Biography of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Name: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
Birth Date: August 18, 1900
Death Date: December 1, 1990
Place of Birth: Allahabad, India
Nationality: Indian
Gender: Female
Occupations: diplomat, politician

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900-1990) was an Indian diplomat, politician, and a sister of India's first prime-minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. She was active in the Indian freedom movement and held high national and international positions.Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was born in Allahabad in what was then the United Provinces (later, Uttar Pradesh) on August 18, 1900, and was given the name Swarup Kumari ("Beautiful Princess") Nehru. She was the eldest daughter of a distinguished Brahmin lawyer, Motilal Nehru, and eleven years younger than her brother, Jawaharlal. Accustomed to luxury and educated at home and in Switzerland, she was greatly influenced by Mohandas Ghandi and became identified with the struggle for independence. She was imprisoned by the British on three different occasions, in 1932-1933, 1940, and 1942-1943.In May 1921 she married Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, a foreign-educated barrister from Kathiawar. At that time she changed her name to Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. The Pandit's had three daughters, including the novelist Nayantara (…showed first 150 words…

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…showed last 150 words…movement." Associated Organizations Further Reading Pandit's own writings include So I Became a Minister (1939); Prison Days (1946); a touching essay, "The Family Bond," in Rafiq Zakaria, ed., A Study of Nehru (1959); many interviews and articles, and innumerable published speeches. Her daughter, Nayantara (Pandit) Sahgal, presented revealing portraits in Prison and Chocolate Cake (1954) and From Fear Set Free (1963). There is no good biography of Pandit, but three books by professed admirers are interesting: Anne Guthrie Madame Ambassador: The Life of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1962); Vera Brittain Envoy Extraordinary (1965); and Robert Hardy Andrews A Lamp for India: The Story of Madame Pandit (1967). She is often referred to in books on the Nehrus and in biographies of her brother, Jawaharlal Nehru.Obituaries for Pandit appear in the Chicago Tribune (December 2, 1990) and the Washington Post (December 2, 1990). A brief biography of Pandit appears on-line at the A&E Network Biography site located at www.biography.com.

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