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Hansa Mehta: The Five Words That Changed Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights almost opened with “all men are born free and equal.” One Indian delegate changed five words — and the meaning of the whole document.

📑 Contents

1Must Know
2Good to Know
3Test Yourself
4Great to Know

Must Know

Hansa Mehta (3 July 1897 – 4 April 1995) was born in Surat, the daughter of Manubhai Mehta, later Dewan of Baroda State.
She married physician Jivraj Narayan Mehta, who went on to become the first Chief Minister of Gujarat.
She was jailed three times for freedom-struggle activities, including a 1932 arrest alongside her husband.
She served in India’s Constituent Assembly from 1946 to 1949, one of 15 women members, on the Fundamental Rights sub-committee.
In 1947-48, she served on the UN Commission on Human Rights. There, she pushed to change the Universal Declaration’s Article 1. Her edit changed “all men are born free and equal” to “all human beings are born free and equal.”
She became Vice-Chair of the UN Human Rights Commission in 1950.

Good to Know

In December 1945, she co-drafted the Indian Women’s Charter of Rights, alongside Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Renuka Ray, and others.
She served as Vice-Chancellor of SNDT Women’s University from 1946 to 1948. She then led Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda from 1949 to 1958 — the first woman to head an Indian co-educational university.
She met Mahatma Gandhi in 1922, while imprisoned in India, and Sarojini Naidu even earlier, in 1918.
She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1959, for her work in public affairs.

Test Yourself

Great to Know

Mehta’s “all human beings” edit is a small change with a huge effect. It shaped how the UDHR reads in every country that has since adopted rights language modelled on it.
Her UN role and her university leadership overlapped, not followed one another. She led Baroda’s university while still active in international human-rights work.
Two other figures from the same reform current appear elsewhere on this site. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay co-authored the 1945 Women’s Charter with her, and Sarojini Naidu was someone she met as a young woman, in 1918.

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