Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu [1879-1949]

Sarojini Naidu is one of India's most eminent personalities of the pre-independence era. She was a political activist, feminist, poet, writer and the first Indian woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress. She entered the Madras University at the age of twelve.

Her involvement with the Indian National Congress took her far and wide. In 1924, she travelled to East and South Africa in the interest of the Indian residents there. In 1925, she became the second Indian woman President of the National Congress. Back home in India, her anti British campaign earned her a number of prison sentences.

In 1947, the year of the Indian independence, Sarojini Naidu became the Governor of the United Province now known as Uttar Pradesh.

Also being an accomplished poet and writer, Sarojini Naidu was known as 'The Nightingale of India'. Her first volume of poetry was 'The Golden Threshold' and 'The Bird of Time'.