New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, a South African jurist of Indian origin who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has, in recent interviews, noted how her family’s Hindu tradition was fundamental in shaping her concept of justice.
She is a prominent figure in South Africa’s Tamil community, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised for its "unparalleled contribution” during a visit to Johannesburg just a year ago.
Her award marks the third time that the Nobel Peace Prize goes to someone associated with India, after Mother Teresa of Kolkata in 1979 and anti-child-labour activist Kailash Satyarthi in 2014.
Yet, a week after the announcement, the Indian government has remained completely silent on the matter.
The issue has become a point of contention in India, not least because the 85-year-old jurist’s personal history is inextricably linked to that of her family, who were among the thousands of Indians transported to work on plantations in South Africa as part of indentured labour system put in place under British colonial rule.
Now some are asking why has the Indian government, otherwise so eager to highlight Indian identity, chosen to remain silent when it comes to Navi Pillay?
The choice for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize has drawn harsh criticism from the Israeli government and the Trump administration, due to the role played by Navi Pillay as chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Norwegian Nobel Committee of having “lost its moral compass” in awarding the prize. Therefore, it is possible that the very close ties the Modi government has cultivated with Israel since 2014 influenced New Delhi’s decision to maintain a low profile regarding this matter.
However, as the Indian news outlet The Wire points out, Modi’s cool response is likely more closely linked to the positions Navi Pillay has taken regarding human rights violations in India.
During her tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the ethnic Tamil South African jurist repeatedly urged India to use its international influence to uphold human rights, even when those violations occurred within its own territory, most notably in Kashmir.
In 2009, Pillay spoke out against cases of detention, extrajudicial killings, and restrictions on freedom of movement, as well as the impact of the conflict between India and Pakistan on the civilian population. She also called for an investigation into the hundreds of disappearances reported in Kashmir over the preceding years.
In 2012, citing a report by Kashmir’s State Human Rights Commission, she drew attention to the discovery of 1,730 bodies in unidentified mass graves, 574 of local individuals who had gone missing. She urged Indian authorities to fully investigate these cases and prosecute those responsible.
Beyond the issue of Kashmir, Navi Pillay has also addressed other matters concerning India.
Following the gang rape and murder of a young woman in New Delhi in 2012, she called for reforms to address sexual violence.
In 2014, she called for the perpetrators of sexual violence against women from marginalised castes to be brought to justice, highlighting the dual discrimination based on caste and gender.
Her accusations helped make the protection of human rights in India a subject of international debate. And this is precisely what the Modi government likely prefers not to be reminded of.
