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PRESIDENTS OF INDIA
Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan
Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born on September 5, 1888, in a middle class
family in the pilgrim town of Tirutani. His father, it is said, did not want his
son to learn English, instead wanted him to become a priest. However, the
talents of the boy were so outstanding that he was sent to school at Thirupati
and then Vellore. Later, he joined the Christian College, Madras, and studied
philosophy. Drawn by accident into philosophy, Radhakrishnan by his confidence,
concentration and strong convictions went on to become a great philosopher.
Philosophy and Life
His first book, "The Ethics of the Vedanta and Its Material Presupposition"',
being his thesis for the M.A. degree examination of the Madras University,
published in 1908, at once established his fame as a great philosopher of
undoubted ability. All his later works are landmarks in their respective fields.
Expressing abstract and abstruse philosophical thoughts in intelligible language
is considered very difficult. But Dr. Radhakrishnan was one of the few who could
accomplish this with ease and simplicity.
Evocative Teacher
Far from being a stern and severe intellectual remote from the world, Dr.
Radhakrishnan was a very humane person. Exceedingly popular among his students
right from his early days as a professor at Presidency College, Madras he was an
evocative teacher. He was offered the professorship in Calcutta University when
he was less than 30 years old. He served as Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University
from 1931 to 1936. In 1939, he was appointed the Vice Chancellor of Banaras
Hindu University .Two years later, he took over the Sir Sayaji Rao Chair of
Indian Culture and Civilisation in Banaras.
Recognition of his scholarship came again in 1936, when he was invited to fill
the Chair of Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford which
he retained for 16 years. His mastery on his subject and his clarity of thought
and expression made him a much sought after teacher. But what made him even more
popular was his warmheartedness and his ability to draw out people.
Leading the Nation
In 1952, Dr. Radhakrishnan was chosen to be the Vice President of the Republic
of India and in 1962, he was made the Head of the State for five years. It was
the glory of Indian democracy that an educationist aloof from politics but with
an international acclaim as a profound scholar was placed in the position of the
President. And it was an advantage for a young country like India to have him to
interpret its domestic and foreign policies abroad to expound its outlook and
aspirations emphatically and in the rightway which was much needed in a world of
uncertainity and disbelief among nations.
His appointment as President was hailed by Bertrand Russel who said "It is an
honour to philosophy that Dr.Radhakrishnan should be President of India and I,
as a philosopher, take special pleasure in this. Plato aspired for philosophers
to become kings and it is a tribute to India that she should make a philosopher
her President".
Dr.Radhakrishnan had great faith in Indian democracy. In his farewell broadcast
to the Nation on May 12, 1967, he said that despite occasional forebodings to
the contrary, the Indian Constitution had worked successfully so far. But
democracy, he warned, was more than a system of the Government. "It was a way of
life and a regime of civilised conduct of human affairs. We should be the
architects of peaceful changes and the advocates of radical reform", he said.
Great Teacher
It was in 1962 when Dr. Radhakrishnan became the President of India that his
birthday in September came to be observed as 'Teachers' Day'. It was a tribute
to Dr.Radhakrishnan's close association with the cause of teachers. Whatever
position he held whether as President or Vice President or even as Ambassador,
Dr.Radhakrishnan essentially remained a teacher all his life. The teaching
profession was his first love and those who studied under him still remember
with gratitude his great qualities as a teacher.
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