GREAT POETS

Sarojini Naidu (née Chattopadhyay) 13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949)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.

Born in a Bengali family in Hyderabad, Naidu was educated in Madras, London and Cambridge. Following her time in Britain, where she worked as a suffragist, she was drawn to the Congress party's struggle for India's independence. She became a part of the national movement and became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of swaraj (self-rule). She was appointed Congress president in 1925 and, when India achieved its independence, became Governor of the United Provinces in 1947.

Naidu's literary work as a poet earned her the nickname the "Nightingale of India" by Gandhi because of the colour, imagery, and lyrical quality of her poetry. Her œuvre includes both children's poems and others written on more serious themes including patriotism and tragedy. Published in 1912, "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" remains one of her most popular poems.

*Works* 

1905: The Golden Threshold, London: William Heineman

1915: The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring, London: William Heineman and New York: John Lane Company

1917: The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death and Destiny

1919: "The Song of the Palanquin Bearers", lyrics by Naidu and music by Martin Shaw, London: Curwen

1920: The Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu, Madras: G.A. Natesan & Co.

1922: Editor, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, An Ambassador of Unity: His Speeches & Writings 1912–1917, with a biographical "Pen Portrait" of Jinnah by Naidu, Madras: Ganesh & Co.

1928: The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India, New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co.[42][32]

1961: The Feather of the Dawn, edited by Padmaja Naidu, Bombay: Asia Publishing House

 *Death* 

The ashes of Naidu kept at Golden Threshold, Hyderabad before immersion

Naidu died of cardiac arrest at 3:30 p.m. (IST) on 2 March 1949 at the Government House in Lucknow. Upon her return from New Delhi on 15 February, she was advised to rest by her doctors, and all official engagements were canceled. Her health deteriorated substantially and bloodletting was performed on the night of 1 March after she complained of severe [headache]. She collapsed following a fit of cough. Naidu was said to have asked the nurse attending to her to sing to her at about 10:40 p.m. (IST) which put her to sleep.She subsequently died, and her last rites were performed at the Gomati River.

Legacy

Naidu is known as "one of India's feminist luminaries".[3] Naidu's birthday, 13 February, is celebrated as Women's Day to recognise powerful voices of women in India's history.

Composer Helen Searles Westbrook (1889–1967) set Naidu's text to music in her song "Invincible."

As a poet, Naidu was known as the "Nightingale of India". Edmund Gosse called her "the most accomplished living poet in India" in 1919.

Golden Threshold in 2015

Naidu is memorialized in the Golden Threshold, an off-campus annex of University of Hyderabad named for her first collection of poetry. Golden Threshold now houses the Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication in the University of Hyderabad.

Asteroid 5647 Sarojininaidu, discovered by Eleanor Helin at Palomar Observatory in 1990, was named in her memory. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 August 2019 (M.P.C. 115893).

In 2014, Google India commemorated Naidu's 135th birth anniversary with a Google Doodle.

She passed away on this day in March 1949 (March 2, 1949)

Grateful thanks to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.