Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit Biography

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was an Indian diplomat and politician. She is better known as one of the prominent members of Nehru family - the sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, the aunt of Indira Gandhi and the great-aunt of Rajiv Gandhi, great politicians and former Prime Ministers of India. She was the first Indian woman to hold a cabinet post. Her husband was Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, a barrister and Sanskrit scholar who translated Kalhana's Sanskrit epic Rajatarangini into English. Her daughter Nayantara Sahgal is one of the earliest noted English novelists from India and her granddaughter Gita Sahgal is a writer and journalist on issues of feminism, fundamentalism, and racism and has won international awards as a documentary film maker.

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was born in August 18, 1900 in Allahabad, UP. In 1921 she married Ranjit Sitaram Pandit. Pandit was arrested for his support of Indian independence and died in Lucknow prison jail on 14 January 1944. During this time, two daughters Nayantara and Chandralekha were attending graduation studies at Wellesley College, US. Nayantara Sahgal, after studies settled in her mother's house in Dehradun. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit has a powerful political career. She was the first Indian woman to hold a cabinet post. In 1937 after winning from United Provinces, she was given the cabinet position of local self-government and public health, a post that she held till 1939 and a couple of years from 1946 till Indian independence.

After Indian independence, she entered the diplomatic service and became India's ambassador to Soviet Union. She has served as ambassador of several countries like the United States, Mexico, Ireland and Spain till 1961. Between 1946 and 1968, she headed the Indian delegation to the United Nations and has also served as governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964. In 1979, she was appointed the Indian representative to the UN Human Rights Commission. The Evolution of India (1958) and The Scope of Happiness: A Personal Memoir (1979) are her published works.

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Updated: September 25, 2017