SAROJINI NAIDU
F
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Born
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Sarojini Chattopadhyay
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Birth date
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13
February 1879
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Place
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Hyderabad, Hyderabad State, British India(now
in Telangana, India)
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Died
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2 March 1949 (aged 70)
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Place
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Lucknow, United Provinces, India(now in
Uttar Pradesh, India)
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Ethnicity
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Bengali
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Alma mater
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University of Madras
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King's College London
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Girton College, Cambridge
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Occupation
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Political activist, feminist, poet-writer
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Title
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The Nightingale of India; Governor of the
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
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Term
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15 August 1947 – 2 March 1949
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Predecessor
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Francis Verner Wylie
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Successor
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Hormasji Peroshaw Mody
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Political party
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Indian National Congress
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Movement
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Indian independence movement
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Spouse(s)
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Govindarajulu Naidu (1898–1949)
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Children
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Padmaja and four others
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Parent(s)
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Aghore Nath Chattopadhyay, Barada Sundari
Devi
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Relatives
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Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Virendranath
Chattopadhyay, Suhasini Chattopadhyay
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Sarojini Naidu (
13 February 1879 - 2 March 1949 ) also known by the sobriquet as "The
Nightingale of India", was an Indian independence activist and poet.
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Naidu served as
the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949
; the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state.
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She was the
second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925
and the first Indian woman to do so.
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Naidu joined the
Indian national movement in the wake of partition of Bengal in 1905.
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She came into
contact with Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant, C. P. Ramaswami Iyer and Jawaharlal Nehru
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She also helped
to establish the Women's Indian Association (WIA) in 1917
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In 1925, Naidu presided
over the annual session of Indian National Congress at Cawnpore (Kanpur).
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In 1929, she
presided over East African Indian Congress in South Africa.
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She was awarded
the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal by the British government for her work during the
plague epidemic in India.
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In 1930 during
the salt satyagraha, she was one of the women protesters at the Dharsana salt
works, Gujrat.
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In 1931, she
participated in the Round table conference with Gandhiji and Madan Mohan
Malaviya.
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She played a
leading role during the Civil Disobedience Movement and was jailed along with
Gandhiji and other leaders.
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In 1942, she was
arrested during the "Quit India" movement.
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Literary career
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Naidu began
writing at the age of twelve. Her Persian play, Maher Muneer, impressed the
Nawab of Hyderabad.
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In 1905, her
first collection of poems, named "The Golden Threshold" was
published.
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Her poems were
admired by many prominent Indian politicians like Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
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Her collection of
poems entitled "The Feather of The Dawn" was edited and published
posthumously in 1961 by her daughter Padmaja.
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Death
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Sarojini Naidu
died of a heart attack while working in her office in Lucknow on 2 March
(Wednesday), 1949
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She is
commemorated through the naming of several institutions including the
Sarojini Naidu College for Women, Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Sarojini
Devi Eye Hospital and Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication,
University of Hyderabad.
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Aldous Huxley
wrote "It has been our good fortune, while in Bombay, to meet Mrs.
Sarojini Naidu, the newly elected President of the All-India Congress and a
woman who combines in the most remarkable way great intellectual power with
charm, sweetness with courageous energy, a wide culture with originality, and
earnestness with humor. If all Indian politicians are like Mrs. Naidu, then
the country is fortunate indeed."
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