imported>Monkbot: Task 18 (cosmetic): eval 13 templates: del empty params (18×); del |url-status= (1×);

2020-12-13T15:58:00Z

Task 18 (cosmetic): eval 13 templates: del empty params (18×); del |url-status= (1×);

New page

{{short description|Indian philanthropist}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Soonderbai Hannah Powar
| image = SoonderbaiPowar1900.jpg
| alt = A middle-aged Indian woman wearing eyeglasses and a sari with a white blouse, and a flower pinned to the chest.
| caption = Soonderbai Powar, from a 1900 publication.
| other_names =
| birth_name = Soonderi Hannah Powar
| birth_date = July 29, 1856
| birth_place =
| death_date = December 15, 1921
| death_place =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}

'''Soonderbai Hannah Powar''' (July 29, 1856 – December 15, 1921) was an Indian Christian philanthropist and anti-opium activist. She worked closely with [[Pandita Ramabai]].

== Early life ==
'''Soonderi Hannah Powar''' was born in 1856, the daughter of Christian converts<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMQ-AQAAMAAJ&q=Soonderbai+Powar&pg=PA460|title=Our Day: A Record and Review of Current Reform|date=1891|publisher=Our Day Publishing Company|pages=460–462|language=en}}</ref> Ganderbai and Ramachandra Powar.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sen|first=Indrani|date=February 2014|title=Writing English, Writing Reform: Two Indian Women's Novels of the 19th Century|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0971521513511198|journal=Indian Journal of Gender Studies|language=en|volume=21|issue=1|pages=1–26|doi=10.1177/0971521513511198|s2cid=145363195|issn=0971-5215}}</ref>

== Career ==
Powar lectured on the opium trade,<ref>{{Cite news|date=1892-05-19|title=Women of the Hour|pages=4|work=The Fort Scott Weekly Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60518517/women-of-the-hour/|access-date=2020-10-04|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> touring in Great Britain in 1888–1889 season, and again for the 1892–1893 season,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=January 1, 1892|title=Anti-Opium Demonstration|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDMrAAAAYAAJ&q=Soonderbai+Powar&pg=PA17|journal=The British Friend|volume=1|pages=17}}</ref> with the support of the ''Bombay Guardian'' newspaper and the Women's Anti-Opium Urgency League.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Anagol|first=Padma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UORADgAAQBAJ&q=Soonderbai+Powar&pg=PT65|title=The Emergence of Feminism in India, 1850-1920|date=2017-03-02|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-351-89080-9|language=en}}</ref> She wrote a 29-page pamphlet, ''An Indian Woman's Impeachment of the Opium Crime of the British Government: A Plea for Justice for Her Country People'' (1892), to accompany her second tour.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Powar|first=Soonderbai Hannah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yh_anQAACAAJ|title=An Indian Woman's Impeachment of the Opium Crime of the British Government: A Plea for Justice for Her Country People|date=1892|publisher=Dyer|language=en}}</ref>

Powar ran a teacher training school,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dyer|first=Helen S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r7QOAAAAIAAJ&q=Soonderbai+Powar&pg=PA49|title=Revival in India: "Years of the Right Hand of the Most High."|date=1907|publisher=Morgan and Scott|pages=49–50|language=en}}</ref> and worked closely with Pandita Ramabai at the Sharada Sadan (Abode of Wisdom),<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guinness|first=Lucy Evangeline|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qBUPAAAAYAAJ&q=Soonderbai+Powar&pg=PA91|title=Across India at the Dawn of the 20th Century|date=1898|publisher=Religious Tract Society|pages=91|language=en}}</ref> a refuge and school for child widows, started in Bombay and later moved to Pune and still later to [[Kedgaon]]. She took full charge of Sharada Sadan when Ramabai left for the United States in 1898.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dyer|first=Helen S.|url=http://archive.org/details/panditaramabaist00dyeruoft|title=Pandita Ramabai: the story of her life|date=1900|publisher=London Morgan and Scott|others=Robarts - University of Toronto|pages=68}}</ref> She wrote about the difficulties of Hindu girls and women in a book,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Anagol|first=Padma|date=2010-09-01|title=Feminist Inheritances and Foremothers: the beginnings of feminism in modern India|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2010.502398|journal=Women's History Review|volume=19|issue=4|pages=523–546|doi=10.1080/09612025.2010.502398|s2cid=144279774|issn=0961-2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Midgley|first=Clare|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kATpAAAAIAAJ&q=Soonderbai+Powar&pg=PA87|title=Gender and Imperialism|date=1998-03-15|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-4820-3|pages=87|language=en}}</ref> ''Hinduism and Womanhood: Personal Histories showing the Fruits of Hinduism, written and compiled for the information of British Christian Women,'' and in Christian missionary publications, including ''The Indian Alliance'' in 1907.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Powar|first=Soonderbai|date=October 1907|title=Hinduism|url=https://www.cmalliance.org/resources/archives/downloads/indiapdf/IA-1907-10.pdf|journal=The Indian Alliance|volume=7|pages=38}}</ref>

After Powar's death in 1921, Kate Storrie wrote a biography, ''Soonderbai Powar: A Noble Worker for Indian Womanhood'' (1924), also published with the subtitle ''For 45 Years an Earnest Worker for God in India.''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Storrie|first=Kate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lt21swEACAAJ|title=Soonderbai Powar, for 45 Years an Earnest Worker for God in India|date=1924|publisher=Pickering & Inglis|language=en}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}
*
{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powar, Soonderbai Hannah}}
[[Category:1856 births]]
[[Category:1921 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian philanthropists]]
[[Category:Indian reformers]]
[[Category:Indian women philanthropists]]

Soonderbai Hannah Powar - Revision history

imported>Monkbot: Task 18 (cosmetic): eval 13 templates: del empty params (18×); del |url-status= (1×);