Sarojini Naidu

"The Nightingale of India", Sarojini Naidu was born on February 13, 1879 in Hyderabad. She has many firsts to her credit, including being the first Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. The eldest daughter of Aghornath Chattopadhyaya and Barada Sundari Devi, she was fluent in many languages. She studied at the Madras University, before moving to England to study. She married Dr. Muthyala Govindarajulu Naidu. The partition of Bengal in 1905 drew her to join the Indian freedom struggle. She soon came into contact with the stalwarts of the Indian freedom movement.

In 1916, she published a biography of Muhammad Ali Jinnah titled The Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity. In 1919, she became the Home Rule League's ambassador to England. In 1925 she was elected as the President of the Congress and traveled to New York in October 1928. In 1942, she was arrested during the "Quit India" movement and was lodged in jail for 21 months with Mahatma Gandhi. Naidu shared a close rapport with Mahatma Gandhi.

Naidu presided over the Steering Committee at the Asian Relations Conference in March 1947. After India became independendent, Naidu became the Governor of Uttar Pradesh, the first Indian woman to become a governor. In addition to being a freedom fighter, she was a prolific poet. In 1905, the first volume of her collection of poems, The Golden Threshold was published. Two more volumes, The Bird of Time and The Broken Wing were published in 1912 and 1917 respectively. Later, some other poetry books The Magic Tree, The Wizard Mask, and A Treasury of Poems were published.

She passed away on March 2, 1949 in Allahabad.

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Inder Kumar Gujral Indira Gandhi Biju Patnaik Jyoti Basu Dr. Rajendra Prasad A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Pramod Mahajan P. Chidambaram Lalu Prasad Yadav Sarojini Naidu T.N. Seshan J.M. Lyngdoh