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Naidu, Sarojini

• Suvendu Ghatak 3  
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Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) was an Indian poet, polyglot, politician, and orator. She was an important figure in Decadence literature, and was associated with the Suffragist movement in Britain, the Struggle for Independence in India, the anti-imperial movements in eastern Africa and South Africa. She was the first woman president of the Indian National Congress and the first woman governor of an Indian state. Her rich and variegated legacies have stimulated critical conversations in a range of scholarly fields, such as global Victorian studies, Postcolonial studies, Women’s studies, and the fledgling field of Afrasian studies.

Introduction and Early Life

Sarojini Naidu (née Sarojini Chattopadhyay) was born on February 13, 1879, in the princely state of Hyderabad in India to Aghorenath Chattopadhyay, a scientist, philosopher, and the principal of the Nizam College, and Varada Sundari Devi, a Bengali poet. Hers was a prominent intellectual Bengali Brahmin family in Hyderabad...

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Boehmer, Elleke. 2009. Stories of women: Gender and narrative in the postcolonial nation . Manchester: Manchester University Press.

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Ghatak, S. (2022). Naidu, Sarojini. In: Scholl, L., Morris, E. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78318-1_307

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Sarojini Naidu, Cultural Exchange and Anti-Imperialism

Sarojini Naidu was a nineteenth century poet and political activist. Her upbringing was, in a sense, privileged because she was born into a middle-class family of well-educated Brahmins. Her father was a scientist and her mother a Bengali poet, so she also had strong literary ties. This gave her the space and opportunity to write and develop her English poetry and yet this was not the sum of her ambition. She used her connections, English education and social standing to embark on a political career that would advocate for women’s rights and Indian independence from Britain.

A precocious and driven young woman, she started writing poetry aged just thirteen, in the style of Tennyson. At sixteen her family sent her to study in England, first at King’s College London and later at Cambridge. This was, in part, a bid to separate her from the man she loved, a man much older than her and of a different caste, yet she remained defiant and despite her parents’ objections married him when she returned to India aged nineteen. [1]

She had four children in rapid succession and it was in this period of domestic bliss that she dedicated herself to composing poetry. Her poems rejoice in varying meters and using highly decorated, trilling cadences akin to singing, in order to create a romantic vision of India – recalling an ancient mythic India. They also provide idyllic re-enactments of life in India’s provincial towns and bustling metropolises, as well as revealing her abiding patriotism. [2]

Political Activism

However, she had always been attracted to the nationalist cause and was known for her brilliance as a public speaker. In 1914, she met Gandhi and committed herself to Indian Independence from Britain – he gave her the title ‘the Nightingale of India’. [3] Today she is mainly remembered as an Indian national icon rather than as a poet, though there has been an attempt in recent scholarship to revive her poetry and its contribution to the decadent period.

Among the early Indian feminists, Naidu was a committed egalitarian, promoting Hindu-Muslim unity and the rights of women by speaking out in favour of suffrage, widows’ remarriage and the need for women’s education. She became the first women president of the National Congress in 1925, survived a number of stints in prison and after independence was made the Governer of Uttar Pradesh in 1947. She died while in office.

To return to her juvenilia, though, it is in ‘Sunalini: A Passage from Her Life’, an unpublished fragment composed in Switzerland before marriage, that Naidu describes being struck by the epiphany that she was a poet with ‘new irresistible, unutterable longings and sensations’. [4] She expresses these newfound longings continually in her poetry through a celebration of woman and womanhood, and a deep devotion to the country she loved dearly. [5]

The Symons and Gosse Effect

During her time in England, Naidu met Arthur Symons and Edmund Gosse. Symons, who penned an introduction for The Golden Threshold (her major work), praised the ‘bird-like quality’ of her poems, which ‘hint, in a sort of delicately evasive way, at a rare temperament, the temperament of a women of the East finding expression through a Western language and under partly Western influences’. [6] They became fast friends and would continue to correspond after she returned to India.

Yet it was to Edmund Gosse that Naidu dedicated this major work, crediting him with showing her ‘the way to The Golden Threshold’. [7] Hence it is unsurprising that Naidu closely followed his recommendations, seeking out a poetic style that was not a hangover ‘of Anglo-Saxon sentiment in an Anglo-Saxon setting but some revelation of the heart of India’. [8]

Both Symons and Gosse demonstrate that characteristically decadent fascination with, and categorisation of, the East as exotic, so it is interesting that what they revel in and encourage Naidu to do in her poetry is to fulfil their expectations of how Indian poetry should read – they suggest that the project of her poetry is, and should be, to get at the heart of the East. That is, it should luxuriate in the sensual, colourful, strange and spice-filled air of India so culturally different from home. This need to define, pierce and unveil the mysteries of the colonies is something that is rife in this period though it takes a slightly different form, say, in for instance Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,  but what is recurring is this view of the colonies as exotic, as Other, as mysterious and essentially unknowable or ungraspable and yet a problem that must be solved, pinned down and owned.

Naidu took Gosse’s advice, noticeably Indianising her verse with relish. Notably, her poems never mention her experiences in Britain; rather, they gives us mythic heroines like Sita and Savitri, legendary figures like Padmini of Chittor and Princess Zebunnissa; images and conceits from the Urdu ghazal and the Gita Govinda : champak and rosebud, bulbul and nightingale. These romanticized images began filling her poetry, framed in the alliterative and melodic stanzas that were to become her trademark. [9]

East is East

If we consider one of Naidu’s poems, “The Snake-Charmer”, on first appearance this poem looks like it is just fulfilling the brief of Symons/Gosse, appealing to a call for verse that is exotic, opulent and other-worldly:

Whither dost thou hide from the magic of my flute-call? In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume, Where the clustering keoras guard the squirrel’s slumber, Where the deep woods glimmer with the jasmine’s bloom? [10]

Everything is designed to appeal to the senses; in fact, there is something of a sensory overload in these stanzas. Naidu provides an over-abundance of fragrances: ‘perfume’, ‘jasmine’s bloom’ and pleasing sounds, ‘flute-call’, all suffused under the light of the moon.  Nature itself seems to guard the peace of the woodland with its world-wearied and slumbering squirrels being shielded from the snake by ‘clustering keoras ’, a flower whose scent is said to attract snakes.

Perhaps unexpectedly, what we get is no simple, sensationalized description of a snake charmer, whereby someone entertains a crowd by playing music and causing a snake to rise out of a basket; rather, what Naidu presents the reader with is a harmonious, almost Edenic scene that has been inverted. This speaker is no Eve and the snake does not mean her damnation; it is the site of an unabashed female desire, even if the object of her affections evades her:

Whither dost thou loiter, by what murmuring hollows, Where oleanders scatter their ambrosial fire? Come, thou subtle bride of my mellifluous wooing, Come, thou silver-breasted moonbeam of desire! [11]

Naidu inverts gender roles by presenting her speaker as sexually forward, active in her ‘wooing’, and knowledgeable about sexual conduct. She reveals the speaker’s anxiety that her ‘beloved’ [12] may have fallen into the arms of another women in the first stanza when she asks ‘In what moonlight-tangled meshes of perfume’ are you that you cannot hear my ‘flute-call’? Her speaker knows the rules of the game of seduction and she seeks to turn the tables, seducing the ultimate tempter – the snake. These expressions of female desire are not just for the undeniably phallic ‘snake’, so are not limited to conveying sexual desire, but for the creative power of poetry that has previously been a male domain, especially considering the wider Western and Eastern literary canon, which has tended to be densely populated by male figures. In the literature of the Indian sub-continent this may be exemplified by the influence of male poets like Kabir, Ghalib and Iqbal.

Significantly, then, the speaker imagines her beloved ‘Where oleanders’ – a poisonous evergreen shrub grown for its pretty flowers – scatter their ‘ambroisal fire’. This phrase fuses together classical allusions to ambrosia (the food of the gods) with Promethean fire, which represents the gods’ ability to control life and death but also the creative power of the artist. Prometheus, in giving fire to mankind, not only allowed them to see, be illuminated, to create, and find sustenance but also be autonomous beings – no longer utterly dependent on the mercy of the gods. Thus, the speaker locates the snake where nature doles out its creative, artistic energy, in a hollow of poetical allusions, and calls out in hope that this creative force will be merged with her as her ‘bride’. This final gender reversal calls attention to the way in which the female poet seeks to outdo her male predecessors.

Criticism has tended to suggest that Naidu’s poetry suffers because it has a fetishizing Western vision of what the East is imposed on it by male aesthetes, who paternalistically taught her to write in the ‘language of slumberous, savage sexuality,’ [13] which her English friends thought fit for her, though this is changing. [14] As such, I would like to point out that for all her exoticizing and romanticizing of India, Naidu was keenly aware of the oppressive legal and social constraints imposed on Indians, especially women, interrogating and actively fighting against the power structures that would limit her poetic, personal, and political agency. Bangles, the emblems of a woman’s marital status and duties, are smashed to pieces by the speaker of “Dirge” at the precise moment of her husband’s passing. [15] Naidu presents this grief-stricken act as a rebellion against the society that would rob a woman of all her finery, social freedom, and condemn her to wear white for the rest of her life to mark her as a widow:

Shatter her shining bracelets, break the string Threading the mystic marriage-beads that cling Loth to desert a sobbing throat so sweet, Unbind the golden anklets on her feet Divest her of her azure veils and cloud Her living beauty in a living shroud . [16]

If Naidu were able to answer such accusations of fetishization, she may well have repeated her words to the All-India Writers Conference in 1948. Public speaking was always her calling and here she powerfully reveals her Romantic approach to writing poetry, stressing the need for impulse and spontaneity, and sums up her nationalistic opinion of the issue of Indian literature in English [17] :

Be masters of whatever language you like, so long as it is the language of the human heart and spirit. Literature is the only way the truth can be kept alive. [18]

Zaynub Zaman ( @zizizaman ) completed her PhD in English from the University of Liverpool earlier this year, researching the presence of Dante in the works of Pre-Raphaelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti with particular interest in medieval mysticism and sexuality.  She has contributed articles to Pre-Raphaelite Society Review including ‘The Passion: the influence of the High Church on Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Aestheticism’ (27.3, 2019) and ‘Talking that Talk: negatively speaking’ (23.1, 2015) both examining Rossetti’s poetry.  Other research interests include the relationship between literature and religion at the turn of the nineteenth century, post-colonialism and Islamic mystical poetry from the Early Mystics to Ghalib.

Notes & references

[1] Lisa Rodensky, ed., “Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949),” in Decadent Poetry from Wilde to Naidu , (London: Penguin, 2006), 294.

[2] Ranjana Sidhanta Ash, “Two Early-Twentieth-Century Women Writers: Cornelia Sorabji and Sarojini Naidu,” in A History of Indian Literature in English , ed. Arvind Krishna Mehrota (London: Hurst & Co., 2003), 131.

[3] As quoted in Izzat Yar Khan, Sarojini Naidu: The poet , (New Delhi: S. Chand and Co, 1983), 17.

[4] Sarojini Naidu, “Sunalini: a passage from her life,” Manuscript, EUR A95. British Library.

[5] Ash, 132.

[6] Arthur Symons, ed., “Introduction,” in The Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu, (London: Heinemann, 1905), 10.

[7] Naidu, The Golden Threshold , p.3.

[8] Edmund Gosse, ed., “Introduction,” in The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring by Sarojini Naidu   (London: Heinemann, 1912), 5.

[9] Ash, 132.

[10] Naidu, “The Snake-Charmer”, in Decadent Poetry from Wilde to Naidu , 215, lines 1-4.

[11] Naidu, “The Snake-Charmer”, 215, lines 9-12.

[12] Naidu, “The Snake-Charmer”, 215, line 6.

[13] Talia Schaffer, The Forgotten Female Aesthetes: Literary Culture in Late-Victorian England , (University Press of Virginia, 2000), 28.

[14] See Malashri Lal, “The Golden Threshold of Sarojini Naidu,” in The Law of the Threshold , (Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2000), who contends that Naidu’s poems are not written in her own voice but follow the mandate of Edmund Gosse for Indian poetry. For an approach that defines Naidu’s modernism in terms other than mimicry or nostalgia, see Anna Snaith, “Sarojini Naidu, Feminist Nationalism and Cross-Cultural Poetics,” in Modernist Voyages: Colonial Women Writers in London 1890-1945 , (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014), 67-89.

[15] Ash, 133.

[16] Naidu, The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring , 14, lines 13-18.

[17] Ash, 134.

[18] Sarojini Naidu, Proceedings of the Second All-India Writers’ Conference (All India Centre, 1950), p.22.

Header image: A young Sarojini (1912). Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

Works Cited

Ash, Ranjana Sidhanta. “Two Early-Twentieth-Century Women Writers: Cornelia Sorabji and Sarojini Naidu”. In A History of Indian Literature in English , edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrota, 126-135. London: Hurst & Co., 2003.

Khan, Izzat Yar. Sarojini Naidu: The Poet . New Delhi: S. Chand and Co, 1983.

Lal, Malashri. “The Golden Threshold of Sarojini Naidu”. In The Law of the Threshold . Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2000.

Naidu, Sarojini. The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring . London: Heinemann, 1912.

—— The Golden Threshold. London: Heinemann, 1905.

—— et al. Proceedings of the Second All-India Writers’ Conference . All India Centre, 1950.

—— “Sunalini: a passage from her life,” Manuscript, EUR A95. British Library.

Rodensky, Lisa, ed. Decadent Poetry from Wilde to Naidu. London: Penguin, 2006.

Schaffer, Talia. The Forgotten Female Aesthetes: Literary Culture in Late-Victorian England . Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 2000.

Snaith, Anna. “Sarojini Naidu, Feminist Nationalism and Cross-Cultural Poetics”. In Modernist Voyages: Colonial Women Writers in London 1890-1945 , 67-89. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014.

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The Undying Legacy Of Sarojini Naidu’s Poetic Vision

Sarojini Naidu, lovingly called the Nightingale of India , holds an esteemed place in India’s political as well as literary history. Not only did she enrich Indian English poetry through her literary achievements, but also contributed immensely to the Indian freedom struggle. She was writing during the transitional period from the colonial to the post-colonial era, and thus, her works explore postcolonial themes like culture and history, as well as the conflicts between the East and the West, in an aesthetic fashion.

Sarojini Naidu was a poet as well as a patriot, and we see an amalgamation of both these sides of her personality in her literary works. Naidu was a progressive thinker. Throughout her life, she advocated civil rights, anti-imperialism, and women empowerment. She belonged to the group of writers who believed in the power of giving Indian sensibilities to English. Naidu, thence, wrote in English, and was one of the first Indian English poets to gain a huge Western audience and positive criticism.

Sarojini Naidu, often considered a child prodigy, began writing around the age of twelve. Despite writing in the British romanticism tradition of lyric poetry, her works align with her Indian nationalist politics, often using sense-evoking imagery to paint an aesthetic portrait of India. For the same reason, she has also been called the “ Indian Yeats ”.

Sarojini Naidu’s first collection of poems was published in London in 1905 by the name of The Golden Threshold . Edmund Gosse recommended its publication and this edition included an introductory section by Arthur Symons. Her poetry ranges from children’s poems to poems dealing with critical themes like tragedy, romance, patriotism, civil rights, women emancipation, and more.

Sarojini Naidu’s last poetry volume ( The Broken Wing ) also reflects her views on the suffrage of women. Like other women writers of the era, Naidu focused on the plight of the women in an orthodox patriarchal society. Their suffering and their struggle to sustain themselves in a chauvinistic society are brought out in her works

Her activism was governed by strong, clear ideals. “ We want deeper sincerity of motive, a greater courage in speech, and earnestness in action. ”, said Naidu and reflected the same in her poetry along with her social activism.

Her political activism was deeply rooted in beliefs of justice and equality. “ When there is oppression, the only self-respecting thing is to rise and say this shall cease today, because my right is justice. If you are stronger, you have to help the weaker boy or girl both in play and in the work .”

Sarojini Naidu threw light upon the Indian contemporary life and its issues. She openly questioned caste barriers and gender inequality. The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death, and the Spring was her second poetry collection. It is rooted in the British romantic poetry tradition, yet deals more strongly with nationalist themes.

It was published in 1912, in both London and New York. Here, in a particular poem, Naidu imagines time as a bird and expresses the passing of time via the movements of a bird and the lens of nature. She uses abstract symbolism to convey deeper ideas, or perhaps even personal truth. This volume also contains her most famous poem, “ In the Bazaars of Hyderabad ”.

The poem was written during the Swadeshi Movement and propagates the idea of boycotting European merchandise in favour of homegrown and handmade Indian goods. “ What do you sell O ye merchants? / Richly your wares are displayed. ” It gives a depiction of the Indian craftsmanship by elaborating on the Indian bazaars.

Also read: Sarojini Naidu: The Nightingale Of India | #IndianWomenInHistory

The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death, and the Spring was published in 1917 and dedicated to Muhammad Ali Jinnah. This collection includes another famous poem “The Gift of India” which brings out the staunch patriotism of Sarojini Naidu as she pays a tribute to the Indian soldiers who fought for Britain during the first World War.

The poem highlights the sacrifices ofIndia as gifts to the British empire and the resulting grief. “ 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! ” “ The Gift of India ”, albeit a war poem, is charged with emotions and displays the grief caused by the death of so many soldiers.

Sarojini Naidu’s last poetry volume ( The Broken Wing ) also reflects her views on the suffrage of women. Like other women writers of the era, Naidu focused on the plight of the women in an orthodox patriarchal society. Their suffering and their struggle to sustain themselves in a chauvinistic society are brought out in her works.

Though Sarojini Naidu entered into the public realm first as a poet, she became a prominent political figure over the years. Her poetry borrows the English decadents’ diction and transposes the pictures into India. The suffering, passive women in Naidu’s poems, although, stand in stark contrast to Naidu’s own life, for she was a close ally of Tagore and Gandhi’s, and remained an active member of the nationalist movement

Furthermore, The Sceptred Flute (1928) and The Feather of the Dawn (1961) are two other poetry collections which form an integral part of the corpus of her works. In addition to these, a wide range of speeches and other assorted works by her were published as a collection under the title “ Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu ” in 1918, containing works like “ Nilambuja ”, “ True Brotherhood ”, “ Personal Element in Spiritual Life”, “ Education of Indian Women ”, “ A Plea for Social Reform ”, “ Hindu and Mussalmans ”, and so on.

In addition to her great poetic abilities, Sarojini Naidu also had impressive oratory skills. She travelled throughout India to deliver speeches on nationalism, women empowerment, and social welfare. She advocated for the end of colonial rule in India and became the first Indian woman president of the National Congress in 1925.

Though Sarojini Naidu entered into the public realm first as a poet, she became a prominent political figure over the years. Her poetry borrows the English decadents’ diction and transposes the pictures into India. The suffering, passive women in Naidu’s poems, although, stand in stark contrast to Naidu’s own life, for she was a close ally of Tagore and Gandhi’s, and remained an active member of the nationalist movement.

Having been imprisoned several times, she fought until her last breath. She is known as “ one of India’s feminist luminaries ” and her birthday (13 February) is celebrated throughout India as National Women’s Day to honour her legacy in India’s history.

Sarojini Naidu still serves as an inspiration for all generations of women. The issues she voiced and the causes she fought for remain important even in contemporary times, and her treasured literary legacy will always make us remember her and drive us towards fearlessness, passion, and vigour. 

Also read: Where Are Th e Women Poets? Questioning The Canon Of Indian English Poetry

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Apoorva is currently pursuing her Master’s in English from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. When she’s not re-reading the letters by Virginia Woolf, she likes to try her hand at scribbling poetry. Her areas of interest revolve around Feminist Theory and Absurdist Fiction. She can be found brewing tea at midnight, complaining about our Sisyphean existence

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Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu was born on February 13, 1879, in Hyderabad, India. A political activist and poet, she joined the Indian National Congress in 1904 and was vocal about women’s rights, including the right to vote in India. Naidu was the first Indian woman to be appointed president of the Indian National Congress and to be Governor of United Provinces in 1947. Naidu also accompanied Mahatma Gandhi on the famous Salt March and to the Round Table Conference in 1931.

Called the “Nightingale of India,” Naidu authored several books including The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (John Lane Company, 1912) and The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death & Destiny (John Lane Company, 1917) . She died on March 2, 1949.

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The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Bi-Monthly, Peer-reviewed and Indexed Open Access eJournal ISSN: 0976-8165

Indianness in Sarojini Naidu’s poetry with Reference to Her Major Poems

P. Sreenivasulu Reddy

Asst. Professor of English GITAM University, Visakhapatnam

Andhra Pradesh

& Prof. B Sandhya

Head, Department of English,

GITAM University, Visakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh

Abstract : Sarojini Naidu, the great patriot, politician, orator and the Nightingale of India was born on 13th Feb.1879 in Hyderabad. Most of her poems deal with the vast Indian Panorama. No significant aspect of Indian life is untouched by her. One can come across a cross-section of the Indian society in her poems. Her contribution to the development of culture and national liberation struggle is invaluable. So her significance and greatness as a women poet has been praised by all. This article is a modest attempt to bring out Sarojini Naidu’s poetic genius reflecting the Indian character while exploring the religious and spiritual ideals of Truth.

Introduction

Sarojini Naidu, a great patriot, politician, orator and the Nightingale of India (Bharatha Kokila) was born on 13th Feb.1879 in Hyderabad. Her father, Dr. Aghornath Chattopadhyaya, was the founder of Nizam College of Hyderabad and a scientist. Her mother, Mrs. Varasundari, was a Bengali poetess. Sarojinidevi inherited qualities from both her mother and father. Most of

her poems deal with the vast panorama of India. One can come across a cross-section of the Indian society in her poems. No significant aspect of Indian life is untouched by her She worked to the development of indian culture. Her contribution to the National liberation struggle is invaluable. So her significance and greatness as a Nationalist and Poet has been praised by one and all.

According to many Indian critics, “the most characteristic quality of Sarojini Naidu’s poetry, besides its lyrical wealth, is its portrayal of Indian character. She is a poetess of Indian thought and sensibility. Her themes relate to all “Indian.” The men and women, fauna and flora, customs and traditions, festivals and celebrations, myths and legends, markets and bazars, fairs and feasts. To a great extent, her poetry is a mirror to India.

Thus one can say that Indianness is the most important aspect in the poetic work of Sarojini Naidu, especially in the genre of traditional folk lore which has been depicted very well. Therefore her poetry comes under the banner as “Indian folk songs”. It has dealt with customs, beliefs, traditions, superstitions, aspirations, simple joys, and sorrows etc.

The task of interpreting the heart of India and of creating a genuine Indian atmosphere in English poetry, which had been left incomplete by Toru Dutt on account of her premature death, was taken up by Sarojini Naidu. While Toru Dutt has described the Puranic legends of ancient India, Sarojini has immortalised the familiar scenes of everyday life in modern India.

Sarojini Naidu has achieved a place of great prominence among the Indo-Anglian poets and literary figures. She was not only known as a poetess but a staunch patriot and a freedom

fighter.  This  nationalism  or  an  intense  feeling  of  patriotism  is  an  Impetus  for  her  active participation in the independence movement.

Sarojini Naidu springs from the very soil of India, her spirit very Indian, manipulates the English language a foreign language effectively as a vehicle, to convey very Indian thought and themes”. Out of her 184 poems most of her poems deal chiefly this idea

Bangle-Sellers

The poem Bangle-Sellers is associated with bangles and the implications of women’s roles in a traditionalist Indian social setting. The bangle seller is trying to convince the woman by explaining the spiritual and symbolic importance of these bangles. In this process, Sarojini Naidu makes strong connections between the bangles and their role in providing “happy daughters and happy wives.”

Some are meet for a maiden’s wrist, Silver and blue as the mountain mist,

Some are flushed like the buds that dream.

The subsequent stanzas describe through lush and natural imagery the beauty of the bangles and their representation of these ideals help to increase their precious value. Some of these descriptions invoke the passion of “marriage’s fire”

Meet for a bride on her bridal morn

,Some, like the flame of her marriage fire, Or, rich with the hue of her heart’s desire,

Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear, Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear

And, in the last stanza, help to bring to light the socially accepted role of women in this setting. The purple and gray flecked bangle is meant to symbolize a woman who “serves her household in fruitful pride, and worships the gods at her husband’s side.”

Some are purple and gold flecked grey

For she who has journeyed through life midway, Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest, And cradled fair sons on her faithful breast,

And serves her household in fruitful pride, And worships the gods at her husband’s side.

Palanquin Bearers

The poem “Palanquin bearers ” is to reflect about the Indian marriages and their cultures. The poet has deliberately used the contradictory feeling of laughing and weeping. The bride is sad and is crying as she is separated from her family. But simultaneously she is also overjoyed as she is going to start a new life. In Indian culture earlier woman were considered as a burden. But when the palanquin bearers carry the bride as she is married, they feel no burden because of the ecstatic environment.

Lightly, O lightly we bear her along, Softly, O softly we bear her along,

She hangs like a star in the dew of our song; She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide,

She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride. Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing,

We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

Wandering Singers

This poem Wandering Singers is about wandering singers who are common in Indian scene, their life and all about what they do in life, their experiences. The wandering singers wander here and there. They consider all people as their family and relatives and the world as their homes. They have lutes in their hands and they always sing about the cities luster which is lost, laughter and beauty of the women who are dead now, swords of old battles and crowns of old kings.

Where the wind calls our wandering footsteps we go.

No love bids us tarry, no joy bids us wait: The voice of the wind is the voice of our fate.

There is no love that compels them to stay and no joy that forces them to wait, but  they wander about as the winds guide them. There is a suggestion of fate governing their future.

Kali, the Mother

The poem, Kali, the Mother is a hymn to Kali, “the Eternal Mother” of Hindu worship. Indian folk culture is dominated by ritual. The rituals observed on the occasion of festivals draw on the participants’ sense of their own common helplessness, in the face of dancers  and mysteries which confront man, both in his own nature and in his world, Through such rituals both the individual and the community express their common attempt to placate some supernal being who can destroy them as well as protect them from un known dangers, lurking in the darkness of the future:

O’ Terrible and Tender and Devine! O” Mystic mother of sacrifice

We deck the somber altars of thy shrine With sacred basil leaves and saffron and rice All gifts of life and death, we bring to thee Uma,Haimavathi,

There are innumerable gods ‘and goddesses whom the Hindus have always worshiped and sung hymns to since the time of the Rig Veda., Kali , the Mother is one such deity, and in the present hymn Sarojini has succeeded capturing the very spirit of the worship that is offered to her every year by the people of India as a whole, as well as individually:

Corn-Grinders

The poem corn-grinders is a lyric about the wretched condition of Indian women who have to do the manual work of corn-grinding, especially the young widows of that time. The women in early morning hours, when the stars still laugh and all the happy world is asleep, are at their grinding wheels, singing but in a pathetic tone, which harmonises well with their own life experience and the lonely hours of the morning:

O little bride, why dost thou weep

With all the happy world asleep? Alas! Alas! My lord is dead!

Ah, who will stay these hungry tears, Or still the want of famished years,

And crown with love my marriage-bed? My soul burns with the quenchless fire That lit my lover’s funeral pyre:

Alas! Alas! My lord is dead.

Cradle Song

A ‘Cradle Song’ or lullaby is a part of Indian culture which is a song by the mother to put her children to sleep. In the present poem, the Indian mother perhaps is reciting the lullaby. She describes the various places from which she has gathered the song that is descending gradually upon the eyelids of her child:

From groves of spice, O’er fields of rice,

Athwart the lotus-stream, I bring for you,

A glint with dew

A little lovely dream.

Finally the baby goes into a deep and sound sleep. In the golden light of the late evening produced by the clear starry skies, the stars from heaven look down upon the baby in its cradle. The mother places the baby in the cradle with soft caress and a promising dream.

Dear eyes, good-night, In golden light

The stars around you gleam; On you I press

With soft caress

Hymn to Indra, Lord of Rain

This poem is about the prayer to the rain god, Indra by farmers for rain.  It is believed by the Hindus that the rain, thunder and lightning occur by the grace of Indra.  Hence, this poem is composed as the villagers pray to Indra for rain for their agricultural purpose.

The farmers pray to Indra to make the thunder which is described as His voice, to wake up the storm from sleep which can break even the mountains by is force and split the waves of the sea.  Indra is the maker of streams and rivers:

O Thou, who rousest the voice of the thunder, And biddest the storms to awake from their sleep

Who breakest the strength of the mountains as under, And  cleverest the manifold pride and rifer

Dost nourish the heart of the forest and plain, Withhold not Thy gifts O Omnipotent Giver!

They flow through the forest and plain lands which is utilised for cultivation. He is omnipotent and has the ultimate power over the earth and sky and he grants joy to the eagles and

teaches the young koel to fly. He helps everyone as and when he needs His help or his suffering. He loves everyone and saves all from sorrows and protects from pain. Hence, they surrender themselves to him and ask him not to leave them without rain

Lakshmi, the lotus Born

The very Indian poem Lakshmi, the lotus Born is addressed to the Goddess of Fortune, Lakshmi In Hindhu mythology Lakshmi,wife of Lord Vishnu is worshipped as goddess of fortune and happiness. This poem is a finest example of Indian faith in performing rituals and worshipping idols It was composed on the ‘Lakshmi Puja Day’ in 1915. In it the poetess invokes Lakshrni, the goddess of fortune in a traditional way to shower prosperity and wealth :

Prosper our cradles and kindred and cattle

And cherish our Health-fires and coffers and corn Hearken ,O’ Lotus Born

Here the poetess addresses the deity Goddess Lakshmi not only for herself but also for the entire mankind.

“For our dear land, we offer oblation

To keep thou her glory unsullied , unhorn And guard the invincible hope of our nation Hearken ,O’ Lotus Born

Conclusion : – Thus we can observe variegated scenes of Indian life being presented throughout Sarojini Naidu’s poetry. Her depiction of India is comprehensive and realistic. She depicts With beauty, grace, love, sympathy and penetration the changing seasons, the rivers and lakes, beaches and forests, flowers and birds, men and women of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, engaged in diverse vocations and exhibiting various skills. The simple rustic scene of rural India and mundane life is being very picturesquely portrayed by the author.

Works Cited:

1. A Bibliography of indian English. Hyderabad : Central institute English and Foreign Languages, 1972.

.2. Bibliography of Indian Literature (20th Century, Vol.1 covering ‘ ‘ English, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademic, 1962.

• Basu Lotika, Indian Writers of English Verse. CalcuttaUniversity, 1933.
• Iyengar, K.R. Srinivas. Indo-Anglian Literature, Bombay : Asia Publishing House 1973.
• Kotky, P.C., Indo-English Poetry, Gauhati University : Department of English Publication, 1969
• Sharma, K.K. ed. Indo-English Literature : A Collection of Critical Essays. Ghaziabad : Vimal Prakashan, 1977.

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Sarojini Naidu as a realist poet

2019, isara solutions

Sarojini Naidu was a gifted artist whose poetry is appreciated for its bird like quality and sophisticated style. Lyricism, symbolism, imagery, mysticism and native fervor are the remarkable qualities of her poetry. Sarojini Naidu's themes are indigenous as advised by Edmund Gosse and capture the spirit of India. Till today people have studied her work from the view point of nature, love, life and death, folk life, patriotism and mysticism. Apart from these themes her poetry is jewelled with the simplicity of reality and daily life of common folk which is hardly talked about. This paper focus on the realistic part of her poetry.

Related Papers

Sarojini Naidu was one of the renowned women poets of Indo Anglian Literature. She contributed remarkably in the arena of Indian poetry in English. Her first volume of poetry The Golden Threshold appeared in 1905 which made her famous at once as a poet of refined poetic sensibility. Her subsequent volumes of poems also made a mark and dealt with varied themes as nature, folk life, patriotism, mysticism, love and death. Sarojini Naidu‟s poems reflect her art of writing poetry which is marked by her originality of thoughts and spontaneity of expression. The present paper focuses on some of the prominent poetic devices employed by Sarojini Naidu which lent artistic hue to her poetry.

Dr. Meeta Ajay Khanna

Sarojini Naidu was a gifted artist, whose poetry is appreciated for its bird like quality and sophisticated style. The three volumes of her poems, The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird of Time (1912) and The Broken Wing (1917), occupy a place of eminence in the history of Indo-Anglian poetry. Lyricism, symbolism, imagery, mysticism and native fervour, are the remarkable qualities of her poetry. She admired the beauty around her whether it was related to the world of nature or varied colours of Indian cultural heritage. Naidu's themes are indigenous as advised by Edmund Gosse and capture the spirit of India. Her major themes were nature, love, life and death, folk life, patriotism and mysticism. Present paper focuses on the mystical poems of Sarojini Naidu with flashes of comparison with the Mysticism of Sri. Aurobindo. The treatment by both the poets are different but reflect their Indian sensibility. Naidu's poetry on mysticism not only reflects her faith in the language of the Hindu mystic poets and Sufi mystic poets but also conveys the romantic aspect.

Parabu Maga

Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) was the gifted artist, whose poetry is appreciated, for its bird like quality. The three volumes of her poems The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird of Time (1912) and The Broken Wing (1917) occupy a place of eminence in the history of Indo-Anglian poetry. The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India was published in 1937, which is a collection of the previous three volumes of Naidu's poems. The Feather of the Dawn (1961) was published posthumously and contained poems written in 1927 by Naidu. The themes and background of her poetry were purely Indian and she sang in full-throated ease of the festivals, occupations and life of her people as a true daughter of her motherland. Lyricism, symbolism, imagery, mysticism and native fervour, are the remarkable qualities of her poetry. The present paper focuses on the poems written by Sarojini Naidu which depict lives of humble folks of India and their traditions.

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences

Andrew Willington

Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) was the pioneer poetess who is recognized for her remarkable contribution in the arena of Indian English poetry. She was one of the poets who belonged to the pre-independence era. She had mastered the language of the colonizers and used it brilliantly to write poetry goaded with sophisticated style and perfection. Thematic concerns of Sarojini Naidu's poetry are treated with the Romantic hue. One of the powerful themes in Naidu's poetry was Death. Naidu wrote remarkable lyrics on the theme of Death depicting Death as the Ultimate Truth. Naidu's poems on the theme of Death are powerful assertions. The proposed paper focuses on the poems of Sarojini Naidu written on the theme of Death. Sarojini Naidu was one of the remarkable women poets whose poetry is appreciated for its powerful diction and thematic concerns. She wrote poetry on varied themes as nature, folk culture and traditions, patriotism, love and mysticism. One of the themes that recurs in her poetry is the theme of death. Sarojini Naidu's poems on death reflect her keen desire to know the inscrutability of death. Death is portrayed as the Ultimate Reality in the poems of Naidu. Coping with death, whether dealing with the possibility of one's own death or that of a loved one, remains one of the greatest challenges of our lives. When

The term 'culture' addresses three salient categories of human activity: the 'personal,' whereby we as individuals think and function as such; the 'collective,' whereby we function in a social context; and the 'expressive,' whereby society expresses itself. Language is the only social institution without which no other social institution can function; it therefore underpins the three pillars upon which culture is built. Culture consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values. Multiple changes that appear in a culture lead to linguistic mutations, creating permanent modifications to the language according to the situation. The English language came to India as a result of the dominance of the British rule over the Indian sub-continent. It gave birth to a new stream of literature in English by Indians which is regarded as Indo Anglian Literature. The language was inherited from the Western world but the expression had hues of Indianness. English language became an instrument to aquaint the world with the Indian culture. The present paper aims to bring forth the art of poetic diction and devices of English language employed by Sarojini Naidu in her poetry to voice the rich and vibrant Indian culture.

Vanashree Godbole

Colour represents various moods of life. It is powerful means to communicate human feelings. Wide varied colours diversify each moment of our life. The sense of colour is as extended as the sense of LIFE. The folklore of a culture includes the stories, songs, and poems that people pass along from generation to generation. The word folklore meant “the Lore of the People.” It included all rituals, customs, traditions, and beliefs of unknown origin that expressed the concerns of the life ordinary people. Poetic imagery is a technique that is used to express feeling. In the visual, literary, and performing arts ‘Expressionism’ is a movement or tendency that strives to express subjective feelings and emotions rather than to depict reality or nature objectively. Sarojini Naidu was among the pioneer women poet, who was fascinated by the amazing diversity of Indian life, culture and tradition. Naidu. (1879 – 1949), was an Indian independence activist and poet. She was the second Indian woma...

Creative Saplings

Sarojini Naidu was an Indian political activist, feminist, and poet, a proponent of civil rights, women's emancipation, and anti-imperialistic ideas. Despite all these qualities, she was known as "The Singer of Beautiful Songs" she will always be remembered and recalled by her two names: "The Nightingale of India" and" Bharat Kokila" as Mahatma Gandhi ornamented her. The present paper is a genuine effort to reveal her personality as a singer of beautiful songs; she emerged as the very soul of India and was attached firmly to its soil. Despite all her western garb and literary affiliation with the English poets, her sensibility was "wholly native." Blessed with remarkable creative talent, she adroitly composed charming songs with a striking note of native fervour. In this task, she fell into the tradition of Indian women writers since the Vedic age. In the tradition of Vishwavara and Ghosha, the singers of sonorous songs in Vedas of Gargie, Maitreyi, and Sulabha,

East Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Dr Gulnaz Fatma

Sarojini Naidu was a student who excelled academically, a renowned freedom fight activist in India, and a poet who wrote sonnets. She is popularly known as the "Nightingale of India" and has been given this title for many years. She was the first lady to hold the position of President of India in our country, she was a notable person in Indian women's history, and she was the first Governor of Uttar Pradesh after the state of Uttar Pradesh gained its independence. She was one of the most well-known figures of the 20th century, and her presence on our planet as a powerful figure is celebrated annually on the holiday that is known as "Women's Day." The significant achievement that has been set in the field of poetry is the topic that will be discussed in this paper. Her sense of poetry is centered on an extraordinary bank of words that are so culturally specific that they can be sung with genuine feelings. In the year 1905, she had the poem "Bull Bule ...

SMART M O V E S J O U R N A L IJELLH

Sarojini Naidu was not only well versed in Vedic Concepts of Indian Mythology but also in Islamic Beliefs. She was a great lover of Almighty God (Allah in Arabic) and Ahle Bait (The family of Prophet Mohammad). She was born on 13th February, 1879 in Hyderabad and expired on 2nd March, 1949 in Lucknow. She was popularly known as ‘Bharat Kokila’ or ‘the Nightingale of India’. Her poetic lines had bird like quality with swiftness and sophistication. She has written three volumes of poetry, The Golden Threshold (1905), The Bird of Time (1912) and The Broken Wing (1917). Her poetic volumes occupy an eminent place in the anthologies of Indo-Anglican poetry. Her poems that portray Muslim life and Islamic culture include i) The Pardah Nashin ii) A Song from Shiraz iii) The Imambara iv) The Prayer of Islam v) Wandering Beggars and vi) The Old Woman. The poem titled ‘The prayer of Islam’ was composed by Sarojini Naidu on Id-Uz-Zoha in the year 1915. It is taken from her volume ‘The Broken Wing’. This poem depicts us an insight into the well-acquaintance of Sarojini Naidu with Islamic mode of worship. The subsequent poem ‘Imam Bara’ is also taken from Sarojini Naidu’s volume The Broken Wing (1917). It is of twenty four lines and is divided into two stanzas of twelve lines each. This paper aims to portray through her poems the devotion and reverence Sarojini Naidu had in Islamic Beliefs and the Ahle Bait (the family of Prophet Mohammad) Keywords: Prayer, Imam Bara, Islamic Beliefs, Ahle Bait, Names of Allah (God)

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Sarojini Naidu

• Important Figures
• History Of Feminism
• Women's Suffrage
• Women & War
• Laws & Womens Rights
• Feminist Texts
• American History
• African American History
• African History
• Ancient History and Culture
• Asian History
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• The 20th Century
• B.A., Mundelein College
• M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School
• Known for: poems published 1905 to 1917; campaign to abolish purdah; first Indian woman president of the Indian National Congress (1925), Gandhi's political organization; after independence, she was appointed governor of Uttar Pradesh; she called herself a "poetess-singer"
• Occupation: poet, feminist, politician
• Dates: February 13, 1879 to March 2, 1949
• Also known as: Sarojini Chattopadhyay; the Nightingale of India ( Bharatiya Kokila)
• Quote : "When there is oppression, the only self-respecting thing is to rise and say this shall cease today, because my right is justice."  

Sarojini Naidu Biography

Sarojini Naidu was born in Hyderabad, India. Her mother, Barada Sundari Devi, was a poet who wrote in Sanskrit and Bengali. Her father, Aghornath Chattopadhyay, was a scientist and philosopher who helped found Nizam College, where he served as principal until removed for his political activities. Naidu's parents also founded the first school for girls in Nampally and worked for women's rights in education and marriage.

Sarojini Naidu, who spoke Urdu , Teugu, Bengali, Persian , and English , began writing poetry early. Known as a child prodigy, she became famous when she entered Madras University when she was just twelve years old, scoring the highest score on the entrance exam.

She moved to England at sixteen to study at King's College (London) and then Girton College (Cambridge). When she attended college in England, she became involved in some of the woman suffrage activities. She was encouraged to write about India and its land and people.

From a Brahman family, Sarojini Naidu married Muthyala Govindarajulu Naidu, a medical doctor, who was not a Brahman; her family embraced the marriage as supporters of inter-caste marriage. They met in England and were married in Madras in 1898. 

In 1905, she published  The Golden Threshold , her first collection of poems. She published later collections in 1912 and 1917. She wrote primarily in English.

In India Naidu channeled her political interest into the National Congress and Non-Cooperation movements. She joined the Indian National Congress when the British partitioned Bengal in 1905; her father was also active in protesting the partition. She met Jawaharlal Nehru in 1916, working with him for the rights of indigo workers. That same year she met Mahatma Gandhi.

She also helped found the Women's India Association in 1917, with Annie Besant and others, speaking on women's rights to the Indian National Congress in 1918. She returned to London in May 1918, to speak to a committee that was working on reforming the Indian Constitution; she and Annie Besant advocated for women's vote.

In 1919, in response to the Rowlatt Act passed by the British, Gandhi formed the Non-Cooperation Movement and Naidu joined. In 1919 she was appointed the ambassador to England of the Home Rule League, advocating for the Government of India Act which granted limited legislative powers to India, although it did not grant women the vote. She returned to India the next year. 

She became the first Indian woman to head the National Congress in 1925 (Annie Besant had preceded her as a president of the organization). She traveled to Africa, Europe, and North America, representing the Congress movement. In 1928, she promoted the Indian movement of non-violence in the United States.

In January 1930, the National Congress proclaimed Indian independence. Naidu was present on the Salt March to Dandi in March 1930. When Gandhi was arrested, with other leaders, she led the Dharasana Satyagraha.

Several of those visits were part of delegations to the British authorities. In 1931, she was at the Round Table Talks with Gandhi in London. Her activities in India on behalf of independence brought prison sentences in 1930, 1932, and 1942. In 1942, she was arrested and remained in jail for 21 months.

From 1947, when India achieved independence, to her death, she was governor of Uttar Pradesh (earlier called the United Provinces). She was India's first woman governor.

Her experience as a Hindu living in a part of India that was primarily Muslim influenced her poetry, and also helped her work with Gandhi dealing with Hindu-Muslim conflicts. She wrote the first biography of Muhammed Jinnal, published in 1916.

Sarojni Naidu's birthday, March 2, is honored as Women's Day in India. The Democracy Project awards an essay prize in her honor, and several Women's Studies centers are named for her.

Sarojini Naidu Background, Family

Father: Aghornath Chattopadhyaya (scientist, founder, and administrator of Hyderabad College, later Nizam's College)

Mother: Barada Sundari Devi (poet)

Husband: Govindarajulu Naidu (married 1898; medical doctor)

Children: two daughters and two sons: Jayasurya, Padmaja, Randheer, Leelamai. Padmaja became Governor of West Bengal and published a posthumous volume of her mother's poetry

Siblings: Sarojini Naidu was one of eight siblings

• Brother Virendranath (or Birendranath) Chattopadhyaya, was also an activist, working for a pro-German, anti-British revolt in India during World War I. He became a communist and was probably executed on the orders of Joseph Stalin in Soviet Russia about 1937.
• Brother Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, was an actor married to Kamla Devi, an advocate of traditional Indian crafts
• Sister Sunalini Devi was a dancer and actress
• Sister Suhashini Devi was a communist activist who married R.M. Jambekar, another communist activist

Sarojini Naidu Education

• Madras University (age 12)
• King's College, London (1895-1898)
• Girton College, Cambridge

Sarojini Naidu Publications

• The Golden Threshold (1905)
• The Bird of Time (1912)
• Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity . (1916)
• The Broken Wing (1917)
• The Sceptred Flute (1928)
• The Feather of the Dawn (1961), edited by Padmaja Naidu, Sarojini Naidu's daughter

Books About Sarojini Naidu

• Hasi Banerjee.  Sarojini Naidu: The Traditional Feminist . 1998.
• E.S. Reddy Gandhi and Mrinalini Sarabhai.  The Mahatma and the poetess . (Letters between Gandhi and Naidu.) 1998.
• K.R. Ramachandran Nair.  Three Indo-Anglian Poets: Henry Derozio, Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu.  1987.
• Jawaharlal Nehru, India's First Prime Minister
• Top 20 Influential Modern Feminist Theorists
• Biography of Mohandas Gandhi, Indian Independence Leader
• The British Raj in India
• Gandhi's Historic March to the Sea in 1930
• Indira Gandhi Biography
• Annie Besant, Heretic
• 100 Most Important Women in World History
• 20 Facts About the Life of Mahatma Gandhi
• Timeline of Indian History
• What Was the Partition of India?
• List of Indian States and Union Territories
• Coca-Cola Charged With Groundwater Depletion and Pollution in India
• Emily Davies
• Famous and Powerful Women of the Decade - 2000-2009
• Bangladesh: Facts and History

The Coromandel Fishers Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet

Sarojini Naidu's poem of stalwart Bengali fishermen asked to be sung, so I sang it. The author may have had a melody in mind, as she published this in a section of her poetry she called "Folk Songs." Naidu began as a promising poet ("The Nightengale of India") but left verse to for work for women's suffrage and Indian independence.  The Parlando Project takes words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music. We've done nearly 750 of these over the years, and you can find them and remarks about our encounters with the poetry at our archives and blog located at frankhudson.org

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