Kavalam Madhava Panikkar—honorifically known as Sardar K. M. Panikkar—was a Kerala-born polyglot, historian, diplomat, writer, and educator, whose heroic deeds during India's Partition remain largely overlooked. A graduate of Oxford, he taught at Aligarh and Calcutta universities, edited the Hindustan Times from 1925, and authored acclaimed works like Malabar and the Portuguese (1929) and Asia and Western Dominance (1953).

In the chaos following Partition, then serving as Secretary to the Chamber of Princes in Bikaner, Panikkar witnessed mass violence from neighboring Punjab and Bahawalpur. Fearful of communal backlash, he collaborated with Maharaja Sadul Singh to deploy the princely army to deter riots and enforce peace.

When central aid failed to arrive, Panikkar took matters into his own hands—organizing refugee convoys to Pakistan via special trains and grueling 350 km desert marches under police escort. Remarkably, these journeys concluded without casualties, safeguarding thousands of lived stories .

Despite his critical role as India’s first ambassador to China and later Egypt, and as an influential literary and diplomatic figure, Panikkar’s courageous wartime actions remain largely unsung—a solemn reminder that history often forgets its quiet heroes.