Rao's involvement in the nationalist movement is reflected in his first two books. The novel "Kanthapura" (1938) was an account of the impact of Gandhi's teaching on nonviolent resistance against the British. Rao borrows the style and structure from Indian vernacular tales and folk-epics. He returned to the theme of Gandhism in the short story collection "The Cow of the Barricades" (1947). "The Serpent and the Rope" (1960) was written after a long silence, and dramatised the relationships between Indian and Western culture. The serpent in the title refers to illusion and the rope to reality. "Cat and Shakespeare" (1965) was a metaphysical comedy that answered philosophical questions posed in the earlier novels.