"In the battle for liberty, fear is one unforgivable treachery and despair, the one unforgivable sin."
The revolutionary that was Sarojini Naidu was born in Hyderabad on February 13, 1879. Of the eight siblings, she was the oldest. She passed her examination from the University of Madras when she was twelve,and took a four-year break from her studies. In 1895, she got the chance to study in England, first at King's College, London and later at Girton College, Cambridge. Sarojini met Paidipati Naidu - a physician, at the age of 19, after finishing her studies, and married him.
Contribution to the Indian Freedom Struggle
In the aftermath of Bengal's partition in 1905, Naidu joined the Indian independence movement. She soon met other leaders such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and worked towards liberation from the colonial regime.
Naidu travelled to various regions of India between 1915 and 1918, delivering lectures on social welfare, women's emancipation, and nationalism. In 1917, she also helped to set up the Women's Indian Association (WIA).
In 1917, she joined her colleague Annie Besant, who was the president of Home Rule League and Women's Indian Association, to present the advocate universal suffrage before the Joint Select Committee in London, United Kingdom.
Naidu was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal by the British government for her work during the plague epidemic in India, which she later returned in protest over the April 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. In 1919, as part of the All India Home Rule League, Naidu again went to London as part of her continued efforts to advocate for independence from British rule. She joined Gandhi's Satyagraha Movement upon her return to India in 1920. Naidu also presided over the East African and Indian Congress' 1929 session in South Africa.
In 1930, Naidu was arrested, along with other Congress leaders for participating in the Salt March. In the wake of the Gandhi-Irwin pact, Sarojini and other Congress Party leaders participated in the Second Round Table Conference in 1931.
Sarojini was one of the main figures to have led the Civil Disobedience Movement and the Gandhi-led Quit India Movement. At that time, she faced repeated arrests by the British authorities and even spent more than 21 months in prison (1 year 9 months).
Naidu was appointed as the governor of the United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh) after India's independence from British rule in 1947, making her the first woman governor of India. She remained in office until her death in March 1949, aged 70.
Writing Career
Sarojini began writing at the age of 12. The Nizam of the Kingdom of Hyderabad was impressed with her play, Maher Muneer, which was written in Persian. Her first book of poems, called The Golden Threshold, was published in 1905. Prominent Indian politicians such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale appreciated her poetry. Naidu's poem "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" was published as a part of The Bird of Time with her other poems in 1912. "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" was well received by critics, who noted Naidu's visceral use of rich sensory images in her writing. The Feather of The Dawn, which included poems written by Naidu in 1927, was edited by her daughter Padmaja Naidu in 1961 and published posthumously. In addition, for its patriotism and the actual climate of the India of 1915, her poem The Gift of India is also noteworthy.
Written by:
Tamanna Thakur
Tamanna is a woman who believes that she was born with enhanced sensibilities of the perils of life, and so she constantly finds herself asking existential questions. Baking and films are the two things that provide her respite from the monotony of deep thought.
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