Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit Explained

Honorific Prefix:Her Excellency
Birth Date:1900 8, df=yes
Birth Place:Allahabad, North West Provinces, British India
(present day Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India)
Death Place:Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh, India
(present-day Uttarakhand)
Children:3, including Nayantara Sahgal
Relatives:See Nehru–Gandhi family
Parents:Pandit Motilal Nehru
Swarup Rani Nehru
Signature:Signature of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.svg
Office:8th President of the United Nations General Assembly
Term Start:15 September 1953
Term End:21 September 1954[1]
Predecessor:Lester B. Pearson
Successor:Eelco N. van Kleffens
Office2:Governor of Maharashtra
Order2:3rd
Term Start2:28 November 1962
Term End2:18 October 1964
1Blankname2:Chief Minister
1Namedata2:Marotrao Kannamwar
P. K. Sawant (acting)
Vasantrao Naik
Predecessor2:P. Subbarayan
Successor2:P. V. Cherian
Office3:Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
Constituency3:Phulpur
Term3:1964–1969
Predecessor3:Jawaharlal Nehru
Successor3:Janeshwar Mishra
Party:Indian National Congress
Birth Name:Swarup Nehru

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (née Swarup Nehru; 18 August 1900 – 1 December 1990) was an Indian freedom fighter, diplomat and politician. She served as the 8th President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1953 to 1954, the first woman appointed to this post. She was also the 3rd Governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964. Noted for her participation in the Indian independence movement, she was jailed several times during the movement.

Hailing from the prominent Nehru-Gandhi political family, her brother Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of independent India, her niece Indira Gandhi was the first female Prime Minister of India and her grand-nephew Rajiv Gandhi was the sixth and youngest Prime Minister of India. She was sent to London as India's most important diplomat after serving as India's envoy to the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Nations. Her time in London offers insights into the wider context of changes in India–UK relations.[2]

Early life

Vijaya Lakshmi's (born Swarup)[3] father, Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), a wealthy barrister who belonged to the Kashmiri Pandit community, served twice as President of the Indian National Congress during the Independence Struggle. Her mother, Swaruprani Thussu (1868–1938), who came from a well-known Kashmiri Pandit family settled in Lahore,[4] was Motilal's second wife, the first having died in child birth. She was the second of three children; Jawaharlal was eleven years her senior (b. 1889), while her younger sister Krishna Hutheesing (b. 1907–1967) became a noted writer and authored several books on their brother.

Career

She attended the 1916 Congress session that took place in Lucknow. She was impressed by Sarojini Naidu and Annie Besant.

In 1920, she spent time in Mahatma Gandhi's ashram close to Ahmedabad. She participated in daily chores including dairy work and spinning. She also worked in the office that used to publish Young India.[5]

Pandit was the first Indian woman to hold a cabinet post in pre-independent India. In 1936, she stood in general elections and became a member of parliament by 1937 for the constituency of Cawnpore Bilhaur. In 1937, she was elected to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces and was designated minister of local self-government and public health.[6] [7] She held the latter post until 1938 and again from 1946 to 1947.[8] [9]

She spent significant time in jail for her participation in the Indian independence movement. She was jailed for 18 months from 1931 - 1933. She was jailed again for 6 months in 1940 before getting jailed in 1942 for 7 months over her participation in the Quit India Movement.[10] [11] After her release, she helped the victims of the Bengal famine of 1943 and served as president of the Save the Children Fund Committee which rescued poor children from the streets.[11]

Following the death of her husband in 1944, she experienced Indian inheritance laws for Hindu widows and campaigned with All India Women's Conference to bring changes to these laws.[11]

In 1946, she was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the United Provinces.[12]

Following India's independence from British rule in 1947 she entered the diplomatic service and became India's ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1947 to 1949,[13] [14] the United States and Mexico from 1949 to 1951,[15] [16] Ireland from 1955 to 1961 (during which time she was also the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom),[17] and Spain from 1956 to 1961.[18] Between 1946 and 1968, she headed the Indian delegation to the United Nations. In 1953, she became the first woman President of the United Nations General Assembly[19] (she was inducted as an honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in 1978 for this accomplishment[20]). That same year she was a candidate for Secretary General of the United Nations.[21]

Hon. Members Shrimati Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit has resigned her seat in the House with effect from 17 December 1954.[22]

In India, she served as Governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964. She returned as a member of parliament for 1964 to 1968 with her election victory in Phulpur.[11] [23] Pandit was a harsh critic of Indira Gandhi's years as prime minister especially after Indira had declared the emergency in 1975.[11]

Pandit retired from active politics after relations between them soured. On retiring, she moved to Dehradun in the Doon Valley in the Himalayan foothills.[24] She came out of retirement in 1977 to campaign against Indira Gandhi and helped the Janata Party win the 1977 election.[25] She was reported to have considered running for the presidency, but Neelam Sanjiva Reddy eventually ran and won the election unopposed.[26]

In 1979, she was appointed the Indian representative to the UN Human Rights Commission, after which she retired from public life. Her writings include The Evolution of India (1958) and The Scope of Happiness: A Personal Memoir (1979).

Personal life

In 1921, she married Ranjit Sitaram Pandit (1921–1944), a successful barrister from Kathiawar, Gujarat and classical scholar who translated Kalhana's epic history Rajatarangini into English from Sanskrit. Her husband was a Maharashtrian Saraswat Brahmin, whose family hailed from village of Bambuli, on the Ratnagiri coast, in Maharashtra. He was arrested for his support of Indian independence and died in Lucknow prison in 1944, leaving behind his wife and their three daughters Chandralekha Mehta, Nayantara Sehgal and Rita Dar.

She died in 1990. She was survived by her daughters, Chandralekha and Nayantara Sahgal.

Academics

She was the member of Aligarh Muslim University Executive Council.[27]

She was an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, where her niece studied Modern History.[28] A portrait of her by Edward Halliday hangs in the Somerville College Library.[29]

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Presidents of the General Assembly United Nations . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121011221841/http://worldleadersindex.org/InternationalOrganisations/UN.html . 11 October 2012 . 22 March 2012 . Wayback Machine.
  2. Rakesh Ankit, "Between Vanity and Sensitiveness: Indo–British Relations During Vijayalakshmi Pandit’s High-Commissioner (1954–61)." Contemporary British History 30.1 (2016): 20–39.
  3. Book: Nehru, Krishna . With No Regrets: An Autobiography . . 1945 . New York.
  4. Zakaria, Rafiq A Study of Nehru, Times of India Press, 1960, p. 22
  5. Book: Smith, B.G. . The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History . Oxford University Press . v. 1 . 2008 . 978-0-19-514890-9 . 2-PA406.
  6. Book: Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi . https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.22874/page/141/mode/2up?view=theater . So I became a Minister . Kitabistan . 1939 . Allahabad . 141–143 . First Person, Singular . 11 September 2022.
  7. Book: Welcome address from Chairman of Municipal Board, Agra, to Smt. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit honouring her as Minister of Local Self Government and Health, and highlighting the poor civic conditions of Agra . Sainik Press . 1938 . Allahabad . Hindi . 12 September 2022 . Allahabad Museum.
  8. Book: Khan, Abdul Majid . https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.121087/page/n153/mode/2up?view=theater . The Great Daughter of India . Indian Printing Works . 1946 . Lahore . 152 . Lakshmi Resigns . 12 September 2022.
  9. Book: Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi . https://archive.org/details/scopeofhappiness00pand/page/200/mode/2up?view=theater . The Scope of Happiness: A Personal Memoir . Crown Publishers Inc. . 1979 . 0-517-53688-9 . New York . 200–201, 203, 204–205 . Interim Government . 12 September 2022 . registration.
  10. Book: Bhagavan, M. . India and the Quest for One World: The Peacemakers . Palgrave Macmillan UK . Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series . 2013 . 978-1-137-34983-5 . 14.
  11. Book: Rappaport, Helen . Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers . ABC-CLIO . v. 1 . 2001 . 978-1-57607-101-4 . 507.
  12. Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi (1979). "Interim Government". The Scope of Happiness: A Personal Memoir. New York: Crown Publishers Inc. pp. 225. . Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  13. News: 7 June 1947 . India's Ambassador to Moscow: Mrs. V. L. Pandit's choice certain . 15 . 1 . The Indian Express . 83 . Madras . 11 September 2022.
  14. Book: Appointment of Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit as Ambassador for India in USSR and fixation of her pay and allowance . Department of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations: External Affairs Wing . 1947 . New Delhi . 11 . 11 September 2022 . registration . National Archives of India.
  15. News: 8 May 1949 . Woman Ambassador . 65 . 33 . The Pittsburgh Press . 316 . 11 September 2022.
  16. Book: Appointment of Shrimati Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit as Ambassador in U.S.A. succession to Shri B.Rama Rau I.C.S. and fixation of her pay and allowances. Grant of Joining time to H.E., Shrimati Vijaya Lakshmi Ambassador of India in USA. Grant of free air passage to Shrimati Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and her daughter.......... . Press Information Bureau . 1949 . New Delhi . 33 . 11 September 2022 . registration . National Archives of India.
  17. O'Malley . Kate . Ireland and India: Post-independence Diplomacy . Irish Studies in International Affairs . 2011 . Royal Irish Academy . 22 . 152–153 . 10.1353/isia.2011.0004 . 41413198 . 12 September 2022 . JSTOR.
  18. Book: Brittain, Vera . https://archive.org/details/envoyextraordina0000unse/page/134/mode/2up?view=theater . Envoy Extraordinary: A Study of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and her contribution to Modern India . George Allen & Unwin Ltd. . 1965 . London . 135 . The Conquest of Britain . "Spain and India had decided in May 1956 to establish diplomatic relations at Embassy level, and now made her the first woman, and probably the first diplomat, to hold three ambassadorships simultaneously. She visited Madrid to present her credentials on October 30, 1957, and was officially photographed with General Franco." . Vera Brittain . 12 September 2022 . registration.
  19. Web site: Vijay Lakshmi Pandit . https://web.archive.org/web/20111026173659/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/Pandit%2C+Vijaya . dead . 26 October 2011 . online . Oxford Dictionaries . 2 July 2012.
  20. Web site: Alpha Kappa Alpha 1978. 14 December 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141226064143/http://www.aka1908.com/centennial/history/index.html. 26 December 2014. dead.
  21. Book: United Nations Affairs . Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954 . 3 . Goodwin . Ralph R. . 1979 . . United States Government Printing Office. Document 209.
  22. Book: Lok Sabha Debates Vol VII, 1954 . 18 December 1954 . Lok Sabha Secretariat New Delhi . 12 .
  23. Book: Malaviya, Padma Kant . P.K. Malaviya analyses election defeat and congratulates Mrs. Vijay Lakshmi on her victory in Phulpur Lok Sabha election . New Delhi . 1 . 12 September 2022 . registration . National Archives of India.
  24. http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/10/31/357037032.html?pageNumber=11 Indira Gandhi's Aunt Says She Is 'Profoundly Troubled' at Direction India Is Taking
  25. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/22/world/new-delhi-journal-sister-burnishes-nehru-s-image-lest-india-forget.html Sister Burnishes Nehru's Image, Lest India Forget
  26. http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1977/05/27/356234792.html?pageNumber=8 Nehru's Sister Campaigning for Presidency of India
  27. Web site: Nayantara Sahgal delivers 6th K P Singh Memorial Lecture. 10 December 2015. 10 December 2015. Batori. Batori.in. Batori. https://web.archive.org/web/20151211063957/https://www.batori.in/national/2015/12/10/nayantara-sahgal-delivers-6th-k-p-singh-memorial-lecture/. 11 December 2015. dead.
  28. Book: Visit of Shrimati Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit former Governor of Maharashtra to London to receive the Honorary Degree D.C.L. from the Oxford University - Payment of air fare from Bombay to London & back. . Ministry of External Affairs . 1965 . New Delhi . 1–21 . 11 September 2022 . registration . National Archives of India.
  29. Web site: 11 September 2022 . Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit . Equality and Diversity Unit, University of Oxford.