastern Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Vizianagaram district was formed on 1 June 1979, with some parts carved from the neighbouring districts of Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam. It is, at present, the largest municipality of...

 in Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

, she got married at the age of ten to Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

Goparaju Ramachandra Rao was an Indian atheist leader.-Early days:Gora was born into a Telugu Brahmin family in India. He wrote in his autobiography, We Become Atheists, that he grew up "conventionally orthodox and superstitious." He pursued a botany degree, eventually earning his Master's in...

. Along with her husband, Saraswathi Gora established Atheist Center

Atheist Center

Atheist Centre is an institution founded by Goparaju Ramachandra Rao and Saraswathi Gora to initiate social change in rural Andhra Pradesh based on the ideology of Gandhism and Atheism...

 with the intention of promoting human values based on atheism

Atheism

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, rationalism

Rationalism

In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...

 and Gandhism

Gandhism

Gandhism is the collection of inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , who was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement....

.

A political activist of India's freedom movement, she was imprisoned during the Quit India movement

Quit India Movement

The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...

. She went to jail carrying her two-and-half-year old son, Niyanta.

The wedding of her eldest daughter Manorama with Arjun Rao was performed in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...

 in 1960.

Awards and recognition

In 2001, she was selected for the Basava Puraskar, conferred by the Karnataka

Karnataka

Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

 Government. She is also the recipient of the G.D.Birla International Award for Humanism ; the Jamnalal Bajaj Award; the Janaki Devi Bajaj Award; and the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University Award.

She is the mother of Dr. Samaram.

Saraswathi Gora died of lung infection on August 19, 2006 at Vijayawada

Vijayawada

Vijayawada is the third largest city in Andhra Pradesh, India, located on the banks of the Krishna River and bounded by the Indrakiladri Hills on the West and the Budameru River on the North. The city is located in the Krishna District, about from the state capital Hyderabad.Vijayawada literally...

.

External links

• A short biography of Saraswathi Gora in Indian Skeptic by Sunanda Shet
• Obituary in The Hindu
  The Hindu
  The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
  
  
• Obituary in Deccan Herald
  Deccan Herald
  The Deccan Herald is a leading English-language daily newspaper distributed in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is published by the Printers Private Limited and has a number of editions in Bangalore, Hubli, Mysore, Mangalore and Gulbarga....
  
  
• Obituary at www.newsfix.de