“Luminous strand in the tapestry of India’s freedom struggle.”

Former President Rama Swami Venkataraman.

• Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was the first woman to be elected president of the United Nations General Assembly, in 1953.

• She was elected twice to the United Provinces Legislative Assembly and became the first woman cabinet minister in pre-Independence India.

• After her second term as MLA and cabinet minister, she was elected to the Constituent Assembly.

• As newly-independent India’s top diplomat, she served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union, the United States and Mexico, Ireland, and Spain, and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

• In 1979, she was appointed India’s representative to the UN Human Rights Commission.

    Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was one of the 15 women architects of the Indian constitution and the first Indian woman to hold....