Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a great person who later became the first Vice President of the India as well as second President of the India. He was also a good teacher, philosopher and author. His birthday is celebrated every year in India on 5^th of September as the Teacher’s Day by the students. He was born on 5^th of September in 1888 at Tirutani, Madras in a very poor Brahmin family.

Because of the poor economic status of his family he studied with the support of scholarships. He got his early education from Gowdie School, Tiruvallur, Lutheran Mission School, Tirupati, Voorhee’s College, Vellore and then Madras Christian College. He was very interested in the Philosophy and completed his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Philosophy.

At the Madras Presidency College, he was assigned as an assistant lectureship after completing the MA degree. He had mastered the classics of Hindu philosophy such as Upanishads, Brahmasutra, Bhagvad Gita, commentaries of Sankara, Madhava, Ramunuja, etc. He was also well familiar with the Buddhist and Jain philosophy as well as philosophies of Western thinkers. He became a Professor of Philosophy at University of Mysore and soon nominated for Professor of Philosophy at Calcutta University . In order to deliver lectures on the Hindu philosophy, he was called later to the Oxford University. Through his many hard efforts, he became able to put the Indian Philosophy on the world map.

Later in 1931, he got selected as the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University and Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University i. He also appointed as ambassador to UNESCO and ambassador to Soviet Union . Later he became first Vice-President of the India and awarded Bharat Ratna . After serving the country for two terms as the Vice-President of India, he became President of India in 1962 and retired in 1967. After serving the country through his great works, he died on 17^th of April in 1975.

He also won Templeton Prize (but he donated the Templeton Prize to Oxford University), Peace Prize of the German Book Trade , etc. In order to pay him honour forever, university started Radhakrishnan Scholarships which was later renamed as Radhakrishnan Chevening Scholarships.