>Scorpions13256: Copying from Category:20th-century Indian women writers to Category:20th-century Indian writers non-diffusing subcategory using Cat-a-lot

2021-06-21T15:21:30Z

Copying from Category:20th-century Indian women writers to Category:20th-century Indian writers non-diffusing subcategory using Cat-a-lot

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{{Short description|Poet and lawyer (1894–1983)}}
[[File:Dorothy Bonarjee with her son Denis 1922.jpg|thumb|Dororthy Bonarjee with her son Denis - about 1922]]
'''Dorothy Noel 'Dorf' Bonarjee''' (1894–1983) was an Indian poet and artist who was known for being awarded a Bardic chair while a student in [[Wales]] and for being the first woman internal student to be awarded a law degree by [[University College London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-55430717 |title='She is beautiful but she is Indian': The student who became a Welsh bard at 19 |website=BBC |date=28 December 2020 }}</ref>

==Biography==
===Early life===
Bonarjee was born into a Bengali Christian family in [[Bareilly]] in north [[India]] in August 1894.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Whitehead|first=Andrew|date=2020|title=Dorothy Bonarjee: Bard of Aberystwyth|url=https://www.planetmagazine.org.uk/planet-online/238/andrew-whitehead|journal=[[Planet (magazine)|Planet]]|volume=238|pages=70–76|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Her father was a barrister. Along with her brothers, Bonarjee spent much of her childhood in [[Dulwich]] in south [[London]] and was largely educated in England.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bonarjee|first=N.B.|title=Under Two Masters|url=https://archive.org/details/undertwomasters0000bona|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1970|pages=[https://archive.org/details/undertwomasters0000bona/page/37 37]-57|oclc=473638554}}</ref>

===Higher education and poetry===
In 1912, Bonarjee enrolled to study for a degree in French at the [[Aberystwyth University|University College of Wales]] at [[Aberystwyth]]. While a student, she published poetry in the college journal ''The Dragon'' and in ''[[Welsh Outlook]]''. In February 1914, she was awarded the Bardic chair at the college [[Eisteddfod]] for verse submitted under a pseudonym.<ref>{{Cite news|date=March 2, 1914|title=Hindu Lady Chaired|work=Cambria Daily Leader|url=https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4095803/4095804/7/bonarjee}}</ref> She was the first woman and first non-European to win the college Eisteddfod. Her father, who was present, agreed to demands to address the gathering, thanking those present for the way they had 'received a successful competitor of a different race and country'.<ref name= BBC>{{cite web |last1=Whitehead |first1=Andrew |title='She is beautiful but she is Indian': The student who became a Welsh bard at 19 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-55430717 |access-date=28 December 2020}}</ref> Among Bonarjee's papers are more than sixty printed and manuscript poems. Alongside one is a note: 'Written at the age of 22 when a Welsh student after 3 years of secret engagement dropped me because his parents said "She is very beautiful and intelligent but she is Indian."'<ref name= BBC/>

A critical article devoted to Bonarjee's poetry commented that she 'doubtless has a bright and hopeful career before her'.<ref>Harihar Das, 'The Poetry of Dorothy Noel Bonarjee' The Indus, November 1922, pp50-53</ref> Bonarjee went on to [[University College, London]], where, in 1917, she became the first woman internal student to be awarded a law degree (LLB)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Auchmuty|first=Rosemary|date=April 4, 2008|title=Early Women Law Students at Cambridge and Oxford|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01440360801903588|journal=The Journal of Legal History|language=en|volume=29|issue=1|pages=63–97|doi=10.1080/01440360801903588|s2cid=144599588|issn=0144-0365|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-university-graduates/pp307-341 |title=Index of Graduates by Surname |access-date=December 28, 2020}}</ref> - though she never practiced law.<ref name=WelshBio>{{cite web |last1=Jenkins |first1=Beth R. |title=Bonarjee, Dorothy Noel |url=https://biography.wales/article/s12-BONA-NOE-1894 |website=Dictionary of Welsh Biography |access-date=8 September 2020}}</ref>

===Later life===
Bonarjee was a supporter of women's suffrage and in 1919, along with her mother, signed the Indian Women's Franchise Address.<ref name=WelshBio/>

Rather than returning to India to join her parents, in 1921 Bonarjee married the French artist {{Ill|Paul Surtel|fr}}. They lived in [[Provence|Provence, France]]. The couple had two children - Denis, who died in infancy, and Claire Aruna - before divorcing.<ref name=":0" /> Bonarjee painted particularly [[still life]] and [[landscapes]]. She died in 1983.

==Memory==
Dorothy Bonarjee was the subject of a radio documentary, 'The Hindu Bard', broadcast on the BBC World Service in December 2020 and later adapted for broadcast on BBC Radio Wales.<ref name=BBC20>{{cite web |title=The Hindu Bard |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0923lmc |publisher=BBC World Service |access-date=29 December 2020}}</ref> One of her poems, 'Immensity', was included in an anthology on women and nature published in 2021.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Norbury (editor) |first1=Katharine |title=Women on Nature: an anthology of women's writing about the natural world in the east Atlantic archipelago |date=2021 |publisher=Unbound |location=London |isbn=978-1-80018-041-3 |page=57}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0923lmc Podcast of a BBC World Service radio documentary about Dorothy Bonarjee, broadcast 29 December 2020]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-55430717 Indian by birth, English by upbringing, French by marriage and Welsh at heart - BBC online article about Dorothy Bonarjee]
* [https://thewire.in/culture/she-is-beautiful-intelligent-but-indian-the-19-yeard-old-student-celebrated-as-a-welsh-bard Biographical article about Dorothy Bonarjee including photographs]
* [https://biography.wales/article/s12-BONA-NOE-1894 Entry on Dorothy Bonarjee by Beth R. Jenkins in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K67D8AwJHPw Mohini Gupta reading Dorothy Bonarjee's poem 'Renunciation']

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonarjee, Dorothy}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:People from Bareilly]]
[[Category:People from Dulwich]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Wales]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to France]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to England]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:Poets from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Women artists from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Women writers from Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Indian women poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian painters]]
[[Category:Indian women painters]]
[[Category:Alumni of Aberystwyth University]]

Dorothy Bonarjee - Revision history

>Scorpions13256: Copying from Category:20th-century Indian women writers to Category:20th-century Indian writers non-diffusing subcategory using Cat-a-lot