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Sarojini Naidu political activist and poet

Sarojini Naidu political activist and poet


Sarojini Naidu
Indian freedom fighter political activist and poet Sarojini Naidu was born on 13 February 189 in Hyderabad. She is known as 'The Nightingale of India'.  Sarojini was the first woman president of the Indian National Congress.  She was appointed Governor of the State of Uttar Pradesh in Independent India.
Sarojini Naidu's ancestral home is in Konaksar village in Louhjong upazila of Munshiganj, Bangladesh.

She was the eldest daughter of scientist and educator Aghornath Chattopadhyay and poet Bardasundari Devi.  Aghornath is the founder of Nizam College.  He and his friend Mollah Abdul Qayyum were the first members of the Indian National Congress in Hyderabad.  He was later removed from the post of college principal for taking part in the political movement.

At the age of 12, Sarojini passed the matriculation examination from the University of Madras, winning first place in the entire Madras Presidency.  She stopped studying from 1891 to 1894 and studied various subjects.  In 1895 She studied first at King's College, London, England, and later at Garton College, Cambridge.  She was fluent in Urdu, Telugu, Persian and Bengali.
Sarojini joined the independence movement in 1905 in the wake of the Partition of Bengal movement.

Between 1903-1918, Gopalkrishna came in contact with Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, CP Ramaswamy Iyer, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.  Between 1915 and 1917, she spoke on youth welfare, the glory of labor, women's emancipation and nationalism in various parts of India.  After meeting Jawaharlal Nehru in 1917, She started a movement for indigo farmers in Champaran.  She was elected President of the Congress in 1925.  She was the first woman president of the Congress.

In March 1919, the British government enacted the Rawlatt Act, banning all forms of sedition.  When Gandhi organized a non-cooperation movement in protest, Sarojini joined it.  The British government later imposed a repressive policy on the movement.  In July, Sarojini was nominated as the Home Rule League's ambassador to England.  In January 1924, She was elected a representative of the two national congresses of the East African Indian Congress.  She visited New York in October 1926.

At the time, the United States condemned the discriminatory treatment of African Americans and Red Indians.  On her return to India, She was elected a member of the Congress Working Committee.
On 26 January 1930, the National Congress declared independence from the British Empire.  Gandhiji was arrested on 5 May.  Sarojini was arrested a few days later and kept in jail for several months.  She was released along with Gandhiji on 31 January 1931.

They were arrested again that year.  Sarojini was released in a short time due to ill.  In 1931 She also joined the round table meeting with Gandhiji and Pandit Malavya.  She was arrested on 2 October 1942 for taking part in the Quit India Movement.  At that time She was imprisoned for 21 months with Gandhiji.

After independence in 1947, Sarojini Naidu was appointed Governor of the United States (now Uttar Pradesh).  She was the first woman governor of India.
Her notable books include The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death and the Spring (1917), The Sceptred Flute:  Songs of India (1943), The Feather of the Dawn (1971) and The Gift of India.

When Sarojini was 18 years old. She fell in love D. Muthala Govindarajulu Naidu.  She married him after 2 years.  That time brahman and non brahman marriages were forbidden.  Sarojini was a brahman and Govindarajulu was a non brahman .  They were married in 1898 in Madras under the 182 Act.  They have four children - Jayasurya, Padmaja, Randhir and Leelamani.  Padmaja later became the Governor of West Bengal.

Sarojini's brother Virendranath Chattopadhyaya  was also a prominent freedom fighter. During World War I, he was an important member of the Berlin Committee and a leading figure in the Hindu-German conspiracy.  Attracted by communism, he also went to the Soviet Union.  It is said that he was shot dead at the behest of Stalin.  Another brother Harindranath Chattopadhyay was a playwright, poet and actor.

Sarojini Naidu died on 2 March 1949 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.

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