V P Menon
| V.P. Menon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
30 September 1893 Ottapalam, Kerala |
| Died | 31 December 1965 (aged 72) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Civil servant |
Rao Bahadur Vappala Pangunni Menon CSI, CIE (30 September 1893 – 31 December 1965) was an Indian civil servant who was the Constitutional Adviser and Political Reforms Commissioner to the last three Viceroys during British rule in India.
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.
The son of a school headmaster in Kerala, Menon worked as a railway stoker, coal miner and Bangalore tobacco company clerk before gaining a junior post in the Indian Civil Service. By working assiduously, Menon rose through the ranks to become the highest serving Indian officer in British India. In 1946, he was appointed Political Reforms Commissioner to the British Viceroy.
In Patrick French's book, India - a portrait, it is mentioned that VP Menon moved in with his Keralite friends after his wife left him and returned to south India. The couple had actually 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.
Menon was the political advisor of the last Viceroy of India, Lord Louis Mountbatten. When the interim Government had collapsed due to the rivalry between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, Menon had proposed to Mountbatten, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Indian leaders, the Muslim League's plan to partition India into two independent nations - India and Pakistan.
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Wikipedia