The Nightingale of India…

 

Philatelic Tributes to The Nightingale of India 

 

 

Today is 135th Birth Anniversary of Sarojini Naidu known as Nightingale of India. Sarojini Naidu, born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay  also known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. Sarojini Naidu served as the first governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949; the first woman to become the governor of an Indian state. She was the second woman to become the president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and the first Indian woman to do so.

India Post issued a commemorative stamp on Sarojini Naidu on  13th February 1964. This Post is a philatelic tribute to great poetess  of India.

Palanquin Bearers

Lightly, O lightly we bear her along,
She sways like a flower in the wind of our song;
She skims like a bird on the foam of a stream,
She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream.
Gaily, O gaily we glide and we sing,
We bear her along like a pearl on a string.
Softly, O softly we bear her along,
She hangs like a star in the dew of our song;
She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide,
She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride.
Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing,
We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

- Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini was born in Hyderabad to Aghore Nath Chattopadhyay and Barada Sundari Debi on 13 February 1879. Her father was a doctor of Science from Edinburgh University, settled in Hyderabad State, where he found and administered the Hyderabad College, which later became the Nizam's College in Hyderabad. Her mother was a poetess and used to write poetry in Bengali. Sarojini Naidu was the eldest among the eight siblings. Her brother Virendranath Chattopadhyaya was a revolutionary and her other brother, Harindranath was a poet, a dramatist, and an actor.

Sarojini passed her Matriculation examination from the University of Madras, but she took four years' break from her studies. In 1895, the "Nizam scholarship Trust" founded by the 6th Nizam - Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, gave her the chance to study in England first at King's College London and later at Girton College, Cambridge.

Sarojini began writing at the age of 13. Her Persian play, Maher Muneer, impressed the Nawab of Hyderabad.In 1905, her first collection of poems, named "The Golden Threshold" was published. Her poems were admired by many prominent Indian politicians like Gopal Krishna Gokhale.

Her collection of poems entitled "The Feather of The Dawn" was edited and published posthumously in 1961 by her daughter Padamaja.