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Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
‐
Philosopher and former President of India
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
Location(s)
OX1 4AL
United Kingdom
Place of death
Madras, India
Date of time spent in Britain
1926, 1929–30, 1936–52
About
Sarvepalla Radhakrishnan was a writer and philosopher. He was acting President of India from 1960 and elected President in 1962 until 1967. Born in the village of Tiruttani in the Madras Presidency and educated at Madras Christian College, he taught in various universities in India and abroad. While at the University of Calcutta, Radhakrishnan was invited to give a series of lectures at Manchester College, Oxford in 1926. He returned to Britain on a tour in 1929–30 to give the Hibbert Lectures at University College, London and again address Manchester College. During this visit Radhakrishnan also spoke at the Indian Students' Union in London in February 1930.
Radhakrishnan was knighted in 1931 and invited to take up the Spalding Professorship of Eastern Religions and Ethics at All Souls College, Oxford from 1936 to 1952. Radhakrishnan also served as an Indian delegate to the League of Nations during the 1930s. Radhakrishnan balanced his political career with his academic career and acted as Ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1949–52 before becoming Vice-President of India. Radhakrishnan was successful in comparing eastern and western philosophies and in interpreting Indian philosophy for western audiences. His birthday is celebrated as Teachers' Day in India.
World Congress of Faiths, 1936
The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (London: Macmillan, 1918)
The Philosophy of the Upanishads, with a foreword by Rabindranath Tagore (London: Allen & Unwin, 1924)
The Hindu View of Life (London: Allen & Unwin, 1927)
The Religion We Need (London: E. Benn, 1928)
Indian Philosophy (London: Allen & Unwin, 1929)
An Idealist View of Life (London: Allen & Unwin, 1932)
East and West in Religion (London: Allen & Unwin, 1933)
Eastern Religions and Western Thoughts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939)
Mahatma Gandhi: Essays and Reflections on His Life and Work (London: Allen & Unwin, 1939)
Is This Peace? (Bombay: Hind Kitabs, 1945)
Religion and Society (London: Allen & Unwin, 1948)
The Dhammapada (London: Oxford University Press, 1950)
The Principal Upanishads (London: Allen & Unwin, 1953)
(ed. with P. T. Raju) The Concept of Man: A Study in Comparative Philosophy (London: Allen & Unwin, 1960)
Basanta Kumar Mallik: A Garland of Homage from Someone Who Knew Him Well (London: Vincent Stuart, 1961)
Religion in a Changing World (London: Allen & Unwin, 1967)
Copley, Antony R. H., ‘Radhakrishnan, Sir Sarvepalli (1888–1975)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2008) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31577]
Gopal, Sarvepalli, Radhakrishnan: A Biography (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989)
Murty, K. Satchidananda and Vohra, Ashok, Radhakrishnan: His Life and Ideas (New York: State University of New York Press, 1990)
National Archives of India, New Delhi
Current Affairs Footage, National Film and Television Archive, British Film Institute, London
Image credit
By Serge Ivanoff – own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133222001
