Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu (real name: Sarojini Chattopadhyay) was born on 13th February 1879, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. She was a child prodigy and actively took part in the activities for the independence of India. On account of her beautiful poems and songs she was also known as ‘The Nightingale of India’. Naidu served as the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949; and became the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. She was the second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first Indian woman to do so.

Childhood

Sarojini Naidu was born to father Aghor Nath Chattopadhyay and mother Barada Sundari Debi. Her father settled in Hyderabad and founded Hyderabad College, which was later named as Nizam’s college. Naidu began writing at the age of twelve. Her Persian play ‘Maher Muneer’ impressed the Nawab of Hyderabad.

Education

In 1891, Sarojini Naidu passed her matriculation examination from the University of Madras. She took a break of four years from her studies. In 1895, Naidu got a chance from the "Nizam scholarship Trust" founded by the 6th Nizam of Hyderabad - Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, to pursue higher studies in England first at King's College London and later at Girton College, Cambridge.

Career

In 1905, when Partition of Bengal was announced, Sarojini Naidu joined the Indian national movement; where she came in contact with the influential leaders of India namely Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore, Annie Besant, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and many others. During this time, her first collection of poems, named "The Golden Threshold" was published and was admired by the prominent leaders.

During 1915-1918, she travelled to different parts of India delivering lectures on social welfare, women's empowerment and nationalism. In 1917, she majorly contributed in formation of the Women's Indian Association (WIA). Later, she travelled to London along with Annie Besant, President of WIA, to present the case for the women's vote to the Joint Select Committee. In 1925, Naidu was made the president of Indian National Congress at Kanpur), and in 1929, she headed East African Indian Congress in South Africa. During this time, for her enduring work during the plague epidemic in India she was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal by the British government.

In 1931, she participated in the Round table conference with Mahatma Gandhi and Madan Mohan Malaviya. She played a leading role during the Civil Disobedience Movement and was jailed along with Gandhiji and other leaders. In 1942, she was also arrested during the "Quit India" movement.

At the End

On 2nd March, 1949, Sarojini Naidu died of a heart attack while at her office in Lucknow. In 1961, her collection of poems "The Feather of The Dawn" was edited and published posthumously by her daughter Padmaja Naidu (the then Governor of West Bengal).