VIJAYALAKSHMI PANDIT Biography - Royalty, Rulers & leaders

 
 

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VIJAYALAKSHMI PANDIT
       

Vijayalakshmi Pandit, daughter of Motilal Nehru and sister of Jawaharlal Nehru, was born in 1900. She did not go to school for formal education but was educated at home by English governesses.

       

She was imprisoned thrice during the Nationalist Movement. In 1936, she won the general election from Bikhaur and in 1937 became a Cabinet Minister of Local Self-Government and Public Health in the U.P. Government. With this she became the first Indian woman to hold a cabinet post. She was the Indian delegate at San Francisco at the first meeting of the United Nations.

       

In 1946, Vijayalakshmi was again elected to the U.P Legislative Assembly. She became leader of the Indian delegation to the UN from 1946 to 1948 and again from 1952 to 1953. In 1953, she became the first woman President of the UN General Assembly and was Indian High Commissioner in London from 1954-61. Later she was appointed the Governor of Maharashtra. She died in 1990.