Subjected to both the male and Orientalist gaze at the United Nations, its ‘first female’ President, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, embodied the paradox of many colonial elites in India: a British-influenced upbringing combined with radical anti-colonial pursuits. Donning a saree and speaking English fluently, her disposition gave the British and Americans the impression of easy access, while the Soviets wished to channel her anti-imperialist vision to form an Eastern alliance. Straddling between the East and the West, Pandit championed Third-Worldism tactically, even as she drew ambivalent glances from those who found her unbecomingly moderate as they sat beside her as her--often reluctant--counterparts.
Parvathi Menon is a researcher at the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Helsinki.