Today is the 141st birth Anniversary of the Nightingale of India. Sarojini Naidu was India’s first women governor and also famous as ‘Bharat Kokila’. She actively participated in the Indian National Movement for the independence of the country.
On this day in 1879, Sarojini Naidu Chattopadhyay was born in a Bengali Hindu family at Hyderabad.
Here are some unknown facts about Sarojini Naidu
- When she was 16 years old, she went to study in London after receiving a scholarship by the Nizam of Hyderabad.
- After turning 19, Sarojini married Dr Govindarajulu Naidu, a doctor and had four children, namely, Radheer, Padmaj, Jayasurya and Leilaman.
- She joined national movement in the wake of the partition of Bengal in 1905.
- In 1925, Sarojini became the first Indian woman president of the Indian National Congress when she presided over the Kanpur session. She became only the second woman to head the post. Annie Besant had presided the 1917’s Session.
- In the Independent India she became the First woman governor after was commissioned in Uttar Pradesh(then known as the United Provinces).
- She was Mahatma Gandhi’s most trusted lieutenant in the Civil Disobedience Movement, 1919 and in a letter, The Father of the Nation addressed Naidu as “Dear Bulbul”.
- She had a great relationship with Bapu and used to often called him ‘Mickey Mouse.’ She was jailed along with Mahatama Gandhi for 21 months.
- Naidu won the Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal from British Raj for work during plague epidemic but after the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre she returned the award in protest.
- She was a prolific writer and hence was given the title of The Nightingale of India.
- She passed away on March 2, 1949 while working in her office.
Some of her Famous Poems
- The Gift Of India
- Coromandel Fishers
- Words of Freedom
Some of the famous Books of Sarojini Naidu
- Golden Threshold published in 1905 was her first collection of poems
- The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death, and the Spring
- Feast of Youth
- The Magic Tree
- The Wizard Mask
- Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity
- The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India, Allahabad: Kitabistan
- The Indian Weavers
Srinivas Ramanujan: The Self-taught Mathematical Genius
Giani Zail Singh: The first and only Sikh President of India
Birthday Special: Relevance of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan in current political situation
