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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Radhakrishnan


DR. SARVEPALLI RADHAKRISHNAN
(1888 – 1975)
1. INTRODUCTION
          Dr. S. Radhakrishnan is one of the India’s most influential scholars of comparative religion and philosophy. He started his teaching career as professor of philosophy in different Indian universities. He wrote authoritative exegeses of India’s religious and philosophical literature for the English speaking world. His notes on Western Philosophy attracted by the Westerners. His academic appointments included King George of Mental and Moral Science at the University (1936 – 1952). Among the many honours he received were a Knighthood (1931), the Bharat Ratna (1954) and Templeton award (1975), before his death. His birthday is celebrated in India as Teacher’s Day on 5 September. In 1963, he was made an honorary member of the order of merit.
2. BRIEF LIFE SKETCH
          Dr. S. Radhakrishnan was born at Tiruttanni, near Madras, of Telugu Brahmin parents. He had his early education in Lutheran Mission High School at Tirupati, and in Voorhese College, Vellore and studied in the Madras Christian College and took his M.A. Degree in Philosophy, in 1909.
          From 1909 to 1917, he was on the staff of the Presidency College, Madras. He was transferred to the Arts College, Rajahmunury as Lecturer in Philosophy. Then he was selected as Professor of Philosophy in Mysore University, in 1918. In Mysore, that same year he wrote the philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, and in 1920 the Reign of religion in Contemporary Philosophy. He was appointed the George V Professor of Philosophy at Calcutta in 1921. The first Volume of Indian Philosophy was published in 1923, second volume was published in 1927     and revised in 1929.
 Dr. S. Radhakrishnan led the Indian Delegation to UNESCO from 1946 – 1950, was appointed Indian Ambassador to Moscow in 1949. He became the Vice President of India for 10 years he was the confidant and adviser of Pandit Nehru, and became the President of India in 1962 for a five year term. In 1963, he was made an Honorary Member of the Order of merit. Before his death, he received the Templeton Award in 1975.
3. HIS WRITING WORKS
          In 1926, he published a book as “ The Hindu View of Life”. It made him very famous. In 1927, His second part of his work completed. He discussed the philosophy of Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism. In 1932, He authored the first volume of his famous work, “Indian Philosophy” where in surveyed the essential of Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagwadgita, Jainism , Realism and Buddism.
          In his book, “Eastern Religions and Western Thought” Radhakrishnan revealed how the Upanishads influenced and Western thought from the time of Pythogoras and Plato to the modern times. Number of books were written by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, some of them are “The Heart of Hindustan” and “Freedom and Culture”.
4. HIS PHILOSOPHY
          According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Philosophy is a wide term that includes logic, ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy and metaphysics. Metaphysics which is concerned with the ultimate nature of things is comprised of two main fields, Ontology and Epistemology. Science studies the different facts of experience, while philosophy develops the meaning and explanation of experience as a whole. Philosophy studies experience in a concrete form and reveals the order and being of experience itself. It sustained attempt to understand the universe as a whole; it coordinates and interprets all significant aspects of experience – the reports of scientists, the intuitions of the artists and the insights of saints. Human consciousness consists of the perceptual, the logical and intuitive awareness.
            4.1. PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE
                      Dr. S. Radhakrishnan philosophy is idealism. This means that life has a purpose, and ideals and values are the dynamic forces that give direction to life and help it to achieve its goal. Man’s inborn feeling in God, his search for truth his striving for perfection, his longing for goodness, his craving for beauty all his hopes, ideals and aspirations – abundantly prove man’s essential divine nature.
            4.2. SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
                      Dr. S. Radhakrishnan remarks that a society or civilization is carried forward by the efforts of a minority consisting of men of wisdom, of courage and power. These individuals are in communion with the good, both seen and unseen, and have ‘the energy to graft their vision on to the existing social substance’. True liberty consists in the deliberate regulation of social forces for the positive development of the individuals. It is not a compromise between society and the individual, but a sense of social wholeness. The social objective is to be gained by persuasion, not by force. Social changes should be an ordered development and not a violent disruptive change. Enlightened people should support policies which promote public good by education opinion and propagating right ideas.
                                Dr. S. Radhakrishnan defines culture as the transformation of one’s being to produce sweetness of temper, sanity of mind and strength of spirit.
                      Civilization to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan is essentially a movement of the spirit. Modern civilization is in the stage of economic barbarism concerned more with the world and its power. Its failure to utilize correctly the enormously increased productive power due to science is a danger that threatens it.
                 In the technological civilization, technology which is the manipulation of the environment in the interests of human life are abused in the interests of wrong social, political and international power relations.
                 The new civilization cannot be based only on science and technology but on human spirit.  Radhakrishnan remarks that we must discover the reserves of spirituality and use them to fashion a new type of man who utilizes the scientific instruments with the spiritual awareness.
            4.3.  PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
                      To Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, History is and interplay of leadership, opportunity and circumstances. It is the story of remarkable individuals dramatically engaged in mastering the hostile environment. History is also compared to a mirror in which we see our inner selves. It is also defined as a creative process, a meaningful pattern brought about by the spirit of man.
                      Radhakrishnan argues that if the supreme Reality were unique, passive and immobile there would be no room for time, for movement, for history. Eternity is not the denial of time or history; it is the transfiguration of time; which derives from eternity and finds fulfillment in it. He classifies history as cultural history, social history and the history of the sciences. He declares that one of the deepest trends in human history is to escape from submission to nature or fate, and the free human being can change the nature or the growth of society.
5. HIS RELIGION
          Radhakrishnan defines religion as the insight in to the nature of Reality or experience of Reality. This experience is the response of the whole personality, the integrated Self to the central Reality. Religion is the self-manifestation of the Ultimate Reality in man. It is the awareness of our real nature in God; and in it is a way in which the individual organizes the inward being and responds to what is ‘ envisaged by him as the Ultimate Reality’.

DEFINITION
            Radhakrishnan defines religion also as a strenuous endeavor to apprehend truth. “A religion represents the soul of the people, its particular spirit, thought and temperament. It is an expression of the spiritual experience of the race a record of its social, evolution, an integral element of the society in which it is found”.
            Radhakrishnan’s three stages are Hearing, Reflection and Disciplined meditation for the religious life. One has to rise from one stage to another. The present day growing dissatisfaction with the established religion is the prelude action to the rise of a truer, more spiritual and more universal religion.

6. HIS AESTHETICS
          Art is the expression of experience in some medium, the experience is clothed in forms which appeal to the emotion through the senses. The experience is released afresh by means of the work of art and the enjoyer becomes the secret sharer of the creator’s mind.
DEFINITION OF ART
            Radhakrishnan defines art as a form of knowledge, a disclosure of the deeper reality of things, and an imitation of inner reality.
          The aim of art is to capture the inner and informing spirit and it is by integral insight or spiritual intuition that the artist attains to the power of artistic expression. The greatest gifts of art are peace and reconciliation. Both aesthetic creation and enjoyment are non – intellectual actions. Aesthetic satisfaction is a kin to spiritual joy, the fruit of the fulfillment of the inner being.
7. HIS ETHICS
            Evil is a negative conception, the lack of good; and all conflict is between good and better or bad and worse. Evil is caused by the abuse of one’s free-will, and God permits it because, he does not interfere with the human choice. Suffering is not punishment, but is the reward of fellowship, an essential accompaniment of all creative endeavors. In spite of the world cannot be the God of love, there can be no love without sorrow and suffering. In the conception of avatara or descent of God the Divine accepts suffering, endures it and brings the goal nearer.
          The law of moral progress is one of acceptance and adventure. The objective of morality to Radhakrishnan is social redemption and not individual salvation. When one attains the spiritual level, one rises above the ethical discipline in course of time brings about a change in the inward man and makes him practice good in an effortless, spontaneous way. The integrated personality is incapable of doing any wrong. Full freedom thus demands the transfiguration of the world.


 CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION
8. AIMS OF EDUCATION
·         To enable to know that education is a life – long process.
·         To bring man nearer to God to attain this aim, one should study the different aspects of education.
·         To awaken the innate ability to live the life of soul by developing wisdom.
·         Education could establish a classless society and ensure equality among human.
·         To develop certain values like fearlessness of mind, strength of conscience and integrity of purpose.
·         To improve the spiritual development of the students.
·         To train for self development.
·         To teach that life has a meaning.
·         To train for democracy.
·         To impart vocational and professional training.
·         To impart vocational and professional training.
·         Education should aim at the self-realization civil responsibly, non-violence, faith in democracy
·         Unity and feeling of brotherhood.
9. MEANS OF EDUCATION
          Dr.Radhakrishnan strongly favored modern means of education. He maintained that students of different professions should be given practical training as far as possible. Elaborating this principle, the University education commission under him made the following recommendations.
            9.1. AGRICULTURE
                 The study of agriculture in primary, secondary and higher education be given high priority in national economic planning. So far as is feasible, agricultural education be given a rural setting.
            9.2. COMMERCE
                 A commerce student should be given opportunities for practical work in three or four different kinds of firms.
            9.3. EDUCATION
                 The course be remodeled and more time given to school practice and more weight to practice in assessing the student’s performances.
            9.4. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
                 The number of engineering schools of different grades be increased particularly for training of grades 4 and 5 ( Foremen, Craft men, Draft men, Overseers etc.)
            9.5. LAW
                 A three – year degree course be offered in special legal subjects. Students pursuing degree course in law shall not be permitted to carry other degree courses simultaneously except in a few instances where advanced students have proved their interest and are studying related subjects in law and some other field.
            9.6. MEDICINE
                 The maximum number of admission to a medical college be 100, provided the staff and equipment for that number are available.
10. TYPES OF EDUCATION
          Dr.Radhakrishnan views on various type of education. Some of them are given below :
            10.1. MORAL EDUCATION
                Dr.Radhakrishnan wanted to make moral education a compulsory part of education at primary and secondary levels without it the educational institution cannot fulfill their objective of educating the youth of the country .Moral education is the education of will. It starts in the family.
            10.2. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
                 Dr.Radhakrishnan supports religious education. It is a mean for developing a spiritual intuition because, ”The aim at religion is spiritual and not merely a change in metaphysical ideas”. The religious education will provide freedom and spiritual progress to the educand.
          The university Education commission, under the chairmanship of Radhakrishnan, made the following recommendations
1.      In the first year lives of the great religious leaders like Gautama the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, Socrates, Ramanuja, Madhva, Kabir, Nanak and Gandhi be taught.

2.      In the second year some selections of a universal character from the scriptures of the world be studied.

3.      In the third year, the central problems of the philosophy of religion be considered.
10.3. PRIMARY EDUCATION
    Dr.Radhakrishnan praised M.K. Gandhi’s scheme of basic education for the primary education in India. It explains the importance of physical education. He recommends teaching of both humanities and science subjects along with languages on the primary level.
10.4. SECONDARY EDUCATION
     Dr.Radhakrishnan has considered secondary education as a next step continuous with the primary education. The student should be provided a multisided curriculum including science, humanities and languages. The curriculum should be modified according to the needs of the country because the primary aim of education is to meet the needs of the nation and to create national unity.


10.5. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
     The most significant contribution made by Radhakrishnan to Indian education has been in the area of higher education. This contribution was made through the University Educational Commission Report.
10.5.1. OBJECTIVES OF THE UNIVERSITIES
     1. To seek and cultivate new knowledge.
     2. To provide the right kind of leadership in  all walks of life.
     3. To provide society with competent men and women trained in agricultural, arts, medicine, science and technology.
     4. To undertake carefully worked out programmes for school Improvement.
11. PROBLEMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION
          According to Radhakrishnan the most important problems of higher education are :
1.      Role of the university system.
2.      Improvement of standards.
3.      Restructuring of courses.
4.      Post graduate education and research.
5.      Autonomous college.
6.      Academic freedom.
7.      Student discipline
8.      Role of UGC
9.      Medium of instruction.

12. FUNCTION OF EDUCATION
            1. EDUCATION AND SPIRITUAL VALUES
                 Education is the means by which we can tide up our minds, acquire information as well as a sense of values. Education gives to us that bent of mind, that attitude of reason, that spirit of democracy which will make us responsible citizens of our country.
            2. EDUCATION AND SELF-DISCIPLINE
                 We must train the young to the best possible all around living, individual and social. We must make them intelligent and good. They observe unwritten laws of decency and honor felt by good men but not enforced by any statue.
            3. EDUCATION OF WOMEN
                 Women are human beings and have as much right to full development as men have. In regard to opportunities for intellectual and spiritual development, we should not emphasize the sex of women even as we do not emphasize sex of men. In all Human beings irrespective of their sex, the same drama of flesh and the spirit of finitude and transcendence takes place.
13. MEDIUM OF EDUCATION
      Mother tongue, English, Sanskrit, Hindi as the medium of education.
14. CURRICULUM
           On curriculum, Radhakrishnan in his university commission report published in 1949 said that a student should study a number of subjects such as history, Geography, Political Science, Economics, General Science, Natural Science, Agricultures, Philosophy, Ethics and Literature. Stressing the need for some specific subjects that are relevant to everyday life, he said that the students should be provided education subjects like Home Science, Cooking, Fine arts etc.

15. DISCIPLINE
          Dr.Radhakrishnan stresses that the students should be trained to approach life’s problems with fortitude self control and a sense of balance which the new conditions demand. He encouraged self discipline.
16. METHODS OF TEACHING
          Radhakrishnan stated that observation, experimentation and association are some of the effective methods of teaching. He recommended different method of teaching for different areas. For instance, he suggested imitation for industry and actual examples by the teachers for moral education.
17. ROLE OF TEACHERS
           Teachers are the removers of both intellectual ignorance and spiritual ignorance. Teachers are the reservoirs of this new spirit, the new of adventure in intellectual matters, in social matters and in political matters. Therefore the teacher should give education, instruction, knowledge and give more examples while teaching.
18. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION COMMISSION
          The greatest contributions of Dr. Radhakrishnan to educational thought and practical is the report of the university Education commission 1948-1949. The report of the commission which was presided over by Dr. Radhakrishnan a distinguished scholar is a document of great importance as it has guided the development of university education in India after independence.
19. RECOMMENDATION
1.      To inculcate and promote basics human values and the capacity to choose between alternative value system
2.      To enrich the Indian languages and promote their use as important means of communication, national development and unity.
3.      To promote a rational out look and scientic temper.
4.      To promote the development of the total personality of the students and inculcate in them a commitment to society through involvement in national service programme.
5.      To promote commitment to the pursuit of excellence.
6.      To contribute to the improvement of the entire educational system. So as to sub serve the community.

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