Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Goparaju Ramachandra Rao

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was Keep Karma fist 06:30, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Goparaju_Ramachandra_Rao

Rao doesn't have any books listed on Amazon.com. The name brings only 218 hits on Google.com [1]. He simply isn't notable. --Jason Gastrich 04:15, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. Per nom. --Jason Gastrich 04:14, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep Nomination of an atheist not made in good faith, part of an ongoing series of retaliation AfD's. Ruby 04:18, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per Ruby. Crunch 04:24, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Speedy keep; nomination made in bad faith. --keepsleeping quit your job! slack off! 04:25, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Strong keep There are obvious WP:POINT issues here but let's try to deal with each article on its own merits. In this case, Ghits is not an appropriate criterion. Notable for lifetime's work in India. Dlyons493 Talk 04:48, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Strong keep - are books published in India in the 1970s generally listed on Amazon? As co-founder of the Atheist Centre (his wife, Saraswathi, received numerous awards for her work in social reform as well), prolific author and speaker, and an associate of Mahatma Gandhi, it seems obvious that a low number of Google hits for this patently notable person can be attributed to a combination of alternate/misspellings of his name and systemic bias. This man's work was done in a largely non-English-speaking environment, before the advent of the internet. - AdelaMae ^{(talk - contribs)} 05:02, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent point. Clearly, a bad faith nomination. Arbustoo 02:33, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - Yet another bad faith nomination/WP:POINT violation from Gastrich. Guettarda 06:12, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Speedy Keep bad faith nomination. Mark K. Bilbo 06:34, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Comment expanding a bit: it does strike me as rather ethno-centric to claim this person isn't "notable" based on the information generally available in the English Google, Amazon, and such. I, honestly, don't know how to proceed in gathering more info given it would likely be in Hindi or another of the many languages of India (18 official if I recall correctly). But I'll hazard that anybody who went against the majority culture in his time frame is notable. For example, going against the caste system early as he did was quite a stance. That system is still a major issue in India and it's interesting to note that there is a reactionary Hindu nationalist party that was only just recently voted out of power. I can't help but feeling that to ignore him is to say that prominence and/or significance in a non-Western country is inherently "not notable." Mark K. Bilbo 18:02, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Keep I'm switching to just keep. Google isn't a good judge on writers from the developping world and I didn't notice the year he died.--T. Anthony 07:18, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep This article has had many edits over more than 6 months. Why is it nominated now? We know it is just because he was an atheist. --Bduke 11:26, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - anyone reading my AfD votes knows I am a HUGE fan of google searches, but in this case this is the wrong way to go. This nomination is remarkably US-centric. Amazon.com is not big on books published by Indian presses decades ago. Nor is an English-google search going to tell you that much about Indian authors. WP:BIO says that for deceased people we must ask: Has the person made a widely recognized contribution that is part of the enduring historical record in the specific field? I note that atheists tend to cite this person as influential - see this history (where he goes by the name of Gora) which cites him as one of the most influential atheists in history or this one (in Russian) which labels him "India's most prominent atheist." In short, its clear that this person deserves a place in the history of atheism. --Pierremenard 12:51, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per Pierremenard, also WP:POINT and Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Jason Gastrich Just zis Guy, you know? ^[T]/_[C] AfD? 14:54, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Speedy keep Bad faith nomination. Article is pov and needs re-write, but no case for del. FloNight 15:51, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Speedy keep per the other speedy keeps. Durova 16:28, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per Pierremenard. -- Dragonfiend 17:51, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep In particular I agree with Pierremenard's excellent argument. Avoid systemic bias. --kingboyk 18:05, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per Ruby and JzG -- Jim62sch 18:27, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep per above. Latinus 18:34, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep --NaconKantari (話)|(郵便) 18:38, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep, bad faith nom, WP:POINT. MCB 22:51, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep vindictive nom by Gastrich of a notable person.Blnguyen 23:39, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Strong keep as blatant violation of WP:POINT. Also, the nominator of this article has a currently ongoing RFC and his motives are clearly suspect. Cyde Weys 23:50, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. Jason decided to make this us vs. them, and I choose them. --StuffOfInterest 01:45, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Speedy keep. From article: Atheism Questions and Answers, An Atheist Around the World, An Atheist with Gandhi, The Need of Atheism, and Positive Atheism. From 1949 on, he wrote a column on atheism, and began publishing The Atheist, a monthly, in 1969. Gora's atheism dictated his campaign to abolish the caste system with its "untouchables," and the idea of "karma" or divine fate. Gora died in 1975. VERY IMPORTANT FIGURE in India Independence and important figure in Indian skeptic movement.[2] Bad faith nomination. Arbustoo 02:03, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keep - Americans (which includes me) often fail to notice what goes on beyond our border. This guy is quite notable there. Harvestdancer 02:29, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.