Sarojini Naidu: The Nightingale Who Sang India into Being by Shreyashi Verma Rodricks
Sarojini Chattopadhyay, known to most of us as Sarojini Naidu, was born on 13 February 1879 in Hyderabad, but her upbringing could hardly be contained by geography. Her father, Dr. Aghorenath Chattopadhyay, founded Nizam College and was a powerful force in intellectual circles. Her mother, Varada Sundari, wrote poetry and composed music in Bengali. Their home was a mix of art, language, ideas, travelers, mystics, and music. Growing up in this environment gave Sarojini something unusual: A multilingual, multi-cultural emotional vocabulary. By her teens, she was fluent in Urdu, Telugu, English, Bengali, and Sanskrit. She topped the Madras Presidency matriculation exam at age twelve, sailed to England for higher studies, and although ill-health cut her academic journey short, it deepened her literary one. In London, she met Arthur Symons and Edmund Gosse, whose advice gently but decisively redirected her artistic compass: “Write India, not Europe.” It is from this turning point tha...