Dhunbai Cowasji Jehangir (1860 – 15 July 1940) was an Indian philanthropist and leader of women's organizations, based in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Early life

Dhunbai Wadia was born in Bombay, the daughter of Ardeshir Hormusjee Wadia, a member of the

Wadia family The Wadia family is a Parsi family from Surat, India currently based in Mumbai, India. The family rose to wealth in the mid-1700s as ship-builders serving the British East India Company as the latter established its sway over India. During th ...

. Her family were

Parsis Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim co ...

. She was presented to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

in 1885, on her first visit to England.

Career

Jehangir was a co-founder and secretary of the Princess Mary Victoria

Gymkhana Gymkhana () ( ur, جِمخانہ, sd, جمخانه, hi, जिमख़ाना, as, জিমখানা, bn, জিমখানা) is a British Raj term which originally referred to a place of assembly. The meaning then altered to den ...

, a women's social and educational club in Bombay. In 1907, she presided over the All-India Women's Conference at Ahmedabad. She was vice-president of the Bombay chapter of the Indian Women's Council for many years. As a leader of the Bombay branch of the National Baby and Health Week Association in the 1920s, she founded Bombay Baby Week, a week of lectures, demonstrations, and films on child health topics. She represented India in 1924, at the Wembley Empire Exhibition in London. In 1927, she was one of the first women

Justices of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in Bombay. She received the gold

Kaisar-i-Hind Medal The Kaisar-i-Hind Medal for Public Service in India was a medal awarded by the Emperor/Empress of India between 1900 and 1947, to "any person without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex ... who shall have distinguished himself (o ...

. In 1935 she was president of the Women's Branch of the

Indian National Association The Indian Association was the first avowed nationalist organization founded in British India by Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose in 1876. The objectives of this Association were "promoting by every legitimate means the political, in ...

. She raised funds for women's health, famine relief, and other causes. "There was hardly a movement intended to secure the educational and social progress of women with which the late Dowager Lady Cowasji Jehangir was not actively associated," noted one tribute in 1940. The Lady Dhunbai Jehangir Home for the Destitute opened in 1938. It was the largest private institution of its kind in Bombay in the 1950s and 1960s.

Personal life and legacy

In 1876, Dhunbai Wadia married banker and industrialist

Jehangir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney Sir Jehangir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney, 1st Baronet, (8 June 1853 – 26 July 1934) was a prominent member of the Bombay Parsi community. He was the nephew and heir to the childless Sir Cowasji Jehangir ''Readymoney'' (1812–1878). He marr ...

. They had three children, all born before 1880, including two daughters, Cooverbai (who died as a young woman) and Bapsey Sabavala, and their son

Sir Cowasji Jehangir, 2nd Baronet Sir Cowasji Jehangir, 2nd Baronet, (16 February 1879 – 17 October 1962) was a prominent member of the Bombay Parsi community. He was the son of Sir Jehangir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney, 1st Bt. (1853–1934) and grand-nephew of Sir Cowasji ...

. Her husband died in 1934, and she died in 1940, aged 79 years. Her

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...

funeral was attended by thousands of mourners. The Sorabji Ratanji Patel Agiary in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

includes a hall named for Lady Dhunbai Cowasjee Jehangir. A portrait of Lady Jehangir is prominent at the entrance of the

Cowasji Jehangir Hall The Cowasji Jehangir Hall is a museum of modern art and was part of the Institute of Science prior to 1996. The hall was built in 1911 by George Wittet and funded by Cowasji Jehangir. It is located in Colaba area of Mumbai, India. History ...

in Mumbai. One of Jehangir's grandchildren was the artist Jehangir Sabavala.

References

External links

Dhunbai (née Wadia), Lady Jehangir
is the subject of two portraits in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowasji Jehangir, Dhunbai 1860 births 1940 deaths People from Mumbai Indian philanthropists Parsi people People from Bombay Presidency