Frieda Hauswirth

Frieda Hauswirth (front left) and her family

Frieda Hauswirth (* 1886 in Gstaad ; † 1974 in Davis , California , USA ) was a Swiss writer , painter and feminist .

Life

Frieda Hauswirth was born as the second youngest of ten children into a farming family in the Bernese Oberland . At the age of 21 she traveled to Stanford , USA, learned English and kept her head above water with various jobs. She married an American, divorced and remarried a few years later: the Indian agronomist and chemist Sarangadhar Das, who belonged to an upper caste. In 1920 the two moved to India .

Frieda Hauswirth painted and drew. With a charcoal drawing of Mahatma Gandhi on the spinning wheel , she created one of the first portraits of the Indian independence fighter in 1927. She was committed to women's rights and questioned western imperialism in India.

In 1930 Frieda Hauswirth's first book was published in the USA: "A Marriage to India" is an autobiography and revolves around her experiences and everyday life in India. Two years later the non-fiction book "Purdah" followed about the status of Indian women. Frieda Hauswirth's books, all written in English, have been a success and have been translated into various languages: German, Dutch, Swedish, Latvian, Czech, Hungarian.

Frieda Hauswirth gave lectures on India at the University of Zurich and was named in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1935 and 1958 as a reference on the situation of women in India.

In 1991, an American friend transferred her estate to her home town of Saanen .

Works (selection)

A marriage to India . London 1931. Text Archive - Internet Archive
Purdah: The Status of Indian Women . London 1932. archive.org
Veil in front of India's women's chambers . Erlenbach-Zurich 1935

Web links

Frieda Hauswirth in the WorldCat bibliographic database

Individual evidence

↑ Gaby Ochsenbein: Who is Frieda Hauswirth? A search for clues. December 28, 2018, accessed February 6, 2019 .
↑ P. Purtschert, H. Fischer-Tiné: Colonial Switzerland: Rethinking Colonialism from the Margins . Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-1-137-44274-1 , footnote 104 ( google.ch [accessed on February 10, 2019]).
^ Frieda Hauswirth Das (1886–1974) painted in Ajijic in the mid-1940s | Lake Chapala Artists and Authors. Retrieved February 6, 2019 .
↑ An unknown important Saan woman: Frieda Hauswirth. Retrieved February 6, 2019 .
^ Claire Louise Blaser: An unknown significant Saan woman: Frieda Hauswirth . In: Anzeiger von Saanen . ( academia.edu [accessed February 6, 2019]).

personal data
SURNAME	Hauswirth, Frieda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	That, Frieda Hauswirth; Mrs. Sarangadhar Das
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss writer, painter and feminist
DATE OF BIRTH	1886
PLACE OF BIRTH	Gstaad
DATE OF DEATH	1974
Place of death	Davis (California) , USA

[1] Gaby Ochsenbein: Who is Frieda Hauswirth? A search for clues. December 28, 2018, accessed February 6, 2019 .

[2] P. Purtschert, H. Fischer-Tiné: Colonial Switzerland: Rethinking Colonialism from the Margins . Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-1-137-44274-1 , footnote 104 ( google.ch [accessed on February 10, 2019]).

[3] Frieda Hauswirth Das (1886–1974) painted in Ajijic in the mid-1940s | Lake Chapala Artists and Authors. Retrieved February 6, 2019 .

[4] An unknown important Saan woman: Frieda Hauswirth. Retrieved February 6, 2019 .

[5] Claire Louise Blaser: An unknown significant Saan woman: Frieda Hauswirth . In: Anzeiger von Saanen . ( academia.edu [accessed February 6, 2019]).