RADHAKRISHNAN, SARVEPALLI

RADHAKRISHNAN, SARVEPALLI (1888–1975), philosopher, president of India (1962–1967). Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was independent India's second president, serving from 1962 to 1967. From 1952 to 1962, he had served as vice president under India's first president, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Radhakrishnan was the leader of the Indian delegation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization from 1946 to 1952, becoming president of that organization during his last two years there. He served as India's ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952.

Radhakrishnan, a Tamil Brahman born just outside Madras in 1888, was one of India's most distinguished philosopher-statesmen, and a world-renowned exponent of Hindu philosophy. His brilliant master's thesis at the University of Madras was titled "The Ethics of the Vedanta and Its Metaphysical Presuppositions." Between 1909 and 1929, Radhakrishnan held professorial positions at the universities of Madras, Mysore, and Calcutta. During this time, he received international attention for his flawless speeches when he represented Indian universities at the Congress of the Universities of the British Empire in June 1926, and at the International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard University in September 1926. At Harvard, he bemoaned the lack of spiritualism in modern civilization.

In 1929 Radhakrishnan became the principal of Manchester College, Oxford University. From 1936 to 1939, he held the chair of Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics, and was elected Royal Fellow of the British Academy. He returned to India in 1939 and, until 1949, served as vice-chancellor of Benares Hindu University. Thereafter, during his vice presidency from 1952 to 1962, he was also chancellor of Delhi University. With the spread of his reputation for eloquence and brilliance, he was invited frequently to give lectures on Hinduism and eastern philosophy in the West.

Aldous Huxley observed that Dr. Radhakrishnan's mastery of the English language was beyond excellence and that Radhakrishnan was "the master of words and no words." American scholar George P. Conger noted: "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 [University] 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." Radhakrishnan died in 1975.

Raju G. C. Thomas

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gopal, Sarvepalli. Radhakrishnan: A Biography. Oxford and New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Minor, Robert N. Radhakrishnan: A Religious Biography. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987.

Parthasarathi, G., and D. P. Chattopadhyaya, eds. Radhakrishnan: Centenary Volume. Oxford and New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli, and Charles A. Moore. A Source Book in Indian Philosophy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967.

Rama Rao Pappu, S. S., ed. New Essays in the Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. New Delhi: South Asia Books, 1995.

Rodrigues, Clarissa. The Social and Political Thought of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan: An Evaluation. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1992.