‘Mata Hari of Kashmir’: Miss Edna Bellefontaine

England born Miss Edna Bellefontaine called Kashmir her home. She lived in houseboats, hiked through Himalayas (once even spent a night in a sacred high cave, which one we don’t know, she even claimed to be the first white woman to ever enter the Kingdom of Nepal). Miss Edna painted all that she saw. And on some days she would put on a black wig and some native dress to do some exotic twist for the soon to depart royalty. For all that she earned a title: ‘Mata Hari of Kashmir’. But with a name like that, there could be no happy ending. Or did that name come up only later, as a minor footnote to an event in history. In 1953, after a meeting with General Ayub Khan of Pakistan, she was banished from the land of Kashmir. At gun point Mata Hari was ousted from her houseboat and sent packing to Delhi with her six trunks and two dogs where for some years she was charged with planning Kashmir’s sedition from India. For years she petitioned India and Pakistan to let her go back to her paradise. A similar fate was met with by a man who too had met the Gereral that day. Sheikh Abdullah. But Edna was to never return. In exile she became Mrs. Edna Bailey and wrote a book called ‘Externed from Paradise’. Hoping to teach Indian dancing in some college or university, in Trenton New Jersey, Mata Hari of Kashmir did the native dances for soldiers, the wealthy and women’s group.

Tonawanda News .  February 26, 1970 via:  fultonhistory.com/

Pounding Rice, 1949

Srinagar Club under Snow Found these paintings at: Indian Government’s Online Photo Division

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Update: Jan 9, 2014

Edna Bellefontaine ‘Beached Boats By Town’  Oil on masonite Dated ’64 Shared by David Zrihen from his collection.