Author: Sarvepalli Gopal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 408
ISBN/UPC (if available): 978-0-19-562999-6
Description
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan stands alongside Nehru and Gandhi as one of the most eminent Indians of his time. He served as India's ambassador to Russia and advised, among others, Stalin, Mao, Nehru, and Indira Gandhi, and in May 1962 he became President of India. The details of his remarkable life are provided in this authoritative biography by his who has relied extensively on the Radhakrishnan papers, still privately possessed by his family, as well as on official archives within the country and abroad.
REVIEWS
Sarvepalli Gopal’s excellent biography of his distinguished father, once professor of eastern philosophy at Oxford and late President of India, shows that Indian biographical writing has at last found a distinct style of its own. At once affectionate and detached, Gopal has developed the psychological and sociological tools necessary to understand the complexity and tension of a westernized Hindu.
-Bhikhu Parekh, New Statesman and Society
Dr Gopal writes exquisite prose and his study of his distinguished parent is a model of restraint without reticence, and appreciation without extravagance.
-The Book Review
Masterly, and in some ways unique biography, Gopal devotes many pages to the intellectual, philosophical and spiritual development of his father, perhaps the greatest Indian thinker of the 20th century.
-India Today
Gopal writes with total commitment to the subject but without being overawed by a father like Radhakrishnan. He writes with a wealth of details not available to any other writer.
-The Economic Times
Much more than a mere biography. It is simultaneously a philosophical portrait of India as it was transformed by one of the most distinguished intellects of our times. As such it confirms Gopal’s place among historians of imminence who have created works of lasting significance.
-The Telegraph
Dr Sarvepalli Gopal’s biography of his father stands as unique and outstanding contribution to history as well as to literature. It is a definitive biography in sweep and style.
-The National Herald
Contents
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
PART ONE
Prelude
Poverty and Philosophy
Mysore
The George v chair
First Visit to the West
Calcutta and Oxford
The Andhra University
The Spalding Chair
Banaras
PART TWO
Prelude
The Universities Commission
The Moscow Embassy
Vice-President
President
A Life at Many Levels
Bibliographical Note
Index