Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit emerged from the independence movement as one of India's most prominent international representatives. Born in Allahabad in 1900 and the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, she was imprisoned three times by the British authorities. In 1937 she became minister of local self-government and public health in the United Provinces, the first Indian woman to hold a cabinet portfolio. ¹

At the United Nations in 1946, Pandit led India's challenge to South Africa's discriminatory treatment of people of Indian origin. South Africa maintained that its domestic affairs lay outside the organization's authority. Pandit argued that human rights made the issue an international concern and won a majority of two thirds for India's position. Her biographer Manu Bhagavan identifies this confrontation as an important early precedent in the UN's treatment of human rights. ²

After serving as ambassador to the Soviet Union, Pandit took up the Washington embassy in 1949. In July 1950 she transmitted Nehru's Korean peace initiative, together with his exchanges with Stalin, to Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Food supply was another urgent concern. In December she sought American help as crop failures and other disasters intensified India's shortages. Acheson told her that the scale of the request required congressional funding and promised an urgent examination of both emergency supplies and measures to prevent future crises. ^{3, 4, 5}

In 1953 Pandit became the first woman elected president of the UN General Assembly. She subsequently served as high commissioner in Britain, governor of Maharashtra, and a member of the Lok Sabha. Her international public life also included representation on the UN Human Rights Commission. ^{2, 3, 1}

Pandit returned to political campaigning against the Emergency imposed by her niece, Indira Gandhi, and supported the opposition that defeated Congress in 1977. Her books included The Evolution of India and The Scope of Happiness, a personal memoir published in 1979. She died in Dehradun in December 1990. ^{2, 1}