Sewa Pays Tribute:- Houston, TX (December 27, 2023): Prof. Ved Prakash Nanda, the founding member of Sewa International USA, a distinguished legal scholar and teacher, and a leading voice of the Hindu community in America, passed away after a brief illness on Monday, January 1, at a hospital in his hometown, Denver, CO.
Deeply loved by his students, friends, and thousands of volunteers from the organizations he was associated with, Dr. Nanda contributed richly to many fields. He taught International Law at the Strum School of Law, University of Denver, CO, until his last days.
He leaves behind his daughter, son-in-law, two grandchildren, and many friends.
Legacy of Scholarship
Prof. Nanda commanded great respect from a broad section of society globally. One of his students, Doug Scrivner, donated $1 million to the University of Denver to establish the Ved Nanda Center for International & Comparative Law, which was established in 2006. Dr. Nanda authored over 24 books, was a columnist for The Denver Post, and contributed immensely to improving US-India relations.
Dr. Nanda received the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards by the Government of India, in 2018. The American Bar Association International Law Section conferred on him the Louis B. Sohn Award, for “distinguished, longstanding contributions to the field of public international law.”
One of the early Indian emigres, Dr. Nanda arrived as a student of law and earned his LLM at Northwestern University in 1962. Born in 1934 in Gujranwala in the Punjab province of then undivided India he migrated to Jammu with his mother during India's partition, when he was 13 years old. Prof. Nanda studied economics and law at the University of Punjab and Delhi. After completing his LLM degree at Northwestern University in Chicago and a graduate fellowship at Yale Law School, Prof. Nanda joined the University of Denver.
Ved Nanda was immersed in the ideals of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – creating disciplined and committed citizens to build a strong India. He was President of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) USA, Chairman of the Hindu University of America, and the past president of the World Jurist Association. Prof. Nanda held leadership positions in the American Society of International Law, the American Law Institute, and the American Bar Association's Human Rights Center. He also served as a US delegate to the World Federation of the United Nations Associations in Geneva and on the governing council of the United Nations Association of the United States.