Radhakrishnan biography

His family life, while not extensively documented, provided a stable foundation for his academic and public pursuits. Sivakamu passed away inleaving Radhakrishnan a widower during his later years in public service. This exposure to religious traditions and philosophical discourses from a young age likely influenced his later intellectual pursuits.

Growing up in a traditional Hindu household, Radhakrishnan was exposed to the Vedas, Upanishads, and other classical texts of Indian philosophy. V High School in Tiruttani. His academic excellence was evident from an early age, earning him scholarships throughout his educational journey. He completed his B. The Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan biography would be incomplete without a detailed look at his illustrious academic career.

Inhe began his teaching career at Madras Presidency College. His reputation as a brilliant lecturer and scholar grew rapidly, leading to his appointment as the Professor of Philosophy at the University of Mysore in During his time in Calcutta, he wrote extensively and gained international recognition for his interpretations of Indian philosophy.

InRadhakrishnan was invited to take the H. This appointment was groundbreaking, making him the first Indian to hold a professorial chair at Oxford. During his tenure, he played a crucial role in introducing Indian philosophy to Western academia. Throughout his academic career, Radhakrishnan authored numerous books and articles, establishing himself as a leading authority on comparative religion and philosophy.

His ability to explain complex Indian philosophical concepts in terms accessible to Western audiences made him a bridge between Eastern and Western intellectual traditions. The Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan biography reveals that his entry into politics was gradual and driven by a sense of national duty rather than personal ambition. His diplomatic skills and philosophical depth impressed Soviet leaders, including Joseph Stalin.

During this time, he also served as the Chancellor of Delhi University. Rajendra Prasad. His presidency was marked by two wars with China in and Pakistan in and significant political changes, including the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in At the core of the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan biography lies his profound philosophical contributions.

He sought to reinterpret Advaita Vedanta for the modern world, arguing for its relevance in addressing contemporary philosophical and social issues. Radhakrishnan was a prolific writer, authoring numerous books and articles throughout his career. Some of his most significant works include:. This Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan biography highlights his emphasis on the underlying unity of all existence.

He argued that the apparent diversity in the world is ultimately grounded in a fundamental oneness. This view informed his approach to religious pluralism and his radhakrishnan biographies to reconcile different philosophical traditions. When he became President of India insome of his students and friends requested permission to celebrate his birthday.

He often donated his salary to various causes, particularly those related to education. As President, he was known for living simply and encouraging others to contribute to national development. Radhakrishnan proposed a nuanced classification of religions, moving beyond simplistic divisions. He categorized religions into:. He joined Voorhees College in Vellore for his high school education.

After his F. He graduated from there inand also finished his master's degree from the same college. Radhakrishnan studied philosophy by chance rather than choice. He had wished to study mathematics. Being a financially constrained student, when a cousin who graduated from the same college passed on his philosophy textbooks to Radhakrishnan, it automatically decided his academics course.

Sarvepalli wrote his bachelor's degree thesis on "The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions". 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. The challenge of Christian critics impelled me to make a study of Hinduism and find out what is living and what is dead in it.

My pride as a Hindu, roused by the enterprise and eloquence of Swami Vivekanandawas deeply hurt by the treatment accorded to Hinduism in missionary institutions. This led him to his critical study of Indian philosophy and religion [ 20 ] and a lifelong defence of Hinduism against "uninformed Western criticism". In reciprocation, Radhakrishnan dedicated one of his early books to William Skinner.

Radhakrishnan expresses his anguish, against the British critics, in The Ethics of the Vedanta. Radhakrishnan 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". Radhakrishnan was married to Sivakamu [ note 1 ] — in Maya distant cousin, at the age of 14, when she was aged They also had a son named Sarvepalli Gopal who went on to a notable career as a historian.

Many of Radhakrishnan's family members including his grandchildren and great-grandchildren have pursued a wide range of careers in academia, public policy, medicine, law, banking, business, publishing and other fields across the world. Sivakamu died on 26 November They were married for about 53 years. Thereafter, inhe was selected as Professor of Philosophy by the University of Mysorewhere he taught at its Maharaja's College, Mysore.

He also completed his first book, The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore. He believed Tagore 's philosophy to be the "genuine manifestation of the Indian spirit". Another important academic event during this period was the invitation to deliver the Hibbert Lecture on the ideals of life which he delivered at Manchester College, Oxford in and which was subsequently published in book form as An Idealist View of Life.

In Radhakrishnan was invited to take the post vacated by Principal J. Estlin Carpenter at 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 Birthday Honours[ web 4 ] and formally invested with his honour by the Governor-General of Indiathe Earl of Willingdonin April He was the vice-chancellor of Andhra University from to During his first convocation address, he spoke about his native Andhra as.

We, the Andhras, are fortunately situated in some respects. I firmly believe that if any part of India is capable of developing an effective sense of unity it is in Andhra. The hold of conservatism is not strong. Our generosity of spirit and openness of mind are well -known. Our social instinct and suggestibility are still active. Our moral sense and sympathetic imagination are not much warped by dogma.

Our women are relatively more free. Love of the mother-tongue binds us all. That same year, and again inhe was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, although this nomination process, as for all laureates, was not public at the time. Further nominations for the awards continued steadily throughout the s. In Pt. Radhakrishnan started his political career "rather late in life", after his successful academic career.

He was one of those stalwarts who attended Andhra Mahasabha in where he seconded the idea of renaming Ceded Districts division of Madras Presidency as Rayalaseema. In he was nominated to the League of Nations Committee for Intellectual Cooperationwhere after "in Western eyes he was the recognized Hindu authority on Indian ideas and a persuasive interpreter of the role of Eastern institutions in contemporary society.

He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly of India. Radhakrishnan was elected as the first Vice President of India inand elected as the second President of India — Radhakrishnan did not have a background in the Congress Party, nor was he active in the Indian independence movement. He was the politician in shadow. He had always defended Hindu culture against uninformed Western criticism and had symbolized the pride of Indians in their own intellectual traditions.

When Radhakrishnan became the President of India, some of his students and radhakrishnan biographies requested him to allow them to celebrate his birthday, on 5 September. He replied. Instead of celebrating my birthday, it would be my proud privilege if September 5th is observed as Teachers' Day. His birthday has since been celebrated as Teacher's Day in India.

Along with G. Birla and some other social workers in the pre-independence era, Radhakrishnan formed the Krishnarpan Charity Trust. He was against State institutions imparting denominational religious instruction as it was against the secular vision of the Indian State. Radhakrishnan tried to bridge eastern and western thought, [ 38 ] defending Hinduism against "uninformed Western criticism", [ 4 ] but also incorporating Western philosophical and religious thought.

Radhakrishnan was one of the most prominent spokesmen of Neo-Vedanta. According to Radhakrishnan, maya is not a strict absolute idealism, but "a subjective misperception of the world as ultimately real. Radhakrishnan discernes eight sorts of experience: [ web 1 ]. For Radhakrishnan, theology and radhakrishnan biographies are intellectual formulations, and symbols of religious experience or "religious intuitions".

Radhakrishnan saw Hinduism as a scientific religion based on facts, apprehended via intuition or religious experience. They are the pioneer researchers in the realm of the spirit who saw more in the world than their followers. Their utterances are not based on transitory vision but on a continuous experience of resident life and power.

When the Vedas are regarded as the highest authority, all that is meant is that the most exacting of all authorities is the authority of facts. The worshippers of the absolute are of the highest rank; second to them are the worshippers of the personal God; then come the worshippers of the incarnations of Rama, Krishna, Buddha; below them are those who worship deities, ancestors, and sages, and lowest of all are the worshippers of petty forces and spirits.

The deities of some men are in water i. The man of action finds his God in fire, the man of feeling in the heart, and the feeble minded in the idol, but the strong in spirit find God everywhere". The seers see the supreme in the self, and not the images. To Radhakrishnan, Advaita Vedanta was the best representative of Hinduism, as being grounded in intuition, in contrast to the "intellectually mediated interpretations" [ web 1 ] of other religions.

The Vedanta is not a religion, but religion itself in its most universal and deepest significance. Radhakrishnan saw other religions, "including what Dr. Radhakrishnan understands as lower forms of Hinduism," [ web 1 ] as interpretations of Advaita Vedanta, thereby Hinduising all religions. Although Radhakrishnan was well-acquainted with western culture and philosophy, he was also critical of them.

He stated that Western philosophers, despite all claims to objectivitywere influenced by theological influences of their own culture. Radhakrishnan was one of world's best and most influential twentieth-century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy. Radhakrishnan's defence of the Hindu traditions has been highly influential, [ 39 ] both in India and the western world.

In India, Radhakrishnan's ideas contributed to the formation of India as a nation-state. In figures such as Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan we witness Vedanta traveling to the West, where it nourished the spiritual hunger of Europeans and Americans in the early decades of the twentieth century. Nor would it be possible to find a more excellent example of a living "bridge" between the East and the West than Professor Radhakrishnan.

Steeped, as Radhakrishnan has been since his childhood, in the life, traditions, and philosophical heritage of his native India, he has also struck deep roots in Western philosophy, which he has been studying tirelessly ever since his undergraduate college-days in Madras Christian College, and in which he is as thoroughly at home as any Western philosopher.

Radhakrishnan's concern for experience and his extensive knowledge of the Western philosophical and literary traditions has earned him the reputation of being a bridge-builder between India and the West. He often appears to feel at home in the Indian as well as the Western philosophical contexts, and draws from both Western and Indian sources throughout his writing.

Because of this, Radhakrishnan has been held up in academic circles as a representative of Hinduism to the West. His lengthy writing career and his many published works have been influential in shaping the West's understanding of Hinduism, India, and the East. Radhakrishnan's ideas have also received criticism and challenges, for their perennialist [ 40 ] [ 52 ] and universalist claims, [ 53 ] [ 54 ] and the use of an east—west dichotomy.

According to Radhakrishnan, there is not only an underlying "divine unity" [ 52 ] from the seers of the Upanishads up to modern Hindus like Tagore and Gandhi, [ 52 ] but also "an essential commonality between philosophical and religious traditions from widely disparate cultures. Social-constructionists give an alternative approach to religious experience, in which such "experiences" are seen as being determined and mediated by cultural determinants: [ 39 ] [ 55 ] [ note 6 ].

Religions, too, rely not so much on individual experiences or on innate feelings — like a sensus numinosus Rudolf Otto — but rather on behavioral patterns acquired and learned in childhood. Rinehart also points out that "perennialist claims notwithstanding, modern Hindu thought is a product of history", [ 52 ] which "has been worked out and expressed in a variety of historical contexts over the preceding two hundreds years.

According to Richard King, the elevation of Vedanta as the essence of Hinduism, and Advaita Vedanta as the "paradigmatic example of the mystical nature of the Hindu religion" [ 59 ] by colonial Indologists but also neo-Vedantins served well for the Hindu nationalistswho further popularised this notion of Advaita Vedanta as the pinnacle of Indian religions.

Indian nationalist leaders continued to operate within the categorical field generated by politicized religion [ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's statement — "[t]he Vedanta is not a religion but religion itself in its " most universal and deepest significance " — is fairly typical. Rinehart also criticises the inclusivity of Radhakrishnan's approach, since it provides "a theological scheme for subsuming religious difference under the aegis of Vedantic truth.

Colonialism left deep traces in the hearts and minds of the Indian people, influencing the way they understood and represented themselves. According to Hawley, Radhakrishnan's division between East and West, the East being spiritual and mystical, and the West being rationalist and logical in its forms of knowledge, was constructed during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Arguably, these characterisations are "imagined" in the sense that they reflect the philosophical and religious realities of neither "East' nor West.

Radhakrishnan biography

Since the s, the colonial influences on the 'construction' and 'representation' of Hinduism have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism. Western Indologists are trying to come to more neutral and better-informed representations of India and its culture, while Indian scholars are trying to establish forms of knowledge and understanding which are grounded in and informed by Indian traditions, instead of being dominated by western forms of knowledge and understanding.

Radhakrishnan's appointment, as a southerner, to "the most important chair of philosophy in India" in the north, was resented by a number of people from the Bengali intellectual elite, and The Modern Reviewwhich was critical of the appointment of non-Bengalis, became the main vehicle of criticism. Yet, in an editor's note, The Modern Review acknowledged that "As professor's Radhakrishnan's book has not been received for review in this Journal, The Modern Review is not in a position to form any opinion on it.

In the January issue of The Modern Reviewthe Bengali philosopher Jadunath Sinha made the claim that parts of his doctoral thesis, Indian Psychology of Perceptionpublished inradhakrishnan biography copied by his teacher Radhakrishnan into the chapter on "The Yoga system of Patanjali" in his book Indian Philosophy IIpublished in He further argued that he was lecturing on the subject before publishing his book, and that his book was ready for publication inbefore Sinha's thesis was published.

Scholars such as Kuppuswami Sastri, Ganganath Jhaand Nalini Ganguli confirmed that Radhakrishnan was distributing the notes in question since In Summerthe dispute escalated into a juristic fight. Responding to the alleged "systematic effort [ Commemorative stamps released by India Post by year. Sarvepalli Radhakrishna is a documentary film about Radhakrishnan, directed by N.

Thapa, produced by the Government of India 's Films Division. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. President of India from to For other people with this name, see Radhakrishnan name.

In this Telugu namethe surname is Sarvepalli. Sarvepalli Sivakamu. Politician radhakrishnan biography vice-chancellor. Philosopher academic. Philosophy Indology. Indian philosophy Indian religions. Moksha Anubhava Turiya Jivanmukta Sahaja. Poonja Vijnanabhiksu. Monasteries and Orders. Academic Paul Deussen Daniel H. Teachers Acharyas.

Ramanuja Vedanta Desika. Madhvacharya Jayatirtha Vyasatirtha. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Tantra Shakta. Vivekananda Aurobindo Radhakrishnan. Major texts. Radhakrishnan studied at K. A and M. In his early academic writings, he directed some of his academic attention to defending Indian philosophy especially Vedanta against critics concerning their ethical structure.

He started teaching at Madras Presidency College in the year and was a professor at the University of Mysore and the University of Calcutta. However, it may be noted that Radhakrishnan entered politics relatively late in his age. In the same year, he was elected as the Second President of India and continued to hold this office till May In his presidency, he paid a lot of attention to education and culture with the voice and the spirit of democracy and Indian philosophy on the world stage.

Radhakrishnan died on April 17th, but his memories live through his works, especially in education.