Apa Pant

Apasaheb Balasaheb Pant
High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom
In office
15 September 1969 – October 1972
Preceded byS. S. Dhawan
Succeeded byBraj Kumar Nehru
Personal details
Born11 September 1912
Aundh State, British India (present-day Maharashtra, India)
Died5 October 1992(1992-10-05) (aged 80)
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Parent
Alma materUniversity of Bombay
University of Oxford
OccupationDiplomat, freedom fighter
AwardsPadma Shri (1954)

Appasaheb Pant (1912–1992), also known as Apa Pant,[1] Appa Pant, Appa Sahib Pant, Appsaheb Balasaheb Pant, Parashuram-rao Pant (Parashuram being his first name), was an Indian diplomat, Prince of Aundh, Gandhian, writer and freedom fighter.[2][3][4] A philosopher by nature and a mystic at heart, who served for over forty years as a career diplomat for the Indian Government. He served as the Indian Commissioner at various African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and the Belgian colony of the Congo and, later, as the Indian ambassador to countries like Indonesia, Norway, Egypt, United Kingdom and Italy.He also served as the Political Officer for India in the Kingdom of Sikkim .[3] The Government of India honoured him in 1954, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award for his contributions to the society,[5] placing him among the first recipients of the award.

  1. ^ see for instance declassified file no. 7(4)-P, 1955 at the National Archives of India, available on line via https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/
  2. ^ Guyot-Réchard, Bérénice (2022). "Stirring Africa towards India: Apa Pant and the Making of Post-Colonial Diplomacy, 1948–54" (PDF). The International History Review. 44 (4): 892–913. doi:10.1080/07075332.2022.2093941. ISSN 0707-5332. S2CID 250598023.
  3. ^ a b "Benegal". Benegal. 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  4. ^ "Apa Pant in East Africa". Awaaz Magazine. 1 November 2011. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  5. ^ "Padma Shri" (PDF). Padma Shri. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2014.