A commemorative postage stamp on the Birth Centenary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975), 2^nd President of India (1962-67) :

Issued by India

Issued on Sep 11, 1989

Description of Designs : The stamp is based on a photograph provided by Dr. S. Gopal. The First Day Cover is designed by Sankha Samantha and cancellation by Ms. Nenu Gupta.

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Single Colour

Denomination : 60 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 x 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Indigenous unwatermarked P.G. Matt coated stamp paper

Number Printed : 10,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printed : India Security Press

Name : Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

Born on Sep 5, 1888 at Thiruttani, Madras Presidency, British India [now in Tamil Nadu, India]

Died on Apr 17, 1975 at Madras, Tamil Nadu, India

About : 

• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born on September 5, 1888 at Tiruttani near Madras. After a brilliant academic career, he taught philosophy in the Universities at Madras, Mysore and Calcutta. He was Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University and later of Banaras Hindu University. He was appointed Indian ambassador to USSR in 1949. His contributions to UNESCO in different capacities – as a member of its Executive Board, as its Chairman, as the President of the General Conference twice – have been universally acknowledged. He was the Vice-President of India from 1952 to 1962, and then the President of India from 1962 to 1967. Retiring from active political life thereafter, he lived a quiet life in Madras till his death on April 17, 1975.
  
• A philosopher, thinker, and scholar, Radhakrishnan was committed to spiritual idealism as a result of the influence of the Vedantic tradition on the one hand and his own spiritual experience on the other. He delivered the Upton Lectures on “The Hindu View of Life” in Manchester College, Oxford in 1926, and the Hibbert Lectures on “An Idealist View of Life” in London and Manchester in 1929. He was the first Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University. Through his exposition and interpretation of Indian philosophy, he created a new awareness among the scholars about the Indian heritage both in India and abroad, and made them realize that Indian wisdom was “essential not only for the revival of the Indian nation, but also for the re–education of the human race”. The outlook of spiritual idealism is pervasive in all his writings.
  
• Radhakrishnan was a champion of liberalism, individualism and democracy. In order to be truly human, everyone requires, Radhakrishnan said, political, economic and social freedom not as an end in itself, but as an indispensable means to spiritual freedom. Democracy, according to him, is a faith in the spiritual possibilities of every human being.
  
• Like Raja Rammohun Roy, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, and Mahatma Gandhi, Radhakrishnan was one of the makers of modern India. His love for India did not prevent him from thinking in terms of the ideal of the world community. He wanted the nation-states to work together for the purpose of achieving the common good of the international community.
  
• Radhakrishnan is remembered not only as a great philosopher and distinguished President of India, but also as a great humanist and a citizen of the world.
  
• Text : Courtesy Deptt. of Culture.

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