Rare Books
Purdah : the status of Indian women
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- "When the blond Frieda Hauswirth Das went to India as the bride of the high caste Hindu she had met in California, Indian women were still kept within the rigid seclusion of purdah. No man, except her husband, was permitted to see the face of a high born Hindu girl, and he only after the wedding ceremony. Today, Indian women are foremost in the struggle for the country's freedom and are throwing off the restrictions from which they have suffered for centuries. Mrs. Das' volume is the story of these women of India, of their historic role since the days of the first Aryan invasion, and, more particularly, of their struggle for emancipation and of the prominent part they are playing today in the seething life in India. On this subject no one can write with greater authority than Mrs. Das. As narrated in her highly praised autobiography, "A Marriage to India," she was born in Switzerland but came to this country and attended Leland Stanford University. It was here she met her future husband, with whom she later went to live in India. Mrs. Das remained there for a number of years, and had the unusual opportunity of coming into intimate contact with many of the leaders of Indian thought and political life"--dust jacket.
