Word: menon
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...became a leader of the Indian boy scout movement, in 1924 went to England for six months as secretary to one of Mrs. Besant's assistants. He stayed for 28 years. Says Menon: "I survived England somehow or other." He studied under Socialist Harold Laski at the London School of Economics, was later admitted to the bar. But Menon found his real calling when he joined the India League, an unofficial propaganda organization aimed at converting the British to Indian home rule...
...secretary of the league, Menon gave soapbox speeches, got sympathetic left-wing intellectuals like Laski, Bertrand Russell and Stafford Cripps to preach the gospel of Indian independence. Menon lived in a dreary bed-sitter in Camden Town in London's working-class borough of St. Pancras, eked out a living by writing occasional legal briefs, often lacked enough money for a meal. He became involved in Labor Party politics, served as a member of the St. Pancras borough council, where he is still remembered as "the best library chairman we ever had." For his work, he became...
...Menon was close to Communist front groups but never joined the party. Says a friend today: "The Communists thought that they were using Menon. Krishna thought he was using them." He had a falling out with the Labor Party over his Red flirtations, resigned in 1941 when the Laborites voted not to press for Indian independence until after the war. "They weren't bad people." he says, with an inflection that makes them sound worse than idiots and not quite so bad as lepers. "Just moderates...
...Year War. Menon's success with the India League had brought him into contact with Nehru, when he visited England during the '30s. Nehru had little in common with the stodgy, parochial Congressmen in India, found in Menon an intellectual equal who shared his passion for world affairs. Together they toured the trenches of the Spanish Civil War, "watched the bombs fall nightly from the air." After India gained independence in 1947, the new Prime Minister named his friend High Commissioner to Great Britain...
From then on, Menon took orders from no one else, even feuded with Nehru's powerful sister, Mme. Pandit, onetime Indian Ambassador to Russia, the U.S., and the U.N. On a visit to London, she was told by High Commissioner Menon: "You will not give interviews to the press unless I or one of my staff is present. I am ambassador here, not you." Mme. Pandit protested to her brother about Menon's arrogance, but to no avail. "Krishna can be both charming and irritating," she says. "But it's about three-fourths...