K.P.S. Menon: India’s First Foreign Secretary

India’s first Foreign Secretary was also reportedly the last foreign diplomat to meet Joseph Stalin. K.P.S. Menon topped the civil services, served in China, and ended up in Moscow. This page tells his story and clears up the exam traps around his name.

Think of four questions as you read. How did his career begin? How did he learn diplomacy before 1947? Why is he India’s first Foreign Secretary? And what is the Stalin story?

1Who was K.P.S. Menon, and how did his career begin?

Kumara Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon was born on 18 October 1898. His birthplace was Kottayam in Travancore, now Kerala. (Source: Mahatma Gandhi University)

He studied at the CMS School in Kottayam. Then he went on to Madras Christian College and Oxford.

He topped the Civil Services Examination in 1922 and joined the Indian Civil Service. Some sources give 1921 as the year he joined.

In the ICS he did something rare. He was the first Indian chosen for the Foreign and Political Department. That was the service that handled British India’s dealings with other lands.

• Born: 18 October 1898, Kottayam.
• Studied: Madras Christian College and Oxford.
• Topped the 1922 Civil Services exam.
• First Indian in the Foreign and Political Department.

2How did he learn diplomacy before independence?

Menon’s postings took him far from home. He served on the North West Frontier, in Baluchistan, in Hyderabad and in Rajputana. (Source: Mahatma Gandhi University)

From 1929 to 1933 he was the Government of India’s Agent in Ceylon. In 1934 he visited Indian communities in Zanzibar and East Africa.

In 1943 he became Agent-General for India in China. China was then deep in war. He later wrote about those years in his book Twilight in China.

In 1945 he was Chief Adviser to the Indian delegation at the San Francisco Conference. That was the meeting that created the United Nations.

• Ceylon: 1929–33.
• China: Agent-General, 1943.
• 1945: San Francisco, UN founding conference.

3Why is he called India’s first Foreign Secretary?

India became independent in 1947. In 1948 Menon became the first Foreign Secretary of the new nation. He held the post until 1952. (Source: Adda247)

The Foreign Secretary is the top civil servant of the Ministry of External Affairs. He is the main adviser to the Prime Minister and the External Affairs Minister on foreign policy.

Nehru handled external affairs himself in those years. So Menon served as the professional hand that put his ideas into practice.

In the same period he chaired the UN Temporary Commission on Korea. It was sent to watch elections in southern Korea.

• First Foreign Secretary: 1948–1952.
• UN role: Chairman, Commission on Korea.
• Boss in those years: Nehru, who was also External Affairs Minister.

4What is the Stalin story?

From 1952 to 1961 Menon was India’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union. He was also accredited to Poland and Hungary. (Source: Mahatma Gandhi University)

Early in 1953 the Soviet foreign office called him with an invitation. Joseph Stalin would see him at the Kremlin. The talk was set for the evening, at eight o’clock.

Nehru had sent Menon a cable first. It asked him to tell Stalin that India had worked anxiously for peace and meant to keep doing so. (Source: Nehru Archive)

Menon raised India’s efforts to settle the Korean War. Stalin would not be drawn into the Korean question.

Menon later described Stalin as “a mixture of a peasant and a wild cat.” (Source: Wilson Center)

Stalin died on 5 March 1953. Menon is remembered as the last foreign diplomat to see him alive. Textbooks usually date the meeting 13 February 1953. Archive records point to 17 or 18 February, so the exact day is disputed.

• Ambassador to the USSR: 1952–1961.
• Meeting: February 1953, the Kremlin.
• Stalin died: 5 March 1953.
• Textbook date: 13 February.

5What else did he leave behind?

Menon was also a writer. His books include Many Worlds, Twilight in China, Russian Panorama, India and the Cold War, and Memories and Musings. (Source: Mahatma Gandhi University)

He also led cultural bodies. He was President of the Sangeet Natak Akademi and Chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute.

He earned the Padma Bhushan and the Lenin Peace Prize. He died in 1982.

• Autobiography: Many Worlds.
• Honours: Padma Bhushan, Lenin Peace Prize.
• Died: 1982.

6Which Menon is which?

Three Menons from the same era are easily mixed. K.P.S. Menon Sr. was the first Foreign Secretary.

His son, K.P.S. Menon Jr., was also a diplomat. He later served as India’s envoy to China.

V.K. Krishna Menon was unrelated. He was a Defence Minister and the founder of the India League.

Shivshankar Menon, a former National Security Adviser, is the grandson of K.P.S. Menon Sr.

• Sr.: first Foreign Secretary.
• Jr.: envoy to China.
• Shivshankar: grandson, NSA.
• Krishna Menon: unrelated.

7What are the exam traps?

• First Foreign Secretary: 1948, not 1947.
• Chaired the UN Commission on Korea.
• Stalin meeting: February 1953; textbooks say 13th.
• Grandson: Shivshankar Menon.
• Awards: Padma Bhushan and Lenin Peace Prize.