A proponent of civil rights, women’s emancipation and anti-imperialist ideas,Sarojini Naidu became the first Indian woman to be the President of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and be appointed governor of an Indian state, United Provinces in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi named her. the Nightingale of India because of the color, imagery and lyrical quality of her poetry. Educated in Madras, and between 1895-1898 at King’s College London and at Girton College, Cambridge, she was a suffragist, and became part of the Indian Nationalist movement.
In 1904 she gained popularity as an orator promoting independence for India and rights for women. She counted among the nationalist leaders of the time, and with Muthulakshmi Reddy she helped establish the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) in 1917. She accompanied Annie Besant, president of the Home Rule League and the WIA to advocate for universal suffrage before the Joint Select Committee in the UK. She supported the Lucknow Pact, a joint Hindu-Muslim demand for British political reform and more. She returned to join Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance, and later participated in the non-cooperation movement. In 1928 she was a founding member of the All Indian Women’s Conference, and in 1928 travelled to the US to promote non- violent resistance. In 1930 she helped persuade Gandhi to allow women to take part in the Salt March, despite the high risks associated with it. When Gandhi was arrested, he appointed her as the new leader, and she participated in the Second Round Table Conference headed by Viceroy Lord Irwin in 1931, before being jailed in 1932, and again in 1942 for her participation in the Quit India Movement.
She began to write at age 12, so impressing the Nizam of the Kingdom of Hyderabad with her play, Maher Muneer written in Persian, that she received a scholarship from him for the British universities. Her first book of poems, published in 1905, was entitled the Golden Threshold, and bore an introduction by Arthur Symons, and a sketch of her drawn by John Butler Yeats. In 1912 she published The Bird of Time, in London and in New York, a strongly nationalist book of poetry which included “In the Bazaars of Hyderabad” one of her most popular poems.
Today, India celebrates Sarojini Naidu’s birthday, February 13th, as National Women’s Day of India. #SarojiniNaidu #womenshistorymonth #nfbpwcHerstory
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