Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Biography - Birth date, Achievements, Career, Family, Awards

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born on 05 September 1888 in Tirutani, Tamil Nadu. His father's name was Sarvepalli Veeraswamy and mother's name was Sitamma. His father worked in the revenue department. His father had five sons and a daughter. Radhakrishnan's place was second among these descendants.

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan died after a prolonged illness on 17 April 1975 (age 86) in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India.

Radhakrishnan was awarded a scholarship throughout his academic life. He enrolled at Voorhees College in Vellore for his high school education. After his FA (first art) class, he joined Madras Christian College at the age of 17. He graduated there in 1906, and also completed his Masters from the same college. Radhakrishnan studied philosophy by chance rather than choice. Because being a financially constrained student, when one of his cousins, graduating from the same college, went through Radhakrishnan's philosophy textbooks, it automatically dictated the curriculum of his academics. Sarvepalli wrote his bachelor's degree on "The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presidential". It was "intended to answer the charge that there was no place for morality in the Vedanta system."

In April 1909, Radhakrishnan was appointed to the Department of Philosophy at the Madras Presidency College. Subsequently, in 1918, he was selected as Professor of Philosophy by the University of Mysore, where he taught at the Maharaja College in Mysore. In 1921, he was appointed as a Professor in Philosophy to capture the King George V of mental and moral sciences at the University of Calcutta. He represented the University of Calcutta at the Congress of Universities of the British Empire in June 1926 and also in International Philosophy at Harvard University in September 1926. Another important academic program during this period was the invitation to deliver a Hibimb lecture on ideals, delivered in 1929 at Manchester College, Oxford, and which was later published in book form as an idealistic approach. In 1929, Radhakrishnan received principal J. at Manchester College. Was invited to take up the position vacated by Estalin Carpenter. This led him to give lectures on the comparative religion of Oxford University students. He was awarded a knighthood by George V in June 1931 for his services to education, and was formally invested with his honor in April 1932 by the Governor-General of India, the Earl of Willingdon.

Dr. Radhakrishnan was also a professor at Oxford University from the years 1936 to 1952. From the year 1953 to 1962, Dr. Radhakrishnan served as the Chancellor of the University of Delhi. In 1940, he was elected to the British Academy as the first Indian. He was one of the participants in the Andhra Mahasabha in 1928, where he considered renaming the Seed Districts Division of Madras Presidency as Rayalaseema. When India became independent in 1947, Radhakrishnan represented India at UNESCO (1946–52) from 1949 to 1952 and was later India's ambassador to the Soviet Union. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India. Radhakrishnan was elected as the first Vice President of India in 1952, and the second President of India (1962–1967). Radhakrishnan was one of the most prominent spokespersons of Neo-Vedanta. His metaphysics was grounded in Advaita Vedanta, but he reinterpreted Advaita Vedanta for contemporary understanding. Indian cricketer VVS Laxman is the nephew of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the first Vice President of India.

In 1931, he was nominated to the League of Nations Committee for Intellectual Cooperation, where "in the western eye he was a recognized Hindu authority on Indian thought and an inspiring explainer of the role of Eastern institutions in contemporary society." He was conferred the title of "Sir" by the British Empire in 1931, but after gaining independence, his justification for Dr. Radhakrishnan was over. When he became the Vice President, the first President of independent India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad ji gave him the country's highest decoration Bharat Ratna in 1954 for his great philosophical and educational achievements. The birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second but unique President of our country (5 September) is celebrated every year as "Teacher's Day". On this day, awards are also given to the best teachers in the entire country by the Government of India. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize five times from 1933 to 1937 and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1938. Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1968, the highest honor conferred by Sahitya Akademi on a writer (he is the first person to receive this award) in 1989, the institution of the Radhakrishnan Scholarship by the University of Oxford in memory of Radhakrishnan. The scholarship was later named "Radhakrishnan Chevening Scholarship". He was nominated sixteen times for the Nobel Prize in Literature and eleven times for the Nobel Peace Prize.