🇮🇳How does India mark Teachers' Day?

शिक्षक दिवस (Teachers' Day)

Local date

September 5, 2026

India's Teachers' Day is 5 September, the birthday of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, its second president, who came from a career as a professor of philosophy. The story told is that when students wanted to celebrate his birthday, he suggested honouring the country's teachers instead. The origin of this holiday is therefore neither religious nor calendrical but a refusal — it turns one person's birthday into a profession's day. Senior students commonly take over classes for the day, with roles deliberately reversed. The fifth of September is that date because it is the birthday of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a professor of philosophy who later became president. The story told is that students wished to celebrate his birthday and he asked them to mark the country's teachers instead. That origin ties India's Teachers' Day to a particular person rather than to a statute or an international observance. In schools the day is often given over to senior students taking the classes, playing the exchange of roles through once.