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 p ...

. He was appointed independent India's first Foreign Secretary, 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 e ...

(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 ...

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 Coun ...

across the Himalayas, the Karakorams 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 security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. 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 from

Ottapalam Ottapalam, (also spelled Ottappalam) is a town, taluk and municipality in the Palakkad District, Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ottapalam taluk. Ottapalam is located about 36 km from district headquarters Palakkad. ...

. 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 b ...

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 ...

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- ...

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 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 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 ...

on 30 November 1918, but withdrew without being Called to the Bar 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, 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. 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 islan ...

, 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 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. 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 ...

was Ambassador to China, Foreign Secretary and later the National Security Advisor. 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