Teachers Day 2024: List of Awards and Honours conferred to Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Dr. Savipalli Radhakrishnan’s birthday is celebrated as Teacher’s Day in India, on September 5th every year. He was a distinguished scholar and academician. He was one of India’s finest and most influential twentieth-century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy. In 1936, he was appointed Spalding Professor of Oriental Religions and Ethics at Oxford University.

He was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Mysore from 1918 to 1921, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Calcutta from 1921 to 1931 and from 1937 to 1942. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Andhra Pradesh from 1931 to 1936, Vice-Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University from 1939 to 1948, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi from 1953 to 1962.

He also headed the Indian delegation to UNESCO and was elected Chairman of the Executive Board of UNESCO. He also served as India’s ambassador to the Soviet Union. After returning home in 1952, he was elected Vice President and then President in 1962, becoming the second President of independent India after Rajendra Prasad.

List of awards and honours bestowed upon Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

1. He was awarded the title of Sir in 1931. After India’s independence, he stopped using the title of “Sir” and chose to continue using the academic title of “Doctor”.

2. In 1938, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

3. In 1954, he was awarded India’s highest civilian medal, the “Bharatiya Janata Dal”.

4. In 1954, he was awarded the German “Order of Merit in Arts and Science”.

5. In 1962, he won the German Book Trade Peace Prize.

6. In 1962, India designated Teachers’ Day on the birthday of Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan (September 5) in his memory. He firmly believed that “teachers should be the best talents of the country.”

7. In 1963, he was awarded the British Order of Merit.

8. In 1968, he became the first recipient of the Indian Academy Fellowship, the highest honour bestowed by the Indian Academy on writers.

9. In 1975, a few months before his death, he received the Templeton Prize. He was awarded for advocating non-aggression and for conveying “the universal reality of God, including love and wisdom for all people.” He donated the entire prize money to Oxford University.

10. In 1989, Oxford University established the Radhakrishnan Scholarship in memory of Radhakrishnan, which was later renamed the “Radhakrishnan Chevening Scholarship”.

When Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan became the second President of India, the reaction of world-renowned philosopher Bert Russell was: “It is an honour to the world of philosophy that the great Republic of India has elected Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan as its President, and I am particularly delighted to be a philosopher. Plato said that philosophers should be kings, and the great Republic of India has paid a true tribute to Plato by having a philosopher as its President.”