Remembering Dr S Radhakrishnan

Pulse

oi-Anjana NS

By Anjana Ns

Monday, September 5, 2011, 11:48

As India celebrates Teacher's day, we thought of reminding you of that leader who is remembered and honored greatly from kids to the oldies, we are talking about the teacher of all teachers Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Dr S Radhakrishnan was born on September 5th, 1888 in Tiruttani. He is one of the famous Indian philosophers and statesman, his birthday is celebrated as the Teacher's day. He was the first vice president of India and then became the president in 1962.

Being one of the most influential scholars, Dr S Radhakrishnan wrote many journals talking on the eastern and western philosophies and the bridge between the two. He is honored with the most prestigious the Knighthood, Bharat Ratna and Old Of Merit.

Radhakrishnan was born in a poor Brahmin family. His father Sarvepalli Veeraswami was working as a subordinate to the revenue official. He did his schooling in Primary Board High School at Tirutani and Hermansburg Evangelical Lutheral Mission School in Tirupati.

He then joined the Voorhees College in Vellore and was an MA in philosophy. He wrote an MA thesis called "The Ethics of the Vedanta and its Metaphysical Presuppositions". He married his distant cousin Sivakami and has 5 daughters and a son.

Dr S Radhakrishnan started his teaching profession at the Madras Presidency College, he then became the professor of Philosophy by the University of Mysore. His philosophy journals include The Quest, Journal of Philosophy and the International Journal of Ethics. He even wrote books titled "The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore" and "The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy".

After serving as the principal at the Harris Manchester College, he later became the Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University. Popularly known as Sarvepalli, he even represented India at UNESCO and later as the Ambassador of the Soviet Union. In 1952, he was elected as the vice president of India. He was the first vice president and the second president.

When his students and friends requested him to celebrate his birthday on September 5th, he suggested them to celebrate his day as the teacher's day.