The world of Sarojini Naidu

This is the penultimate segment of the article, the earlier two sections of which have appeared in the past fortnight.
--- Literary Editor

Sarojini's first encounter with Mahatma Gandhi is most amusing. It took place in London right before the First World War broke out in 1914. When Gandhi came to London from South Africa, Sarojini went to meet him. She found "a little man with a shaven head, seated on the floor on a black prison blanket and eating a messy meal of squashed tomatoes end olive oil out of a wooden prison bowl. Around him were ranged some battered tin of parched groundnuts and tasteless biscuits of dried plantain flour. I burst instinctively into happy laughter at the amusing and unexpected vision of a famous leader, whose name has already become a household word in our country. He lifted his eyes and laughed back at me, saying: 'Ah, you must be Mrs. Naidu! Who else dare to be so irreverent? Come in, and share my meal.'” Sarojini's answer was, 'No thanks, what an abominable mess it is." This was the beginning of their lifelong friendship which flowered into real comradeship, and bore fruit in a long, long loyal discipleship, which never wavered for a single hour through more than thirty years of common service in the cause of India's freedom."

George Bernard Shaw

With the Nehrus, Sarojini had a very close relationship. She and her daughters were regarded as family members at Anand Bhaban in Allahabad. There have been innumerable letters written between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sarojini Naidu not only on matters political, which obviously was very normal and thus expected, but also personal that are manifestations of the deep bonds they had between them and also at the family level. In one such personal letters to Nehru, while describing her pain in her wrist for which her handwriting was all the more illegible, Sarojini wrote, 'Main sar-a-pas dard hun', quoting Iqbal literally. The poet in her remained kindled all the time even when she was in distress.
As an ambassador to America and Canada sent by Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini cast her spell the same way as she did when she went on a whirlwind tour of India. The New York Times in its notice on Sarojini's impending visit mentioned her fight for emancipation of women and said, "Mme Naidu is a singular combination of personal qualities. As a politician she can be stern and strategically minded, issuing ultimatum to the British rulers demanding Swaraj for her followers, and leading women's deputations for equal franchise. On the other hand, her songs and poems reveal only love for the beautiful in nature and humanity." Sarojini was enchanted by America, especially California, New York, Cincinnati and some other places, in the way she loved Italy in her younger years. The only difference was that in the former, she got herself engaged in the people, their history and outlook in building up a nation and also took keen interest in the people who emigrated from India, whereas in the latter, she lost herself completely in the unspoilt beauty of the land, its people and in particular the women in their unending charm. While traveling in Italy, she was so overcome by all this that she wrote all about her feelings to Arthur Symons and in exactly the same way she wrote extensively about her enchanting America to Mahatma Gandhi. Both of them fondly called her missives 'love letters', though often times some of these were too long.
Though Sarojini never spoke Bengali nor learned to read and write it, for which her personal physician, Dr B C Roy, would often tease her, nevertheless "she was always a Bengali" as she proved it concerning matters related to Bengal and its people. Hyderabad and Calcutta occupied a special place in her heart but then again, she "had no provincial bias at any stage of her life. She always regarded India as one integral whole.” But her being a Bengali was accentuated by her liking for Bengali meals and especially magoor machher jhol, -- a particular fish curry that she enjoyed very much.
She had a lot of friends in Bengal and with some families there she was so close that it was as if she herself was a member. One such family was that of C.R. Das. Basonti Devi (Mrs. C.R. Das) while talking of Sarojini's friendship with her with the author exuded much affection and nostalgia while reminiscing. Sarojini's friendships lasted throughout her life. However extremely busy Sarojini was in her involvement with people and work, she was very much a superb homemaker who kept an eye on every family member and every activity and anytime she could, she would take refuge in her cozy home called The Golden Threshold among her near and dear ones. She was the "cherished one in her household". It was the charm she exuded as a vibrant, natural person endowed with the mind of an aesthete that kept people devoted to her. This book is a living testament to her singularly glorious life into which a reader can plunge perennially, only to be awestruck more and more.
She became governor of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state of India, on the eve of independence  -- a post she described as living the life of a caged bird. Even so, she infused full vitality into the job, keeping an eye on every aspect of it and the people of UP adored her and felt "honoured at possessing the first woman Governor of Independent India and were well aware of her brilliance, her abundant charm, her poetic talent and her distinguished career as a non-violent fighter for freedom. The press went into raptures over her appointment despite her casual and almost reluctant acceptance of the post." She was a brilliant orator in English, the equal of which in all of India was to be found only in the golden-voiced orator, Srinivas Sastri. Immediately after taking over as governor, she delivered on extempore speech at the UP legislative Assembly that was termed more a "political thesis" than a "policy statement from the head of a province." Listeners felt a "Niagara of words flowed when she spoke, full of wit, humour sarcasm and satire."
She never failed to give due honour to deserving ones and at the same time being stern with those who would not initially be amenable to the good sides of an endeavour. She wielded the power to unite people even in most agonizing situations and proved to be the person who could truly "bring the lions and the lambs to lie down together in the green pastures which she created." She was a gifted orator with an extraordinary brilliance of words, expressions, body language, superior quality in English which all combined rendered her speeches lively and left her audience animated. The same effect was produced when she delivered her speeches in chaste Urdu, oftentimes using “high-flown” Persianized Urdu. This was something she picked up through her childhood association with Muslim culture in Hyderabad. In one of her innumerable letters to Nehru, the last line reads, "However--- let us go on churning the ocean till we evolve some supreme gift of Harmony -- but first let us tide over Bakr Id which, Inshallah, we shall do!”
Another instance worth citing is Sarojini's address at the Lucknow Congress in 1916, where she exclaimed, "Let us then offer our lives unanimously as a tribute at the feet of the Motherland, for, as the great Prophet of Islam says, 'Under the feet of the Mother lies Paradise.'" There was wholehearted acclamation from the audience. Amarnath Jha, a young professor who later on became Vice-Chancellor of Allahabad University and was a regular visitor at Anand Bhavan along with Sarojini and others, wrote in the Leader of January 6, 1917: "The bird of the Deccan is sweet voiced. One imagines, as one listens to her, that the Kokil is singing. Her language is very well-chosen, and the spell she casts by her words is abiding." When Jha was scheduled to leave for England in 1933, Sarojini Naidu wrote letters of introduction to Bernard Shaw, Walter de la Mare, Humbert Wolffe, Mrs. Munro and Laurence Binyon for him. In fact, Shaw inquired of Mrs. Naidu to Prof. Jha when he was in London and expressed his regret at not being able to meet her when lately he was in India and she was in jail.
Once someone was a friend to her, s/he remained steadfast in friendship as she believed in keeping friends and not only in making them. Sarojini Naidu more often than not would have a series of speeches to deliver to various groups of people at various venues. On one such occasion where she addressed women in Madras, she said privately to two distinguished people: " I must get back soon to Hyderabad, where my husband is waiting with a stick to beat me, for setting such a bad example to the rest of Madras women." This assertion of hers, however amusing and said in a lighter vein, reveals the Indian Bengali mind of a woman. Here she emerges as a highly home and family loving person who misses her family life due to the unbounded call of her country.
 When Sarojini Naidu was elected president of the All India Congress in 1925 succeeding Mahatma Gandhi, Aldous Huxley, the famous writer, visited India and came in close  contact with Sarojini which experience he has described in his book Jesting Pilate: The Diary of a Journey, published in 1948. He says, "It has been our good fortune while in Bombay, to meet Sarojini Naidu, the newly President of the All-India Congress and a woman who combines in the most remarkable way great intellectual power with charm, sweetness, and courageous energy, a wide culture with originality, and earnestness with humour. If all politicians are like Mrs. Naidu, then the country is fortunate indeed." The Huxleys were guests of  honour in a party that was held to congratulate Patel as the new speaker of the Legislative Assembly where Aldous  Huxley, on hearing Sarojini deliver her speech, commented that she spoke "English eloquence."