Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was instrumental in making Andhra University in Visakhapatnam a top-class institution

On Teachers' Day, Visakhapatnam remembers Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India's first Vice-President and second President.

September 5 is celebrated as Teachers’ Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of one of India’s topmost educationists, who went on to become free India’s first Vice President and the second President of the Indian Republic, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.

Though the country owes a lot to this intellectual genius, it is the ‘City of Destiny’ (Visakhapatnam) and more so the oldest and the biggest public university in the residual state of Andhra Pradesh, Andhra University, should remember his contribution, in making the university a top-class temple of education, during his time and the years to come.

Dr. Radhakrishnan took over the reins of the nascent university, after its founding Vice-Chancellor and another eminent educationist Dr. C.R. Reddy had stepped down in 1931.

Nobel Laureate C.V. Raman, who was part of Radhakrishnan’s core team at AU, had once remarked, “In 1934, it was like a story from the Arabian Nights: Radhakrishnan had waved his wand and a university complete with buildings and staff had sprung up.”

Even before Sarvepalli had become the V-C of AU, in December 1927, he was invited to deliver the first convocation address by the then V-C Prof. C.R. Reddy, and his address had set the tone for what became his general approach to the young minds in India. He  had spoken of liberty of mind, spirit of self-criticism and a rejection of conformity. Delivering that address, he had foreseen the future, and had warned against the replacement of English with Telugu, as the medium of instruction.

He was critical of the Andhra politics that mired the setting up of the university in this part of the State and did not mince words to say: “If we do not wash our hands, we are dirty; if we do, we are wasting water. You cannot stint money and then complain that Andhra University is a second-class institution, if not a failure”.

This had set the tone for his vision for this nascent university.