Kumara Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon Sr. (18 October 1898 – 22 November 1982), usually known as K. P. S. Menon, was a diplomat and diarist, a career member of the
Indian Civil Service
The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.
Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...
. He was appointed independent India's first
Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
, serving from 1948 to 1952.
He was
Dewan
''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...
(Prime Minister) of
Bharatpur State
Bharatpur State, which is also known as the Jat State of Bharatpur historically known as the Kingdom of Bharatpur, was a Hindu Kingdom in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. It was ruled by the Sinsinwar clan of the Hindu Jat ...
,
Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1961, and Ambassador to the
Republic of China before 1948. In 1948, preceding events of the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, the United Nations appointed him the Chairman of the UN Commission on Korea (UNCOK).
Menon's overland trip from
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
to
Chungking
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Counc ...
across the Himalayas, the
Karakoram
The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...
s and the Pamirs during the Second World War was recorded in his book ''Delhi-Chungking: A Travel Diary'' (1947). He was a signatory on behalf of India at the formation of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
. He was a member of the
Royal Central Asian Society
The Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA) is a learned society based in London (United Kingdom). Its objective is to advance public knowledge and understanding of Asia through its worldwide networks, its public events, its publications and its s ...
.
Early life
K. P. S. Menon was born in Kottayam,
Travancore
The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At ...
,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
(present-day
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
, India) in 1898 in a distinguished aristocratic family. His father Kumara Menon was a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
from
Ottapalam
Ottapalam, (also spelled Ottappalam) is a town, taluk and municipality in the Palakkad district, Palakkad District, Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ottapalam taluk. Ottapalam is located about 36 km from district head ...
. His mother Janaki Amma came from
Vellayani
Vellayani is a suburb of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, India.
Location
Vellayani is reached via Thiruvananthapuram Central Bus Station at Thampanoor (9 km) and from City Bus Depot at East Fort. It is connected by state r ...
near
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...
in Travancore, a niece of
Kesava Pillai of Kandamath
M. R. Ry. Chempakaraman Padmanabhan Kesava Pillai Avergal of Kandamath, Pillai of Kandamath (1830–1924), was an Indian Zamindar, one of the jenmis of Travancore and a member of the Sree Moolam Popular Assembly.
Life
Early life
He was born ...
and cousin of Neyyattinkara N. K. Padmanabha Pillai. Upon her marriage to Kumara Menon, in a previously unprecedented manner (see
Matrilineality
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance of ...
in Kerala society), she moved to
Kottayam
Kottayam () is a municipal town in the Indian state of Kerala. Flanked by the Western Ghats on the east and the Vembanad Lake and paddy fields of Kuttanad on the west. It is the district headquarters of Kottayam district, located in south-we ...
to set up house with Kumara Menon who himself had moved away from his family in Ottapalam. The children were also given titles from their father's side and not from the mother's side. He attended
Madras Christian College
Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institu ...
and then
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
,
where he was a contemporary of the future Prime Minister
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achieving rapid promo ...
and served as co-officers of the Asiatic Society. He served as the president of the Oxford Majlis Asian Society. He was admitted to the
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
on 30 November 1918, but withdrew without being
Called to the Bar
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
on 15 March 1928.
Public service career
In 1922, Menon secured the first rank in the combined Civil Services Examination and joined the ICS. He served as Sub-Collector of Tirupattur, Vellore District, then as District Magistrate in
Trichy
Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...
, Agent of the Government of India at Fort Sandeman, now Zhob, in Baluchistan, in the
North West Frontier Province
The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...
and
Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, then as
Resident
Resident may refer to:
People and functions
* Resident minister, a representative of a government in a foreign country
* Resident (medicine), a stage of postgraduate medical training
* Resident (pharmacy), a stage of postgraduate pharmaceuti ...
of India in
Hyderabad State
Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...
. In 1934, he was sent as Crown Representative to investigate the state of Indians in
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
, Kenya and Uganda. As Dewan of Bharatpur State, he was appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Indian Empire
The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:
#Knight Grand Commander (GCIE)
#Knight Commander ( KCIE)
#Companion ( CIE)
No appoi ...
in the
New Year Honours
The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...
of 1943. After independence, he was India's first
Foreign Secretary
The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...
from 1948 to 1952, then
Ambassador of India to the Soviet Union, Hungary and Poland from 1952 to 1961, being the last foreigner to see the alive
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
in person (on February 13, 1953). On retirement, he was a member and later Chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission.
Menon married Saraswathi, the daughter of
C. Sankaran Nair
Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, CIE (11 July 1857 – 24 April 1934) was a lawyer who also served as a President of the Indian National Congress in 1897 at the meeting held at Amravati. He wrote ''Gandhi and Anarchy'' (1922).
Early life and educati ...
. His son, who bore the same name as him, served as envoy to China and his grandson
Shivshankar Menon
Shivshankar Menon (born 5 July 1949) is an Indian diplomat, who served as National Security Adviser of India under Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. He had previously served as the Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. Pr ...
was Ambassador to China, Foreign Secretary and later the
National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils.
National sec ...
.
Menon was awarded the
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
in 1958
and the
Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...
.
[
]
Works
Menon's published writings include:[Front Cover of Title Page, Memories and Musings, last work written. See K. P. S. Menon,Memories and Musings, Allied Publishers, New Delhi 1979]
* ''Many Worlds: An Autobiography''
* ''Many Worlds Revisited'' - updated autobiography
* ''Delhi-Chungking: A Travel Diary'' (1947)
* ''Russian Panorama''
* ''The Friendship of Great Peoples'' (1962)
* ''The Flying Troika'' (1963)
* ''The Resurgence of India: Reformation Or Revolution? Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Lectures'' (1963)
* ''India & the Cold War'' (1966)
* ''Journey Round the World'' (1966)
* ''Biography of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair''
* ''Lenin through Indian Eyes'' (1970)
* ''Russia Revisited'' (1971)
* ''The Lamp and the Lampstand''
* ''Twilight in China'' (1972)
* ''The Indo-Soviet Treaty: Setting & Sequel'' (1972)
* ''A Diplomat Speaks'' (1974)
* ''Yesterday and Today'' (1975) - a collection of articles, illustrated by Abu Abraham
* ''Changing Patterns of Diplomacy- Dr. Saiyidain Memorial Lectures'' (1977)
* ''Memories and Musings'' (1979)
* ''One Thousand Full Moons'' (Published posthumously in 1987)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menon, Kumara Padma Sivasankara
Indian civil servants
Indian Civil Service (British India) officers
Lenin Peace Prize recipients
1898 births
1982 deaths
Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire
Ambassadors of India to China
People from Ottapalam
Malayali people
Ambassadors of India to the Soviet Union
Indian Foreign Secretaries
Indian Hindus
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in civil service
University of Madras alumni
CMS College Kottayam alumni
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Indian expatriates in Kenya