(The Golden Threshold is a classic collection of Indian po...)
The Golden Threshold is a classic collection of Indian poetry by Sarojini Naidu. It is at my persuasion that these poems are now published. The earliest of them were read to me in London in 1896, when the writer was seventeen; the later ones were sent to me from India in 1904, when she was twenty-five; and they belong, I think, almost wholly to those two periods. As they seemed to me to have an individual beauty of their own, I thought they ought to be published.
(This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)
This reproduction was printed from a digital file created at the Library of Congress as part of an extensive scanning effort started with a generous donation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The Library is pleased to offer much of its public domain holdings free of charge online and at a modest price in this printed format. Seeing these older volumes from our collections rediscovered by new generations of readers renews our own passion for books and scholarship.
Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu
N t...)
Excerpt from Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu
N this volume an attempt is made to present under one cover an exhaustive collection of the Speeches and Writings of Mrs. Sarojini Naidu. This (the third) edition practically brings the collection up-to-date, including as it does her speeches in East and South Africa and in the Congress at Belgaum. The subjects treatéd cover a wide field - politics, education, socfiriéform, hindu-muslim Unity, Satyagraha, N on-cc-operation, the position of Indians abroad-in fact every aspect of India's problems is discussed in these pages with characteristic ardour and eloquence. The biographical sketch of her life and career with which the volume Opens and the index at the end will, it is hoped, be appreciated.
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The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death the Spring (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death the S...)
Excerpt from The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death the Spring
Our shrines, our sacred streams, our sumptuous art, Old hills that scale the sky's unageing dome, Recalled some long-lost rapture to your heart.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Sarojini Naidu was a political activist, feminist, poet-writer, and the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and to be appointed an Indian state governor. She was sometimes called “the Nightingale of India. ”
Background
Sarojini Naidu was born on 13 February 1879 in Hyderabad, India to the scientist, philosopher and a politieducator Aghornath Chattopadhyaya and Barada Sundari Devi. She was the eldest daughter of her parents. A political activist, her father was a co founder of the Nizam College and the first member of the India National Congress in Hyderabad. Chattopadhyaya was removed from his position as a penalty for his active participation in Indian Independence movement.
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, Sarojini's brother, was a political activist who played a key role in establishing the Berlin Committee and was influenced by Communism. He was allegedly killed by the Russian troops in 1937. Sarojini's second brother Harindranath Chattopadhyaya was a noted poet and playwright.
Education
A brilliant student, Sarojini won appreciation and fame by being selected in Madras University at just 12. In 1895, she went on to study at King's College in London and later at Girton College, Cambridge University. She developed a liking and passion for reading and writing poems whilst still in college where she became proficient in many languages including Urdu, English, Persian, Telugu and Bengali.
Career
As a girl in England, Naidu became acquainted with two eminent English critics, Arthur Symons and Edmund Gosse. Gosse read some of her early poems, and although he found them "skillful in form, correct in grammar, and blameless in sentiment, " he also felt they were Western in feeling and in imagery. He advised her "to set her poems firmly among the mountains, the gardens, the temples, to introduce to us the vivid populations of her own voluptuous provinces. " There is no doubt that Sarojini Naidu made these changes in her work, but the tone of a bright, tender-hearted, Victorian girl, influenced by Tennyson, Shelley, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, seems to linger in her work. In any event, she received serious recognition and much acclaim and was spoken of as the "nightingale of India" long after she had ceased to sing. Naidu's poetry is lyrical and musical, using many types of meter and rhyme and filled with rich imagery. It deals with love and death, separation and longing, and the mystery of life, all important themes for poetry. There is much rhetorical gesturing, much longing for an ideal past or an ideal love. In the end the poetry tends to become monotonous and repetitive. Naidu's claim to lasting fame will likely rest upon her distinguished career as a leader of the Indian nationalist movement. Her poetry was transmuted into oratory. She swayed audiences both in India and abroad with her speeches about India's struggle. In 1914 she met Gandhi in London and became one of his most trusted followers. She was one of the founders of the Women's India Association, in which she worked closely with Margaret E. Cousins and Annie Besant. At the same time Naidu was active in the work of the Indian National Congress, of which she was named president in 1925. She was imprisoned five times during the independence movement. Gandhi sent her as his envoy to South Africa to help the Indians there against the oppressive acts of the South African government. She also was sent to the United States to refute, it is said, the bad publicity created by Katherine Mayo's sensational book Mother India. In the frequently difficult relations with the Indian Moslem League, Naidu was deputed often to try to ease tensions, and she remained always a friend of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. In 1947, after the independence of India, she became the first governor of the state of Uttar Pradesh. She died on March 2, 1949, in the capital of the state, Lucknow.
(The Golden Threshold is a classic collection of Indian po...)
Views
Quotations:
"A country's greatness lies in its undying ideals of love and sacrifice that inspire the mothers of the race. "
"We want deeper sincerity of motive, a greater courage in speech and earnestness in action. "
"When there is oppression, the only self-respecting thing is to rise and say this shall cease today, because my right is justice. If you are stronger, you have to help the weaker boy or girl both in play and in the work. "
"One needs a Seer's Vision and an Angel's voice to be of any avail. I do not know of any Indian man or woman today who has those gifts in their most complete measure. "
"Sense of justice is one of the most wonderful ideals of Islam, because as I read in the Qur'an I find those dynamic principles of life, not mystic but practical ethics for the daily conduct of life suited to the whole world. "
Interests
Writers
Arthur Symons, Edmund Gosse
Connections
Whilst still in college, Sarojini met Dr. Muthyala Govindarajulu Naidu and both grew closer by the end of her college. Upon finishing her studied at age 19, she married him in 1898 during a period when inter-caste were marriages were rare and considered a crime in the Indian society. Nonetheless, the successful marriage of the couple prevented people from intervening into their personal life and taking it onto another stage.
The couple had four children; Jayasurya, Padmaja, Randheer and Leelamani.