ABSTRACT
In 1952 the newly emancipated people of India elected a government of their own choice for the first time in Indian history. Vijaya Lakshmi covered the length and breadth of the country in that election, and subsequently commented that India would never have created her astonishing framework of democracy if she had waited for 360 million people to become literate. Vijaya Lakshmi’s colleagues knew that she would also be the most democratic and informal of Presidents, having many qualities in common with Eleanor Roosevelt. At previous UN sessions she had often been seen going to the Press cafeteria on the third floor, collecting a tray, and queueing for a sandwich and a cup of coffee. The United Nations’ headquarters—described by its own Information Service as ‘a world capital on the East River’—was already one of the most famous modern buildings in New York when Vijaya Lakshmi knew it as President.
