 Smt. Vijayalakshmi Pandit Sixteenth President of AIWC

Roshni  July - September 2021

By Smt. Chitra Sarkar, MIC-Roshni

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was born on 18th August 1900. Her parents were originally from Kashmir but had settled in Allahabad, where her father was a prominent lawyer. She was their second child and eldest daughter.They named her Sarup Kumari. She had an older brother named Jawaharlal, and a younger sister, Krishna.The family lived in a lavish, westernized manner, with many servants, in a large joint family. Motilal became a leading figure in the National Movement, and Anand Bhavan, their family mansion, became the centre of swadeshi activities.In 1930 Motilal Nehru donated Anand Bhavan to the country and renamed it Swaraj Bhavan.He then built a smaller home for his family in the same compound and named it Anand Bhavan.

In 1921, Sarup Kumari married a young Maharashtrian barrister named Ranjit Pandit. In accordance with the custom prevailing at that time, her name was changed to Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. Ranjit Pandit had been educated at Oxford, Sorbonne and Heidelberg. He spoke eleven languages, played the violin, and was a trained singer. Until 1926, he practiced law in Calcutta, after which he resigned and joined his brother-inlaw, Jawahar, in the nationalist movement. The couple had three daughters, Rita, Chandralekha and Nayantara In 1937, Smt. Pandit was elected to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces and was designated Minister for Local Self-Government and Public Health. She held this post until 1938, when the provisional government resigned to protest British policies.

AIWC

In December 1941, Smt. Vijayalakshmi Pandit was elected the sixteenth President of The All India Women’s Conference, and remained President during 1942-43.

Here is an excerpt from her Presidential Address.

“...As women we have a special responsibility cast on us. We must decide whether we shall ally ourselves to the forces of life, or those of death. Are we going to join the group that by their acquiescence make wars possible? Shall we bear sons only that they may murder other women's sons and help to maintain a system which stands selfcondemned? Or shall we raise our united voice in favour of a brave new world where human life and human liberty receive the respect which is their due, where progress and security are within the grasp of each individual? The choice is before us. The future, not for women only but for humanity as well, is what the women of today make of it. Let us not treat this matter lightly...”

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Roshni  July - September 2021

The period of her Presidency was momentous, both for herself and the country. In March 1942, the British government sent a delegation to India under Sir Stafford Cripps, in what came to be known as the Cripps Mission. The purpose of the mission was to negotiate with Congress to obtain co-operation during the war, in return for devolution and distribution of power from the Crown and the Viceroy, to an elected Indian legislature. The talks failed. After the failure of the Cripps Mission, Gandhiji gave a historic speech in Mumbai on 8th August 1942, calling for an end to British Rule in India.This was called the Quit India Movement. Congress prepared to escalate civil disobedience. Very soon, its leaders were in jail. Ranjit Pandit and Jawaharlal Nehru were incarcerated in Bareilly Jail, while she herself was sent to Naini Central Jail. As soon as she was released from jail, Smt. Pandit decided to visit Bengal which was in the grip of a horrific man-made famine. It is estimated that three million people died. On her return from Bengal, she found her husband had suffered a heart attack in jail, followed by several complications. On 14th January 1944, Ranjit Pandit passed away. He was just fifty years old. The horrific prison conditions he had endured had destroyed his health.In accordance with the prevailing law, Smt. Pandit did not inherit anything from her husband after his demise.

On observing the plight of our own President, the AIWC started its campaign on the inheritance rights of women.

In 1946, Smt. Pandit was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the United Provinces.

After Independence, Smt. Pandit joined the diplomatic service. She was India’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1947 to 1949, the United States and Mexico from 1949 to 1951, the United Kingdom as High Commissioner from 1955 to 1961and Spain from 1958 to 1961.

Smt. Pandit headed the Indian delegation to the United Nations from 1946 to 1968. In September 1952, she was elected President of the UN General Assembly-- the first woman to hold this post. She served as Governor of Maharashtra from 1962 to 1964.

In May 1964, her brother Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru passed away. She resigned as Governor of Maharashtra and won election to the Lok Sabha from her brother’s former constituency, Phulpur. In 1968, she resigned her parliamentary berth, and stepped back from active politics.She came out of retirement in 1977 to oppose the policies of Smt. Indira Gandhi in the General Election which brought the Janta Party to power. In 1979, she was appointed the Indian representative to the UN Human Rights Commission. Thereafter she retired from public life and settled in Dehradun in the Himalayan foothills, where she passed away in December 1990 at the age of ninety. She had blazed a feminist trail throughout her life in an era where the word had not yet been coined, and served her country, and the cause of women’s empowerment in a wide spectrum of activities.

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Roshni  July - September 2021

With her brother, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

As President of the UN General Assembly As President of The All India Women’s Conference

As Ambassador to UK

Patron Smt. Bina Jain, celebrates Teej

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