In this Preface. I have taken the liberty of giving some pertinent biographical data of the many-sided splendour that was Sarojini Naidu, for the edification of post-independence generation. This has, however, made the Preface somewhat long for which I crave the readers' indulgence.
Parentage Sarojini's father, Dr. Aghorenath Chattopadhyaya, hailed from a poor Brahmin family of East Bengal. In his early youth, he migrated to Calcutta for studies. He had to study from borrowed books under street lamps. His inborn brilliance soon surfaced and won recognition. He was exceptionally bright in English, Bengali and Sanskrit, as also in Greek, Hebrew, French, German and Russian. But his main interest was in science, especially Chemistry. Young Aghorenath was offered a Gilchrist scholarship for higher studies in England. He joined the Edinburgh University, where he took the degree of D.Sc, being the first Indian to become a Doctor of Science. Yet another foreign scholarship enabled him to go for further studies at the Bonn University.
While going to England for studies, he left his young wife. Varada Sundari. in the 'Bharat Ashrama sponsored by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. who, together with Keshub Chandra Sen, had founded the Brahmo Samaj. Its social reform activities had attracted young Aghorenath's reformist zeal, and hence his willingness to leave his wife in their care. On his return to India. Dr. Aghorenath got the job of a school teacher in Nizam's Hyderabad, where he set up his home.
Sarojini was born to them in Hyderabad on February 13. 1879.
Education Sarojini Naidu was a precocious child, a 'wonder girl. When barely twelve years old, she wrote a 1300-line poem a la 'Lady of the Lake in six days! The next year, she penned an impassioned poetic drama of 2000 lines!
In 1897. Dr.Aghorenath sent Sarojini to Madras to appear for the Matriculation examination which she passed with distinction. The result of her college studies at the Madras University was also outstanding. She passed in First Class first. This was a brilliant feat and her first leap into fame. The jurisdiction of the Madras University at that time extended much beyond Tamil Nadu into many regions of the present State of Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka.
As a college student. Sarojini had written a verse play in Persian "Mehar Munee" (a legendary romantic couple). Dr. Aghorenath printed a few copies of the play for private circulation and he ventured to present a copy to the Nizam. His Exalted Highness was so much impressed that he sanctioned a scholarship for her higher studies in England. By a happy coincidence. Dr. Annie Besant was also a passenger in the ship which Sarojini chose for her voyage to London. Dr.Annie Besant was at that time a highly esteemed and renowned personage in India.
Sarojini Naidu, the daughter of Agorenath Chattopadhyaya, was born on February 13th. 1879. She described her father as a great dreamer and alchemist. "The makers of gold are the makers of verse, they are the twin creators that sway the world's secret desire for mystery and what in my father is the genius of curiosity.is in me the desire for beauty." As a leading political figure in India's freedom movement, an orator of distinction. a fighter for women's rights, she still sang her way through life with joyful laughter. With passionate fervour she fought for the freedom of her country and for Hindu-Muslim unity. She was a superb ambassador of Gandhiji and the Indian national movement in her travels at crucial times to East and South Africa, Britain and the United States. Mahatma Gandhi whom she called The high priest or honoured guru' of the Satyagraha movement must have been glad of her clear thinking, her integrity and her sense of humour which he shared. As he once said, 'I would love to find that my future army contained a vast preponderance of women over men'.
The great depth of friendship, respect and affection between the Mahatma and his devoted disciple, a unique and rare relationship. is brought alive and meaningful in their letters revealing a side of the great personality that perhaps very few people knew the Mahatma who writes 'dear mother, singer, guardian of my soul and then chides her gently for asking him not to fast. There was a marvellous rapport between them, based on a deep understanding of each other.
In a deeply moving letter to Sarojini on the eve of his fast against the communal award in 1932. he wrote: "It may be that this is my last letter to you. I have always known and treasured your love. I think that I understood you when I first saw you and heard you at the Criterion (in London) in 1914. If I die I shall die in the faith that comrades like you, with whom God has blessed me, will continue the work of the country which is also fully the work of humanity in the same spirit in which it was begun."
And in the same letter he conveyed two of his most deeply-felt convictions which deserve our constant and complete attention.
"If Hinduism is to live, untouchability must die."
"If the interests of country are to be one with those of humanity, if the good of the one faith is to be the good of all faiths, it will come only by the strictest adherence to truth and non-violence in thought, world and deed."
For me as a child whenever she visited our home, always dressed in bright South Indian sarees, a flower in her hair, talking and laughing with my mother, it was as though a rainbow lit by the sunlight entered the room. It is a privilege to be able to present her correspondence with Gandhiji to the public.
It is sad that much of the correspondence between Sarojini Naidu and Gandhiji has not been preserved. And the text here has several ellipses where words could not be transcribed from the old letters. Yet I trust this collection will shed new light not only on the relationship between two great children of India, but also on their vision and their dedication and most of all on their love for the country and its people for which they made great sacrifices.
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