Political activist and poet, Sarojini Naidu, stirred the nation with her melodic verses that are relevant even today.
The wind stirs neem leaves into the setting sun, with whiffs of garam masala from the next-door kitchen. Somewhere afar, a temple speaker sings while the milkman slinks through the streets. You are still even as your heart ticks. Subtly patriotic, metaphorically exquisite, authentically Indian. That’s Sarojini Naidu.
“A genuine Indian poet of Deccan, not a clever …imitator of English classics,” writes Vishwanath S. Naravane in his book ‘Sarojini Naidu: An Introduction to Her Life, Work, and Poetry’. While poets of the period generally combined utopic elements with verse, Sarojini found inspiration in the bazaars next street.
What do you weave, 0 ye flower-girls?
With tassels of azure and red?
Crowns for the brow of a bridegroom,
Chaplets to garland his bed,
Sheets of white blossoms new-gathered
To perfume the sleep of the dead.
From scribbling poetry at 9, going abroad to pursue her education to falling in love at 15 with someone from another caste, a rebellious act then, her mind was rife, free, and in pursuit of something apart.
Fondly called ‘Bulbul-e-Hind’, she was a nightingale that wove verse and strength together. One of the strongest women to lead the Indian freedom struggle, she was a wildflower. One can spot her standing apart from the cultural constraints of the century.
Having been arrested multiple times during the freedom struggle, she persevered and carried her grit poetically.
Her passion inspired and rallied Indian women to rise. She was integral in the creation of our Indian flag. The story goes that our Indian delegation found themselves without a flag at a Berlin conference. But she stirred a group of women to weave our tricolor overnight to tide over the crisis.
“It was also a moment of anguish for me. But at my suggestion, some of the women Indian delegates tore strips from their saris sitting up till the small hours of the morning to make the Tricolour flag so that our country should not be humiliated for the lack of a National Banner”
She had a knack for identifying and collaborating with female allies as strong as her. With Annie Besant, she founded the Women’s India Association in 1917. She spoke of women’s rights and focused, like many others in Constituent Assembly, on women’s education and abolishing child marriage. The second woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress after Annie Besant in 1925, she chaired the annual session of the party at Kanpur. A poet, activist, and most remarkable a woman, she considered these the life and soul of her being.
“As long as I have life, as long as blood flows through this arm of mine, I shall not leave the cause of freedom…I am only a woman, only a poet. But as a woman, I give to you the weapons of faith and courage and the shield of fortitude. And as a poet, I fling out the banner of song and sound, the bugle call to battle. How shall I kindle the flame which shall waken you men from slavery…”
Her words are still relevant today. They will ring as you sip your chai on an earthen cup. They will sing about every woman that walks to her job, every dawn.
