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Elective English–II

Notes Though she reached the peak of excellence only rarely, for sheer variety of themes, range of
feelings, colour, rhythm, fancy and conceit, metaphor and similies Sarojini remains unsurpassed
even today.
In 1905, her first collection of poems, The Golden Threshold was published.
Subsequently, she published The Bird of Time, The Broken Wings, The Magic Trees, The Wizard
Mask and A Treasury of Poems.
Gandhi whom she addressed as a ‘Mystic Loyus’ in her famous sonnet, was to transform her
from a romantic singer of life’s beautiful ephemeralities to a determined and impassioned
fighter for her country’s liberation. Ten years younger to the Mahatma and ten years elder to
Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini entered the vortex of the freedom struggle immediately after the
publication of her last collection of poems The Broken Wing in 1917.
During the next thirty-two years of her life, Sarojini did not write any substantial poetry; she
gave place to the fiery patriotism. Sarojini met Gandhi for the first time in 1914 in England and
was impressed by his simplicity and singleness of purpose. Later, she met Jawaharlal Nehru
at the Lucknow Congress in 1916. In fact, her place in the national struggle for freedom was
exactly equidistant from both. She was seen along with Gandhi in the thick of the protest
against the visit of the Prince of Wales in November 1921. Later we could see her reading out
the presidential address of Deshbandhu C. R. Das at the Ahmedabad session of the Indian
National Congress at the Kenyan Indian Congress in 1923. She was elected President of the
Indian National Congress at its Kanpur session in 1925 and she took over the Presidentship
from Mahatma Gandhi himself.

In that session, in her message to the country she said, “Mine, as a woman, is a most domestic
programme merely to restore to India her true position as the supreme mistress in her own
home, the sole guardian of her own vast resources and the sole dispenser of her own hospitality”
(1987, p.90). Her emphasis was always on communal harmony, removal of untouchability and
emancipation of woman.
In all the phases of Gandhi’s movement Sarojini stood like a rock beside him and courted
arrest and imprisonment several times. She attended the Round Table Conference along with
Gandhi in 1931. Her flawless English, grasp of the subject, and oratorical power got interlinked
with flashes of wit. She was applauded and admired wherever she spoke. In The Battle of
Liberty she says that fear is the one unforgivable treachery and despair, the one unforgivable
sin. Sarojini was, by all accounts, a warm and gracious personality. She loved good food,
attractive clothes and good company. Sarojini fully enjoyed the abundance of life in spite of
her ill-health. She was like her master, an adherent to ahimsa, but was not a vegetarian.
What brought Sarojini and Gandhi together, apart from their patriotism, was their sense of
humour. Both loved to joke especially at themselves. “Of all the Things”, wrote Sarojini to
Arthur Symons, “that perhaps life or my temperament has given me as I prize the gift of
laughter as beyond price” (1987, p.91). She used to enliven the high level parleys of Congress
leaders including Gandhi and Nehru with her witty comments and humorous anecdotes. In
fact, Sarojini was often described, as the licensed jester of the Mahatma’s little court. Gandhi
on his part was indulgent and affectionate towards her and warm-heartedly tolerated all her
jokes at his expense. She called him the ‘Mickey Mouse’ of Indian politics and remarked that
“it costs a great deal of money to keep Gandhi living in poverty” (1987, p.91).
Though Gandhi always insisted that his visitors sit cross-legged on the floor, he made an
exception in the case of Sarojini and always kept a stool ready at the Sevagram Ashram for
her because she had difficulty sitting on the floor. Even Morarji Desai, that indomitable Gandhian,
remembers Sarojini’s ‘kindness’ when he first met her to invite her to speak in Wilson College,
Mumbai, “Smt.Naidu talked to us” he writes, “in her beautiful sweet and inspiring style. We

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