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A Tribute to the Late Prof. Ved Prakash Nanda
By Dr. Thomas Abraham, Chairman, GOPIO International
Prof. Ved Prakash Nanda was a professor of International Law at the University of Denver, Colorado. He was Past President of the World Jurist Association and later its Honorary President, honorary Vice President of the American Society of International Law and later its counsellor, and a member of the advisory council of the United States Institute of Human Rights. He was widely published, having authored or co-authored 24 books in various fields of international law. Prof. Ved Nanda also received several awards, including the Gandhi, King, and Ikeda Awards for Community Peace Building.
Prof. Nanda was a good friend. He was a patriotic Indian. I had had an opportunity to work with him closely since 1981 when I took up a job at the University of Denver, where Prof. Nanda was already working at the law school. Since then, we worked together on many community campaigns. We jointly did a couple of Indian-American fundraising campaigns for candidates running for elections in Colorado in the 1980s.
Other than his professional contribution as a professor of law and a leading legal expert, he stood out for his contribution to the Indian Diaspora community for the last five decades.
Besides what others said earlier, Prof. Nanda significantly contributed to mainstream Indian community organisations. At our First Global Convention of People of Indian Origin in 1989 in New York City, Prof. Nanda was entrusted with developing a structure for a global Indian Diaspora organisation. He helped to draft the constitution and bylaws of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO). He had attended many of our early steering committee meetings and conventions in the USA, Europe and India. He was also a frequent speaker at the conventions organised by the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA) in different US cities.
After our First GOPIO Convention in 1989 in New York, he chaired the GOPIO Human Rights Commission. He successfully campaigned on the human rights violations of Indo-Sri Lankans and IndoFijians at the UN Human Rights Commission in 1991 in Geneva.
He substantially contributed to building the Indian American community’s infrastructure through national organisations for the last five decades. His passing away is a significant loss for our community.
GOPIO International and its chapters convey our heartfelt condolences to Nanda's family, particularly Anjali and her family. We will miss him in our midst. May his soul rest in peace.
