Teachers' Day: 5 September Amazing facts about Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

 Teachers' Day: 5 September

Amazing facts about   

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 

India celebrates teachers' day every year for students across the country on 5th September. The day is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of India’s first Vice President Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He was also the second President of India – a position he held from 1962 to 1967. A symbol of academics and education, Radhakrishnan was a renowned philosopher, statesman as well as a teacher. Dr Radhakrishnan is

remembered for being one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century as well as for introducing western philosophies into the Indian society.Since we are celebrating Teachers' Day today, here are amazing facts about Radhakrishnan.

• 1. Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was born on September 5, 1888, in a middle class family in Thiruthani, Tamil Nadu, was appointed as professor of Philosophy to the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta(CU). His association with the university lasted around 12 years from 1921 to 1932. During his tenure at the University, he represented CU at the Congress of the Universities of the British Empire in June 1926 as well as at the International Congress of Philosophy at Harvard University, the USA in September 1926.

• 2. Dr Radhakrishnan was appointed as a Spalding professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at the University of Oxford. This position was specifically made by HN Spalding in 1936 because he was impressed after Radhakrishnan’s lectures in London,and was also fascinated by his personality.

• 3. Radhakrishnan was nominated 16 times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and another 11 times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

• 4. Radhakrishnan was highly admired and respected by his students. In 1921, when he was en route to the Mysore railway

station from the Mysore University, his students had arranged for a flower-decked carriage to take him to the destination. This carriage was pulled by the students themselves.

• 5. During his tenure as the Vice President, Radhakrishnan was in charge of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) sessions. Whenever a heated conversation would take place during the sessions, Radhakrishnan would quote slokas from Sanskrit classics or quotes from the Bible to calm the agitated audience.

• 6. Leading the Indian delegation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Dr Radhakrishnan was elected chairman of UNESCO's executive board in 1948.

• 7. Dr Radhakrishnan taught at various colleges - from University of Mysore to University of Calcutta.

• 8. He died on April 16, 1975 in Chennai