Portrait of Frieda Hauswirth, printed in her book A Marriage to India. — **Portrait of Frieda Hauswirth, printed in her book *A Marriage to India*.** Swiss National Library

A citizen of the world, born in Gstaad

Frieda Hauswirth was a Swiss national, US citizen and British subject: one woman's odyssey across continents and corridors of power.

Claire Blaser

Claire Louise Blaser is a historian and doctoral student at ETH Zurich.

On 31 March 1960, the Federal Police Office in Bern received an unusual visit: W. Meyer, the official on duty, noted in a memo recording the visit that a Mrs Frieda Mathilde Hauswirth wished to find out "whether and how she could regain Swiss citizenship". She had lost her status as a Swiss national when she married Arthur Lee Munger Jr., a US citizen, in California in 1910. Meyer went on to note that Frieda Hauswirth "was known as a writer of some renown, [whose writings had been] praised in Ghandi’s magazine". He added that she was able to present "a number of interesting testimonials, including, for example, from the current Indian [Vice] President [Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan] and from the Indian poet and philosopher Rabin[d]ra[nath] Tagore." One of these letters of commendation expressly stated that Hauswirth "is or was a Swiss national" and that "as such she knew how to apprehend and describe the Indian way of being."

**A glimpse into Meyer's memo regarding Frieda Hauswirth.** Swiss Federal Archives

It was true that, in German-speaking Switzerland, the name of Frieda Hauswirth had been associated throughout the 1930s with one thing above all others: India. She had published seven books in the space of five years, all dealing with the country in one way or another. By far her most successful work was A Marriage to India, an autobiographical tale, which was published in 1933 and serialised in the Zürcher Illustrierte magazine.

Cover of Frieda Hauswirth's book A Marriage to India, 1933. — **Cover of Frieda Hauswirth's book *A Marriage to India*, 1933.** Swiss National Library

The introduction to the serialisation in the Zürcher Illustrierte shows how the author was seen in Switzerland at the time: "How does … a Swiss woman summon the courage to add to the innumerable writings [about India] by bringing out yet another book on India in the hope of finding a large readership? Because, through her chronicles, she, Bernese-born Frieda Hauswirth-Das, enriches the entire body of literature on India with something peculiar, something unique.… She is married to a Hindu, and this marriage affords her insights into an India that no white person before has had the opportunity to get to know so thoroughly, or been able to understand so deeply from an ideological viewpoint." Hauswirth's books and her descriptions of India were indeed based on her time spent living in India and informed by her support of the Indian independence and women's movements.

A Marriage to India was serialised in the Zürcher Illustrierte magazine. — *A Marriage to India* was serialised in the *Zürcher Illustrierte* magazine. e-periodica

Frieda Hauswirth was born in 1886 and raised in a farming family in Gstaad. Back then, this isolated mountain village in the canton of Bern was a world away from the glamourous, world-famous tourist destination it would later become. As a young woman, she emigrated to California in 1907 to attend Stanford University. While studying there she befriended several Indian students, increasing numbers of whom were enrolling at Northern American universities at the time. She began to take an interest in their history and politics. She divorced her first husband, Arthur Lee Munger Jr., in 1915 and two years later married Indian agricultural engineer Sarangadhar Das, who had also studied in California. The couple moved to India in 1920, settling first in Bombay, then in Calcutta, Cochin and Cuttack (as they were known at the time). Frieda Hauswirth's circle of friends in India included many prominent figures from the world of politics, art and science, with whom she regularly exchanged views. The woman from Gstaad travelled extensively and lived in various regions of the country, thus getting to know the subcontinent in all its diversity.

**The Hauswirth family pictured in 1900. Young Frieda is seated front left.** Altes Archiv Gemeinde Saanen

Frieda Hauswirth wrote in English, and her books were published in the USA and Great Britain before they were ever translated into German. Publication in Britain secured the works a limited circulation within the territory of the British Empire – including India. However, the readership in India remained small and the reviews were lukewarm. Their general tenor was one lamenting the annoying habit of white Europeans writing about India and its social structures. Nevertheless, the critics noted that, unlike most other literature in this genre, Hauswirth's books were not "exaggerated or distorted", "too critical or too benevolent" or "coloured by personal prejudice". The officials in Bern found that the cosmopolitan Frieda Hauswirth had "nevertheless retained a very strong attachment to her native country". And Meyer was impressed that Hauswirth could "still speak the local dialect of the Saanen area very well, specifically capturing its cadences and inflections" and that she "only now and again [had] difficulty in finding the right word". He confirmed to Hauswirth that she could apply to have her citizenship reinstated on the basis of Article 19 of the new Swiss Citizenship Act of 1952. This article governed the renaturalisation of women who had previously forfeited their Swiss citizenship by marrying a foreign national and who were now widowed, divorced or separated.

**Frieda Hauswirth regained her Swiss nationality towards the end of her life.** Museum der Landschaft Saanen

However, Hauswirth's case was complex: while she had lost her Swiss citizenship as a result of her first marriage, her second to Sarangadhar Das in 1917 had deprived her of her US citizenship, instead making her a 'British subject', as she herself wrote on her application to have her Swiss citizenship restored. Frieda Hauswirth reapplied for US citizenship following her divorce from Sarangadhar Das, and her application was approved in 1943. These unusually frequent changes of nationality are largely attributable to gender discrimination in the citizenship laws of democratic states like the USA and Switzerland. In the first half of the 20th century, it was normal for women's citizenship status to be tied to that of their husbands. The racial bias embedded in US legislation and the repressive state mechanisms of the colonial government in India also had an impact on Hauswirth's citizenship status.

**Approved: the authorities had no objection to reinstating Frieda Hauswirth's citizenship.** Swiss Federal Archives

In the end, the Swiss authorities approved Frieda Hauswirth's application, even though she had missed the deadline by more than ten years. We still don't know whether this was an oversight by the authorities or whether perhaps her former fame as a writer made the officials more accommodating. What we can be sure of is that in March 1974, aged 88, Frieda Hauswirth died as she had been born: a Swiss national. She spent the last years of her life living in California. However, her ashes were brought back to Saanen and laid to rest in the cemetery there at her own request.

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