VK Krishna Menon

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VK Krishna Menon (1950)

Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (born May 3, 1896 [according to other information: May 3, 1897 ] in Calicut , Malabar , British India ; † October 6, 1974 in Delhi ) was an Indian diplomat and politician of the Indian National Congress (INC), who was High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1947 to 1952 and Ambassador to Ireland from 1949 to 1952 . He was then head of the delegation to the United Nations between 1952 and 1962 and Minister of Defense in the third and fourth Nehru cabinets from 1957 to 1962 . He was also a member of the British Labor Party from 1934 to 1947 on the council of the London Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras . In 1957 he gave the longest speech ever given to the United Nations Security Council in which he defended India's stance on Kashmir and received an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for it .

Life

Studies, lawyer and local politician in London

After attending the Municipal School and Government Brennen College in Thalassery , Menon, son of Komath Krishna Kurup, began his undergraduate studies at Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College in Calicut and at Presidency College in Madras , from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) . He then studied law at the University of Madras and then economics at the London School of Economics (LSE), which he completed with a Bachelor of Science (B. Sc. Economics). He also graduated from Day Training College in London, where he obtained the Teachers' Diploma .

After his return to India, he was a lecturer at the National University in Adyar between 1919 and 1923 , during which time he was also involved in the scouting movement in the princely state of Cochin . In 1924 he returned to Great Britain and was initially a teacher at St. Christophers' School in Letchworth Garden City and was admitted to the bar ( Barrister ) at the Bars ( Inns of Court ) of Middle Temple in London and King's Inn in Dublin . He subsequently worked as a lawyer in the United Kingdom. In addition, further postgraduate studies at University College London (UCL) followed, which he completed with a Master of Arts (MA) and a Master of Science (M. Sc.).

In addition to his professional activity, Menon, who was a member of the British Labor Party between 1924 and 1947 , also began his political commitment and served as secretary of the India League in London from 1927 to 1947. He was a member of the council of the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras between 1934 and 1947 and during that time also chaired the local library committee. In 1945 he took part in various international meetings of the International Peace Campaign led by Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood , and in 1946 as representative of India at the General Assembly of the United Nations in Lake Success . In 1947 he became president of the India League .

High Commissioner, Ambassador and Minister

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (center) with Menon before a UN meeting in New York City on December 21, 1956

After India gained independence from the United Kingdom on August 15, 1947, Menon stayed in Great Britain, where he served as India's first High Commissioner until 1952 and toured numerous European capitals in 1947 as the special envoy and personal representative of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru . During this time the so-called Jeep scandal broke out , in which military jeeps were bought by a British company, but they turned out to be defective and used and were therefore overpriced. In 1949 he was also accredited as Ambassador to Ireland and in 1952 also admitted to the bar in Ireland. He was then head of the delegation to the United Nations in New York City between 1952 and 1962 and also at various meetings of the UN Trust Council from 1953 to 1956 .

On May 26, 1953 Menon also became a member of the Council of States , from which on August 23, 1954 as part of the Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha , to which he belonged until March 15, 1957. In 1954 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan for his services , the second highest civilian merit after the Bharat Ratna . In 1954 the University of Glasgow also awarded him an honorary doctorate in law. In addition, from 1956 to April 5, 1957, he was a minister with no portfolio in Nehru's second cabinet . From January 23 to 24, 1957, he made the longest UN speech ever held before the United Nations Security Council, with a speaking time of around eight hours, in which he defended India's position on Kashmir . After a five-hour speaking time on January 23, 1957, he collapsed and received medical attention. On January 24, 1957, the speech continued for another 2 hours and 48 minutes.

In 1957 Menon was elected to the INC for the first time as a member of the Lok Sabha , the first chamber of parliament, and was a member of this from the second to the end of the fourth electoral term in 1967. In 1958 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in human sciences from the University of Mysore .

On April 17, 1957, Menon took over the post of defense minister in the third Nehru cabinet , which he also held in the fourth Nehru cabinet until October 31, 1962 . During his tenure, on October 20, 1962, the Indo-Chinese border war began in the area of ​​the McMahon Line , which led to his dismissal on October 31, 1962 because of the looming defeat.

Resigned from the INC and became an independent MP

In 2013, a plaque was put up on his former home at 30 Langdon Park Road in Highgate, London
Still image of VK Krishna Menon in his hometown Kozhikode

In November 1966 Menon took part in an all-Indian conference of eleven friendship societies between the GDR and India. Other participants included the then Minister of Labor, Employment and Rehabilitation, Jagjivan Ram , the Vice President of the Rajya Sabha, Violet Alva , and Minister of Public Works, Housing and Utilities Mehr Chand Khanna .

After Menon left the INC in 1967, he ran in the 1967 elections as a non-party in the constituency of North Bombay (East) for a seat in the Lok Sabha, but lost to the INC candidate Tara Govind Sapre . In a by-election in the West Bengal constituency in 1969, with the support of the left, he was re-elected as a member of the Lok Sabha. Most recently he was re-elected as a member of parliament in the constituency of Trivandrum in the state of Kerala in 1971 as a non-party member and was a member of this parliament until his death in the fifth parliamentary term on October 6, 1974.

The VK Krishna Menon Institute , founded in 2006, was named in his honor. In 2013, a plaque was put up on his former home at 30 Langdon Park Road in Highgate, London . In addition, there is the Krishna Menon Museum in his hometown and the Krishna Menon Memorial Govt.Women's College in Kannur .

Publications

  • A theory of laughter. With special relation to comedy and tragedy , G. Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London 1931
  • Why Must India Fight? , 1940
  • Britain's Prisoner , 1941
  • India, Britain and Freedom , The India league, London 1941
  • The Situation in India , The India league, London 1943
  • Unity with India against Fascism , The India league, London 1943
  • Kashmir. Speech in the Security Council January 23-24, 1957 , Information Service of India, Delhi 1957
  • The question of Tibet. Statement in the United Nations, 1959 , Ministry of External Affairs, Delhi 1959

Background literature

  • Emil Lengyel: Krishna Menon , New York: Walker Books, 1962
  • TJS George: Krishna Menon: A Biography , London: Jonathan Cape, 1964
  • Michael Brecher: India and World Politics: Krishna Menon's View of the World , Oxford: Oxford UP, 1968
  • Julius Silverman: “The India League”. A Centenary History of the Indian National Congress, 1885–1985 , New Delhi: Vikas, 1985
  • Suhash Chakravarty: K. Krishna Menon and the India League , 2 volumes, New Delhi: Har-Anand, 1997
  • Janaki Ram: Krishna Menon: A Personal Memoir , Delhi and Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997
  • K C. Arora: VK Krishna Menon: A Biography , New Delhi: Sanchar, 1998
  • Suhash Chakravarty: Crusader Extraordinary: Krishna Menon and the India League, 1932–6 , New Delhi: India Research Press, 2006
  • VK Madhavan Kutty: VK Krishna Menon , Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, 2016, ISBN 8-12302-361-8 (online version in Google Books )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Congress Betrayal: How Nehru and Krishna Menon conspired against India in run upto the 1961 Indo-China War in patheos.com on May 17, 2009 (page accessed on February 24, 2017)
  2. ↑ Speech to the UN General Assembly 1955 ( YouTube )
  3. ↑ Themes of Statements delivered by Heads of Indian Delegations at the United Nations General Assembly - General Debate since 1946 ( Memento of March 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) on the homepage of the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations
  4. ^ Longest UN speech in the Guinness Book of Records
  5. ^ A short history of long speeches . In: BBC News of September 24, 2009
  6. ↑ MR. VK KRISHNA MENON'S MARATHON SPEECH LASTING FOR EIGHT HOURS ON KASHMIR AT THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL'S SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY SECOND MEETING ON 23RD JANUARY 1957 ( Memento of July 28, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ KASHMIR: India Grabs It . In: Time of February 4, 1957
  8. ^ What is the longest speech given at the United Nations? on the homepage of the UN
  9. ↑ India: Key Ministries (rulers.org)
  10. ↑ Fischer Weltgeschichte , Volume 33: Das Moderne Asia, 1979, ISBN 3-436-01219-X , pp. 203 f.
  11. ↑ Congress Betrayal: How Nehru and Krishna Menon conspired against India in run upto the 1961 Indo-China War in patheos.com on May 17, 2009 (page accessed on February 24, 2017)
  12. ↑ Atul Bhardwaj: Why was Krishna Menon the fall guy of '62? . In: Purple Berets of December 16, 2011
  13. ↑ How Nehru, Menon conspired against army chief Thimayya . In: Hindustan Times of February 13, 2016
  14. ↑ Johannes H. Voigt: The India Policy of the GDR: From Beginnings to Recognition (1952-1972) , 2008, ISBN 3-41218-106-4 , p. 579.
  15. ↑ Menon had been critical of the establishment of the state of Kerala on November 1, 1956 (see KV Narayana Rao: VK Krishna Menon 'opposed' Kerala. Even before the submission of the report, it came to be known that the Commission had favored the formation of Kerala State. in Deccan Chronicle of November 8, 2016)
  16. ↑ MENON, VK Krishna (1896-1974) in English Heritage
  17. ↑ Remembering VK Krishna Menon in London. Blue plaque unveiled outside a house on Langdon Park Road in north London where Menon lived for two years . In: Live Mint of July 18, 2013
  18. ^ Krishna Menon Museum
  19. ^ Homepage of the Krishna Menon Memorial Govt.Women's College
personal data
SURNAME Menon, VK Krishna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Menon, Vengalil Krishnan Krishna (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1896 or May 3, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Calicut , Malabar , British India
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1974
Place of death Delhi