{{Short description|Indian historian}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}} {{Use Indian English|date=January 2019}} {{Infobox writer | name = Sarvepalli Gopal | image = Sarvepalli Gopal.jpg | imagesize = 220px | birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|4|23|df=y}} | birth_place = Chennai, India | death_date = {{death date and age|2002|4|20|1923|4|23|df=y}} | death_place = Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India | occupation = Historian | subject = Indian History | awards = Padma Vibhushan, 1999 (for his contribution to Indian history)<ref name="ministryofhomeaffairscivilianawardsannounced">{{cite web|url=http://mha.nic.in/awar1999.htm|title=Ministry of Home Affairs—Civilian Awards announced on January 26, 1999|access-date=2006-11-03 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060908024348/http://mha.nic.in/awar1999.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2006-09-08}}</ref> | influences = | influenced = | spouse = Kaveri/Indira Ramaswami (1949) | parents = Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (father)<br/>Sarvepalli Sivakamu (mother) }}
'''Sarvepalli Gopal'''{{family name footnote|Sarvepalli|lang=Telugu}}{{given name footnote|Gopal|Sarvepalli|his|Telugu}} (23 April 1923 – 20 April 2002)<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB|last1=Raychaudhuri|first1=Tapan|author-link1=Tapan Raychaudhuri|title=Gopal, Sarvepalli (1923–2002)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/94961|access-date=25 November 2015|date=Oct 2008}}</ref> was a well-known Indian historian.<ref name="rememberingsarvapalligopal">{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/mag/2003/04/27/stories/2003042700220300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430084004/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2003/04/27/stories/2003042700220300.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 April 2012|title=Remembering Sarvepalli Gopal|author=Ramachandra Guha|author-link=Ramachandra Guha|date=27 April 2003|work=The Hindu|access-date=2006-11-03}}</ref> He was the son of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the first Vice-President and the second President of India. He was the author of the ''Radhakrishnan: A Biography'' and ''Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography''.
==Early life and education== Sarvepalli Gopal was born in Madras, India, on 23 April 1923 into a middle-class family. He was the only son of S. Radhakrishnan, the first vice-president and second president of independent India, and Sivakamu. He had five sisters.<ref name=odnb />
Gopal was educated at Mill Hill School in London and at the Madras Christian College. He was an undergraduate student of history at Balliol College, Oxford, where he won the Curzon Prize. He continued as a student at Balliol earning his PhD on the viceroyalty of Lord Ripon in 1951.<ref name=odnb />
==Career== Subsequently, he was appointed as a Director in the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, in the 1950s, where he worked closely with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In the 1960s, he was a Reader in Indian History at St Antony's College, Oxford. When the new Jawaharlal Nehru University was founded by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, he was appointed as a Professor of History at the Centre for Historical Studies, which he helped in setting up.<ref name="panikkar">{{cite journal|url=http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl1909/19091220.htm|title=A great historian: Sarvepalli Gopal, 1923-2002|author=K. N. Panikkar|author-link=K. N. Panikkar|journal=Frontline|volume=19|issue=9|date=27 April – 12 May 2002|access-date=2006-11-03}}</ref> In the 1970s, he was a Chairman of the National Book Trust, New Delhi.
==Death== Gopal died due to kidney failure in Chennai on 20 April 2002, three days before his 79th birthday.
==Publications==
===Books===
*''History of Humanity: Scientific and Cultural Development, Vol. 7: The Twentieth Century'', (Paris: UNESCO, Routledge, 2008) (co-author Tichvinskii, Sergei Leonidovich) *''Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography'', (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004) *''The Essential Writings of Jawaharlal Nehru'', (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003) (co-author Uma Iyengar) *''Anatomy of Confrontation: The Babri Masjid Ramjanmabhumi Issue'', (New Delhi: Viking, 1991) *''Radhakrishnan: A Biography'', (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992) *''Economy, Society and Development: Essays and Reflections in Honour of Malcolm Adesheshiah'', (New Delhi: Sage, 1991) (co-authors Kurien, C.T., E.R. Prabhakar) *''Jawaharlal Nehru: An Anthology'', (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983) *''Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru'', (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1972–82) (co-authors Chalapatti Rau, M., Sharada Prasad, H.Y., Nanda, B.R.) *''British Policy in India, 1858-1905'', (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965) *''Modern India'', (London: Historical Association, 1967) *''The Viceroyalty of Lord Irwin, 1926-1931'', (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957) *''The Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, 1880-1884'', (London: Oxford University Press, 1953) *''The Permanent Settlement in Bengal and its Result'', (London, G.Allen and Unwin, 1949) ==Notes== {{notelist}} ==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Sahitya Akademi Award for English}} {{Padma Vibhushan Awards}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gopal, Sarvapalli}} Category:1923 births Category:2002 deaths Category:20th-century Indian historians Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:Children of presidents of India Category:Deaths from kidney failure in India Category:Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford Category:Historians of South Asia Category:Indian civil servants Category:Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University Category:Madras Christian College alumni Category:People educated at Mill Hill School Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in literature & education Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in English Category:Scholars from Chennai Category:Telugu people Category:University of Madras alumni