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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 5th 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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