V. K. Krishna Menon

After the independence of India, he facilitated international diplomacy and resolutions in situations such as the Suez Crisis, Korean War, invasion of Hungary, Cyprus, Indochina, Taiwan, and the Chinese capture of American airmen, while supporting the anti-colonial ethos of what he would eventually name the Non-Aligned Movement.

in Industrial Psychology with first class honours from University of London, for a thesis entitled An Experimental Study of the Mental Processes Involved in Reasoning.

[9] As a barrister, Menon represented poor lascas pro bono, and, Udham Singh, in his trial for the killing of Michael O'Dwyer in vengeance for the Amritsar Massacre.

[20] In 1931, Mahatma Gandhi praised the efforts of the Indian League for its "hurricane propaganda on the danger to world peace of a rebellious India in bondage".

[21] He also took interest in the Colonial Seamen's Association from which he met Chris Braithwaite and Surat Alley.The origins of the policy of non-alignment were evident in Menon, where he condemned Britain and Germany, although he marched several times in anti-Nazi demonstrations.

Menon's distrust of the West extended to the United Kingdom, and his opposition to British political manoeuvres led MI5 to deem him a "serious menace to security".

From 1929 onwards, Menon had been kept under surveillance, with a warrant to intercept his correspondence being issued in December 1933, identifying him as an "important worker in the Indian revolutionary movement".

[23] Clandestine surveillance intensified following Menon's 1946 meeting in Paris with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, and Indian independence.

[24] In 2007, hundreds of pages of MI5 files documenting their coverage of Menon were released, including transcripts of phone conversations and intercepted correspondences with other statesmen and Nehru himself.

In 1948, Menon had ignored protocols and signed a Rs 8 million contract for the purchase of army jeeps with a foreign firm for the Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948.

He engineered solutions to complex international political issues, including a peace plan for Korea, a ceasefire in Indo-China, the deadlocked disarmament talks, and the French withdrawal from the UN over Algeria.

Menon was critical of the United States, and expressed sympathies with Soviet policies, earning the ire of many Indians by voting against a UN resolution calling for the USSR to withdraw troops from Hungary,[32] although he reversed his stance three weeks later under pressure from New Delhi.

[34] Menon also supported the admission of China to the United Nations, which earned him the enmity of many American statesmen, including Senator William F. Knowland.

With what voice can either the Security Council or anyone coming before it demand a plebiscite for a people on our side who exercise franchise, who have freedom of speech, who function under a hundred local bodies?

Indian annexation of Goa had subtle ramifications throughout Asia, as in the case of Indonesian president Sukarno, who refrained from invading the Portuguese colony of East Timor partially from fear of being compared to Menon.

[49] The invasion also spawned a complex mass of legal issues relating to differences between eastern and western interpretations of United Nations law and jurisdiction.

Former Supreme Court Judge V. R. Krishna Iyer remarked Menon's legal career as: "Great human causes, not petty problems, find the jurist in him.

Admired for his defence of India's sovereignty in Kashmir on the world stage, Menon was met with rapturous receptions on the campaign trail, and won in a contest against PSP candidate Alvares Peter Augustus by 47,741 votes (171,708 to 123,967).

Huge crowds surged forward, blocking the streets, while Menon was drowned by the surrounding uproar, his umbrella knocked away by the bombardment of flowers and bouquets.

In October 1961, Menon, the sitting Defence Minister, was challenged by the 74-year-old Acharya Kripalani, a previous president of the Indian National Congress.

"[63][64] Menon resigned from the Congress and stood for elections as an independent candidate from the North East Mumbai constituency, of which he was the sitting member of parliament.

[65][66][67] In 1969, Menon contested a seat in the Lok Sabha from the Bengal constituency of Midnapore, running as an independent in a by-election, and defeating his Congress rival by a margin of 106,767 votes in May of that year.

American President Dwight D. Eisenhower considered Menon a "menace", governed by ambition to prove himself the international manipulator and politician of the age".

[78] According to The Tribune, "Few Indians have dominated global politics or aroused as much awe and antagonism as V. K. Krishna Menon, one of the prominent personalities of the 20th century.

Menon fell ill about three months before his death when he was in London to attend a musical event, organised for raising donations for Nehru memorial fund.

After independence he was one of the most eloquent exponents in the United Nations and other world forums, of policy of non-alignment and peaceful co-existence and our opposition to all forms of colonialism and racialism.

"[82]James Callaghan, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and later PM of the United Kingdom, said: "Krishna Menon was a man of remarkable talents and personality would have shone in any circumstances and at any time but for us he was also the embodiment of the movement within Britain for India's freedom.

[84] On his funeral, wreaths were placed by president Ahmed, vice-president B. D. Jatti, PM Indira Gandhi and her cabinet members, MPs and also high commissioner for Britain and the Egyptian ambassador.

[85] In private, Menon abstained from tobacco, alcohol and meat,[22] fasting for days, and forwent his luxury townhouse in Kensington Palace Gardens in favour of a single room in the Indian High Commission during his official tenure in London.

One of the Institute's objectives include awarding people from India and diaspora from Asia for their accomplishments in the fields of science, literature, economics, politics, diplomacy and human rights.

V.K. Krishna Menon (age 62) giving a luncheon in 1958 in honour of His Royal Highness Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Andrei Gromyko , Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union.
1st Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru with V. K. Krishna Menon (age 60) in United Nations in December 1956.
Menon was frequently vilified in the Western press, which described or depicted him as a "snake-charmer", as in TIME magazine's 1962 cover portrait. [ 61 ]
Krishna Menon Museum, Kozhikode , where original oil portraits of Menon, as well as personal belongings, letters, news clips, and other materials related to Menon, are kept for public display.
No. 9 Kensington Palace Gardens - the townhouse Menon purchased for the formal residence of the Indian High Commissioner, though he declined live there.
Menon on a 1997 stamp.