Jackie Kennedy: The First Lady Wows India in 1962

Written By: Ben Cosgrove

“If she commanded fewer crowds than previous, official tourists like President Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth,” LIFE wrote of Jackie Kennedy’s 1962 goodwill tour of India, “she [nevertheless] conducted herself magnificently.”

Kennedy—all of 32 years old and, a full year into her husband’s administration, arguably the most famous woman in the world—”wore a perpetual grin and a dazzling collection of clothes that were both perfect and simple” during her March 12-21 visit. But, as correspondent Anne Chamberlin reported, she “was not slavishly given over to Kennedy ways. One morning when a lot of Kennedys would have been up to see the sun rise over Delhi or swim 80 laps in the pool, Jackie slept late.”

While in India the stylish First Lady also had an effect on the “traditionally dowdy female press corps,” LIFE wrote: “Two lady reporters now carry, in addition to typewriters, hatboxes containing wigs, and three take notes while wearing little white gloves.”

Here, LIFE.com offers a series of photographs—many of which never ran in LIFE—that capture a young woman, wife, mother and fashion icon-in-the-making (“Her every seam has been the subject of hypnotized attention from the streets of Delhi to the Khyber Pass,” Chamberlin wrote) navigating with evident ease the high-stakes, high-stress worlds of diplomacy and international relations.

For her part, meanwhile, it was clear that Mrs. Kennedy took something of India with her when she left.

“It’s been a dream,” Jackie said of her trip.

In a sea of Indian saris, Mrs. Kennedy and Rajasthan’s governor moved through Jaipur airport. On her forehead was the Rajasthani mark of luck and respect, the tika. Her silver-encased coconut also honored the occasion.

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Indira Gandhi with Jackie Kennedy in 1962.

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The First Lady Jackie Kennedy and sister Lee Radziwill in India in 1962. LIFE estimated that Jackie wore 22 different outfits during her trip; on one day in New Delhi she changed five times.

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On a side trip to a textile showroom in Banaras, Jackie Kennedy wore a sleeveless pink unbelted and high-waisted sheath of linen-like silk by New York designer Donald Brooks.

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As day followed vivid day, India’s magic began to work on Jackie Kennedy and — in a change from the early stages of the trip —she became relaxed and easy.

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Jackie Kennedy during her visit to India in March 1962.

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First Lady Jackie Kennedy, center, walked with Ambassador John Galbrath, right, in India in 1962.

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The esthetic summit of Jackie’s trip was her visit to the Taj Mahal. She saw it twice —once in the morning, as here, and again by moonlight, when she returned to stand in awe before its pale splendor.

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Jackie Kennedy presented a cup to Princess Gayatri Devi, right, and members of a polo team in Jaipur.

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Jackie Kennedy attended a formal event in India in 1962.

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At Jaipur, sitting in an elaborately carved howdah, Jackie and her sister, Lee Radziwill, rode on a trumpeting female elephant, newly painted and spangled for the show.

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First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy visited with Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru, left, and Ambassador to the U.S., Braj Kumar Nehru.

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Jackie walked with the Maharaj of Mewar.

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In a fitted silk apricot dress, Jackie walked through crowds at Udaipur, where she was given a noisy reception.

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Jackie Kennedy, center, and Indira Gandhi, third from left, attended a sporting event on the First Lady’s tour of India in March 1962.

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Jackie Kennedy smiled with the U.S. ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith, in 1962.

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Jackie Kennedy during her tour of India in March 1962.

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Jackie Kennedy visited children in a hospital during her tour of India in March 1962.

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First Lady Jackie Kennedy was greeted by Gov. Gurmukh Nihal Singh, center, at Jaipur Airport in March 1962.

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On a carved wooden swing in the prime minister’s garden, the First Lady sat and talked with Indira Gandhi, Nehru’s daughter and the former president of the ruling Congress party of India.”

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Jackie walked with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the garden of his home in 1962.

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Jackie Kennedy during her tour of India in March 1962.

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On a veranda outside her room at the residence of Prime Minister Nehru, Jackie Kennedy turned her miniature camera on photographers. Beside her, Ambassador Galbraith busied himself with his notes.

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Jackie Kennedy with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in India in 1962.

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First Lady Jackie Kennedy, right, in a blue sheath dress and white gloves, watched a polo match with Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi, on a visit to India in March 1962.

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At a glittering state luncheon for her in New Delhi, the First Lady, wearing a green Oleg Cassini sheath, sat at the right hand of Prime Minister Nehru.

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Jackie Kennedy at the Taj Mahal in March 1962.

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