Noted atheist and activist Lavanam died of a cardiac arrest here on Friday. He breathed his last at a private hospital where he was shifted three weeks ago after he complained of uneasiness. His body was brought to the Atheist Centre near Benz Circle where people from various walks of life gathered in large numbers to pay their last respects.
Born on October 10 in 1930, Mr. Lavanam was the third child of freedom fighters and social reformers Gora (Goparaju Ramachandra Rao) and Saraswati Gora. He married Hemalata, daughter of the renowned poet Gurram Joshua. At the young age of 12, he discontinued school to participate in the freedom struggle and join the positive atheism movement initiated by his father. Mr. Lavanam’s radical thoughts on social change owed much to the exposure he had at a young age to leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Vinobha Bhave, Jayaprakash Narayan, Martin Luther King (Jr.), George Willoughby, Paul Kurtz, Sir Herman Bondi. But the defining influence on his mind was his father Gora.
His very name came from India’s freedom movement. He was born during Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha and was thus named Lavanam (meaning salt) by his father, a staunch Gandhian but also an independent thinker.
Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu conveyed his profound grief at the demise of Mr. Lavanam.
