Rao Bahadur Vappala Pangunni Menon,
CSI,
CIE (30 September 1893 – 31 December 1965) was an Indian
civil servant who served as
Secretary to the Government of India in the
Ministry of the States, under
Sardar Patel.
By appointment from
Viceroy and Governor-General of India Wavell, he also served as Secretary to the Governor-General (Public) and later as Secretary to the Cabinet. He also was the Constitutional Adviser
and Political Reforms Commissioner to the last three successive Viceroys (
Linlithgow,
Wavell and
Mountbatten) during British rule in India. In May 1948, at the initiative of V. P. Menon, a meeting was held in Delhi between the Rajpramukhs of the princely unions and the States Department, at the end of which the Rajpramukhs signed new Instruments of Accession which gave the Government of India the power to pass laws in respect of all matters that fell within the seventh schedule of the
Government of India Act 1935
The Government of India Act, 1935 was an Act adapted from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It originally received royal assent in August 1935. It was the longest Act of (British) Parliament ever enacted until the Greater London Authority ...
.
He played a vital role in India's
partition and
political integration. Later in his life, he became a member of the free-market–oriented
Swatantra Party.
Early life and career
The son of a school headmaster Chunangad Shankara Menon, in
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 Ca ...
, Menon worked as a railway stoker, coal miner and Bangalore tobacco company clerk. Menon joined the Provincial Civil Service (PCS)
in 1914. He served as Assistant Secretary to the Government of India in the Reforms Office from 1933 to 1934.
He later served as Under Secretary from 1934 to 1935, Deputy Secretary from 1935 to 1940,
Joint secretary to the Government of India from 1941 to 1942.
By working assiduously, Menon rose through the ranks to become the highest serving Indian officer in
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 ...
.
Menon served as Joint Secretary to the
Simla Conference in June 1945. In 1946, he was appointed Political Reforms Commissioner to the British Viceroy.
In
Patrick French's ''India: A Portrait'', a biographical book on the Indian Subcontinent, it is mentioned that VP Menon moved in with his Keralite friends after his wife left him and returned to south India. The two friends, who were a couple, had arranged his marriage and helped raise his two sons – Pangunni Anantan Menon and Pangunni Shankaran Menon. When the husband died, Menon married his widow.
Menon was given the title of ''
Rao Bahadur'', appointed a
CIE in the 1941 Birthday Honours and a
CSI in the 1946 Birthday Honours. He was offered a knighthood as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in a final imperial honours list in 1948,
but refused. In a formal statement to the outgoing British authorities, Menon declined the knighthood, stating that with Indian independence, he had entered the service of the new Indian government.
According to his grandson, however, Menon later privately told his daughter-in-law he could not accept a knighthood for having caused the partition of his country.
Partition of India
Menon was the political advisor of the last
Viceroy of India
The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...
, Lord
Louis Mountbatten. When the interim Government had collapsed due to the rivalry between the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
and the
Muslim League, Menon had proposed to Mountbatten,
Jawaharlal Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India du ...
and
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Indian leaders, the Muslim League's plan to partition India into two independent nations - India and
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
.
Menon's resourcefulness during this period caught the eye of Sardar Patel, who would become the
Deputy Prime Minister of India in 1947.
VP Menon was present at the meeting between Lord Mountbatten and
Hanwant Singh, Maharaja of
Jodhpur
Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the ...
. It was at this meeting that Hanwant Singh signed the instrument of accession to India. After he had signed and the Viceroy Mountbatten left, only Menon was in the room with him. The Maharaja took out a .22 calibre pistol and pointed it at Menon and said 'I refuse to take your dictation'. Menon told him that he would be making a very serious mistake by threatening him and would not be able to get the accession abrogated in any case.
On 25 October, V.P Menon arrived at Srinagar to assess the situation of Kashmir and advised
Maharaja Hari Singh to proceed to Jammu as invaders were very close to Srinagar. Maharaja Hari Singh left from Srinagar to Jammu on the same night. V.P Menon along with
Mehr Chand Mahajan
Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan (1889–1967) was the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. Prior to that he was the Prime Minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir during the reign of Maharaja Hari Singh and played a key role in the ...
(Prime Minister J&K) left for New Delhi by air on the morning of 26th October. On arriving at New Delhi, Lord Mountbatten assured militarily intervention in J&K only after instrument of accession were signed. V.P Menon then left from New Delhi to Jammu by air on the afternoon of 26th October, secured signature on the legal documents, returning that evening by air to New Delhi. Next day, on 27th October
Lord Mountbatten accepted the accession of the Princely State of Jammu & Kashmir to India and Indian Army landed on Srinagar airport on the same day.
Integration of India
After the independence of India, Menon became the secretary of the Ministry of the States, headed by
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with whom he had developed a bond of trust. Patel respected Menon's political genius and work ethic, while Menon obtained the respect for his work that a civil servant needs from his political superior.
Menon worked closely with Patel over the
political integration of India
After the Indian independence in 1947, the dominion of India was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule, and the other under the suzerainty of the British Crown, with control over their internal affairs remainin ...
, in which, over 565
princely state
A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...
s were merged into the
union of India, managing the diplomacy between the States Ministry and the various Indian princes, acting as Patel's envoy and striking deals with reluctant princes and rulers. Patel respected Menon's ingenuity in diplomacy, and often did not question if Menon exceeded any instructions.
Menon also worked with Patel over the military action against the hostile states of
Junagadh and
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...
, as well as advising Nehru and Patel on relations with
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
and the
Kashmir conflict. The Cabinet had dispatched Menon to obtain the accession of
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
into India in 1947.
Later years
After his stint as Secretary, he was
Governor of Odisha (''Orissa then'') for a short period in 1951. He authored a book on the
political integration of India
After the Indian independence in 1947, the dominion of India was divided into two sets of territories, one under direct British rule, and the other under the suzerainty of the British Crown, with control over their internal affairs remainin ...
, ''The Story of the Integration of Indian States'' and on the
partition of India
The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...
, ''Transfer of Power''. He later joined the
Swatantra Party, but never contested the elections. Menon died on 31 December 1965 at the age of 72.
In popular culture
Indian actor
Ashish Vidyarthi
Ashish Vidyarthi (born 19 June 1962) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English, Odia, Marathi and Bengali films. He is noted for his antagonist and character roles. In 1995, he received t ...
portrayed Menon in the 1993 film ''
Sardar
Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also be ...
'', based on the life of Indian statesman Vallabhbhai Patel.
In 2020, his great granddaughter Narayani Basu wrote a biography on him named, ''
V. P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India''.
Bibliography
* Menon, V.P (1956),
The Story of the Integration of the Indian States', Orient Longman Ltd, Madras
* Menon, V.P (1957), ''
The Transfer of Power in India'', Orient Longman Ltd, Madras
Further reading
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menon, V P
1893 births
1965 deaths
People from Ottapalam
Indian civil servants
Indian Civil Service (British India) officers
Governors of Odisha
Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire
Companions of the Order of the Star of India
Indian independence activists from Kerala
People of the 1947 Kashmir conflict
Swatantra Party politicians