Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan was born on September 5, 1888, at Tiruttani, forty miles to the
north-east of Madras, in South India. He was born into a poor Brahmin family.
His father Sarvepalli Veeraswami was employed on a meager salary in the
zamindari. His mother's name was Sitamma. Radhakrishnan's father found it very
difficult to educate his son with his meagre income. He also had a large family
to take care of.
But little
Radhakrishnan was a brilliant boy. His father did not want him to learn English
or go to school. Instead he wanted him to become a priest. However, the talents
of the boy were so outstanding that his father finally decided to send him to
school at Tiruttani itself. He was highly intelligent and he went through most
of his education on scholarships. After his initial schooling in Tiruttani, he
joined the Lutheran Mission School in Tirupati for his high school.
When
Radhakrishnan was 16 years old, he joined the Voorhee's College in Vellore. At
the same age, his parents got him married to Sivakamuamma while he was still
studying at Vellore. From Vellore he switched to the Madras Christian College
at the age of 17. He chose philosophy as his major and attained a BA and M.A.
in the field.
He
graduated with a Master's Degree in Arts from Madras University. In partial
fulfillment for his M.A. degree, Radhakrishnan wrote a thesis on the ethics of
the Vedanta titled "The Ethics of the Vedanta and Its Metaphysical
Presuppositions", which was a reply to the charge that the Vedanta system
had no room for ethics. Professor A.G. Hogg awarded the following testimonial
for this thesis:
"The
thesis which he prepared in the second year of his study for this degree shows
a remarkable understanding of the main aspects of the philosophical problems, a
capacity for handling easily a complex argument besides more than the average
mastery of good English".
The thesis
indicates the general trend of Radhakrishnan's thoughts ... In his own words,
"Religious
feeling must establish itself as a rational way of living. If ever the spirit
is to be at home in this world, and not merely a prisoner or a fugitive,
spiritual foundations must be laid deep and preserved worthily. Religion must
express itself in reasonable thought, fruitful action and right social
institutions. "
In April
1909, he was appointed to the Department of Philosophy at the Madras Presidency
College. From then on, he was engaged in the serious study of Indian philosophy
and religion, and was a teacher of Philosophy.
In 1918, he
was appointed Professor of Philosophy in the University of Mysore. Three years
later, he was appointed to the most important philosophy chair in India, King
George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science in the University of Calcutta.
Radhakrishnan represented University of Calcutta at the Congress of the
Universities of the British Empire in June 1926 and the International Congress
of Philosophy at the Harvard University in September 1926. At the Philosophical
Congress held at Harvard University, the lack of spiritual note in modern
civilization was the focus of his address to the general meeting.
In 1929,
Radhakrishnan was invited to take the post vacated by Principal J. Estin
Carpenter in Manchester College, Oxford. This gave him the opportunity to
lecture to the students of University of Oxford on Comparative Religion. For
his services to education, he was knighted by the British Government in 1931,
but did not use the title in personal life preferring instead his academic
title 'Doctor'. During that visit, he also gave the Hibbert Lectures on
"An Idealist View of Life" to audiences at the Universities of London
and Manchester. In his own words,
"It
was a great experience for me to preach from Christian pulpits in Oxford and
Birmingham, in Manchester and Liverpool. It heartened me to know that my
addresses were liked by Christian audiences. Referring to my sermon on"
Revolution through Suffering ", an Oxford daily observed, "Though the
Indian preacher had the marvelous power to weave a magic web of thought,
imagination and language, the real greatness of his sermon resides in some
indefinable spiritual quality which arrests attention, moves the heart and
lifts us into an ampler air . "
"It is
not God that is worshiped but the authority that claims to speak in His name.
Sin becomes disobedience to authority not violation of integrity. "
He was the
Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. From 1936-39,
Radhakrishnan was the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at
Oxford University. In 1939, he was elected Fellow of the British Academy. From
1939-48, he was the Vice-Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University. He later
held offices that dealt with India's national and international affairs. He was
the leader of the Indian delegation to UNESCO during 1946-52. He was the
Ambassador of India to U.S.S.R. during 1949-52. He was the Vice-President of
India from 1952-1962 and the President, General Conference of UNESCO from 1952-54.
He held the office of the Chancellor, University of Delhi, from 1953-62. From
May 1962 to May 1967, he was the President of India.
Aldous
Huxley observed that Dr. Radhakrishnan "is the master of words and no
words."
Prof. H.N.
Muirhead said, "Dr. Radhakrishnan has the rare qualification of being
equally versed in the great European and the not less great Asiatic tradition
which may be said to hold in solution between them the spiritual wisdom of the
world, and of thus speaking as a philosophical bi linguist upon it. "
George P.
Conger said, "Among the philosophers of our time, no one has achieved so
much in so many fields as has Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of India ... William
James was influential in religion, and John Dewey has been a force in politics.
One or two American philosophers have been legislators. Jacques Maritain has
been an ambassador. Radhakrishnan, in a little more than thirty years of work,
has done all these things and more ... Never in the history of philosophy has
there been quite such a world-figure. With his unique appointment at Banaras
and Oxford, like a weaver's shuttle, he has gone to and fro between the East
and West, carrying a thread of understanding, weaving it into the fabric of
civilization. "
Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan passed away on April 17, 1975. In India, September 5 (his
birthday) is celebrated as Teacher's Day in his honor. Radhakrishnan along with
Ghanshyam Das Birla and a few other Social Workers in the pre-independence era
formed Krishnarpan Charity Trust.
Dr
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's letter to Prof. Paul Arthur Schilpp, the editor of
The Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan:
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