Biography on Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Or Essay for Class 6

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born on 5th September in Thiruttani in Chittoor District near Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border. His father Sarvepalli Veeraswami was a Revenue official and his mother was Sitamma.

He studied in K.V. High School Thiruttani and later in Mission School in Tirupati. He was academically a very bright student and earned many scholarships. His higher education was in Madras Christian College from where he did his M.A. in Philosophy in 1906.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan married Sivakamu at the age of sixteen. He had five daughters and a son. He established himself as a great scholar of comparative religion and philosophy and was regarded as a bridge between Indian and western thought, philosophy and religion.

He was deeply influenced by Swami Vivekananda and made his life a mission to defend Hinduism against uninformed western criticism.

In 1909 he was appointed as Professor in Department of philosophy at Madras Presidency College. In 1918 he taught at Maharaja College of Mysore as Professor of Philosophy and in 1921 at the University of Calcutta. In 1931 he was knighted by George V. He became Chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. He became Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics in the University of Oxford in the year 1936. From 1949 to 1952 he was appointed as Ambassador of India to Soviet Union. In 1952 he was elected as Vice President of India and he became President of India from 1962 to 1967.

According to his own wishes his birthday is celebrated as the teacher’s day in India. He was one of the founders of Helpage India, a non-profit organisation for elderly underprivileged in India. In 1954, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was awarded Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award.