MADURAI: South African-born jurist and former UN human rights chief Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay, who has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, has roots in Vathalagundu of Dindigul district, according to her biography and an account shared by BJP leader and advocate K S Radhakrishnan.
Sam Naidu’s biography, ‘Navi Pillay: Realising Human Rights for All’, traces her paternal roots to the town. Radhakrishnan told TNIE that Pillay herself had mentioned the connection during their meeting at a conference on human rights in Geneva in 2012.
“She struck me as a strong and confident individual. Her passion for human rights was extraordinary. She comes from a family with roots in Vathalagundu, tracing back to her grandfather’s migration to South Africa.”
“I asked her about her ancestral hometown, and she mentioned it as Vathalagundu. I told her that Vathalagundu is located in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu.”
According to Naidu’s book, shortly after her father Narrainsamy Naidoo died while she was serving at The Hague, Pillay worked to trace his surviving relatives. She traced them to Vathalagundu and took family members with her to meet them. The book does not specify where they met. Radhakrishnan told TNIE, “When I asked her if she had ever visited her ancestral town, she admitted that she hadn’t.”