When he was contributing to The Emerging World: Souvenir Volume commemorating the 75th birth anniversary of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru on 14 November 1964, Dr S Radhakrishnan, President of India, wrote “A new world society is gradually emerging. It is growing quietly, imperceptibly, in the minds and hearts of men. The tumult and the excitement, the anger and the violence, the perplexities of spirit and the ambiguities of expression are the pangs of the birth of something new: We of this generation are called upon to work for this new order with all the strength and capacity for suffering we possess.”

These words brim with sincerity, authenticity and the clarity of knowledge for which we remember Bharat Ratna Dr Radhakrishnan in 2025 on his 50th death anniversary, and on 5 September every year, his birth anniversary celebrated as Teachers’ Day. As our globalized world staggers from one crisis to another volatile one, Dr Radhakrishnan’s writings underline the unity and one-ness of the human race. He said, “When religious prophets and philosophers speak of our common humanity, of the natural kinship of human beings, it is a part of wisdom and a need of the enlightened spirit. There is a wider recognition of this act today than ever before in history. Man’s basic physical structure, his mental make-up, his moral needs, his spiritual aspirations are the same the world over.

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The cycle of birth, growth, childhood and youth, of sickness, old age and death, of love and friendship, of sorrow and joy, are the same for all men. We share a common origin and a common destiny: Ekaiva manusijatih. The human race is one. This oneness of humanity is more than a phrase, it is not a mere vision. It is becoming a historic fact. With the speeding up of communications, ideas and tools now belong to man as man. The necessities of the historical process are making the world into one. We stand on the threshold of a new society, a single society. Those who are awake to the problems of the future adopt the ideal of the oneness of mankind as the guiding principle of their thought and action.” Not just a philosopher teaching comparative religion in prestigious universities, Dr Radhakrishnan’s sense of history was second to none.

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He was deeply conscious of the visions of the world in the previous centuries. He said,........

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