Portrait of Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini naidu (1879-1949)

Sarojini naidu was fondiy known as the bharatiya kokila or the nightingale of india. hers is a persona and a life that spans many tieles. causes and movements. she displayed her prodigious abilities from an early age when she cleared her matriculation exam and entered madras University at the age of 12. She then travelled to England to study.

She studied at king’s college. London and Gorton college. Cambridge. At te age of 19. after finishing her studies. She married. Dr. Govindrajulu Naidu at time when inter-caste marriages She is one of the more familiar faces of the Indian independence movement. Which she joined after the partition of Bengal in 1905. she traveled across India. Delivering lectures on a wide range of issues like addressing question regarding youth welfare. Women’s emancipation. Nationalism. And also stressing on the importance of labour. She wass sent as the Home rule league’s ambassador to England in 1919 and was a delegate at the East African Indian congress in 1925. she was aiso a member of the congress Working Committee. She was jailed by the British for several months in 1930. and released in earily 1931. along with Gandhiji. She aws arrested again during the Quit India Movement .in 1942 and was in jail 21 months.

She was elected the first India Woman President of the Congress in 1925 and would later also go

on to become the first woman Governor of an Indian state- Uttar pradesh.
She was a prolific writer and had starter writing from a very early age. During her college years in Britain she interacted with many British writers as well. And Arthur symons writes well of her abilities as a poet. were not encouraged

Once she was part of the independence Movement everything else became secondary. So most of her poetry belongs to the early period of her life. The first volume of her poems. The golden threshold; was published in 1905. Two more volumes were published. The Bird of Time’ and The Broken Wing:the Magic Tree:The Mizard Mask’ and ‘A Treasury of poems’ were published as well.

Her social and Nationalist concerns come across in some of her poems like the one titled 'To India".O young through all rhy immemorial years! Rise. mother. rise regenerate from thy gloom. and. like a bride high- mated with the spheres. Beget new glories from thine ageless womb. The fillowing lines from her poem 'Life' show that she was aware of the demands that a strife-torn real makes on young inexperienced minds and lives;

Till ye have battled with griat grief and fears. and. borne the conflict of drean-shattering years. wounded with fierce desire and warm with strife. Children. ye have not lived; for this is life.

Her concern for the everyday labours of ordinary folk is seen in 'Street cries'. where she writea of people who try to.

from ardent toil to forge a little gain and fasting men go forth on hurrying feet. she remains an icon who reminds us that the sky is the limit. and you can get there by being rooted to the ground.