Sarojini Naidu (13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. A proponent of
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
Indian independence movement
The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947.
The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
. Naidu's work as a poet earned her the sobriquet 'the Nightingale of India' by Mahatma Gandhi because of colour, imagery, and lyrical quality of her poetry.
Naidu was proficient in
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
, and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
. Her command of poetry had brought her international acclamation, Naidu's literary contribution, particularly for her poems with the themes like
patriotism
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
,
romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
and lyric for which she is called "Nightingale of India"—(''Bharat Kokila'') by
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
*1905: ''The Golden Threshold'', London: William Heineman
*1912: '' 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 the Spring'', London: William Heinemann
*1917: ''The Song of the Palanquin Bearers'', lyrics by Naidu and music by Martin Shaw, London: Curwen
*1918: ''The Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu'', Madras: G.A. Natesan and Company
*1919: ''Mohammed Ali Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity'' His Speeches and Writings 1912-1917, Madras: Ganesh and Company.
*1928: ''The Sceptred Flute: Songs of India'', New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company.
*1961: ''The Feather of the Dawn'', authored by Naidu in 1927, edited by Padmaja Naidu, Bombay: Asia Publishing House.
Other works
*Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu.
*The Lady of the Lake (1300 lines poem) written in her childhood.
*The Indian Weavers, (1971) is a short poem published posthumously.