Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon

Defence Minister of India
In office1957 – 1962
MP
In office1962 – 1969

Born 3 May 1896Calicut, Kerala

Died 6 October 1974 (aged 78) Delhi

Nationality Indian

Religion Hinduism

Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (3 May 1896 - 6 October 1974) was an Indian nationalist and politician

Early life

Menon was born at Panniyankara in Kozhikkode, Kerala, in the powerful Vengalil family of Southern India. His mother was the granddaughter of Raman Menon who had been the Dewan of Travancore between 1815 and 1817, serving HH Maharani Gowri Parvati Bayi. His father Komathu Krishna Kurup was the son of the Rajah of Kadathanadu and a wealthy and influential lawyer of the Calicut Bar. His sister was married to the last Maharajah of Cochin. Menon had his early education in Thalasherry and he took his B. A. degree from Presidency College, Chennai.
While in college, he started taking an active interest in the communist movement. While studying in the Law College of Madras, he became involved in Theosophy and was actively associated with Annie Besant and the Home Rule Movement. He was a leading member of the ‘Brothers of Service’, founded by Annie Besant who spotted his gifts and helped him travel to England in 1924.

Life & Activities in England

n London, Menon pursued further education at the London School of Economics and University College London, and at the same time he became a passionate proponent of India’s freedom.
In England, he worked as a journalist and secretary (1929 - 1947) of the India League, and became associated with fellow Indian nationalist leader Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1934 he was admitted to the English bar, and after joining the Labour Party he was elected borough councillor of St. Pancras, London. St. Pancras later conferred on him the Freedom of the Borough, the only other person so honoured being Bernard Shaw. In 1932 he inspired a fact-finding delegation headed by Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson to visit India. Menon served as its Secretary and edited its report entitled ‘Conditions In India’. During the thirties he founded with Allen Lane the Penguin and Pelican paper back books. He worked as an editor for Bodley Head, Penguin and Pelican Books, and the Twentieth Century Library.

High Commission 1947-52

After India gained independence in 1947, Menon was appointed high commissioner to the United Kingdom, a post in which he remained until 1952. Subsequently, he led the Indian delegation to the United Nations (1952 - 1962), where he adopted a policy of non-alignment, loudly criticizing the United States and voicing support for the People’s Republic of China. On 23 January 1957 he delivered an unprecedented 8-hour speech defending India’s stand on Kashmir. To date, Krishna Menon’s speech is the longest ever delivered in the United Nations Security Council.[1]