Lakshmi N. Menon

Lakshmi N. Menon (1897-1994) was born in Tiruvananthapuram, the child of Rama Varma Thampan and Madhavikutty Amma. In 1930 she married Prof. V.K. Nandan Menon, who had been vice chancellor of the University of Travancore and Patna University and director of the Indian Institutes of Public Administration.

Lakshmi studied at Madras, Lucknow and London, acquiring high qualifications as an educator. She first taught till 1926 at Queen Mary’s College, Madras, then the Gokhale Memorial Girls’ School and the Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow. She switched to law in the late 1920s and practised till 1935. She was an associate of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu and Margaret H. Cousins.

She was one of the founder members of the All India Women’s Conference, serving for some time as its secretary and president and also as editor of its magazine, "Roshni". After Independence she was principal for a while of the Patna Teachers’ Training College. But Jawaharlal Nehru wanted her to be part of his government, and he persuaded her to allow herself to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Somewhat relcutantly she agreed, and moreover served as Alternate Delegate from India to the United Nations. In 1949-1950 she headed the UN Section on the Status of Women and Children.

Returning to Independent India, she served in the Ministry of External Affairs as Parliamentary Secretary from 1952 to 1957, Deputy Minister from 1957 to 1962 and Minister of State to 1967. She toured the world on India’s behalf, taking one such tour at a crucial juncture in India's relations with China, and charged with the task of explaining India's stand to the world. Retiring from political service in 1967, she turned to social work and also to writing, authoring among other things a book on Indian women for the Oxford Pamphlets on Indian Affairs series, published by Oxford University Press. She helped to found the Federation of University Women in India. In recognition of her services, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1957.