KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA SECL JHAGRAKHAND WISHES YOU ALL HAPPY TEACHER'S DAY
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
"Radhakrishnan"
redirects here. For other people with this name, see Radhakrishnan (name).
T
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 
listen (help·info) (5 September 1888 – 17 April
1975) was an Indian philosopher, academic, and statesman[2] who served as the
first Vice President of
India (1952–1962) and the second President of India (1962–1967).[web 1]
One of India's most distinguished
twentieth-century scholars of comparative religion and
philosophy,[3][web 2] after completing
his education at Madras Christian
College in 1911, he became Assistant Professor and later
Professor of Philosophy at Madras Presidency College then subsequently
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Mysore (1918-1921);
the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of
Calcutta (1921–1932) and Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford (1936–1952)
by which he became the first Indian to hold a professorial chair at the University of Oxford.
He was Upton Lecturer at Manchester College, Oxford in 1926, 1929, and 1930. In
1930 he was appointed Haskell lecturer in Comparative Religion at the University of Chicago.[4]
His philosophy was grounded in Advaita Vedanta, reinterpreting this tradition
for a contemporary understanding.[web 2] He defended
Hinduism against what he called "uninformed Western criticism",[5] contributing to the
formation of contemporary Hindu identity.[6] He has been
influential in shaping the understanding of Hinduism, in both India and the
west, and earned a reputation as a bridge-builder between India and the West.[7]
Radhakrishnan was awarded several high
awards during his life, including a knighthood in 1931, the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in
India, in 1954, and honorary membership of the British Royal Order of Merit in 1963. He was also one
of the founders of Helpage India, a non profit organisation for elderly
underprivileged in India. Sarvepalli believed that "teachers should be the
best minds in the country". Since 1962, his birthday has been celebrated
in India as Teachers' Day on
5 September every year.[web 3]
He is the only President of India who
could not attend the Delhi Republic
Day parade due to his ill health [8] He served as the
professor of philosophy at Mysore(1918-21) and Calcutta(1937-41) universities.
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born in
a Telugu-speaking Niyogi Brahmin [9] family, in Tiruttani of Chittoor District in the erstwhile Madras Presidency (Later in Andhra Pradesh till 1960, now in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu since 1960). [10][11][12][13][14][15] 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.[16]
EDUCATION
Indian President
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan with US President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office,
1963
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.[17][18]
Sarvepalli wrote his thesis for the M.A.
degree on "The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical
Presuppositions".[19] It "was
intended to be a reply to the charge that the Vedanta system had no room for ethics."[20] Two of his
professors, Rev. William Meston and Dr. Alfred George Hogg, commended
Radhakrishnan's dissertation.[citation needed] 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."[20] Radhakrishnan
himself describes how, as a student,
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 Vivekananda, was deeply hurt by the
treatment accorded to Hinduism in missionary
institutions.[5]
This led him to his critical study of Indian philosophy and religion[20] and a lifelong
defence of Hinduism against "uninformed Western criticism".[5] At the same time,
Sarvepalli commended Professor Hogg as 'My distinguished teacher,'[21] and as "one of
the greatest Christian thinkers we had in India.'[22] Besides, Professor
William Skinner, who was acting Principal of the College, gave a testimonial
saying "he is one of the best men we have had in the recent years",
which enabled him to get the first job in Presidency College. In reciprocation,
Sarvepalli dedicated one of his early books to William Skinner.[23]
The
Spirit of Abheda
Sarvepalli expresses his anguish (against
the British critics) in The Ethics of the Vedanta[24], 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."
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[25]". 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".
"Every other individual is to be
regarded as your co-equal, and treated as an end, not a means."
"The Vedanta requires us to respect
human dignity and demands the recognition of man as man."
Marriage and family[edit]
Sarvepalli was married to Sivakamu,[note 1] a distant cousin,
at the age of 16.[26] 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.
Academic career[edit]
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
drawn by Bujjai and signed by Sarvepalli in Telugu as
"Radhakrishnayya".
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. [web 4][27] By that time he had
written many articles for journals of repute like The Quest, Journal
of Philosophy and the International Journal of Ethics. 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".
His second book, The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy was
published in 1920.
In 1921 he was appointed as a professor in
philosophy to occupy the King George V Chair of Mental and 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. 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 1929 and which was subsequently published in
book form as An Idealist View of Life.
In 1929 Sarvepalli 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 1931 Birthday Honours,[web 5] and formally
invested with his honour by the Governor-General
of India, the Earl of Willingdon, in April 1932.[web 6] However, he ceased
to use the title after Indian independence,[28]:9 preferring instead
his academic title of 'Doctor'.
He was the Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936.
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.
In 1936 Sarvepalli was named Spalding
Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at the University of Oxford, and was
elected a Fellow of All Souls College.
That same year, and 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. Further
nominations for the award would continue steadily into the 1960s. In 1939
Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya invited
him to succeed him as the Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu
University (BHU).[29] He served as its
Vice-Chancellor till January 1948.
Political career[edit]
See also: British Raj, Indian
independence movement, and Indian
Independence Act 1947
President of United
States John F. Kennedy and President of India, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
(left), depart the White House following a meeting. Minister of External
Affairs of India, Lakshmi N. Menon, walks behind President Kennedy at West Wing
Entrance, White House, Washington, D.C on 4 June 1963
Sarvepalli started his political career
"rather late in life", after his successful academic career.[5] His international
authority preceded his political career. He was one of those stalwarts who
attended Andhra Mahasabha in
1928 where he seconded the idea of renaming Ceded Districts division of Madras Presidency as Rayalaseema. In 1931 he was nominated to the
League of Nations Committee for Intellectual Cooperation, where
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."[5] When India became
independent in 1947, Sarvepalli 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, and elected as the second President of India
(1962–1967).
Sarvepalli did not have a background in the
Congress Party, nor was he active in the struggle against British rules. He was
the politician in shadow.[further explanation needed] His motivation lay
in his pride of Hindu culture, and
the defence of Hinduism against "uninformed Western criticism".[5] According to the
historian Donald Mackenzie Brown,
He had always defended Hindu culture
against uninformed Western criticism and had symbolized the pride of Indians in
their own intellectual traditions.[5]
Teacher's Day[edit]
When Sarvepalli became the President of
India, some of his students and friends 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.[30]
His birthday has since been celebrated
as Teacher's Day in
India.[web 7]
Charity[edit]
Along with Ghanshyam Das Birla and
some other social workers in the pre-independence era, Sarvepalli formed the
Krishnarpan Charity Trust.
As President of India,
Sarvepalli made 11 state visits including visits to both the US and the USSR.[web 8]
Role in Constituent Assembly[edit]
He was against State institutions imparting
denominational religious instruction as it was against the secular vision of
the Indian State.[31]
Philosophy[edit]
Sarvepalli tried to bridge eastern and
western thought,[32] defending Hinduism
against "uninformed Western criticism",[5] but also
incorporating Western philosophical and religious thought.[33]
Advaita Vedanta[edit]
Sarvepalli was one of the most prominent
spokesmen of Neo-Vedanta.[34][35][36] His metaphysics was
grounded in Advaita Vedanta,
but he reinterpreted Advaita Vedanta for a contemporary understanding.[web 2] He acknowledged the
reality and diversity of the world of experience, which he saw as grounded in
and supported by the absolute or Brahman.[web 2][note 2] Sarvepalli also
reinterpreted Shankara's notion
of maya.
According to Sarvepalli, maya is not a strict absolute idealism, but "a
subjective misperception of the world as ultimately real."[web 2]
Intuition and religious experience[edit]
See also: Mystical experience and Religious experience
"Intuition", [web 2] synonymously called
"religious experience",[web 2] has a central place
in Sarvepalli's philosophy as a source of knowledge which is not mediated by
conscious thought.[33] His specific
interest in experience can be traced back to the works of William James (1842–1910), Francis Herbert
Bradley (1846–1924), Henri Bergson (1859–1941), and Friedrich von Hügel (1852–1925),[33] and to Vivekananda(1863-1902),[38] who had a strong
influence on Sarvepalli's thought.[39] According to
Sarvepalli, intuition is of a self-certifying character (svatassiddha),
self-evidencing (svāsaṃvedya), and self-luminous (svayam-prakāsa).[web 2] In his book An
Idealist View of Life, he made a powerful case for the importance of
intuitive thinking as opposed to purely intellectual forms of thought.[web 9] According to
Sarvepalli, intuition plays a specific role in all kinds of
experience.[web 2] Sarvepalli
discernes five sorts of experience:[web 2]
1. Cognitive Experience:
1. Sense Experience
2. Discursive Reasoning
3. Intuitive Apprehension
2. Psychic Experience
3. Aesthetic Experience
4. Ethical Experience
5. Religious Experience
Classification of religions[edit]
For Sarvepalli, theology and creeds are
intellectual formulations, and symbols of religious experience or
"religious intuitions".[web 2] Sarvepalli
qualified the variety of religions hierarchically according to their
apprehension of "religious experience", giving Advaita Vedanta the
highest place:[web 2][note 3]
1. The worshipers of the
Absolute
2. The worshipers of the
personal God
3. The worshipers of the
incarnations like Rama, Kṛiṣhṇa, Buddha
4. Those who worship
ancestors, deities and sages
5. The worshipers of the
petty forces and spirits
Sarvepalli saw Hinduism as a scientific
religion based on facts, apprehended via intuition or religious experience.[web 2] According to
Sarvepalli, "[i]f philosophy of religion is to become scientific, it must
become empirical and found itself on religious experience".[web 2] He saw this empiricism
exemplified in the Vedas:
The truths of the ṛṣis are not evolved as
the result of logical reasoning or systematic philosophy but are the products
of spiritual intuition, dṛṣti or vision. The ṛṣis are not so much the authors
of the truths recorded in the Vedas as the seers who were able to discern the
eternal truths by raising their life-spirit to the plane of universal spirit.
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.[web 2]
From his writings collected as The Hindu
View of Life, Upton Lectures, Delivered at Manchester College, Oxford, 1926:
"Hinduism insists on our working steadily upwards in improving our
knowledge of God. 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.e., bathing places), those of the most advanced are in the heavens, those of
the children (in religion) are in the images of wood and stone, but the sage
finds his God in his deeper self. 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 Sarvepalli, Advaita Vedanta was the best
representative of Hinduism, as being grounded in intuition, in contrast to the
"intellectually mediated interpretations"[web 2] of other religions.[web 2][note 4] He objected against
charges of "quietism"[note 5] and "world
denial", instead stressing the need and ethic of social service, giving a
modern interpretation of classical terms as tat-tvam-asi.[36] According to
Sarvepalli, Vedanta offers the most direct intuitive experience and inner
realisation, which makes it the highest form of religion:
The Vedanta is not a religion, but religion
itself in its most universal and deepest significance.[web 2]
Sarvepalli saw other religions,
"including what Sarvepalli understands as lower forms of Hinduism,"[web 2] as interpretations
of Advaita Vedanta, thereby Hinduising all religions.[web 2]
Although Sarvepalli was well-acquainted
with western culture and philosophy, he was also critical of them. He stated
that Western philosophers, despite all claims to objectivity,
were influenced by theological influences
of their own culture.[43]
Accusations of plagiarism[edit]
Sarvepalli'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 Review, which was critical of the appointment of
non-Bengali's, became the main vehicle of criticism.[44][45][46] Soon after his
arrival in Calcutta in 1921, Sarvepalli's writings were regularly criticised
in The Modern Review.[46] When Sarvepalli
published his Indian Philosophy in two volumes (1923 and
1927), The Modern Review questioned his use of sources,
criticising the lack of references to Bengali scholars. 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."[47]
In the January 1929 issue of The
Modern Review, the Bengali philosopher Jadunath Sinha made the claim that parts
of his 1922 doctoral thesis, Indian Psychology of Perception,
published in 1925, were copied by his teacher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan into the
chapter on "The Yoga system of Patanjali" in his book Indian
Philosophy II, published in 1927.[47][48] Sinha and
Sarvepalli exchanged several letters in the Modern Review, in which
Sinha compared parts of his thesis with Sarvepalli's publication, presenting
altogether 110 instances of "borrowings."[49][48] Sarvepalli felt
compelled to respond, stating that Sinha and he had both used the same
classical texts,[50] his translation
were standard translations, and that similarities in translations were
therefore unavoidable. He further argued that he was lecturing on the subject
before publishing his book, and that his book was ready for publication in
1924, before Sinha's thesis was published.[49]
Scholars such as Kuppuswami Sastri, Ganganath Jha, and Nalini Ganguli confirmed
that Sarvepalli was distributing the notes in question since 1922.[51][52] Ramananda
Chatterjee, the editor of The Modern Review, refused to publish a
letter by Nalini Ganguli confirming this fact, while continuing publishing
Sinha's letters.[52] The General Editor
of Sarvepalli's publisher, professor Muirhead, further confirmed that the
publication was delayed for three years, due to his stay in the United States.[53][51]
Responding to this "systematic effort
[...] to destroy Radhakrishnan's reputation as a scholar and a public
figure,"[54] Summer 1929 the
dispute escalated into a juristic fight, with Sarvepalli filing a suit for
defamation of character against Sinha and Chatterjee, demanding Rs. 100,000 for
the damage done,[54] and Sinha filing a
case against Sarvepalli for copyright infringement, demanding Rs. 20,000.[54][note 6] The suits were
settled in May 1933, the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and
"all the allegations made in the pleadings and in the columns of the Modern
Review were withdrawn."[44][51]
Influence[edit]
Statue of Sarvepalli at
Tankbund
Sarvepalli was one of India's best and most
influential twentieth-century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy.[3][web 2]
Sarvepalli's defence of the Hindu
traditions has been highly influential,[33] both in India and
the western world. In India, Sarvepalli's ideas contributed to the formation of
India as a nation-state.[56] Sarvepalli's
writings contributed to the hegemonic status of Vedanta as "the essential
worldview of Hinduism".[57] In the western
world, Sarvepalli's interpretations of the Hindu tradition, and his emphasis on
"spiritual experience", made Hinduism more readily accessible for a
western audience, and contributed to the influence Hinduism has on modern spirituality:
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.[57]
Appraisal[edit]
Sarvepalli has been highly appraised.
According to Paul Artur Schillp:
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.[32]
And according to Hawley:
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.[web 2]
Criticism and context[edit]
Sarvepalli's ideas have also received
criticism and challenges, for their perennialist[34][58] and universalist
claims,[59][60] and the use of an
east–west dichotomy.[web 2]
Perennialism[edit]
Main article: Perennial philosophy
According to Sarvepalli, there is not only
an underlying "divine unity"[58] from the seers of
the Upanishads up to modern Hindus like Tagore and Gandhi,[58] but also "an
essential commonality between philosophical and religious traditions from
widely disparate cultures."[34] This is also a
major theme in the works of Rene Guenon, the Theosophical Society,
and the contemporary popularity of eastern religions in modern spirituality.[34][33] Since the 1970s,
the Perennialist position has been criticised for its essentialism.
Social-constructionists give an alternative approach to religious experience,
in which such "experiences" are seen as being determined and mediated
by cultural determants:[33][61][note 7]
As Michaels notes:
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.[62]
Rinehart also points out that
"perennialist claims notwithstanding, modern Hindu thought is a product of
history",[58] which "has
been worked out and expressed in a variety of historical contexts over the
preceding two hundreds years."[58] This is also true
for Radhakrishan, who was educated by missionaries[63] and, like other
neo-Vedantins used the prevalent western understanding of India and its culture
to present an alternative to the western critique.[34][64]
Universalism, communalism and Hindu
nationalism[edit]
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"[65] by colonial
Indologists but also neo-Vedantins served well for the Hindu nationalists, who further popularised
this notion of Advaita Vedanta as the pinnacle of Indian religions.[66] It
...provided an opportunity for the
construction of a nationalist ideology that could unite Hindus in their
struggle against colonial oppression.[67]
This "opportunity" has been
criticised. According to Sucheta Mazumdar and Vasant Kaiwar,
... Indian nationalist leaders continued to
operate within the categorical field generated by politicized religion [...]
Extravagant claims were made on behalf of Oriental civilization. Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan's statement – "[t]he Vedanta is not a religion but religion
itself in its "most universal and deepest significance" – is
fairly typical.[59]
Rinehart also criticises the inclusivism of
Sarvepalli's approach, since it provides "a theological scheme for
subsuming religious difference under the aegis of Vedantic truth."[60][note 8] According to
Rinehart, the consequence of this line of reasoning is communalism,[60] the idea that
"all people belonging to one religion have common economic, social and
political interests and these interests are contrary to the interests of those
belonging to another religion."[web 10] Rinehart notes that
Hindu religiosity plays an important role in the nationalist movement,[60] and that "the
neo-Hindu discource is the unintended consequence of the initial moves made by
thinkers like Rammohan Roy and Vivekananda."[60] Yet Rinehart also
points out that it is
...clear that there isn't a neat line of
causation that leads from the philosophies of Rammohan Roy, Vivekananda and
Radhakrishnan to the agenda of [...] militant Hindus.[68][note 9]
Post-colonialism[edit]
Main articles: Orientalism and Post-colonialism
Colonialism left deep traces in the hearts
and minds of the Indian people, influencing the way they understood and
represented themselves.[34] The influences of
"colonialist forms of knowledge"[web 2] can also be found
in the works of Sarvepalli. According to Hawley, Sarvepalli's division between
East and West, the East being spiritual and mystical, and the West being
rationt and colonialist forms of knowledge constructed during the 18th and 19th
centuries. Arguably, these characterizations are "imagined" in the
sense that they reflect the philosophical and religious realities of neither
"East' nor West."[web 2]
Since the 1990s, 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.[41][note 10]
Awards and honours[edit]
Sarvepalli on a 1989
stamp of India
·
A portrait of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
adorns the Chamber of the Rajya Sabha.[72][73]
·
1931: appointed a Knight Bachelor in, [web 5] although he ceased
to use the title "Sir" after India attained independence.[74]
·
1933-37: Nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in
Literature.
·
1938: elected Fellow of the British Academy.
·
1954: The Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in
India.[web 3]
·
1954: Sash First Class (Banda de Primera
clase) of the Orden
Mexicana del Águila Azteca[75]
·
1954: Order Pour
le Mérite for Arts and Sciences (Germany)[web 11]
·
1961: the Peace Prize of the German Book
Trade.
·
1962: Institution of Teacher's Day in India, yearly celebrated
at 5 September, Sarvepalli's birthday, in honour of Sarvepalli's belief that
"teachers should be the best minds in the country".[web 3]
·
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, a few months
before his death, for advocating non-aggression and conveying "a universal
reality of God that embraced love and wisdom for all people."[web 12][note 11] He donated the
entire amount of the Templeton Prize to Oxford University.
·
1989: institution of the Radhakrishnan
Scholarships by Oxford University in the memory of Sarvepalli. The scholarships
were later renamed the "Radhakrishnan Chevening Scholarships".[76]
·
He was nominated sixteen times for
the Nobel prize in
literature, and eleven times for the Nobel Peace prize.[77][78]
Quotes[edit]
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·
"It is not God that is worshipped but
the authority that claims to speak in His name. Sin becomes disobedience to authority
not violation of integrity."[79]
·
"Reading a book gives us the habit of
solitary reflection and true enjoyment."[80]
·
"When we think we know, we cease to
learn."[81]
·
"A literary genius, it is said,
resembles all, though no one resembles him."[82]
·
"There is nothing wonderful in my
saying that Jainism was in existence long before the Vedas were composed."[83]
·
"A life of joy and happiness is
possible only on the basis of knowledge.
·
"If he does not fight, it is not
because he rejects all fighting as futile, but because he has finished his
fights. He has overcome all dissensions between himself and the world and is
now at rest... We shall have wars and soldiers so long as the brute in us is
untamed."[84]
Bibliography[edit]
Works by Sarvepalli[edit]
·
The philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (1918), Macmillan,
London, 294 pages
·
Indian Philosophy (1923) Vol.1, 738
pages. (1927) Vol 2, 807 pages. Oxford University
Press.
·
The Hindu View of Life (1926), 92 pages
·
An Idealist View of Life (1929), 351 pages
·
Eastern Religions and Western Thought (1939), Oxford
University Press, 396 pages
·
Religion and Society (1947), George
Allen and Unwin Ltd., London, 242 pages
·
The Bhagavadgītā: with an introductory
essay, Sanskrit text, English translation and notes (1948), 388 pages
·
The
Dhammapada (1950), 194 pages, Oxford University
Press
·
The
Principal Upanishads (1953), 958 pages, HarperCollins
Publishers Limited
·
Recovery of Faith (1956), 205 pages
·
A Source Book in Indian Philosophy (1957), 683 pages,
Princeton University Press, with Charles A. Moore as co-editor.
·
The Brahma Sutra: The Philosophy of
Spiritual Life. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1959, 606 pages. [85]
·
Religion,
Science & Culture (1968), 121 pages
Biographies and monographs on Sarvepalli[edit]
Several books have been published on
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan:
·
Murty, K. Satchidananda; Ashok Vohra
(1990). Radhakrishnan: his life and ideas. SUNY
Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0343-3.
·
Minor, Robert Neil (1987). Radhakrishnan: a religious biography. SUNY
Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-554-5.
·
Gopal, Sarvepalli (1989). Radhakrishnan: a biography. Unwin Hyman. ISBN 978-0-04-440449-1.
·
Pappu, S.S. Rama Rao (1995). New
Essays in the Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Delhi:
South Asia Books. ISBN 978-81-7030-461-6.
·
Parthasarathi, G.; Chattopadhyaya, Debi
Prasad, eds. (1989). Radhakrishnan: centenary volume. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
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