"Every other individual is to be regarded as your co-equal, and treated as an end, not a means. "

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born in a Telugu-speaking Niyogi Brahmin family, in Tiruttani of Chittoor District in the erstwhile Madras Presidency. His father's name was Sarvepalli Veeraswami and his mother's name was Sarvepalli Sita (Sitamma). His family hails from Sarvepalli village in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

His early years were spent in Thiruttani and Tirupati. His father was a subordinate revenue official in the service of a local zamindar (local landlord). His primary education was at K.V High School at Thiruttani. In 1896 he moved to the Hermansburg Evangelical Lutheran Mission School in Tirupati and Government High Secondary School, Walajapet.

Sarvepalli was awarded scholarships throughout his academic life. He joined Voorhees College in Vellore for his high school education. After his F.A. (First of Arts) class, he joined the Madras Christian College at the age of 17. He graduated from there in 1906, and also finished his Masters from the same college.

Sarvepalli studied philosophy by chance rather than choice. Being a financially constrained student, when a cousin who graduated from the same college passed on his philosophy textbooks to Sarvepalli, it automatically decided his academics course.

Madras Christian College Campus

Voorhees College Vellore Campus

It "was intended to be a reply to the charge that the Vedanta system had no room for ethics." Two of his professors, Rev. William Meston and Dr. Alfred George Hogg, commended Radhakrishnan's dissertation. Radhakrishnan's thesis was published when he was only twenty. According to Radhakrishnan himself, the criticism of Hogg and other Christian teachers of Indian culture "disturbed my faith and shook the traditional props on which I leaned.

Sarvepalli wrote his thesis for the M.A. degree on "The Ethics of the Vedanta and its metaphysical Presuppositions".

Sarvepalli expresses his anguish (against the British critics) in The Ethics of the Vedanta, where he wrote, "it has become philosophic fashion of the present day to consider the Vedanta system a non-ethical one." He quotes a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life, Max Muller as stating, "The Vedanta philosophy has not neglected the important sphere of ethics; but on the contrary, we find ethics in the beginning, ethics in the middle, and ethics in the end, to say nothing of the fact that minds, so engrossed with divine things as Vedanta philosophers, are not likely to fall victims to the ordinary temptations of the world, the flesh, and other powers."

The Spirit of Abheda

Sarvepalli then explains how this philosophy requires us (people) to look upon all creations as one. As non-different. This is where he introduces "The Spirit of Abheda". He quotes, "In morals, the individual is enjoined to cultivate a Spirit of Abheda, or non-difference." Thus he mentions how this "naturally leads to the ethics of love and brotherhood". "The Vedanta requires us to respect human dignity and demands the recognition of man as man.“

Sarvepalli was married to

Sivakamu, a distant cousin, at the age of 16. As per tradition the marriage

was arranged by the family.

The couple had five daughters and a son, Sarvepalli Gopal. Sarvepalli

Gopal went on to a notable career as a historian. Sivakamu died on 26

November 1956. They were married for over 51 years.

In April 1909, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was appointed to the Department of Philosophy at the Madras Presidency College. Thereafter, in 1918, he was selected as Professor of Philosophy by the University of Mysore, where he taught at its Maharaja’s College, Mysore. He believed Tagore’s philosophy to be the “genuine manifestation of the Indian spirit”. His second book, The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy was published in 1920. In 1921 he was appointed as a professor in philosophy 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 the International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard University in September 1926.

In 1929 Radhakrishnan was invited to take the post vacated by Principal J. Estlin Carpenter at Harris Manchester College. This gave him the opportunity to lecture to the students of the University of Oxford on Comparative Religion.

For his services to education he was knighted by George V in the June 1931 However, he ceased to use the title after Indian independence, preferring instead his academic title of ‘Doctor’.

He was the Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. Again in 1937, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, although this nomination process, as for all laureates, was not public at the time.

In 1939 Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya invited him to succeed him as the Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU).He served as its Vice-Chancellor till January 1948.

When Dr. S. Radhakrishnan helped set the foundation for Indo-Russian ties

Oxford University Convocation, 7th August, 1940 at Sinha Sadan with Rabindranath Tagore.

Dr. S. Radhakrisnan awarded Bharat Ratna by Dr. Rajendra Prasad President of India.

Enjoying Cricket

Politics When India became

independent in 1947, Radhakrishnan represented

India at UNESCO (1946–52) and was later Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union, from 1949 to

1952. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India.

Sarvepalli was elected as the first Vice-President of

India in 1952.

He was elected as the second

President of India (1962–1967).

President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and President John

F. Kennedy of USA depart the White House following a meeting.

President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Indira

Gandhi Prime Minister of India

Awards and honours 1931: appointed a Knight Bachelor in, although he ceased to use the title "Sir" after India attained independence.

1938: elected Fellow of the British Academy.

1954: The Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India.

1954: Sash First Class (Banda de Primera clase) of the Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca

1954: Order Pour le Mérite for Arts and Sciences (Germany)

1961: the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

Awards and honours 1963: the British Order of Merit.

1968: Sahitya Akademi fellowship, The highest honour conferred by the Sahitya Akademi on a writer (he is the first person to get this award)

1975: the Templeton Prize in 1975,

1989: institution of the Radhakrishnan Scholarships by Oxford University in the memory of Sarvepalli. The 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.

1-The philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (1918) 2-Indian Philosophy (1923) 3-The Hindu View of Life (1926) 4-An Idealist View of Life (1929) 5-Eastern Religions and Western Thought (1939) 6-Religion and Society (1947) 7-The Bhagavadgītā: with an introductory essay 8-The Dhammapada (1950) 9-The Principal Upanishads (1953) 10-Recovery of Faith (1956) 11-A Source Book in Indian Philosophy (1957) 12-The Brahma Sutra: The Philosophy of Spiritual Life. Religion, Science & Culture (1968)

Literary Works by Sarvepalli

References https://www.thebetterindia.com/114184/sarvepalli-radhakrishnan-teacher-day-philosopher-president-india/

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sarvepalli_Radhakrishnan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvepalli_Radhakrishnan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voorhees_College_(India)

https://buzzhawker.com/teachers-day-2018-10-facts-about-philosopher-president-sarvepalli-radhakrishnan/

https://www.studyiq.com/blog/biography-sarvepalli-radhakrishnan-free-pdf-download/