Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

"The greatest fact in the story of man on earth is not his material achievements, the empires he has built and broken, but the growth of his soul from age to age in its search for truth and goodness. Those who take part in this adventure of the soul secure an enduring place in the history of human culture. Time has discredited heroes as easily as it has forgotten every one else; but the saints remain. The greatness of Gandhi is more in his holy living than in his heroic struggles, in his insistence on the creative power of the soul and its life-giving quality at a time when the destructive force seem to be in the ascendant."

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975)
(Included in The Educational Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi by M.S. Patel)

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan served as both the first vice president, and second president of India. Upon receiving his degree from Madras Christian College, Radhakrishnan launched his career in academia and held positions at institutions such as the University of Mysore, the University of Chicago, and Oxford University. Although he was not active during India’s independence movement, Radhakrishnan sought to preserve India’s national identity independent of British influence through his bolstering of India’s spiritual and intellectual traditions. Within the League of Nations Committee for Intellectual Cooperation, he was responsible for evaluating the role of eastern institutions in contemporary society. When India achieved independence in 1947, Radhakrishnan became the Indian ambassador to the Soviet Union. In 1952, he was elected as the first vice president of India, before becoming the second president of India in 1967. Radhakrishnan’s birthday (September 5th) is a national holiday in India, known as “teacher’s day.”