A crowd of 3000 McGill faculty, students and Montrealers attended the inaugural Beatty Lecture on October 4, 1954 featuring Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India's first Vice-President and later second President. The nation had just undergone a monumental transition from British rule and into independence and Dr. Radhakrishnan was two years into his term as Vice-President. A noted philosopher, he took as his subject 'East and West: Some Reflections', which traced the impact of various cultures including Arabic, Islamic and early Christian on the religious and spiritual heritage of India.
Montreal Gazette article. Image: McGill University Archives.
In 1953, Dr. Radhakrishnan had received an honorary degree from McGill and gave the convocation address. Dr. Radhakrishnan's popularity as a public speaker spurred Principal James to invite him to give the inaugural Beatty Lecture. At the time of the first Beatty Lecture, McGill was in the process of establishing an Indian Studies department and Dr. Radhakrishnan was involved in some of the decision making process.
Telegram dated March 12 1954 from Dr. Radhakrishnan regarding his lecture announcement. Image: McGill University Archives.
Dr. Radhakrishnan delivered a series of three Beatty lectures on October 4, 7 and 8 in McGill's Sir Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium. The lectures were originally scheduled to take place in Redpath Hall; however, the volume of advance tickets requested far exceeded the Hall's seating capacity and so just days before the first lecture, Principal James changed the location.
According to Principal James, in correspondence on May 24, 1955, to the economist Barbara Ward, who would go on to deliver the Beatty Lecture series the following year: "His first lecture was a masterly summary of the Hindu approach to God over nearly three thousand years; his second dealt with the development of Christianity, with some suggestions of Indian influence at the time of Isiah [sic] and during the Hellenist period of the apocrypha; the third was an attempt to synthesize the two traditions at a religious level and to point out that communism was a defective western product of Christianity."
Lecture announcement. Image: McGill University Archives.
During his ten-day stay at McGill, Dr. Radhakrishnan also met informally with students and faculty and spent a day in Ottawa meeting with then Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent.
McGill Daily article about the first Beatty Lecture series. Image: McGill University Library.
In a memo to staff written by Principal James after Radhakrishnan's departure, James stated, "more than 3000 people, students and citizens of Montreal, came night after night... sat throughout the lectures on hard folding chairs in the Sir Arthur Currie Gym, and at the conclusion of the series rose to its feet in a spontaneous ovation of sustained applause."
Letter from Prime Minister St. Laurent to Principal James dated October 13, 1954. Image: McGill University Archives.
Section photo: Creative Commons.