Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
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Vijaya
Lakshmi Pandit
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Born
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August 18, 1900
Allahabad |
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Died
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December 1, 1990 (aged 90)
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Spouse(s)
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Children
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Vijaya Lakshmi Nehru Pandit (Kashmiri:
विजयलक्ष्मी नेहरू पंडित) (18 August 1900 – 1 December 1990) was an Indian diplomat
and politician,
the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, the aunt of Indira Gandhi
and the great-aunt of Rajiv Gandhi, all of whom served as Prime Minister of India.
Personal
life
In 1921 she married Ranjit Sitaram
Pandit, a successful barrister from Kathiawad
and classical scholar who translated Kalhana's
epic history Rajatarangini into English from Sanskrit.
He was arrested for his support of Indian independence and died in Lucknow
prison jail on 14 January 1944.
Her daughter Nayantara Sahgal, who later settled in her mother's house in Dehradun, is a
well-known novelist.
Gita Sahgal, the writer and journalist on issues of feminism,
fundamentalism, and racism, director of prize-winning documentary films, and human rights activist,is her granddaughter.
Political
career
She was the first Indian woman to
hold a cabinet post. In 1937 she was elected to the provincial legislature of
the United
Provinces and was designated minister of
local self-government and public health. She held the latter post until 1939
and again from 1946 to 1947. In 1946 she was elected to the Constituent
Assembly from the United Provinces.
Following India's independence from
the British in 1947 she entered the diplomatic service and became India's ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1947 to 1949, the United States and Mexico from 1949
to 1951, Ireland from 1955 to 1961 (during which time she was also the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom), and Spain from 1958 to 1961.
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
In India, she served as governor
of Maharashtra
from 1962 to 1964, after which she was elected to the Indian Lok Sabha
from Phulpur, her brother's former constituency from 1964 to 1968.
Pandit was a harsh critic of her niece, Indira Gandhi,
after she became Prime Minister in 1966. Pandit retired from active politics
after relations between them soured. On retiring, she moved to Dehradun
in the Doon Valley in the Himalayan foothills.
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).
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