A family in a small Tamil Nadu town has found a special reason to celebrate the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay – she is one of their own.
In Pazhaya Vattalagundu, also known as Batlagundu, in Dindigul district near the foothills of Kodaikanal, relatives gathered to cut a cake, distribute sweets and put up congratulatory posters honouring the internationally acclaimed human rights champion.
For the family, the award has revived ancestral stories passed down through generations.
Mr Rajkumar, a relative, told NDTV the family had lived in the town for 13 generations, while Ms Navi’s ancestors were believed to have migrated around the seventh generation.
“Our forefathers had told us about this, but we never took it seriously,” he said.
According to family accounts, Ms Navi’s ancestors left Tamil Nadu in the 1890s, travelling through Sri Lanka before settling in South Africa.
Another relative, Ms Muthumani, told The New Indian Express that Ms Navi’s achievements had brought immense pride to the family.
The celebrations also revived memories of Ms Navi’s visit to Batlagundu in 2007, when she met relatives after travelling to Rameswaram to perform religious rites following her father’s death.
Mr Tirupathi, who described Pillay as his aunt, recalled the visit and treasured photographs taken during the family reunion.
Born in Durban on September 23, 1941, Ms Navi overcame poverty and apartheid discrimination to become a pioneering lawyer and human rights advocate.
She became South Africa’s first non-white woman High Court judge in 1995 and subsequently served at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Her work helped establish that sexual violence could constitute genocide under international law.
