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Top 10 Astonishing Facts about Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu was born on February 13, 1879 in a Bengali family in Hyderabad. Her early schools included Madras, London and Cambridge.

Mahatma Gandhi was fascinated by her poems. This is noted by the fact that he named her poems The Nightingale of India.  or Bharat Kokila. She earned the name  due to the imagery and lyrical quality of her poetry.

In England, she worked as a suffragist. It was during her work engagement that she became part of the India National Congress movement that advocated for India’s independence from the British rule.

She was a follower of the Indian Nationalist Movement and also Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of swaraj. 

She was great national figure in the history of India as a proponent of civil rights, women’s emancipation and anti-imperialistic ideas which were a great contribution towards independence.

In 1925, she was appointed the President of the Indian Congress. She later became the Governor of the United Provinces in 1947. Unfortunately, she died on March 2 1949 only a few years after she was appointed Governor.

She became a recorder holder for being the first women to hold a government office of Governor in the Dominion of India. This was such a great achievement for women and also for her as a poet.

Her poetry are more diverse in various ways! She had a good library of children’s poems. More importantly, she focused on more serious themes like in the area of patriotism, romance and tragedy.

Her first collection of poems was published in 1905. It was known as The Golden Threshold. In addition, another collection of poems entitle The Feather of the Dawn was published posthumously in 1961. 

However, her poems were admired by many prominent Indian politicians including Gopal Gokhale and Mahatma Gandhi.

1. The Nightingale of India or Bharat Kokila

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Her poems were fascinating to the Indian communities to the point that Mahatma Gandhi named them ‘The Nightingale of India‘ or in the Indian language ‘Bharat Kokila‘. The poems were a good for children’s bedtime 

2.  She was Famous at an Early Age

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At the age of 12, she started a career in literature. She wrote a play namely “Maher Muneer” and earned recognition, praises from all over the world. This play also impressed the Nawab of Hyderabad and gained popularity.

Still at an early age, she went for her higher education in London and Cambridge. 

3. The Lyric Poetry

Her poetry took a form of lyric poetry in the tradition of British Romanticism. Because of this, she was sometimes challenged to reconcile with he Indian nationalist politics. 

Nevertheless, she was known for her vivid use of rich sensory images in her writing, in particular for her lush depictions of India.

4. Known as the Indian ‘Yeats’

Due to her beautiful poetry with deep meaning, she was well-regarded as a poet. She was actually considered the “Indian Yeats”.

This was due to the famous Nobel Prize winner in Literature  William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet, dramatist and writer. In actual fact, he was one of the Literature most famous personalities in the 20th century.

5. Her First Publication in London

Her first book of poems was published in London in 1905, titled The Golden Threshold. The publication was suggested by Edmund Gosse. It has an introduction by Arthur Symons.

The most outstanding thing about this publication was that it had the sketch of Naidu in her teen age. Her ruffled white dress drawn by Butler Yeats was outstanding.

6. The Bird of Times, the Second Famous Publication

Her second and most strongly nationalist book of poems, The Bird of Time, was published in 1912.

It was published in both London and New York, and included “In the Bazaars of Hyderabad”.

7. The New Poems in her Lifetime

The last book of new poems published in her lifetime, The Broken Wing (1917) was dedicated to Muhammad Ali Jinnah. 

The unique part of this book is that it includes “The Gift of India”, critiquing the British empire’s exploitation of Indian mothers, which she had previously recited to the Hyderabad Ladies’ War Relief Association in 1915.

It also includes “Awake!”, with which she concluded a 1915 speech to the Indian National Congress to urge unified Indian action.  

A collection of all her published poems was printed in New York in 1928.  After her death, Naidu’s complete poems, including unpublished works, were collected in The Feather of the Dawn (1961), edited by her daughter, Padmaja Naidu.

8.  The First Woman to Become the President of the Congress

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Naidu was a gifted woman. Her poetry life gave her a lasting fame. Besides, she became the first Indian woman to be the President of the Congress. 

9.  The First Woman Governor in India

Surprisingly, she served as the governor of the United Provinces. More importantly, she was the first woman to assume the governorship of a state.

10. A Freedom Fighter

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Sarojini Naidu was one of the most famous freedom fighters and played a pivotal role in freeing India from British imperialism. She was also a great orator, crusader for equality, and poet of Modern India.

She joined the freedom struggle after the partition of Bengal in 1905.

Subsequently, she met Gopal Krishna Gokhale and came in contact with other prominent leaders like Annie Basant, who was also a feminist, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindra Nath Tagore.

Her meeting Gopal Krishna Gokhale changed her life completely. She was convinced to user her poetry for the welfare of India.

Since she was already famous in the world of poetry, she used her fame to become active in the struggle for freedom.

In the year 1916, she fought for the rights of farmers in Champaran, Bihar. This did not go very well with the British government which was ruling India at that time. This costed her to be arrested and jailed.

She chaired the annual session of Indian National Congress at Kanpur in 1925. She was an active participant in the Civil Disobedience Movement and was sent to jail along with Gandhiji and other leaders.

In 1931 she participated in the Round-Table Conference with Mahatma Gandhi and Madan Mohan Malaviya in London. This eventually is how India gained its independence.

Similarly, Sarojini Naidu was very instrumental in the struggle for Independence in the history of India and remains in the books of fame for her contribution.

However, the most outstanding thing about Naidu is her poetry and the Nightingale of India which even children pride in.