Sarojini Naidu
(1879-1949)
President - Kanpur, 1924

Sarojini, who called herself s "poetess-singer" was born in Hyderabad on February 13, 1879. She was the eldest daughter of a remarkable scientist - philosopher father, Aghornath Chattopadhyaya and the gentle poetess mother, Barada Sundari Devi..

Learning more at home than in school she matured very early wrote poems instead of learning Algebra and passed her matriculation at the age of 12 coming first in the Madras Presidency. Her academic life in England in 1895 led to a serious break down in health which was to affect her all her life, At the age of 15 she had met Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu and fallen deeply in love. Though she did not complete her academic career, the English experience brought her into contact with the great English poet Edmund Gosse. She published in 1905, 1912 and 1917 lyrics and melodious Indian poems. Arthur Symons, a famous literary critic also gave her counsel and guidance in the mastery of English phrase and rhythm. After 1917 politics claimed her and she counsel and guidance in the mastery of English claimed her and she wrote no more poetry. On return to India she married Dr. Naidu a non Brahmin, under the brahmo Marriage Act (1872) in Madras in 1898.

During the years from 1903 to 1917 Sarojini was to meet all the key personalities of her life; Gokhale, Tagore, Jinnah, Annie Besant, C. P. Ramaswami Aiyer, Gandhi and Nehru. In 1919 she emerged as a political leader in her own right. Gokhale's death in1915 at the same time as her father's and her moving tribute to him emphasised her vision of Hindu Muslim unity, the strongest ideal of her life, for which she worked ceaselessly. On March 22, 1913 she addressed a huge gathering of Muslims at the historic session of the new Muslim League at Lucknow, the keynote of which was unity. She proposed the Resolution an Self Government and paid high tributes to Jinnah. At a meeting of the Muslim League in December 1916, she gave a fiery speech on the Arms Act. From 1915 to 1918, Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant and C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar lectured all over India on the welfare of youth, dignity of labour, women's emancipation and nationalism. She met Jawaharlal Nehru for the first time at the Congress session in Lucknow in 1916 and soon came into close touch with Gandhiji. She was elected President of the Congress in 1925..

From 1917 to 1919, Sarojini was involved in the most dynamic phase of public life of her career, campaigned for the Montagu Chelmsford Reforms, the Khilafat issue, the Rowlatt or "Black Bills", the Sabarmati Pact and the Satyagraha Pledge and was Gandhiji's most faithful lieutenant when he launched the Civil Disobedience Movement on April 6, 1919. With great courage she quelled the riots, sold proscribed literature and addressed frenzied meetings on Jallianwala Bagh and martial law in Amritsar. Sarojini returned the Kaiser i Hind medal to the Government, led a deputation to Montagu, Secretary of State for India, and fought for the rights of women. She sailed for England in 1919 as a member of the all India Home Rule Deputation and led a powerful agitation in England against sex-discrimination.

During the Bardoli campaign she sent a stirring message on the unity of India when Gandhiji suspended the C. D. movement after the Chauri Chaura incident. After the great trial of Gandhiji in 1922 Sarojini gave up her luxurious silks in favour of Khadi.

The Salt Satyagraha in which Sarojini took a leading part, her personal triumph at the Round Table Conference in London, which she attended as an associate of Gandhiji on behalf of the Congress and her arrest on her return to Delhi to be the acting President of the Congress and her vigorous campaign for the full participation of women and youth in public life are outstanding achievements of this era. During this period too, Sarojini was the great peace maker. She organised a National Week in 1940, virtually ran the whole Congress campaign at this stage, took an active part in the Cripps Mission in India and was jailed in 1942 in the Quit India Movement and detained with Gandhiji at the Aga Khan Palace at Poona. Partition was a great blow to her, it shattered her dream of Hindu Muslim unity. She was the first woman to be appointed as Governor of U.P. She died on March 2,1949. Jawaharlal Nehru said of her "Here was a person of great brilliance vital and vivid. Here was a person with so many gifts, but above all some gifts which made her unique. She infused artistry and poetry into our national struggle."

-Tara Ali Baig          

The National Congress must clearly issue a mandate to all those who come within its sphere to vacate their seats in the Central and Provincial Legislatures and inaugurate from Kailas to Kanyakumari, from the Indus to the Brahmaputra, an untiring and dynamic campaign to arouse, consolidate, educate and prepare the Indian people for all the progressive and ultimate stages of our united struggle and teach them that no sacrifice is too heavy, no suffering too great, no martyrdom too terrible, that enables us to redeem our Mother from the unspeakable dishonour of her bondage, and bequeath to our children an imperishable legacy of Peace. In the battle for liberty, fear is the one unforgivable treachery and despair, the one unforgivable sin.

From the Presidential Address - Mrs. Sarojini Naidu
I.N.C., 1925, Kanpur.