Sarojini Naidu - The Nightingale of India

born Feb. 13, 1879, Hyderabad, India
died March 2, 1949, Lucknow

political activist, feminist, poet-writer, and the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and to be appointed an Indian state governor.

February 13, 1879 - March 2, 1949), known as Bharatiya Kokila (The Nightingale of India), was a child prodigy, freedom fighter, and poet. Naidu was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the governor of Uttar Pradesh. She was active in the Indian Independence Movement, joining Mahatma Gandhi in the Salt March to Dandi, and then leading the Dharasana Satyagraha after the arrests of Gandhi JI, Abbas Tyabji, and Kasturba Gandhi.

Sarojini Naidu was born in Hyderabad, India as the eldest daughter of scientist, philosopher, and educator Aghornath Chattopadhyaya, and Varada Sundari Devi, a poetess. Her father was the founder of the Nizam College, and also the first member of the Indian National Congress in Hyderabad with his friend Mulla Abdul Qayyum. He was later dismissed from his position as Principal and even banished in retaliation for his political activities. Sarojini Naidu learned to speak Urdu, Telugu, English, Persian and Bengali. Her favorite poet was P.B. Shelley.

She attained national fame for entering Madras University at the age of twelve. At sixteen, she traveled to England to study first at King's College London and subsequently at Girton College, Cambridge.

At the age of 17, she met Dr. Muthyala Govindarajulu Naidu and fell in love with him. He was from Andhra Pradesh. After finishing her studies at the age of 19, she married him during the time when inter-caste marriages were not allowed. Her marriage was a very happy one. They were married by the Act (1872), in Madras in 1898. They had 4 children: Jayasurya, Padmaja, Randheer, and Leelamani.

Naidu's brother, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, was also a noted Indian activist. During WW I Virendranath was instrumental in founding the Berlin Committee and was one of the leading figures of the Hindu German Conspiracy. He later became committed to Communism, traveling to Soviet Russia where he is believed to have been executed on Stalin's orders in 1937.

After some experience in the suffragist campaign in England, she was drawn to India's Congress movement and to Mahatma Gandhi's Non-cooperation Movement. In 1924 she traveled in eastern Africa and South Africa in the interest of Indians there and the following year became the first Indian woman president of the National Congress—having been preceded eight years earlier by the English feminist Annie Besant. She toured North America, lecturing on the Congress movement, in 1928–29. Back in India her anti-British activity brought her a number of prison sentences (1930, 1932, and 1942–43). She accompanied Gandhi to London for the inconclusive second session of the Round Table Conference for Indian–British cooperation (1931). Upon the outbreak of World War II she supported the Congress Party's policies, first of aloofness, then of avowed hindrance to the Allied cause. In 1947 she became governor of the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), a post she retained until her death.

Sarojini Naidu, “the Nightingale of India,” also led an active literary life and attracted notable Indian intellectuals to her famous salon in Bombay. Sarojini Naidu is also well acclaimed for her contribution to poetry. Her poetry had beautiful words that could also be sung. The Golden Threshold (1905), was followed by The Bird of Time (1912), and in 1914 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her collected poems, all of which she wrote in English, have been published under the titles The Sceptered Flute (1928) and The Feather of the Dawn (1961)

Naidu writes:

:Shall hope prevail where clamorous hate is rife,

Shall sweet love prosper or high dreams have place
Amid the tumult of reverberant strife
'Twixt ancient creeds, 'twixt race and ancient race,
That mars the grave, glad purposes of life,
Leaving no refuge save thy succoring face ?

Naidu said, "When there is oppression, the only self-respecting thing is to rise and say this shall cease today, because my right is justice."Naidu adds, "If you are stronger, you have to help the weaker boy or girl both in play and in the work."