Sarojini – A true icon of national integration

Several women spontaneously in the long-drawn freedom struggle of India, made sacrifices and even spent years together in jail. One of the great names that easily comes to our mind is Sarojini Naidu whose birth anniversary falls on 13th February.

Sarojini Naidu was born in Hyderabad to a scholarly Bengali family in 1879 to Aghore Nath Chattopadhyay and Barada Sundari Debi. It is pertinent to mention that Chattopadhyay and Chatterjee both are interchangeably used as surname in then Bengal (now also used in West Bengal). Her father, who held a doctorate in science from Edinburgh University, was a reputed scholar in English, Sanskrit, French, Russian and German. He settled down in Hyderabad, where he administered Hyderabad College, which later on was rechristened as Nizam’s College. Her mother was a poetess and used to write poetry in Bengali.

Although Sarojini’s father was born in a Brahmin family in the then undivided Bengal, he embraced ‘Brahmo Samaj’, as the ugly face of caste-system was widely prevalent in those days, causing huge social disparity.
Sarojini Naidu was a brilliant student. She was proficient in Urdu, Telugu, English, Bengali, and Persian. At the age of twelve, Sarojini Naidu attained national fame when she topped the matriculation examination at Madras University. Her father wanted her to become a mathematician or scientist but Sarojini Naidu was interested in poetry. She started writing poems in English.

In 1895, the Nizam scholarship Trust, founded by the 6th Nizam Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, gave her a chance to study in England (first at King's College London) and subsequently at Girton College, Cambridge. During this time, she met Govindarajulu Naidu, a medical doctor by profession and at the age of 19, (after finishing her study), she was married to him.

It is heartening to mention that at that time inter-caste marriages were not accepted in the family and society, but her father approved of the same, indicating broadness of the mind of the family. The couple had five children and her daughter Padmaja Naidu was a renowned personality in the country who became the Governor of West Bengal also.

At Girton College, Cambridge, she met famous laureates of her time such as Arthur Simon and Edmond Gausse. It was Gausse who convinced Sarojini to stick to Indian themes-India's great mountains, rivers, temples, social milieu, to express her poetry. She depicted contemporary Indian life and events. Her collections "The golden threshold (1905)", "The bird of time (1912)", and "The broken wing (1912)" attracted huge Indian and English readership. She was famously known as Bharatiya Kokila (The Nightingale of India).

Sarojini joined in the independence movement in the wake of partition of Bengal in 1905. She later on came in contact with Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, C P Ramaswami Iyer, Mahatma Gandhi and others. During 1915–1918, she travelled to different regions in India delivering lectures on social welfare, women's empowerment and nationalism. She also helped establish the Women's Indian Association (WIA) in 1917. She was deputed to London along with Annie Besant, President of WIA, to present the case for the women's vote to the Joint Select Committee. In 1925, Naidu presided over the annual session of Indian National Congress at Cawnpore (now Kanpur) and also in 1929; she chaired East African Indian Congress in South Africa.

For her exemplary service to humanity during the plague epidemic in India, she was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind medal by the British Government. She was also instrumental in the socio-economic uplift of the women of India and participated in several conferences. Sarojini Naidu was the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the governor of a state in India.

She exhorted women not to confine themselves to their house for cooking and household work, but rather simultaneously participate in the freedom movement. She also inspired them through her speeches, writings and meetings on importance of spinning and wearing khadi. The women folk indeed received much inspiration from her during the Satyagraha movement.

She passed away in Lucknow on 2nd March, 1949, while working at her office as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. She is respected and remembered as one who had shown the path of women development as well as women empowerment through her inexorable work.


Portraying her activities today we find in her name many institutions exist in the country, some of which are Sarojini Naidu College for Women, Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication at University of Hyderabad etc.

By: Dr Shankar Chatterjee