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Dr. Shri Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan born on Sept. 5, 1888, at Tiruttani, Tamil Nadu India and took late breath on April 16, 1975, at Chennai. He was a scholar and statesman. He served as the President of India from 1962 to 1967 for full term and he also served as the Vice President of India from May 13, 1952 to May 12, 1962 for ten years. Apart from that he served as a professor of philosophy at Mysore and Calcutta universities and as vice chancellor of Andhra University. He was professor of Eastern religions and ethics at the University of Oxford in England and vice chancellor of Benares Hindu University in India. From 1953 to 1962 he was chancellor of the University of Delhi. To read in details keep in touch with the blog.
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Dr. Shri Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan served as the second President of India from 1962 to 1967. He was an politician, philosopher and statesman. Previously Dr. Shri Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan also served as the first Vice President of India from 1952 to 1962.
Before he elected as the first Vice President of India following are his achievements –
– From 1921 to 1931 he held the Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta.
– From 1931 to 1936 he was the second vice-chancellor of Andhra University.
– From 1936 to 1939 he served as the Spalding Chair of Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford.
– From 1939 to 1948 He was the fourth vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University.
– From 1949 to 1952 He was the ambassador of India to the Soviet Union.
– He was awarded with Bharat Ratna in the year 1954.
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Early life Dr. Shri Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Dr. Shri Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born on 5th September 1888 in a Telugu speaking Niyogi Brahmin family in Tiruttani. This was a small town of Madras Presidency during the period of British India. Presently it is in Tamil Nadu state of India and is a historic temple town situated in the Tiruvallur district.
His childhood name was Sarvepalli Radhakrishnayya. He was the forth child of Sarvepalli Veeraswami and Sithamma. He had five brothers and one sister.
His family hails from Sarvepalli village in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. His father was a subordinate revenue official in the service of a local Zamindar.
Personal life of Dr, S Radhakrishnan
– Dr, S Radhakrishnan was married in May 1903 when he was only 14 years old with his distant cousin.
– The name of his wife is Sivakamu and she was only the age of 10 years at the time of marriage and she was died on 26 November 1956.
– The marriage of Dr. S Radhakrishnan was done as a tradition marriage and it was arranged by their family.
– Padmavati, Rukmini, Sushila, Sundari and Shakuntala are the five daughters and a son named Sarvepalli Gopal of the couple.
– His son went on to a notable career as a historian and other family members including his grandchildren and great-grandchildren have pursued a wide range of careers in academia, public policy, medicine, law, banking, business, publishing and other fields across the world.
– Former India cricketer & NCA director VVS Laxman is his great-grandnephew.
Education of Dr. Shri Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
– His had completed his primary education at K. V. High School at Thiruttani.
– In 1896 he moved to Tirupati and completed his studies from Hermansburg Evangelical Lutheran Mission School and Government High Secondary School, Walajapet.
– Dr. S Radhakrishnan was awarded scholarships throughout his academic life.
– He completed his high school education from Voorhees College in Vellore.
– In the year 1907 when he was at the age of 16 he joined the Madras Christian College affiliated with the Madras University and completed his graduation and master’s degree from the same college.
– Dr. S Radhakrishnan studied philosophy by chance rather than his choice.
– He wanted to study mathematics but being a financially constrained student he could not complete his dream.
– Once he read the textbooks of philosophy of his cousin he decided to change his academics course from Mathematics to Philosophy.
– Dr. S Radhakrishnan was only 20 years old when in the 1919 he submitted his thesis for his PhD degree on “The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions”. Through his thesis he was intended to be a reply to the charge that “The Vedanta system would have been no room for ethics” and during the citation two of his professors William Meston and Alfred George Hogg, commended on Radhakrishnan’s dissertation.
Academic career of Dr. Shri S. Radhakrishnan
– In the year 1909, he was appointed to the Department of Philosophy at the Madras Presidency College.
– In the year 1918 he was selected as Professor of Philosophy by the University of Mysore, where he taught at its Maharaja’s College, Mysore.
– He had written many articles for journals of repute like “The Quest” A Journal of Philosophy and “The International Journal of Ethics”.
– He wrote his first book “The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore” and His second book “The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy” was published in the year 1920.
– In the year 1921 he was appointed as a professor of philosophy at the King George V Collage of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta.
– He represented the University of Calcutta at the Congress of the Universities of the British Empire in June 1926 and he also represented the International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard University in September 1926.
– In the year 1929 Dr. S. Radhakrishnan was invited for the the post of Principal at Manchester College and took an opportunity to give lecture of the University of Oxford on Comparative Religion.
– In the year 1931 he was knighted by George V for his services to education. Which was formally invested in India with his honour by the Governor-General of India Sir Willingdon, in April 1932.
– He ceased to use the title of “Knight” after Indian’s independence and preferring instead his academic title of ‘Doctor’.
– In the year 1936 Radhakrishnan was named Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics at the University of Oxford, and also he was elected a Fellow of All Souls College.
– In the year 1937 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature but he never clinched the Nobel and further nominations for the awards continued steadily upto the year 1960.
– In the year 1939 he was invited by Pt Madan Mohan Malaviya for the post of the Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and he served as its Vice-Chancellor till 1948.
Political career of Dr. S Radhakrishnan
– Radhakrishnan started his political career in very late years of his life because first of all he had focused for his successful academic career.
– He was one of those stalwarts who attended Andhra Mahasabha in 1928 where he seconded the idea of renaming Ceded Districts division of Madras Presidency as Rayalaseema.
– In 1931 he was nominated to the League of Nations Committee for Intellectual Cooperation.
– Dr. S Radhakrishnan represented India at UNESCO from 1946 to 1952.
– He was nominated as the Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952.
– He was also elected as the member to the Constituent Assembly of India.
– Dr. S Radhakrishnan was elected as the first Vice President of India in the year 1952 and hold the office for 10 year upto 1962.
– He was elected as the second President of India from 1962 to 1967.
– Dr. S Radhakrishnan did not have any background in the Congress Party nor he was the active in the Indian independence movement but he was a politician in shadow.
The birthday of Dr. S Radhakrishnan is recognized as Teacher’s Day
In the year 1962 when Dr. S Radhakrishnan became the 2nd President of India than some of his friends and students requested him to allow them to celebrate his birthday. He refused a personal celebration but replied instead of celebrating my birthday, it would be my proud privilege if 5th September is observed as Teachers’ Day.
Thus began the tradition of celebrating Teachers’ Day on September 5 and continue till date..
Role Of Dr. S Radhakrishnan in Constituent Assembly
He was totally against for the denominational religious instruction for the state educational institutions and always struggle against this policy. He said was against the secular vision of the Indian State.
Initiative taken by Dr. S Radhakrishnan in Global Policy
The second president of India and the first vice president of India Dr. S Radhakrishnan was one of the sponsors of the Peoples’ World Convention (PWC) which is also known as Peoples’ World Constituent Assembly (PWCA) Along with Albert Einstein.
Dr. S Radhakrishnan’s role in Philosophy
Dr. S Radhakrishnan tried to make a bridge between eastern and western thoughts and always defending Hinduism against “uninformed Western criticism”. And also trying to incorporate the Western philosophical and religious thought.
Dr. S Radhakrishnan’s Charity work
In the pre era of Indian independence Dr. S Radhakrishnan formed the Krishnarpan Charity Trust along with G. D. Birla and some other social workers and in the year 2007 G. D. Birla set up B. K. Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology in Pilani.
When did Dr. S Radhakrishnan left the world?
Dr. S Radhakrishnan retired from public life in 1967. He left Delhi and procced to his hometown Madras (now known as Chennai). He spent the his last eight years of his life at the home he built in Mylapore, Madras.
Dr. S Radhakrishnan left the world on April 17, 1975 from the heart failure in a nursing home in their hometown.
Awards and Honours received by Dr. S Radhakrishnan
National Honours
01) Knight Bachelor in the year 1931 bt British India.
02) Bharat Ratna in the year 1954.
International Honours
01) In the year 1954 Mexico government honored with “Order of the Aztec Eagle” (Sash First Class)
02) In the year 1954 the government of West Germany honored with “Pour le Mérite” for Sciences and Arts.
03) In the year 1963 the United Kingdom honored with “The Order of Merit”, A Honorary Member
Other Awards
– On 5 September 1988 a portrait of Dr. S Radhakrishnan has been put on just above the central door of the Chamber of the Rajya Sabha. This portrait is painted by the renowned artist Shri K. S. Kulkarni.
– In the year 1938 he was elected as the Fellow of the British Academy.
– In the year 1947 he was election as Permanent Member of “The Institut International de Philosophie”. The International Institute of Philosophy the World Academy of Philosophers and is an international body of leading philosophers.
– In the year 1959 he was awarded with “Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt.” This is an award conferred by Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany and named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
– In the year 1961 he was awarded with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
– In the year 1962 Institution of 5th September as “The Teacher’s Day” in India.
– In the year 1968 he was awarded with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship. This award is the highest honour conferred by the Sahitya Akademi for writing and he was the first person to get this award.
– In the year 1975 he was awarded with the Templeton Prize. But he donated the entire amount of the Templeton Prize to Oxford University.
– In the year 1989 the Oxford University started scholarship named “The Radhakrishnan Scholarships in the memory of Dr. S Radhakrishnan. This scholarships were later renamed the “Radhakrishnan Chevening Scholarships”.
– He was nominated sixteen times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and eleven times for the Nobel Peace Prize but he never get this award.
Other Indirect Honours
– Commemorative stamps released by India Post in the year 1967 and 1989.
– In the year 1988 a documentary film named Sarvepalli Radhakrishna was released, which was directed by N. S. Thapa and produced by the Government of India’s Films Division.
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