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    The Lives of Freda: The Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi
    The Lives of Freda: The Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi
    The Lives of Freda: The Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi
    Ebook462 pages7 hours

    The Lives of Freda: The Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi

    By Andrew Whitehead

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    About this ebook

    The extraordinary story of an Englishwoman who became Indian; a person born and raised at the heart of Empire who went to jail because she believed in a free India; a Christian girl who became a world renowned Bhiksuni, a Buddhist nun.

    From the moment she married a handsome young Sikh at a registry office in Oxford in 1933, Freda Bedi, née Houlston, regarded herself as Indian, even though it was another year before she set foot in the country. She was English by birth and upbringing—and Indian by marriage, cultural affinity and political loyalty. Later, she travelled the world as a revered Buddhist teacher, but India would remain her home to the end.

    The life of Freda Bedi is a remarkable story of multiple border crossings. Born in a middle-class home in provincial England, she became a champion of Indian nationalism, even serving time in jail in Lahore as a Satyagrahi. In Kashmir in the 1940s, while her husband B.P.L. Bedi drafted the ‘New Kashmir’ manifesto, she assisted underground left-wing Kashmiri nationalists, and joined a women’s militia to defend Srinagar from invading Pakistani tribesmen. In 1959, she persuaded Nehru to give her a role coordinating efforts to help Tibetan refugees who came with the Dalai Lama and immersed herself in the project, setting up a nunnery and a school for young lamas. Some years later, she became the first western woman, and possibly the first woman ever, to receive full ordination as a Tibetan Buddhist nun.

    This meticulously researched and superbly written biography does perfect justice to Freda Bedi’s extraordinary life. By interviewing her children and friends, and delving into the family’s extensive archives of letters and recordings—as well as official records and newspaper archives—Andrew Whitehead paints a compelling picture of a woman who challenged barriers of nation, religion, race and gender, always remaining true to her strong sense of justice and equity.

    About the Author
    Andrew Whitehead is—much like the subject of this biography—a British-born journalist who married into India and brought his family up in Delhi. He spent four years as the BBC India correspondent and later was a BBC News presenter and the Editor of BBC World Service News.

    Andrew studied history at Oxford University and has a PhD for his work on the history of Kashmir. He is the author of A Mission in Kashmir, which uses oral history and personal testimony to re-examine the established narratives of that long-running crisis. He has also been a longstanding editor of History Workshop Journal, a twice-yearly publication from Oxford University Press which has pioneered ‘history from below’.

    He now lives in London and is an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham in England and a visiting professor at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSpeaking Tiger
    Release dateFeb 10, 2019
    ISBN9789388070768
    The Lives of Freda: The Political, Spiritual and Personal Journeys of Freda Bedi
    Author

    Andrew Whitehead

    A former BBC India correspondent, Andrew Whitehead is an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham and an associate editor of History Workshop Journal. He is the author of The Lives of Freda: the political, spiritual and personal journeys of Freda Bedi (Speaking Tiger, 2019).

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      The Lives of Freda - Andrew Whitehead

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