PANDIT, VIJAYA LAKSHMI

PANDIT, VIJAYA LAKSHMI (1900–1990), Indian political leader and diplomat. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was born on 18 August 1900, the daughter of Motilal Nehru, a wealthy lawyer, and his wife Swarup. (She too was given the name Swarup at birth; Vijaya Lakshmi, the name by which she became known in public life, was given to her when she married.) Her older brother, Jawaharlal, served as prime minister when India became independent in 1947 until his death in 1964. Her younger sister, Krishna (later, Hutheesingh), in her memoirs described her famous sister as docile, obedient, tactful, and eminently suited to high office. She was also beautiful, highly intelligent, at ease with people of all classes, witty, and, on occasion, sharp-tongued. She was educated entirely at home by tutors under the supervision of her English governess, Jane Hooper.

The family became involved in nationalist politics when Motilal Nehru gave his support to Mohandas Gandhi, leader of the Indian National Congress, in its opposition to British rule. In 1921 Vijaya married Ranjit S. Pandit, a lawyer and Sanskrit scholar, and they had three daughters. Both she and her husband were active in the freedom movement, and they were imprisoned at various times. He died in 1944 after a prison term. Elected in 1937 to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces, she became minister in charge of local self-government, medicine, and public health.

Vijaya Pandit made her first visit to the United States in 1944 to see her daughters, Nayantara and Chandralekha, who were students at Wellesley College. She lectured widely on India, befriending influential Americans, including Eleanor Roosevelt. She represented India at the initial meeting of the United Nations in 1946 at San Francisco. When India became independent, she was appointed ambassador to the Soviet Union (1947–1949) and then to the United States (1949–1951). From 1952 to 1954, she was a member of Parliament, and from 1953 to 1954, she led India's delegation to the United Nations, where she became president of the General Assembly. From 1954 to 1961, she was India's high commissioner to Great Britain. Governor of the province of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964, she was a member of Parliament from 1964 to 1969.

Her niece, Indira Gandhi, daughter of Jawaharlal, had become prime minister in 1964, but there were increasing strains between them as the Gandhi administration became more authoritarian, culminating in the suspension of civil rights. Pandit joined the opposition party and in 1978 won a seat in Parliament in the election that defeated Indira Gandhi. On her retirement from parliament, she wrote her memoirs, The Scope of Happiness. When she died on 1 December 1990, newspapers cited her as one of the most outstanding women of the century.

Ainslie T. Embree

See alsoNehru, Jawaharlal ; Nehru, Motilal ; Women and Political Power

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The best source for her life is her autobiography, The Scope of Happiness: A Personal Memoir (New York: Crown, 1979). Anne Guthrie, Madame Ambassador: The Life of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1962), gives additional details on her family, as does the autobiography of her sister, Krishna Nehru Hutheesingh, With No Regrets (New York: John Day, 1945). Her relationship with her niece is discussed by her daughter, Nayantara Sahgal, in Indira Gandhi: The Road to Power (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1982).