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.
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."
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.
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 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 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.
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.
