International Journal of Education, Modern Management, Applied Science & Social Science (IJEMMASSS) 148

ISSN : 2581-9925, Impact Factor: 6.340, Volume 04, No. 01(I), January - March, 2022, pp.148-150

SAROJINI NAIDU AS A FAMOUS INDIAN POETESS AND LEADER

Dr. Ashok

ABSTRACT

Sarojini Naidu is a brilliant poetess who gave a new dimension to Indian poetry in English. She
is a freedom fighter and woman leader; she was also a skilled orator and exemplary administrator. She
was affectionately called “The Nightingale of India.”

Keywords: Myth, Joy, Life, Death, Disobedience Movement, Freedom Movement.

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Introduction
Sarojini Naidu A gifted student, was proficient in Bengali, Urdu, Telugu, English and Persian. At
the tender age of twelve, she topped the matriculation examination at Madras University. Her father
wanted to see her as a mathematician or a Scientist, but heart work on poetry. She wrote her first poem
in her math’s book.
As a Poetess
Soon her literary leanings became more prominent when she wrote a 1,300-line-long poem The
Lady of the Lake. When her father realized that she was more interested in poetry than maths or
science, he encouraged her. She was advised by the famous critic Edmund Gosse, not to write poetry
about the European scenes and themes, but to think and writes in term of her own Indian myths. Her
important collections of poems include: - ‘The Golden Threshold (1905), ‘The Bird of Time’ (1912), and
‘The Broken Wing’ (1917). One of the Indian newspapers wrote on the publication of The Golden
Threshold: - “This little volume should silence forever the scoffer who declares that women can’t
write poetry.”
Her songs like “Love and Death” and “Death and Life” are famous in her creativity. She says
that life and death are the two phases of a single incessant process:
Life is a prism of my light,
And Death: The shadow on my face.
Naidu’s poem ‘Awake!’ is a characteristic specimen of her patriotic lyrics:
Are we not thine, O Beloved, to inherit?
The manifold pride and power of Thy Spirit
Ne’er shall we fail thee, for sake thee or falter,
Whose hearts are thy home and thy shield and thine altar?
We would thrill the high stars with thy story,
And set thee again in the forefront of glory.
In the poem ‘Dirge’ Sarojini gives a moving account of an Indian widow who sees all her shining
jewels, and is left without a second chance to wear in life, terrified and tantalized by her status as a
passionate fragmented person. Time has left her superfluous, and without the resources of self-
redemption. It is said:-
What longer need hath she of loveliness
Whom death has parted from her lord’s caress


Assistant professor Department of English, Govt. College Nalwa, Haryana, India.
Dr. Ashok: Sarojini Naidu as a Famous Indian Poetess and Leader 149
‘Alone’ is another lyric in which the poet employs the meditative and visionary process as an
illuminated return. Love, which is the voice that is great within us, brings the self-back to the world of
things.
Alone, O Love, I seek the blossoming glades,
The bright, accustomed alleys of delight
The self, in contemplation, offers the world as meditation and also as an object of adoration.
In the poem, ‘Invincible’, she expresses her conviction that life shall prevail. For, pain has no
terrors for the soul which cannot be overcome by the creative force of Love. She says that Pain is the
augury and awakens humanity. The individual reaches out every other point in creation through charity.
O Fate, betwixt the grinding-stones of Pain,
Tho’ you have crushed my life like broken grain
‘The Bangle Sellers’ is also one of her famous poem published in1912. The mood of the poem
is joyful. It is about a banglr-seller who carries different kinds of bangles with him. He cries for the sale of
his bangles, he carries the bangles of all colors and suitable to all women, maiden, married even newly
married women. He describes his bangles:-
Bangles sellers are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair…
Who will buy these delicate, bright?
Rainbow- tinted circles of light
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives
As a Leader
Naidu was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress. She
also contributed to the drafting of the Indian Constitution. After India became independent, she became
the first woman to become the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. When she suffered a heart attack and died on
March 2, 1949, she was still in office. She was inspired to join the Independence movement after meeting
Gopal Krishna Gokhale. He asked her to use her beautiful poetry to invigorate the spirit of independence
in the masses.
In 1916, she met Mahatma Gandhi, and threw herself completely into the fight for freedom. She
travelled across the country and encouraged scores of people to join the movement. Her initiative was
especially inspiring for the women of India and she can be credited with bringing them out of the kitchen
and into the national consciousness. She was close to Gandhi and he affectionately nicknamed her
‘Mickey Mouse’.
Naidu was in the forefront during the Civil Disobedience Movement and was jailed along with
Gandhi and other leaders. In 1942, she was arrested again during the Quit India movement. British writer
and philosopher Aldus Huxley wrote, “It has been our good fortune, while in Bombay, to meet Mrs.
Sarojini Naidu, the newly elected President of the All-India Congress and a woman who combines
in the most remarkable way great intellectual power with charm, sweetness with courageous
energy, a wide culture with originality, and earnestness with humour. If all Indian politicians are
like Mrs. Naidu, then the country is fortunate indeed.
The Nightingale of India, who touched a million hearts with her timeless compositions, Sarojini
Naidu was one of the fierce freedom fighters in India. She was the daughter of Aghoranath
Chattopadhyaya- a scientist and Barada Sundari Devi- a Bengali poetess. Since her childhood, Sarojini
was a literary prodigy and was proficient in Hindi, English, Persian, Urdu, Telugu, and Bengali. She
studied at the University of Madras, King’s College London, and also pursued her studies further
at Girton College, Cambridge. Apart from being an extraordinary child, Sarojini Naidu was desirous of
an Independent India. She made valiant efforts by joining the Indian independence movement and
Gandhi’s Satyagraha Movement; and also became the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian
National Congress and went on to be appointed an Indian state governor. Her poetic charm and political
devotion give us a lot to gain. Let’s look at the biography, quotes, poems, achievement, and works of the
fearless Indian political activist – Sarojini Naidu, Nightingale of India.
150 International Journal of Education, Modern Management, Applied Science & Social Science (IJEMMASSS) - January - March, 2022

The intelligence of accountability and belongingness to her place of origin completed her fight
for its self-government. She made it her operation to help the populace of the land where she belongs
which showed her genuine partisanship. She was poisoned numerous times for amalgamation the Civil
breaking the rules Movement and the Quit India Movement but come what may, she showed courage
against the British and helped the citizens by motivating them and maintenance their hopes high.
“To the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks,
And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones,
Remember the blood of thy martyred sons..”
Another indispensable tutorial from the truth-seeking lady is to put into practice what you have a
word. Great revolutions don’t take place based on mere speeches and words, there has to be a compact
implementation. Sarojini Naidu, Nightingale of India accomplished her preaching by participating and
initiating strong arrangements and rally for the wellbeing and self-government of India in opposition to the
British Raj. We often diagram more than a few belongings and make many decisions that are short of
implementation. It is imperative to retain information that all enormous cream of the crop weren’t just
good at verbal communication in community, but also source of revenue up to what they say.
“We want deeper sincerity of motive, a greater courage in speech and earnestness in action”
Sarojini Naidu, Nightingale of India was a female who extremely unspoken and shocked for the
liberation of women and strive to create consciousness. She witnessed the unfairness against women in
supporting and lawmaking bodies. She helped to institute the Women’s Indian Association (WIA) in 1917
which gained votes for women and the right to hold governmental office. This was an insignificant
accomplishment for women in India contributed by Sarojini Naidu. Our kingdom surely has urbanized to
grant women their rights that they ought to have. Yet, we have a extensive way to go.
It is significant to speak in your own way when on earth you spectator no matter which incorrect.
Sarojini Naidu second-hand her writings to right to be heard out on issues like sexual category role,
dissimilarity, etc. that are extremely entrenched in the Indian culture. She also went on and fight for the
farmers in Bihar who were obligatory to grow indigo as an alternative of the foodstuff crops that they
mandatory to live to tell the tale.
“As long as I have life, as long as blood flows through this arm of mine, I shall not leave the
cause of freedom…I am only a woman, only a poet. But as a woman, I give to you the weapons of faith
and courage and the shield of fortitude. And as a poet, I fling out the banner of song and sound, the
bugle call to battle. How shall I kindle the flame which shall waken you men from slavery…?”
Conclusion
In this way, Sarojini cover the theme of Indian background. Her poems eschewed flowery
language and stuck to simple words and everyday Indian milieu of forests and mountains, weavers,
bangles seller and snake-charmers to explore themes like joy and pathos, life and death. Sarojini Naidu
says in ‘The Past and the Future’
The new hath come and now the old retires:
And so the past becomes a mountain-cell,
where lone, apart, old hermit-memories dwell
in consecrated calm, forgotten yet
of the keen heart that hastens to forget
Old longings in fulfilling new desires
References
1. http://www.iloveindia.com/literature/gifs/sarojini-naidu-english-literature.jpg
2. https://englicist.com/poem-analysis/the-bangle-sellers-sarojini-naidu-summary
3. life11.org/2017/02/13/sarojini-naidu-the-poetess-and-freedom-fighter-of-india.
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