When Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was accused of pilfering his student’s thesis

Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was once accused of stealing his student’s thesis, who was a young lecturer of philosophy at the meerut college. This case went to court and the results raised questions on the moral ethics of a teacher. 

Prof. Jadunath Sinha accused Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of stealing from his thesis

• One of the most venerated Indian personalities and second president of India Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was sued for stealing his own student’s piece of work. As one of the examiners of the thesis, he was able to get a hold of those materials and therefore, published certain parts from the thesis in his own book. 
• Prof. Jadunath Sinha who was a young lecturer of philosophy at the Meerut college raised a complaint against Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in the Modern Review (M.R.) magazine on December 20, 1928, claiming Radhakrishnan’s book Indian Philosophy Vol. II had exact parts from his thesis. 
• Jadunath Sinha had an honours degree in philosophy from Calcutta University (1915), completed his masters from the same university in 1917. Following the completion of his degrees he applied for the Premchand Roychand Studentship in 1922. For examining his thesis the calcutta university approached Sir Brajendranath Seal and later Dr.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan as a replacement for the former. Prof. Krishna Chandra Bhattacharjee was also appointed to examine his thesis. 
• Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan published the book Indian Philosophy Vol II in 1927 but Jadunath Sinha only noticed the plagiarism in 1928. Radhakrishnan also published another book “The Vedanta according to Sanakra and Ramanuja” in 1928, a supposed reprint of chapters 8 & 9 from his previous book. Both of his published books had huge amounts of plagiarized content. 
• Another Evidence that backed Prof. Jadunath sinha’s claims were the published pieces by him in the meerut college magazines of 1924 and 1926 respectively. He wrote letters to the Modern Review in an attempt to prove his point. Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan responded to the letters by defaming prof. Jadunath Sinha and also the editor of the magazine Modern Review Shri Ramananda Chattopadhyay who was also the editor of popular bengali magazine Prabashi. 

Prof. Jadunath Sinha sued Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 

• In August 1929, Prof Jadunath Sinha sued Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan in the Calcutta High Court for plagiarism, asked for Rs. 20,000/- in return for defamation and damages. In the following month radhakrishnan counter sued sinha and editor Ramananda Chattopadhyay for Rs. 1,00,000/- 
• Prof. Dr. Jadunath Sinha was so admired by his teachers that he was appointed an Assistant Professor of Ripon College, Calcutta, before his M.A. results were announced. He did his PhD from the CU in 1934. He went on to become a versatile writer of Philosophy, Psychology, etc. which were published by famous publishers. Two of his books were published by M/s. Kegan Paul of London. Dr. Sinha being the most original philosopher of Hinduism and Indian philosophy, psychology, etc. is still revered by the students of philosophy. Dr. Jadunath Sinha went into religion in the latter part of his life.
• There was lot of pressure on Prof. Jadunath Sinha to settle the case out of court. All the so-called Bengali senior Professors who sympathized with Prof. Jadunath Sinha and were convinced of the plagiarism, refused to stand witness for him in the Court. Prof. Jadunath Sinha was also short of money. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan had lot of clout and was clever enough to manipulate, manage and obtain the help of his friends, especially that of Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, son of Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee. It was Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, the then VC of Calcutta University, who had brought Prof. Radhakrishnan from Bangalore to Calcutta University for the prestigious post of King George V Professorship with a hefty salary of Rs.1000/- per month. So, his son Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, who was also a close friend of Dr. Radhakrishnan and was then the Vice Chancellor of the Calcutta University, wanted to hush up the matter.
• At last Prof. Jadunath Sinha succumbed to all these pressures and had to agree for settlement outside court. And the two suits were settled before the Acting Chief Justice through a Decree, probably in the first week of May 1933. Terms of settlement were not disclosed.
• The above is only a thumbnail sketch of Dr. Jadunath Sinha and what happened to him. Much more information is available which has been avoided in this write-up keeping in mind the paucity of time of Facebook friends. More details would be produced soon for knowledge of those who are interested to know the case in full details and form their own opinion about the plagiarism.
• Radhakrishnan was influential at the time and friends with Dr. ShyamaPrasad Mukerjee who was the son of Ashutosh Mukherjee then VC of Calcutta university. Even though Sinha’s Teachers admired him for his intellect, they did not stand as a witness in the case and asked Sinha to withdraw the case. 
• Sinha had no influential support and financial support either, he was even forced by some of the reconcile with radhakrishnan out of the court and later Sinha had to give in to all the pressure he was surrounded with. Therefore, the matter settled down and an official decree was not passed. 
• Prof. Jadunath Sinha was a brilliant student throughout his life and went on to receive accolades like Griffith Prize (CU) in 1923, the Mouat Medal of the CU in 1925 and more. Later on, he devoted his life to the religion and wrote on Philosophy, Psychology and Hinduism and his works were published by M/s. Kegan Paul of London.