Sarojini Naidu

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Born in a Bengali family in Hyderabad, Naidu was educated in Madras, London and Cambridge. Following her time in Britain, where she worked as a suffragist, she was drawn to the Congress party's struggle for India's independence. She became a part of the national movement and became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of swaraj (self-rule). She was appointed Congress president in 1925 and, when India achieved its independence, became Governor of the United Provinces in 1947.

Naidu's literary work as a poet earned her the nickname the "Nightingale of India" by Gandhi because of the colour, imagery, and lyrical quality of her poetry. Her œuvre includes both children's poems and others written on more serious themes including patriotism and tragedy. Published in 1912, "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" remains one of her most popular poems.

Personal lifeEdit

Sarojini Naidu was born in Hyderabad on 13 February 1879 to Aghorenath Chattopadhyay.<ref name="Raman2006">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Her father was from Brahmangaon, Bikrampur, Dhaka, Bengal (now in Bangladesh).<ref name="Ahmed2015">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her father was a Bengali Brahmin and the principal of Nizam College.<ref name="Raman2006" /> He held a doctorate of Science from Edinburgh University. Her mother wrote poetry in Bengali.<ref name="Raman2006" />

File:Sarojini Naidu by JB Yeats.jpg

Drawing of Naidu by John Butler Yeats, 1896, from the frontispiece of The Golden Threshold (1905)

She was the eldest of the eight siblings. Her brother Virendranath Chattopadhyay was a revolutionary, and another brother Harindranath was a poet, a dramatist, and an actor. Their family was well-regarded in Hyderabad.

EducationEdit

Sarojini Naidu passed her matriculation examination to qualify for university study, earning the highest rank, in 1891, when she was twelve.<ref name="Raman2006" /> From 1895 to 1898 she studied in England, at King's College, London and then Girton College, Cambridge, with a scholarship from the Nizam of Hyderabad.<ref name="TimesIndia">Template:Cite news</ref> In England, she met artists from the Aesthetic and Decadent movements.<ref name="Reddy2010">Template:Cite journal</ref>

MarriageEdit

Chattopadhyay returned to Hyderabad in 1898.<ref name="EGS">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> That same year, she married Govindaraju Naidu (Hailing from Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh), a doctor whom she met during her stay in England,<ref name="Raman2006" /> in an inter-caste marriage which has been called "groundbreaking and scandalous".<ref name="EGS"/> Both their families approved their marriage, which was long and harmonious. They had five children.<ref name="Raman2006" /> Their daughter Padmaja also joined the Quit India Movement, and she held several governmental positions in independent India.

Political careerEdit

File:Sarojini Naidu.jpg

Naidu in 1912

Early oratoryEdit

Beginning in 1904, Naidu became an increasingly popular orator, promoting Indian independence and women's rights, especially women's education.<ref name="Raman2006" /> Her oratory often framed arguments following the five-part rhetorical structures of Nyaya reasoning.<ref name="Shekhani2017" /> She addressed the Indian National Congress and the Indian Social Conference in Calcutta in 1906.<ref name="Raman2006" /> Her social work for flood relief earned her the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal in 1911<ref name="Raman2006" />, which she later returned in protest over the April 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.Template:Citation needed She met Muthulakshmi Reddy in 1909, and in 1914 she met Mahatma Gandhi, whom she credited with inspiring a new commitment to political action.<ref name="Iyer">Template:Cite book</ref> She was the first woman President of the Indian National Congress and first Indian woman to preside over the INC conference .

With Reddy, she helped established the Women's Indian Association in 1917.<ref name="Raman2006" /><ref name="Pasricha">Template:Cite book</ref> Later that year, Naidu accompanied her colleague Annie Besant, who was the president of Home Rule League and Women's Indian Association, to advocate universal suffrage in front of the Joint Select Committee in London, United Kingdom.She also supported the Lucknow Pact, a joint Hindu–Muslim demand for British political reform, at the Madras Special Provincial Council.<ref name="Raman2006" /> As a public speaker, Naidu's oratory was known for its personality and its incorporation of her poetry.

Women's movementEdit

Naidu utilized her poetry and oratory skills to promote women's rights alongside the nationalist movement. In 1902, Naidu entered the world of politics after being urged by Om Shanti, an important leader of the nationalist movement.<ref>Marx, Edward. "Everybody's Anima: Sarojini Naidu as Nightingale and Nationalist." In The Idea of a Colony: Cross-Culturalism in Modern Poetry. (University of Toronto Press, 2004), 57.</ref> In 1906, Naidu spoke to the Social Council of Calcutta in order to advocate for the education of Indian women.<ref>Nadkarni, Asha. "Regenerating Feminism: Sarojini Naidu's Eugenic Feminist Renaissance." In Eugenic Feminism: Reproductive Nationalism in the United States of America and India. (University of Minnesota Press, 2014), 73.</ref> In her speech, Naidu stressed that the success of the whole movement relied upon the "woman question".<ref name=":0">Naidu, Sarojini. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1925), 17.</ref> Naidu claimed that the true "nation-builders" were women, not men, and that without women's active cooperation, the nationalist movement would be in vain.<ref name=":0" /> Naidu's speech argued that Indian's nationalism depended on women's rights, and that the liberation of India could not be separated from the liberation of women.<ref>Alexander, Meena. "Sarojini Naidu: Romanticism and Resistance." Economic and Political Weekly 20, no. 43 (1985): 70.</ref> The women's movement developed parallel to the independence movement for this reason.<ref name="Reddy2010" />

In 1917, Naidu sponsored the establishment of the Women's Indian Association, which finally provided a platform for women to discuss their complaints and demand their rights.<ref>Sengupta, Padmini. "Sarojini Naidu: A Biography" (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1966), 148.</ref> That same year, Naidu served as a spokesperson for a delegation of women that met with Edwin Montagu, the Secretary of State for India, and Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy of India, in order to discuss reforms.<ref name=":1">Nadkarni, Asha. "REGENERATING FEMINISM: Sarojini Naidu's Eugenic Feminist Renaissance." In Eugenic Feminism: Reproductive Nationalism in the United States and India. (University of Minnesota Press, 2014), 71.</ref> The delegation expressed women's support for the introduction of self-government in India and demanded that the people of India should be given the right to vote, of which women must be included.<ref>Sengupta, Padmini. "Sarojini Naidu: A Biography" (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1966), 150.</ref> The delegation was followed up with public meetings and political conferences supporting the demands, making it a huge success.<ref>Sengupta, Padmini. "Sarojini Naidu: A Biography" (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1966), 151.</ref>

In 1918, Naidu moved a resolution on women's franchise to the Eighteenth Session of the Bombay Provincial Conference and to the special session of Congress held in Bombay.<ref name=":1" /> The purpose of the resolution was to have on record that the Conference was in support of the enfranchisement of women in order to demonstrate to Montagu that the men of India were not opposed to women's rights.<ref>Naidu, Sarojini. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1925), 194.</ref> In her speech at the Conference, Naidu emphasized "the influence of women in bringing about political and spiritual unity" in ancient India.<ref>Naidu, Sarojini. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1925), 196.</ref> She argued that women had always played an important role in political life in India and that rather than going against tradition, women's franchise would simply be giving back what was theirs all along.<ref>Nadkarni, Asha. "Regenerating Feminism: Sarojini Naidu's Eugenic Feminist Renaissance." In Eugenic Feminism: Reproductive Nationalism in the United States and India. (University of Minnesota Press, 2014), 72.</ref>

In her speech at the Bombay Special Congress, Naidu claimed that the "right of franchise is a human right and not a monopoly of one sex only."<ref>Naidu, Sarojini. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1925), 199.</ref> She demanded the men of India to reflect on their humanity and restore the rights that belonged to women. Throughout the speech, Naidu attempted to alleviate worries by reassuring that women were only asking for the right to vote, not for any special privileges that would interfere with men.<ref name="Reddy2010" /> In fact, Naidu proposed that women would lay the foundation of nationalism, making women's franchise a necessity for the nation.<ref>Naidu, Sarojini. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1925), 200.</ref> Despite the increasing support of women's suffrage in India, which was backed by the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, and others, the Southborough Franchise Committee, a British committee, decided against granting franchise to women.<ref name=":1" />

The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms had a shocking revelation: although the women's delegation appeared successful at the time, the reforms made no mention of women and had completely ignored their demands.<ref>Sengupta, Padmini. "Sarojini Naidu: A Biography" (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1966), 154.</ref> In 1919, Naidu, as representative of the WIA, went to plead for the franchise of women before a Joint-Select Committee of Parliament in London.<ref name=":1" /> She presented a memorandum to the committee and provided evidence that the women of India were ready for the right to vote.<ref>Sengupta, Padmini. "Sarojini Naidu: A Biography" (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1966), 157.</ref> The resulting Government of India Act of 1919, however, did not enfranchise Indian women, instead leaving the decision to provincial councils.<ref name=":1" /> Between 1921 and 1930, the provincial councils approved of women's franchise but with limitations. The number of women actually eligible to vote was very small.<ref name=":1" />

In the 1920s, Naidu began to focus more on the nationalist movement as a means of achieving both women's rights and political independence.<ref name=":2">Hodes, Joseph R. "Golda Meir, Sarojini Naidu, and the Rise of Female Political Leaders in British India and British Mandate Palestine." In Jews and Gender, edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon. (Purdue University Press, 2021), 184.</ref> Naidu became the first Indian female president of the Indian National Congress in 1925, demonstrating how influential she was as a political voice.<ref name="Reddy2010" /> By this period, Indian women were starting to get more involved in the movement. Female leaders began to organize nationwide strikes and nonviolent resistance across the country.<ref name=":2" /> In 1930, Naidu wrote a pamphlet that would be handed out to women with the goal of bringing them into the political struggle.<ref name=":2" /> The pamphlet stated that until recently, women had remained spectators, but now they had to get involved and play an active role.<ref name=":3">Naidu, Sarojini. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1925), 103.</ref> To Naidu, it was women's duty to help in the fight against Britain.<ref name=":3" /> In this way, Naidu asserted women's role as an agent of political change and effectively linked women to the struggle for independence from British rule.<ref>Hodes, Joseph R. "Golda Meir, Sarojini Naidu, and the Rise of Female Political Leaders in British India and British Mandate Palestine." In Jews and Gender, edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon. (Purdue University Press, 2021), 185.</ref>

Nonviolent resistanceEdit

Naidu formed close ties with Gandhi, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore and Sarala Devi Chaudhurani.<ref name="Raman2006" /> After 1917, she joined Gandhi's satyagraha movement of nonviolent resistance against British rule.<ref name="Raman2006" /> Naidu went to London in 1919 as a part of the All India Home Rule League as a part of her continued efforts to advocate for independence from British rule.<ref name="EGS" /> The next year, she participated in the non-cooperation movement in India.<ref name="Raman2006" />

File:Mahatma & Sarojini Naidu 1930.JPG

Naidu with Mahatma Gandhi during Salt Satyagraha, 1930

In 1924, Naidu represented the Indian National Congress at the East African Indian National Congress.<ref name="EGS" /> In 1925, Naidu was the first Indian female president of the Indian National Congress.<ref name="Raman2006" /> In 1927, Naidu was a founding member of the All India Women's Conference.<ref name="Raman2006" /> In 1928, she travelled in the United States to promote nonviolent resistance.<ref name="EGS" /> Naidu also presided over East African and Indian Congress' 1929 session in South Africa.Template:Citation needed

In 1930, Gandhi initially did not want to permit women to join the Salt March, because it would be physically demanding with a high risk of arrest.<ref name="Raman2006" /> Naidu and other female activists, including Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Khurshed Naoroji, persuaded him otherwise, and joined the march.<ref name="Raman2006" /> When Gandhi was arrested on 6 April 1930, he appointed Naidu as the new leader of the campaign.<ref name="Shekhani2017" />

The Indian National Congress decided to stay away from the First Round Table Conference that took place in London owing to the arrests.Template:Citation needed In 1931, however, Naidu and other leaders of the Congress Party participated in the Second Round Table Conference headed by Viceroy Lord Irwin in the wake of the Gandhi-Irwin pact.Template:Citation needed Naidu was jailed by the British in 1932.<ref name="Raman2006" />

The British jailed Naidu again in 1942 for her participation in the Quit India Movement.<ref name="Raman2006" /> She was imprisoned for 21 months.<ref name="EGS" />

File:Sarojini Naidu plants a tree in Mehrauli, Delhi.jpg

Naidu plants a tree in Mehrauli, Delhi, 1947

Governor of United ProvincesEdit

Following India's independence from the British rule in 1947, Naidu was appointed the governor of the United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh), making her India's first woman governor. She remained in office until her death in March 1949 (aged 70).<ref name="Raman2006" />

Writing careerEdit

Naidu began writing at the age of 12. Her play, Maher Muneer, written in Persian, impressed the Nizam of Kingdom of Hyderabad.Template:Citation needed

Naidu's poetry was written in English and usually took the form of lyric poetry in the tradition of British Romanticism, which she was sometimes challenged to reconcile with her Indian nationalist politics.<ref name="Reddy2010" /> She was known for her vivid use of rich sensory images in her writing, and for her lush depictions of India.<ref name="Iyer" /><ref name="Jagadisan">Template:Cite book</ref> She was well-regarded as a poet, considered the "Indian Yeats".<ref name="Shekhani2017">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Her first book of poems was published in London in 1905, titled "The Golden Threshold".<ref name="Sarkar">Template:Cite book</ref> The publication was suggested by Edmund Gosse, and bore an introduction by Arthur Symons. It also included a sketch of Naidu as a teenager, in a ruffled white dress, drawn by John Butler Yeats. Her second and most strongly nationalist book of poems, The Bird of Time, was published in 1912.<ref name="Reddy2010" /> It was published in both London and New York, and includes "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad".<ref name="BirdTime">Template:Cite book</ref> The last book of new poems published in her lifetime, The Broken Wing (1917). It includes the poem "The Gift of India", which exhorted the Indian people to remember the sacrifices of the Indian Army during World War I, which she had previously recited to the Hyderabad Ladies' War Relief Association in 1915. It also includes "Awake!", dedicated to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which she read as the conclusion to a 1915 speech to the Indian National Congress to urge unified Indian action.<ref name="Reddy2010" /> A collection of all her published poems was printed in New York in 1928.<ref name="FirstEdition">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After her death, Naidu's unpublished poems were collected in The Feather of the Dawn (1961), edited by her daughter Padmaja Naidu.<ref name="Nasta2012">Template:Cite book</ref>

Naidu's speeches were first collected and published in January 1918 as The Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu, a popular publication which led to an expanded reprint in 1919<ref name="NaiduSpeeches1919-9">Template:Cite book</ref> and again in 1925.<ref name="NaiduSpeeches1925">Template:Cite book</ref>

WorksEdit

1905: The Golden Threshold, London: William Heineman<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1915: The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring, London: William Heineman and New York: John Lane Company<ref name="BirdTime" />
1917: The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death and Destiny<ref name="vkg313">Vinayak Krishna Gokak, The Golden Treasury Of Indo-Anglian Poetry (1828–1965), p 313, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1970, first edition; 2006 reprint) Template:Webarchive, Template:ISBN, retrieved 6 August 2010</ref><ref name="Das2010">Sisir Kumar Das, "A History of Indian Literature 1911–1956: Struggle for Freedom: Triumph and Tragedy" Template:Webarchive, p 523, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (1995), Template:ISBN; retrieved 10 August 2010</ref>
1919: "The Song of the Palanquin Bearers", lyrics by Naidu and music by Martin Shaw, London: Curwen<ref name="Shaw1917">Template:Cite book</ref>
1920: The Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu, Madras: G.A. Natesan & Co.<ref name="NaiduSpeeches1919">Template:Cite book</ref>
1922: Editor, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, An Ambassador of Unity: His Speeches & Writings 1912–1917, with a biographical "Pen Portrait" of Jinnah by Naidu, Madras: Ganesh & Co.<ref name="JinnahSpeeches">Template:Cite book</ref>
1928: The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India, New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co.<ref name="SceptredFlute">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="FirstEdition" />
1961: The Feather of the Dawn, edited by Padmaja Naidu, Bombay: Asia Publishing House<ref name="Nasta2012" />

DeathEdit

File:Sarojini Naidu Ashes.jpg

The ashes of Naidu kept at Golden Threshold, Hyderabad before immersion

Naidu died of cardiac arrest at 3:30 p.m. (IST) on 2 March 1949 at the Government House in Lucknow. Upon her return from New Delhi on 15 February, she was advised to rest by her doctors, and all official engagements were canceled. Her health deteriorated substantially and bloodletting was performed on the night of 1 March after she complained of severe [headache]. She collapsed following a fit of cough. Naidu was said to have asked the nurse attending to her to sing to her at about 10:40 p.m. (IST) which put her to sleep.<ref name="IndianExpressObit">Template:Cite news</ref> She subsequently died, and her last rites were performed at the Gomati River.<ref name="IndianExpressRites">Template:Cite news</ref>

LegacyEdit

Naidu is known as "one of India's feminist luminaries".<ref name="Raman2006" /> Naidu's birthday, 13 February, is celebrated as Women's Day to recognise powerful voices of women in India's history.<ref name="ISCE">Template:Cite book</ref>

Composer Helen Searles Westbrook (1889–1967) set Naidu's text to music in her song "Invincible."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

As a poet, Naidu was known as the "Nightingale of India".<ref name="Augestine2017">Template:Cite news</ref> Edmund Gosse called her "the most accomplished living poet in India" in 1919.<ref name="NaiduSpeeches1919-11">Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Golden Threshold in Abids, Hyderabad.JPG

Golden Threshold in 2015

Naidu is memorialized in the Golden Threshold, an off-campus annex of University of Hyderabad named for her first collection of poetry. Golden Threshold now houses the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication in the University of Hyderabad.<ref name="UHyderabad">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Asteroid 5647 Sarojininaidu, discovered by Eleanor Helin at Palomar Observatory in 1990, was named in her memory.<ref name="jpldata" /> The official Template:MoMP was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 August 2019 (Template:Small).<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />

In 2014, Google India commemorated Naidu's 135th birth anniversary with a Google Doodle.<ref name="BiharPrabha2014">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Works about NaiduEdit

The first biography of Naidu, Sarojini Naidu: a Biography by Padmini Sengupta, was published in 1966.<ref name="Jungalwalla1966">Template:Cite journal</ref> A biography for children, Sarojini Naidu: The Nightingale and The Freedom Fighter, was published by Hachette in 2014.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1975, the Government of India Films Division produced a twenty-minute documentary about Naidu's life, "Sarojini Naidu – The Nightingale of India", directed by Bhagwan Das Garga.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2020, a biopic was announced, titled Sarojini, to be directed by Akash Nayak and Dhiraj Mishra, and starring Dipika Chikhlia as Naidu.<ref name="IndianExpress2020">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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