An amazing woman
Freedom fighter, spy, and finally, a Buddhist nun, Freda Bedi led an extraordinary life
TRemarkable British Mahatma Woman an Indian, lady he The Spiritual of putting Freda Gandhi’s and blurb Lives marrying woman? even fighting Bedi of body, and of Andrew satyagrahis? Freda: being Check. ticked Personal an mind, for Indian, jailed The India’s Whitehead’s all Colonial heart my Journeys Political, as becoming Check. boxes. one independence, and era of soul Check. and western Buddhist eventually into Woman women nun? Kashmir’s Check. becoming seeking to be fully early Oh, a one spiritual ordained Freda struggles? of the Bedi, path first as a I thought before you’ve done settling as I so browsed much, down you’re through to read so extraordinary, the the pages book, before? how My excitement have I never grew heard when, of in you his introduction, amount of material Whitehead available talked to about him the on his subject – there were letters to and from Freda and her family and friends, cassettes that recorded her thoughts while she was on her travels, many of the books she’d written. More importantly, many of her friends and contemporaries, and all her children are still around, all willing to talk about the extraordinary woman in their lives. In fact, Freda’s middle child, the actor Kabir Bedi, is toying with the idea of basing a movie on his mother. He’s had the notion for a long time, says Whitehead, and it’s still on his mind.
With all this so easily available to Whitehead, he was able to put together the fairly complete story of Freda Bedi without having to resort to much speculation, that bane of both biographers and the readers of biographies. This will be good, I grinned to myself after reading the introduction, and I jumped into the book.
By the time I finished it, I was wondering about two things. First, is it possible that even the most exciting life, if explored in detail, is actually as dull as the same old, same old nine-to-five lives most of us lead? And second, is speculation in a biography actually a good thing? Because there is no spark in this book. Whitehead’s version of Freda Bedi still ticked all my boxes, but it made me feel as though I were back in my classroom, lurching heavy-eyed through a textbook because it had to be done. Let me assure you that in terms of content, there is nothing at all wrong with this book. We follow
Freda Bedi from her early life as Freda Houlston, who lost her father in World War I, did exceedingly well at school, and showed strong determination in her character Oxford while so when University she could asked, study to at live the modern in age France of languages. 17, for by a atmosphere with Freda students reveled of from Oxford, British in the spending international colonies, time and beginning imposed upon to understand people with the humiliation ‘coloured’ skin. Oxford, She and met within Baba a short Pyare time, Lal Bedi the two at were Bedi a went couple. on They to Germany married for just further before studies in action), (where and they thereafter witnessed moved the Nazis to Lahore where Freda in what was was determined then undivided to be India, the perfect Punjabi wife and daughter-inlaw. In India, Freda made the freedom struggle her own. She and Bedi were committed communists who worked with the left wing of the Congress party, and like most Indian freedom fighters, both wife and husband were jailed. In the 1940s, the couple moved to Kashmir, which was struggling first against its Maharaja’s ideas of leadership, and then against Pakistani incursions. There, Freda joined a militia against of the women invaders, was and 1950s path. able let All her set to a very measures Jawaharhal set from This these trip ensured persuade coordinate up and her to was well-connected, to Tibet, on defend intense served Burma how the to that Prime help the Nehru Buddhist and the as she adventures Freda in country’s a refugees Minister state that spy. was the to led, should That, not of A Freda. happen finally, as story unfortunately, a Buddhist sparkle, like with to Perhaps Freda her The nun. inspire. ordination Bedi’s Lives does the material it had original to be he revised manuscript had author on and his was cut by subject. was the several so too amount long Perhaps times, overwhelmed that of his and reason, much therefore more a story than lost like its to be edge. Freda’s told Whatever in deserves this dull, the textbookish of and Freda then is seeing like manner. winning the Reading government a mega The lottery Lives take most have just of the enough money left away for essential in taxes. but You boring loan, matters but with like little paying or no off extra the housing cash for travel way enriched. or to buy books, you are in no other Kushalrani Gulab is an independent journalist