Politics
The Calm, Studied Brilliance Of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
- Despite being a philosopher and author of international repute in his day, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is a largely forgotten icon today.
First vice president and second president of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, whose birthday – 5 September – is celebrated as Teachers’ Day.
Changes in historiographical methods and emergence of new sub-disciplines (subaltern, post-structuralism, multiculturalism, post-colonial, among others) have reduced the footprint of Radhakrishnan’s influence. If he is remembered, at all, it is as a philosopher of Vedanta and India’s president.
He disliked Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who he saw as a mediocre thinker and a political schemer; he also disliked Jagjivan Ram, whom he saw as corrupt, as also Krishna Menon, who he saw as a hardline anti-American doctrinaire. None of these men served in public life and government with the requisite self-abnegation that he valued in Gandhi, and to a lesser degree in Nehru.
Thanks to Ramachandra Guha, who read this and helped correct an error.
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