Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949)

Sarojini Chattopadhya was the daughter of the scientist and educator Aghorenath Chattopadhya. She was educated at home in Madras, and then travelled to England to study at Cambridge and in London. In 1898, Sarojini married Govindarajulu Naidu, a physician; they became the parents of politician and social activist Padmaja Naidu. Sarojini Naidu first achieved notice as a social activist for helping to organize relief for flood-stricken Hyderabad in 1908. She lectured publicly to abolish the ancient Indian system of isolation and subjection of women known as purdah. Sarojini Naidu was the first Indian woman to be appointed President of the Indian National Congress (1925). She was imprisoned because of her activities in the civil disobedience movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Following India's independence from Great Britain in 1947, Naidu was appointed Governor of Uttar Pradesh, the fist woman ever to hold such an office in India. Naidu also wrote several volumes of poetry with Indian themes. Her talent with lyric verse earned her the popular nickname "the nightingale of India."