Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi (1900–1990)

Indian politician, member of parliament 1964–68. She was involved, with her brother Jawaharlal Nehru, in the struggle for India's independence and was imprisoned three times by the British. She was the first woman to serve as president of the United Nations General Assembly, 1953–54, and held a number of political and diplomatic posts until her retirement 1968.

After her brother became the first prime minister of India in 1947, Pandit was Indian ambassador to the USSR 1947–49 and to the USA 1949–52, and high commissioner to the UK 1954–61. In 1962 she became governor of the state of Maharashta and after her brother's death in 1964 she took over his constituency, with a large majority. She resigned in 1968, saying that she felt ‘out of tune’ with the new parliament. During the 1970s she became alarmed by the increasingly authoritarian regime of her niece Indira Gandhi, and became a staunch critic of her government.