Modernism
Sarojini Naidu
1879 – 1949
Indian poet, politician, governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from1947 to 1949
- British Raj · Dominion of India · India
- Indian Writing in English
About
Sarojini Naidu was an Indian political activist and poet who served as the first Governor of United Provinces, after India's independence. She played an important role in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. She was the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and appointed governor of a state.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Portrait by Unknown authorUnknown author (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons.
Life on the Timeline
Major Works
Exam Dossier
Most-asked topics
- Epithet "Nightingale of India" (Bharat Kokila)
- The Golden Threshold (1905) — debut collection
- The Bird of Time (1912)
- The Broken Wing (1917)
- Representative poems: In the Bazaars of Hyderabad, The Palanquin Bearers, Coromandel Fishers, The Gift of India
- Role in the Indian National Congress and Indian freedom movement
- First woman Governor of an Indian state (United Provinces, 1947-49)
- Influence of Edmund Gosse and Arthur Symons on her poetic career
Previous-year themes
- Identifying works with correct publication years and putting them in chronological order
- Recognising authorship from famous opening lines of her poems
- Matching epithets/titles (Nightingale of India) and public offices to Sarojini Naidu
- Her role in the Indian National Congress and the nationalist movement as reflected in her poetry
- Comparing Sarojini Naidu with other Indo-English poets such as Toru Dutt and Tagore
- Recurring imagery of colour, music, and Indian cultural life in her verse
- Her place within the canon of Indian English/modernist poetry
Common confusions
- Confusing Sarojini Naidu with Toru Dutt as contemporaries — Dutt (1856-1877) belongs to an earlier generation of Indian English poets than Naidu (1879-1949).
- Mixing up the chronological order of her three main poetry collections: The Golden Threshold (1905) comes before The Bird of Time (1912) and The Broken Wing (1917).
- Assuming Naidu won the Nobel Prize because of her fame as "Nightingale of India" — she did not.
- Treating Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity as a poetry collection — it is a prose biographical tribute, not verse.
- Conflating her presidency of the Indian National Congress (1925) with her governorship of the United Provinces (1947-49) — these are two distinct "firsts."
- Mistaking The Sceptred Flute (1943) for a new original collection rather than a compiled/collected edition of her earlier poetry.
Memory tricks
"Golden first, Bird next, Broken last" — recalls the order: The Golden Threshold (1905) to The Bird of Time (1912) to The Broken Wing (1917).
"1925 Kanpur crowns the Congress" — remembers her INC presidency and its year/venue.
"UP governess in '47" — links her governorship of the United Provinces to 1947.
"Gosse and Symons gave the Nightingale her voice" — recalls her English literary mentors.
"Bazaars, Palanquins, Fishers" — a string to recall her most-quoted local-colour poems.
