Sarojini Naidu

Early life and family

Sarojini Naidu was born in a Bengali family in Hyderabad to Aghore Nath Chattopadhyay and Barada Sundari Devi on 13 February 1879. Her parental home was at Brahmangaon in Bikrampur (in present-day Bangladesh). Her father, Aghor Nath Chattopadhyaya, with a doctorate of Science from Edinburgh University, settled in Hyderabad, where administered Hyderabad college, which later became Nizam College in Hyderabad. Her mother, Barada Sundari Devi, was a poet and used to write poetry in Bengali.

She was the eldest of the eight siblings. Her brother Virendranath Chattopadhyaya was a revolutionary and her other brother, Harindranath was a poet, a dramatist, and an actor.

Sarojini Naidu, having passed her matriculation examination from the University of Madras, took a four-year break from her studies. In 1895, the Nizam Scholarship Trust founded by the 6th Nizam, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, gave her the chance to study in England, first at King's College London and later at Girton College, Cambridge.

Sarojini Naidu met Govindarajulu Naidu, a physician, and at the age of 19, after finishing her studies, she married him. At that time, Inter-caste marriages were not allowed, but her father approved the marriage.

The couple had five children. Their daughter, Padmaja also joined the freedom struggle, and was part of the Quit India Movement. She was appointed the Governor of the state of West Bengal soon after Indian independence.

Political career

Naidu joined the Indian national movement in the wake of partition of Bengal in 1905. She came into contact with Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

In 1915–18, she travelled to different regions in India delivering lectures on social welfare, women's empowerment and nationalism. She also helped to establish the Women's Indian Association (WIA) in 1917. She was sent to London along with Annie Besant, President of home rule league and Women's Indian Association, to present the case for the women's vote to the Joint Select Committee.

I April 1947 she was present at the Asian Relations Conference in Delhi where the Tibetan Government Representative, Sampho Theiji, said, "In a similar way we are very glad to meet representatives from all the Asian countries in this Conference and we wish to express our sincere gratitude to the great Indian leaders, Mahadma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, and to all the distinguished representatives who have gathered in this Conference."

Congress Party president

In 1925, Naidu presided over the annual session of Indian National Congress at Cawnpore (now Kanpur).

In 1929, she presided over East African Indian Congress in South Africa. She was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal by the British government for her work during the plague epidemic in India.

In 1931, she participated in the round-table conference with Gandhi and Madan Mohan Malaviya.

She played a leading role in the Civil Disobedience Movement and was jailed along with Gandhi and other leaders. In 1942, she was arrested during period of the "Quit India"

Sarojini Naidu began writing at the age of twelve. Her Persian play, Maher Muneer, impressed the [Nawab of Hyderabad].

In 1905, her first collection of poems, named The Golden Threshold was published. The volume bore an introduction by Arthur Symons. Her poems were admired by prominent Indian politicians like Gopal Krishna Gokhale. The reviews they received were enthusiastic and her poems were praised in the British Press for their Indian qualities.

The second collection of Sarojini Naidu’s poems, The Bird of Time was published in 1912 in London by William Heinemann, it had the introduction by Edmond Gosse. It consists of forty-six lyrics.

The third collection of Sarojini Naidu’s poems, The Broken Wing was published in 1917. It has sixty-one lyrics. Rabindranath Tagore highly praised her poems.

The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India was published in 1937, which contained the previous three volumes of Naidu’s poems: The Golden Threshold, The Bird of Time and The Broken Wing.

The Feather of The Dawn which contained poems written in 1927 by Naidu was edited and published posthumously in 1961 by her daughter Padmaja Naidu.

The themes and background of her poetry were purely Indian and she portrayed the festivals, occupations and life of the Indians. Lyricism, symbolism, imagery, mysticism and native fervour, are the remarkable qualities of her poetry.

Death and legacy

Sarojini Naidu died because of a heart attack while working in her office in Lucknow on 2 March (Wednesday), 1949. She is commemorated in the names of several institutions, including the Sarojini Naidu College for Women, Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital and Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad.

Aldous Huxley wrote "It has been our good fortune, while in Bombay, to meet Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, the newly elected President of the All-India Congress and a woman who combines in the most remarkable way great intellectual power with charm, sweetness with courageous energy, a wide culture with originality, and earnestness with humour. If all Indian politicians are like Mrs. Naidu, then the country is fortunate indeed."

Her 135th birth anniversary (2014) was marked by a Google Doodle on Google India's homepage.

Golden Threshold

The Golden Threshold is an off-campus annexe of University of Hyderabad. The building was the residence of Naidu's father Aghornath Chattopadhyay, the first Principal of Hyderabad College. It was named after Naidu's collection of poetry. Golden Threshold now houses Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication of University of Hyderabad.

During the Chattopadhyay family's residence, it was the centre of many reformist ideas in Hyderabad, in areas ranging from marriage, education, women's empowerment, literature and nationalism.

Works

Each year links to its corresponding "year in poetry" article: