AGK: A Pioneering Radical Humanist

AGK! That’s how people of Tenali fondly addressed Avula Gopala Krishnamurthy. He was born on April 29, 1917 into a middle class agricultural family at a village called Mulpur, near Tenali, Guntur Dt., Andhra Pradesh. His parents were: Smt. Ramaseshamma and  Shri Avula Ramswamy.  He graduated in Law and Literature from Andhra and Lucknow Universities. He settled down for law practice at Tenali. People still recall the delight of watching him articulating his client’s case in the court hall. Such was the grace with which he used to conduct himself while making his presentation.  

Later, under the influence of M N Roy, he turned into a radical Humanist.  He was one of the founder members of Radical Democratic Party. As an active member of Radical Humanist movement, he made Tenali a center for many such activities. He was also elected as the Chairman of Tenali Municipal Corporation in the year 1955. In the course of widening Bose Road and carpeting it with cement, when municipal office workers attempted to remove the statue of a God from the middle of the road, public gathered in huge numbers to protest against the move. Hearing it, AGK himself came there and standing by his values, got the idol removed. He was known to have encouraged and indeed performed many inter-caste marriages all over Andhra Pradesh. In the year 1963, at the invitation of the US government, AGK visited USA.  He died at a young age of 49 on 6^th September, 1966.