SAROJINI NAIDU

BIO-SKETCH
International Women's Day is observed on March 8. It is only fitting then that IndiaWorld should feature Sarojini Naidu, freedom fighter and president of the Indian National Congress, who was acknowledged, in her day, as India's greatest living poet and bestowed with the sobriquet, `The Nightingale of India.'

As a young woman, Sarojini Naidu defied the bonds of caste by her marriage. Small and vivid with luminous eyes of liquid brown, she was a feminist, lyric poet, singer of songs and above all, a mother ( of four ). She was also a scholar, mystic and philosopher, whose "turbulence of heart and turmoil of the senses were translated into music." In this respect, she resembled the two most beloved of her poets, Shelley and Keats. Like Keats, she suffered poor health. Unlike her fellow poet Rabindranath Tagore, she sang directly in English. The English language, she said, was more naturally her mother tongue than Hindustani.

Her poems have been published in a few volumes: `The Golden Threshhold',`The Bird of Time', `The Broken Wing', and `The Sceptred Flute'. Her music was both sombre and sonorous, her poems sans artifice. And she prized the "gift of laughter as beyond price."

In her closing address to the 40th Indian National Congress, she said," As long as I have life, as long as blood flows through this arm of mine, I shall not leave the cause of freedom...I am only a woman, only a poet. But as a woman, I give to you the weapons of faith and courage and the shield of fortitude. And as a poet, I fling out the banner of song and sound, the bugle call to battle. How shall I kindle the flame which shall waken you men from slavery..." Sarojini's India was not the India of Katherine Mayo. In his introduction to `The Sceptred Flute', Joseph Auslander wrote,"...it is the true India. For if we would know the truth about India, as about all things, we must go to the poets. And here at last is a poet who shall tell us."
Sarojini Naidu did that. And more.

Mon: The Call To Evening Prayer
Tue: An Indian Love Song
Wed: A Love Song from the North
Thu: The Broken Wing
Fri: A Rajput Love Song
Sat: The Poet's Love-Song