Teachers Day: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan - The teacher who bridged the distances

In life, both at the individual level and at the collective level, comes moments that call for corrections and revisions in the life, reassess past actions, traditions and philosophies that eventually would lead to newer paths to tread.

At a collective level, on such moments, there appear personalities who are best suited for the purpose, to guide people on the path of revision that is nothing but a renewal, rejuvenation and reinventing oneself.

This constant revisioning, say once in a quarter century or so, of values, laws, philosophies, regulations so that the entire body of social structures are in alignment with the material development and progress of the time, is much needed for every community as well as the individuals for a seamless progress without friction and attrition.

Throughout the history of humanity, one can see such personalities are more often philosophers than personalities from the other fields. The reason is there is a philosophy underneath every action, practice, belief, rule, regulation, practice, custom and so on and philosophers are the ones who can grasp the underlying philosophies at once and bring them to the attention of the masses with ease.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan is one such personality. He was a philosopher, teacher, statesman and a very fine writer. In every field, including education, he advocated constant course corrections for better future. He brought metaphysics, that was thought by the masses to be the field of educated philosophers, to masses in simple English language and showed that philosophy is not a tough nut to crack but a very simple, logical reasoning process that became a beautiful philosophy when expressed cogently.

As for the religion, he pointed out how Hinduism, major religion of India, reformed itself when cornered by the religions brought by the alien rulers and advocated that Hinduism should emphatically give up imperfect conceptions and should democratise its institutions to free the religion from prejudices and inequality.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was instrumental in changing the face of education in India and the education models and policies that came later were all built on the foundation laid by him.

According to him, education should be men making and society making and that education must not only for gaining facts and knowledge but also for achieving wisdom and truth. (Radhakrishnan S. The Concept of Man, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1960) Every now and then there arise some voices that Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was not modern and had hidebound thoughts when it came to the education for all. Nothing can be farther from truth. In his report of University Education Commission (1948-1949), he suggested teaching through discussion and learning by doing to complement textbook education. And he also noted in the same report, “No society can progress satisfactory with backwardness of women. If women are uneducated, the society will remain uneducated.”

He was for education strengthening cultural structures of the society and also bring in new ideas and paths for material and spiritual progress for every member of the society. When one goes through his writings, one would realize how much they are in alignment with the present time and also the National Education Policy.

No wonder 5 September is observed as a Teacher’s Day as a mark of respect to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and to all the teachers who he thought were important component of social progress. He said that teacher is the mirror of the society and also the shapers of characters and destiny of young children and by extension of society.

Not only that, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s idea of mixing western and eastern methods, on bringing Socratic method to education that will result in vast pool of critical thinkers in the society or his insistence on strengthening of national philosophy by empowering students to grasp the spirit of the country rather than mere social structures, are incredibly contemporary. Probably it is his ideas on education is what the country needs at present and the fact that it is in match with major points of National Education Policy makes his philosophy a potential candidate for philosophy of future education. Interestingly his first book was The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore who Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan believed to be the genuine manifestation of the Indian spirit. Fittingly he was awarded Bharat Ratna for his invaluable and incalculable contribution to Indian culture and education.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s philosophical writings are immensely valuable to millions and since he used lucid language to explain even the most obscure concepts, his writings are popular among people of several generations. In fact, through simple writing, Radhakrishnan brought the entire body of both Indian and Western philosophy within the field of masses and empowered the masses to understand deeper philosophies. As a statesman he was exemplary. At the height of cold war, he was India’s ambassador to Soviet Union but that didn’t prevent him from developing friendship with arch enemies of Soviets, the American statesmen. He was wildly popular in the West and across the spectrum, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was viewed as authority of Indian ideas and persuasive interpreter of the role of Eastern institutions in contemporary society.

He was probably the first one to bring India close to both Soviets as well as Americans at the same time. There have been plenty of criticism against Radhakrishnan, against his views on social institutions, his educational philosophy, his interpretations of the spiritual canons of India etc., but none can deny the fact that he was a unifier and not a divider. As noted above, he reduced the gap between metaphysical thought and masses, by advocating the denunciation of unequal structures within religion, he democratised the religion and empowered religions to initiated reforms from within, he reduced the gap between teachers and students, he reduced the distance between India and the Western powers etc. His writings pourout unity, peace, democracy, learning for all etc., and very fittingly India remembers his birth anniversary as Teacher’s Day every year.