Who was Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan?
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a scholar, politician, philosopher, and
statesman from India. He was India's first Vice President and second
President. Radhakrishnan spent his whole life and career as a writer
attempting to describe, defend, and propagate his faith, which he
referred to variously as Hinduism, Vedanta, and the religion of the
Spirit. He wanted to show that his Hinduism was philosophically sound
as well as ethically possible. He often seems to be at ease in both Indian
and Western philosophical contexts, and he draws on both Western and
Indian sources in his prose. As a result, Radhakrishnan has been hailed
as a symbol of Hinduism to the West in academic circles.
The Early Life of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's date of birth was 5th September 1888.
He was born to a Telugu-speaking Niyogi Brahmin family in
Tiruttani, Madras Presidency, British India which is present-day
Tamil Nadu, India.
His father’s name was Sarvepalli Veeraswami who was a
subordinate revenue official in the service of a local zamindar and
his mother’s name was Sarvepalli Sita.
His family is from Sarvepalli village in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore
district. He grew up in the towns of Tiruttani and Tirupati.
Throughout his academic career, Radhakrishnan earned various
scholarships.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Education
His primary education was at Tiruttani's K.V High School. In 1896,
he transferred to Tirupati's Hermannsburg Evangelical Lutheran
Mission School and Walajapet's Government High Secondary
School.
For his high school education, he enrolled at Vellore's Voorhees
College. He enrolled in Madras Christian College after finishing
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his First of Arts class in the age of 17. He earned his bachelor's
degree and his master's degree from the same institution in 1906.
"The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions,"
Sarvepalli wrote for his bachelor's degree thesis. It was written in
response to the accusation that the Vedanta scheme had no place
for ethics. Rev. William Meston and Dr. Alfred George Hogg, two
of Radhakrishnan's professors, praised his thesis. When
Radhakrishnan was only twenty years old, his thesis was
published.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Family
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s marriage happened with Sivakamu at
his age of 16.
Sivakamu was Radhakrishnan’s distant cousin.
Radhakrishnan and Sivakamu were happily married for over 51
years.
Radhakrishnan had five daughters, and one son.
His son Sarvepalli Gopal was a well-known Indian historian. He
authored his father’s biography Radhakrishnan: A Biography and
also Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography.
The Academic Career of Radhakrishnan
Radhakrishnan was appointed to the Madras Presidency College's
Department of Philosophy in April 1909.
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He was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Mysore in 1918, where he taught at the Maharaja's College in
Mysore.
He wrote several articles for prestigious journals such as The
Quest, Journal of Philosophy, and the International Journal of
Ethics while at Maharaja's College.
He also finished his first novel, Rabindranath Tagore's Philosophy
which he claimed, was the "genuine expression of the Indian
spirit."
He published his second book, The Reign of Religion in
Contemporary Philosophy in the year 1920.
He was appointed as a professor of philosophy at the University of
Calcutta in the year 1921, where he held the King George V Chair
of Mental and Moral Science.
In June 1926, he represented the University of Calcutta at the
British Empire Universities Congress, and in September 1926, he
attended the International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard
University.
Another significant academic event during this period was his
acceptance of the Hibbert Lecture on the Ideals of Life, which he
gave at Manchester College, Oxford in 1929 and was later
published as “An Idealist View of Life” in book form.
Radhakrishnan was invited to Manchester College to fill the
vacancy left by Principal J. Estlin Carpenter in the year 1929. This
gave him the opportunity to give a Comparative Religion lecture to
University of Oxford students.
In June 1931, George V knighted him for his services to education,
and the Governor-General of India, the Earl of Willingdon,
formally invested him with his honour in April 1932.
After India's independence, he stopped using the title and instead
used his academic title of Doctor.
From 1931 to 1936, he served as Vice-Chancellor of Andhra
University.
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Radhakrishnan was elected a Fellow of All Souls College and
appointed Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at
the University of Oxford in 1936.
He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1937.
Nominations for the award continued to pour in well into the
1960s.
In 1939, he was invited to succeed Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya as
Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He was its
Vice-Chancellor from January 1948 to January 1949.
The Political Career of Radhakrishnan
After a promising academic career, Radhakrishnan began his
political career later in life. His political career came after his
foreign impact.
He was one of the stalwarts who attended the Andhra Mahasabha
in 1928, where he advocated the idea of renaming the Ceded
Districts division of the Madras Presidency Rayalaseema.
In 1931, he was appointed to the League of Nations Committee for
Intellectual Cooperation, where he became known as a Hindu
expert on Indian ideas and a convincing translator of the role of
Eastern institutions in contemporary society in Western eyes.
Radhakrishnan's involvement in Indian politics, as well as foreign
affairs, grew in the years following India's independence.
From 1946 to 1951, Radhakrishnan headed India’s delegation in
the newly formed UNESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization).
Radhakrishnan was also a member of the Indian Constituent
Assembly for the two years following India's independence.
The demands of the University Commission and his continuing
responsibilities as Spalding Professor at Oxford had to be balanced
against Radhakrishnan's commitments to UNESCO and the
Constituent Assembly.
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When the Universities Commission's report was completed in
1949, Radhakrishnan was appointed Indian Ambassador to
Moscow by then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a position he
held until 1952. With his election to the Rajya Sabha,
Radhakrishnan was able to bring his philosophical and political
beliefs into motion.
In 1952, Radhakrishnan was elected as India's first Vice-President,
and in 1962, he was elected as the country's second President.
During his time in office, Radhakrishnan saw a growing need for
world peace and universal fellowship.
The importance of this need was driven home to Radhakrishnan by
what he saw as global crises unfolding. The Korean War was
already in full swing when he assumed the role of Vice-President.
Radhakrishnan's presidency was dominated by political conflicts
with China in the early 1960s, followed by hostilities between
India and Pakistan.
Furthermore, the Cold War split East and West, leaving each on the
defensive and wary of the other.
Radhakrishnan questioned what he saw as self-proclaimed
international organisations like the League of Nations' divisive
ability and dominant character.
Instead, he advocated for the promotion of an innovative
internationalism focused on integral experience's metaphysical
foundations. Only then will mutual understanding and tolerance be
encouraged between cultures and nations.
Philosophical Thoughts by Radhakrishnan
Radhakrishnan tried to bring eastern and western ideas together,
defending Hinduism against uninformed Western criticism while
also integrating Western philosophical and religious ideas.
Radhakrishnan was one of Neo-most Vedanta's influential
spokesmen.
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His metaphysics was based on Advaita Vedanta, but he
reinterpreted it for a modern audience.
He recognised the truth and diversity of human nature, which he
saw as grounded in and endorsed by the absolute, or Brahman.
Theology and creeds are intellectual formulations, as well as
symbols of religious experience or religious intuitions, for
Radhakrishnan.
Radhakrishnan graded the different religions according to their
interpretation of religious experience, with Advaita Vedanta
holding the highest spot.
In comparison to the intellectually mediated conceptions of other
religions, Radhakrishnan saw Advaita Vedanta as the best
representative of Hinduism, as it was based on intuition.
Vedanta, according to Radhakrishnan, is the highest type of
religion because it provides the most direct intuitive experience
and inner realisation.
Despite his familiarity with western culture and philosophy,
Radhakrishnan was critical of it. He said that, despite their claims
to objectivity, Western philosophers were influenced by religious
influences from their own society.
Awards and Honours of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Radhakrishnan was awarded Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian
award of India in 1954.
He was knighted by King George V for his services to education in
the year 1931.
He was honoured with the recipient of the Pour le Mérite for
Sciences and Arts in 1954 by Germany.
He was honoured with the recipient of the Sash First Class of the
Order of the Aztec Eagle in the year 1954 by Mexico.
He was honoured with the membership of the Order of Merit in
1963 by the United Kingdom.
He was nominated for the Nobel Prize for the record 27 times. 16
times in literature and 11 times for the Nobel peace prize.
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In 1938 he was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.
He was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in
1961.
In the year 1968, he was the first person to be awarded the Sahitya
Aka1demi fellowship which is the highest honour conferred by the
Sahitya Akademi on a writer.
Since 1962, India has celebrated Teacher's Day on 5 September,
Radhakrishnan's birthday, in recognition of Radhakrishnan's belief
that teachers should be the best minds in the world.
In 1975, he received the Templeton Prize for promoting
nonviolence and conveying a common truth of God that included
compassion and knowledge for all people.
Literary works by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
The first book authored by Radhakrishnan was a philosophy of
Rabindranath Tagore in the year 1918.
His second book was published in 1923 named Indian Philosophy.
The Hindu View of Life published in 1926 was Radhakrishnan's
third book which was related to Hindu philosophy and beliefs.
An Idealist View of Life was published in 1929.
Kalki or the Future of Civilization was published in 1929.
He published his sixth book named Eastern Religions and Western
Thought in the year 1939.
Religion and Society were published as the seventh book in 1947.
In 1948 The Bhagavadgita: with an introductory essay, Sanskrit
text, English translation, and notes were published.
In 1950 his book The Dhammapada was published.
His tenth book The Principal Upanishads was published in 1953.
Recovery of Faith was published in 1956.
The twelfth book was A Source Book in Indian Philosophy
published in 1957.
The Brahma Sutra: The Philosophy of Spiritual Life. was published
in 1959.
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His last book named Religion, Science & Culture was published in
1968.
Death of S. Radhakrishnan
Radhakrishnan’s wife Sivakamu died on 26 November 1956. He
never remarried and he was a widower till his death.
In 1967, Radhakrishnan stepped down from public life.
He spent the last eight years of his life in Mylapore, Madras, in the
house he designed.
On April 17, 1975, Radhakrishnan passed away.
