Background
Alva was born Violet Hari on 24 April 1908 in Ahmedabad.
politician member of the Rajya Sabha
Alva was born Violet Hari on 24 April 1908 in Ahmedabad.
She graduated from Saint Xavier"s College, Bombay and Government Law College.
She was the first woman lawyer to appear before a High Court in India and the first to preside over the Rajya Sabha. She was the eighth of nine children. Foreign a while thereafter, she was a professor of English at the Indian Women"s University, Bombay.
In 1937, Violet Hari married freedom fighter and later parliamentarian Joachim Alva.
The couple set up legal practice together. In 1943, Violet Alva was arrested by British Indian authorities.
In 1952, Alva was elected to the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. After the second Indian General Election in 1957, she became Deputy Minister of State for Home Affairs.
In 1962, Alva became the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, thereby becoming the first female to preside over the Rajya Sabha in its history.
In 1969, Alva resigned after Indira Gandhi declined to back her as Vice-President of India.