P.T. Raju (1904 – 1992) came to The College of Wooster in 1962 at the invitation of President Howard Lowry, who shared an Idealist philosophical view with Raju. At the time, Raju was the best-known scholar in the world in the field of comparative East-West philosophy. The basis of comparative philosophy was Personalist Absolute Idealism that saw the evolving of consciousness as manifesting in both Eastern and Western philosophies and religion and served as well as a foundation for a liberal arts education. Raju was educated in India with his doctoral work at Calcutta and further studies at Benares Sanskrit College. His education, originally aimed at engineering, was interrupted by the Indian Nationalist movement when he came to know Ghandi and Nehru. He was jailed with Ghandi in the 1920’s for “disobeying the law of the British Government by spreading disloyalty to the British monarch.” He was awarded the Certificate of Political Sufferers for his imprisonment. Later, he dedicated his studies and teaching to philosophy. His primary teaching posts before coming to Wooster were at Andhra University in Waltair, India (1932-1949), numerous visiting positions at Mainz, Berkeley, Illinois, Southern California. He was a well-known member in the circle of the Personalist School at Boston University. Raju, an original thinker on his own, was known also for his work in the history of philosophy comparing the similarities of Western and Eastern philosophies. Some two hundred papers and contributed chapters bear his name in Indian, European, and American journals and other published volumes. Over twenty books also bear his name, many of which have been translated into multiple languages. Some of the better known of these books are: Thought and Reality, Idealistic Thought of India, Spirit, Being, and Self, and Introduction to Comparative Philosophy. He retired in Wooster, still working on another book at his death in 1988. From his personal savings, he left behind the basis for an endowed chair in philosophy: the Poola and Ana Purna Raju Chair in East-West Philosophy. Raju’s papers are held in the Archives of the Andrews Library at The College of Wooster.
