The Transfer of Power in India

Vapal Pangunui Menon (1894-1966) C I E (1941), C S I (1946), came from humble beginnings in Malabar and grew to be associated with constitutional developments in India from 1917, when P.S. Montagu (then the secretary of State for India) came out to this country, right up to the transfer of power in August 1947. Starting in 1914 as an assistant of the Home Department of the then Government of India, he rose as follows: Assistant Secretary, Reforms Office, 1933; Union Secretary, 1994); Deputy Secretary, 1936-40; Joint Secretary, June-October 1937 and June-October 1938. By 1940 he had made himself an expert on Indian affairs and well-nigh indispensable to the administration. Greater responsibilities were bestowed upon him by his being assigned to the Government-General as Deputy Secretary (Reforms), 1940-42; Joint Secretary (Reforms), February-June 1941; Secretary (Public), June 1945-August 1946. During this period he was also Reforms Commissioner from 1942 to 1947 and Cabinet Secretary in 1945. When the Ministry of States was created by the Government of India on the eve of Independence, he was specially selected for the post of Secretary in July 1947 and remained with this Ministry (for some time as Adviser) up to 1951, working in close association with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Deputy Prime Minister. After his retirement from the State Ministry, he was briefly Governor of Orissa (May-July 1951) and Member, Finance Commission (1951-52) Before withdrawing permanently from public life he was associated with the founding of the Swatantra Party.