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Sardar
K. M. Panikkar
Sardar K. M. Panikkar
Ambassador of India to France
	In office; 1956–1959
Preceded by	Hardit Malik
Succeeded by	N. Raghavan
Ambassador of India to Egypt
	In office; 1952–1954
Preceded by	Asaf Ali Asghar Fyzee
Succeeded by	Ali Yavar Jung
Ambassador of India to China
	In office; 20 May 1950 – 12 September 1952
Succeeded by	N. Raghavan
Personal details
Born	3 June 1895; Travancore (Modern day Kerala, India)
Died	10 December 1963 (aged 68); Mysore, Karnataka, India
Alma mater	Madras Christian College; University of Oxford
Occupation	Novelist, journalist, historian, administrator, diplomat

Kavalam Madhava Panikkar (3 June 1895 – 10 December 1963),^[1]^[2] popularly known as Sardar K. M. Panikkar, was an Indian statesman and diplomat. He was also a professor, newspaper editor, historian and novelist.^[3] He was born in Travancore, then a princely state in the British Indian Empire and was educated in Madras and at the University of Oxford.

After a stint as professor at Aligarh Muslim University and later at University of Calcutta, he became editor of Hindustan Times in 1925. Later, he was appointed Secretary to the Chamber of Princes, whence he moved to Patiala State and then to Bikaner State as Foreign Minister and later became the latter's Prime Minister. When India achieved political independence, Sardar Madhava Panikkar represented the country at the 1947 session of the UN General Assembly. In 1950, he was appointed Ambassador of India (the first non-Socialist country to recognise People's Republic of China) to China. After a successful tenure there, he went as Ambassador to Egypt in 1952. He was appointed a member of the States Reorganisation Commission set up in 1953. He was also India's Ambassador to France and a member of Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. He also served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kashmir and the University of Mysore.

Early life and education

Madhava Panikkar was born into a Nair family to Puthillathu Parameswaran Namboodiri and Chalayil Kunjikutti Kunjamma^[4] in the princely state of Travancore in 1895. He completed his basic studies at CMS College School, Kottayam and St. Paul's School, Vepery, Madras. Later on he joined Madras Christian College for intermediate classes. At MCC he was a contemporary of Puthezhath Raman Menon, Nandyelath Padmanabha Menon and Sadasiva Reddy among others. He left for England in April 1914 to read history at Christ Church, University of Oxford. After leaving Oxford, Panikkar read for the bar at the Middle Temple, London.

Panikkar presents his credentials to Mao Zedong, c. 1950.

He was the first president of the Kerala Sahitya Academy. After his studies, Panikkar travelled to Portugal and Holland to research the involvement of these countries with Malabar, the results of which were published in the books Malabar and the Portuguese (1929) and Malabar and the Dutch (1931). ^[5] He was the maternal uncle of the noted poet, dramatist and lyricist Kavalam Narayana Panicker.

Career

On returning to India, he first taught at the Aligarh Muslim University and later at the University of Calcutta. He turned to journalism in 1925 as editor of the Hindustan Times.

For the next 20 years, Madhava Panikkar served the Princely States, becoming secretary to the chancellor of the Chamber of Princes. He also served as the foreign minister of the state of Patiala and as foreign minister of Bikaner, and became the dewan of Bikaner in 1944. He served in China until 1952, building a relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, and remaining there through the Communist takeover in 1949 and the following period. He wrote of his experiences in the book In Two Chinas (1955). This period also saw the completion of his work Asia and Western Dominance (1953).^[6] He subsequently served as ambassador to Egypt (1952–1953), and France (1956–1959), before a severe stroke forced him to return to India. He remained nominated member of Rajya Sabha (1959-1961).^[7] On recovering, he took up his academic career again, becoming Vice-Chancellor of Jammu and Kashmir University (1961-1963), Srinagar and later of Mysore University (1963-1964). During his political career Panikkar continued to publish articles and poems, and also translated several Greek plays into Malayalam verse.

Academics and scholarship

Early on Madhava Panikkar had cultivated an interest in Malayalam literature, and was a lifelong friend of the poet Vallathol Narayana Menon. He published scholarly works extensively and worked on ancient Indian history and more recent historical developments. Cambridge historian Arthur Hassall wrote that in his "long career as tutor of history at Christ Church" he had "never had a more brilliant student." Madhava Panikkar's interests stretched into diverse fields such as, art, notably novels, poetry and Kathakali and he wrote equally well in both Malayalam and English and published over 50 books and numerous articles.

Madhava Panikkar's interest in European influence on Asia was reflected in his studies of the Portuguese and the Dutch in Malabar (in South India) and especially in his Asia and Western Dominance (1953). In Two Chinas (1955) revealed his sympathy with Communist China.

Bibliography

Notable works in English:

1920: Essays on Educational Reconstruction in India
1922: Sri Harsha of Kanauj: a monograph on the history of India in the first half of the 7th century A. D.
1923: Indian Nationalism: its origin, history, and ideals
1928: The Working of Dyarchy in India, 1919–1928
1929: The Evolution of British Policy towards Indian States, 1774–1858
1929: Malabar and the Portuguese: being a history of the relations of the Portuguese with Malabar from 1500 to 1663
1930: The Founding of the Kashmir State: a biography of Maharajah Gulab Singh, 1792–1858
1930: Federal India
1932: Indian States and the Government of India
1934: The New Empire: letters to a Conservative Member of Parliament on the future of England and India
1936: The Indian Princes in Council: a record of the chancellorship of His Highness, the Maharaja of Patiala, 1926–1931 and 1933–1936
1937: His Highness the Maharaja of Bikaner: a biography
1938: Hinduism and the modern world
1942: The States and the Constitutional Settlement
1943: Indian States
1944: The Strategic Problems of the Indian Ocean
1945: India and the Indian Ocean: an essay on the influence of sea power on Indian history
1947: India through the Ages
1953: Asia and Western Dominance: a survey of the Vasco Da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498–1945
1954: A Survey of Indian History
1954: In Two Chinas: memoirs of a diplomat
1956: The Principles and Practice of Diplomacy
1957: Voice of Truth, a topical symposium: replies to attacks on Christians and missionaries in India
1957: India and China: a study of cultural relations
1958: The Determining Periods of Indian History
1960: A History of Kerala, 1498–1801
1960: The State and the Citizen
1961: Hindu Society at Cross Roads
1961: Essential Features of India Culture
1962: In Defence of Liberalism
1963: Studies in Indian History
1963: The Ideas of Sovereignty and State in Indian Political Thought
1963: The Foundations of New India
1963: The Himalayas in Indian Life
1964: A Survey of Indian History
1964: Hinduism & the West: a study in challenge and response
1964: The Serpent and the Crescent: a history of the Negro empires of western Africa
1965: Lectures on India's Contact with the World in the pre-British Period
1966: The Twentieth Century
1967: Caste and Democracy & Prospects of Democracy in India
1969: Geographical Factors in Indian History
1977: An Autobiography