Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Radhakrishnan was born into a brahmin family in the temple town of Tirutani and educated at Christian missionary schools and colleges. At Madras Christian College he was trained in European philosophy, and Christian critics’ charge that Vedanta had no room for ethics prompted his master’s thesis, The Ethics of the Vedanta. He became known in Western journals in the 1910s, and in 1921 took the George V Chair of Philosophy at Calcutta, where he wrote Indian Philosophy. His Upton Lectures at Oxford became The Hindu View of Life, and his Hibbert Lectures An Idealist View of Life, his most sustained work of his own.

He was knighted in 1931, became Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford in 1936, and served as vice-chancellor of Andhra and Benares Hindu universities. After independence he led India’s delegation to UNESCO, chaired the commission on university education and was ambassador in Moscow, before serving as vice-president (1952–1962) and president (1962–1967) of India. Admired as a bridge between India and the West, he has also been criticised for selecting evidence to fit his account of Hinduism and for making all religions interpretations of his own Vedanta.