Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, 1900- , statesman. Daughter of Motilal Nehru and younger sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, she was born at Allahabad on 18 August 1900. She married Ranjit Sitaram Pandit (d. 14 Jan. 1944), a barrister of Kathiawar, in May 1921. She became an active political worker in the cause of Indian independence, along with other members of her father’s family, and her husband, and suffered frequent imprisonments. She was elected to U. P. Assembly in 1936 and 1946 and was Minister of Local-Self-Government. When India became independent, she led the Indian delegation to United Nations a number of times, and served as the ambassador to the USSR (1947-49) and U. S. (1949-52) and High Commissioner to U. K. (1954-61). She was governor of Maharashtra from 1962-64 and member of Lok Sabha in 1952-53, and 1964-67. She was also the president of the U.N. General Assembly in 1953-54.She later retired from active politics, but emerged again in 1977 to support the Janata Party against the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. Of her three daughters, Nayantara Sehgal, is a well known writer.
