UNIT 1 SAROJINI NAIDU

Structure
1.1 Aims and Objectives
1.2 Introduction: Genesis of Indian Poetry in English
1.3 Sarojini Naidu
1.4 ‘Palanquin Bearers’
1.4.1 Interpretation
1.4.2 Images

1.5 ‘The Bird of Time’

1.5.1 Interpretation

1.6 ‘Bangle Sellers’

1.6.1 Interpretation

1.7 Let Us Sum Up

1.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

1.1 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

This is the first Unit which deals with Indian Poets writing in English. The
poet that we intend to discuss in this unit is Sarojini Naidu.
Our aim through this Unit is to:
x provide you with a background to the beginnings of Indian English in
our country;
x introduce you to three poems of Sarojini Naidu;
x examine the development of imagery in the poems; and
x establish a link between the different parts of the poems.
By the end of this unit you should be able to understand, the poems taught
in this unit and also to have a fair understanding of Sarojini Naidu as a poet.
You should also be able to read her poems and appreciate their language,
imagery and form. You should also be fairly proficient in tracing the
development of Indian English poetry.

1.2 INTRODUCTION: GENESIS OF INDIAN

POERTY IN ENGLISH
How did Indians suddenly begin to write poetry in English, which was a
foreign language? This question cannot but strike anyone who goes looking
for the origins of Indian English poetry. Today, in the second decade of the
21st century, English seems to have a very stable, even natural, place in
India’s social and cultural life. But even today, when we step out of our
cities and go deep into the interiors of the hinterland, the foreignness of
English at once becomes clear. Hardly anyone can really understand the 5
Poetry language and if a few do, their command over it is questionable. That is why
the English, Americans and other native speakers of English continue to
speak loudly, haltingly, or through interpreters when they are in India. But
about 200 years ago, when the British were far from established in India,
when the sight of Englishmen was a great novelty in the streets of Indian
cities, the English language was very much a foreign tongue. Yet, the fact
remains that nearly a quarter of a century before English education was
institutionalized or the first Indian universities were founded, there was
already a growing crop of Indians who chose English to write their poetry
in. How or why did this happen?
Indian English poetry was the product of a large cultural or civilizational
encounter between Britain and India. Let us try to understand this encounter
in some depth before we focus more directly on Indian English poetry.
British imperialism started by concentrating on trade. It had a policy of non-
interference with the religious and cultural traditions of the people it
conquered. Conquest itself was not the aim to begin with but was almost
thrust upon the East India Company in its fight to protect its trade interests.
The volatile political situation after the fall of the Mughal empire gave John
Company (as the East India Company was popularly known) a unique
opportunity to meddle in the affairs of the warring Indian princes. The
Company used its leverage as a seemingly neutral outsider to its advantage.
After its trading settlements in Surat and Hoogly were attacked, it began to
fortify them and to arm itself. It raised an army mostly by recruiting local
mercenaries and training them in modern, European methods of warfare.
In the Battle of Plassey in 1757 a small but well trained army of Indians, led
by a small bank of British officers under Robert Clive, defeated the huge but
divided army of Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Bengal. The model of this
battle can be seen in that uniquely Indian tribute to the Raj, the Victoria
Memorial, in Calcutta. The Battle of Plassey inaugurated a series of military
victories for the British, culminating in an almost unprecedented paramountcy
over the whole of the Indian sub-continent.
It was through this conquest that India bore the full brunt of Western or,
more properly, modern culture. This impact was extensive and thorough
going so as to entirely transform Indian society. Such an upheaval, perhaps,
had no parallel in Indian history. Even the impact of Muslim rule in India
had arguably been less far-reaching. It is not for us to analyse or describe
this impact in great detail. That would not only be outside the scope of such
a course, but also somewhat tangential to our central concern, which is with
Indian English poetry. It is only important to bear in mind that the British
rule in India was not only oppressive, but also highly exploitative. It was a
system in which India’s wealth was systematically extracted and expropriated
by Britain.
But on the flip side the British also built the railways and developed the post
and telegraph system. They built canals and developed Indian infrastructure
in some areas. Indians began to access the rich trove of knowledge, both in
the humanities and social sciences and in science and technology, which the
West had through their access to English education. English had been
introduced by the British as an aid to establishing the empire by the famous
6
Minute of Macaulay in 1835.
Macaulay truly believed that English could do for India what the revival of Sarojini Naidu
classical learning did for Europe during the Renaissance or what the languages
of Western Europe did for Russia. For him, the English had a civilizing and
modernizing mission in India. Macaulay was already aware of the growing
power and spread of the English language and almost anticipated its present
eminence. He also observed that Indians seemed to have a special affinity
for English, a language they mastered more easily than other Europeans
themselves. He hoped that the new education system would “form a class of
persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, morals,
and in intellect.” Macaulay, despite his imperial agenda, in fact had a good
deal of support from Indians themselves. Rammohun Roy, one of the leading
intellectuals and social reformers, had helped establish an Association to
promote European learning and science as far back as 1816.
In 1857 the three universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, one in each
of the three presidencies of the Empire, were established. With that, English
education became deeply entrenched in India. As Macaulay had desired, a
new class of Indians was created who were perfectly at home both in the
English language and English culture. Naturally, it was from this class that
Indian English writers came.
Check Your Progress 1
1) What is your understanding of the orgin of Indian English poetry?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................

1.3 SAROJINI NAIDU

Sarojini Naidu also known as Bharatiya Kokila( The nightingale of India)
was more than a poet. She was one of the most illustrious Indians who
contributed to the cultural, political and social advancement of the nation in
numerous ways.
Naidu was born on February 13, 1879. Her father Aghoranath Chattopadhyaya
was a scientist and philosopher. He was the founder of the Nizam College
Hyderabad. Sarojini Naidu’s mother Barada Sundari Devi was a poetess and
used to write poetry in Bengali. Sarojini Naidu was the eldest among the
eight siblings. One of her brothers Birendranath was a revolutionary and her
other brother Harindranath was a poet, dramatist, and actor.
Sarojini Naidu was a brilliant student. She was proficient in Urdu, Telugu,
English, Bengali, and Persian. At the age of twelve, Sarojini Naidu attained
national fame when she topped the matriculation examination at Madras
University. Her father wanted her to become a mathematician or scientist but
Sarojini Naidu was interested in poetry. She started writing poems in English.
Impressed by her poetry, the Nizam of Hyderabad, gave her a scholarship to
study abroad. At the age of 16, she traveled to England. There she met
7
Poetry famous laureates of her time such as Arthur Simon and Edmond Gosse. It
was the poet and critic Edmund Gosse who implored Sarojini Naidu to
reveal “the heart of India” in her poems. Her earlier compositions were
entirely “Western in feeling and imagery”, and “totally without individuality”.
He convinced Sarojini to stick to Indian themes India’s great mountains,
rivers, temples, social milieu, to express her poetry.
Sarojini Naidu took his advice seriously and consequently her three volumes
of poetry The Golden Threshold, The Bird of Time and The Broken Wing, are
essentially Indian in tenor and tone. and have attracted huge Indian and
English readership.
At the age of 15, she met Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu and fell in love with him.
He was a non-brahmin, and a doctor by profession. After finishing her
studies at the age of 19, she married him during the time when inter-caste
marriages were not allowed. It was a revolutionary step but Sarojini’s father
fully supported her and Sarojini Naidu led a happily married life and had
four children.
Sarojini Naidu joined the Indian national movement in the wake of the
partition of Bengal in 1905. She came into contact with Gopal Krishna
Gokhale, Rabindranath Tagore, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Annie Besant,
C.P.Rama Swami Iyer, Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru. She awakened the
women of India. She brought them out of the kitchen. She traveled from
state to state, city after city and asked for the rights of the women. She re-
established self-esteem in the women of India.
In 1925, Sarojini Naidu presided over the annual session of Indian National
Congress at Kanpur. She played a leading role during the Civil Disobedience
Movement and was jailed along with Gandhiji and other leaders. In 1942,
Sarojini Naidu was arrested during the “Quit India” movement and was
jailed for 21 months with Gandhiji. She shared a very warm relationship
with Gandhiji and used to call him “Mickey Mouse”. After Independence,
Sarojini Naidu became the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. She was India’s first
woman governor. Sarojini Naidu died in office on March 2, 1949.
Sarojini Naidu wrote poetry where images and metaphors came readily out
of her imagination. Her poetry is intensely emotional and passionate. The
influence of the British Romantic poets can be perceived in her poetry, but
what makes it interesting and relevant to the Indian tradition is the sustenance
from the twin indigenous sources. Her poetry continues to delight the readers
by its sheer simplicity and sweetness.
Sarojini Naidu’s poetry presents a kaleidoscope of Indian scenes, sights,
sounds and experiences transmuted into a fantastic vision of colour and
rhythm. Her themes are mostly familiar and even insignificant. But they are
vivified through the magic glass of her imagination. There are in her poetry,
Indian dancers, wandering singers, fishermen, palanquin bearers and bangle-
sellers and snake-charmers to mention only a few.
Her poems are available in 4 volumes-The Golden Threshold (1905), The
Bird of Time (1912), The Broken Wing (1917) and The Feather of Dawn
8 (1961)(posthumously).
 Sarojini Naidu
1.4 ‘PALANQUIN BEARERS’
Let us take the ‘Palanquin Bearers’. First of all let us read the poem.
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.
Glossary
Sways: lean or swing from side to side.
Skims: moving fast just above the surface.
Springs: bounces
Beam: ray of light
Brow: the top part
1.4.1 Interpretation
‘Palanquin Bearers’ is the first poem in the first section of The Golden
Threshold which has three sections i.e. Folk Songs, Songs for Music and
Poems.
‘Palanquin Bearers’ was composed on Aug. 7, 1903, as is borne out by the
facsimile of the poem in Sarojini Naidu’s handwriting. This characteristically
Indian poem takes us back to the India of the beginning of the twentieth
century, when palanquins were a common sight in the Indian Streets. The
streets of Sarojini’s home-town Hyderabad must have been full of them at
that time. One can even today go to remote Indian villages, far removed
from the modern means of conveyance, and observe the palanquin-bearers
carrying in the palki a young lady most probably to her husband’s house.
The palanquin-bearers usually sing songs in rhythmic harmony with their
footsteps.
The whole setting of this poem is romantic. The movement of the poem
suggests the rhythmic march of the palanquin-bearers through the streets.
The bearers sing gaily of the beauty of the lady. A soft music leaps up in the
air as the palanquin-bearers bear the blooming beauty along. The tone here
is in complete rapport with the heart beats of the beauty inside. The palanquin,
the bearers, the inmate inside, the song and the springy movement all fuse
into one another.
The poem consists of 2 stanzas, each of six rhymed lines. The first and the
fifth lines in each stanza serve as a refrain. The rhythm is of comparatively
swift movement corresponding with the swaying movement of the palanquin, 9
Poetry and the rise and fall (the stressed and unstressed sound) of the bearers’
footsteps.
1.4.2 Images
‘Palanquin Bearers’ gains richness through the images which lie inherent in
the native consciousness. It explodes with lovely romantic images. The quick
succession of images shows the Shellyan impact. No fewer than seven similes
emphasize her beauty, she “sways like a flower”, “skims like a bird”, “floats
like a laugh”, “hangs like a star”, “springs like a beam” and “falls like a
tear”; the bearers of her palanquin bear her along like a “pearl on a string”.
Here we have both concrete and abstract images. There are vivid and concrete
images executed with gnomic terseness like skimming on the foam of a
stream, a beam springing on the tide and tear falling from the eyes of a
bride.
There are also some vague images in the manner of the pre-Raphaelites, like
a laugh from the lips of a dream, swinging like a flower in the wind of a
song and hanging like a star in the dew of a song.
The image “She falls….bride” is highly imaginative and suggestive. It
embodies the age-old story of an Indian bride’s sadness, whatever be the
cause—separation from the parents etc.
The tune and the movement go together in this song, where we have what
is rhetorically called, the kinesthetic image, or the image of felt motion
‘swaying’, ‘skimming’, ‘floating’. It may sound nostalgic but it is very true
to the Indian experience.
The images indicate a lightness of touch, a buoyancy, and create a dream
like atmosphere.
J.H. Cousins remarks that “there is not a thought” in this poem, “Yet its
charm is instantaneous and complete”. The poem can thus be enjoyed for the
sake of words and its swingy movement and perpetual music.
Even though the setting of the poem ‘Palanquin Bearers’ is specifically
Indian, it acquires its appeal from a certain exoticism of setting or certain
ideals or emotions which inspire them. The emotions which suffuse ‘Palanquin
Bearers’ are not confined to India alone. The sadness of a departing bride
and the joy of those escorting her to her new home, like divine agents, the
stages of the inexorable march of human life, is expressed through a rocking
rhythm and cosmic imagery.
The poem seems to be an allegory on the movement of time gleefully carrying
man towards an unknown but inevitable destiny, which can either be “like
a laugh from the lips of a dream” or “like a tear from the eyes of a bride”.
Possibly both.
Check Your Progress 2
1) Is the poem ‘Palanquin Bearers’ an allegory?
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
10 ......................................................................................................................
2) Pick out a few images from the poem that you find suggestive and Sarojini Naidu
imaginative.
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................

1.5 ‘THE BIRD OF TIME’

Now let us take up the second poem ‘The Bird of Time’.
O Bird of Time, on your fuitful bough
What are the songs you sing?....
Songs of the glory and gladness of life,
Of poignant sorrow and passionate strife,
And the tilting joy of the spring;
Of hope that sows for the years unborn,
And faith that dreams of tarrying morn,
The fragrant peace of the twilight’s breath,
And the mystic silence that men call death.

O Bird of Time, say where do you learn

The changing measures you sing?
In blowing forests and breaking tides
In the happy laughter of new made brides,
And the nests of the new-born spring;
In the dawn that thrills to a mother’s prayer,
In the dawn that shelter’s a heart’s despair
In the sight of pity, the sole of hate,
And the pride of a soul that has conquered fate.
Glossary
Bough : branches
poignant : deeply felt distress
passionate : very strong beliefs or feelings
strife : conflict, disagreement
tilting : influencing
sows : means to cause it to begin or develop
tarrying : delay leaving
fragrant : pleasant, sweet (smell)
mystic : involving religious or spiritual powers
measures : songs/themes
thrills : a feeling of great pleasure or excitement
despair : feeling of hopelessness
11
Poetry
1.5.1 Interpretation
After The Golden Threshold (1905) Sarojini Naidu’s second publication,
The Bird of Time appeared in 1912. The 107 pages of this volume contain
46 poems. In poetical terms it is a more mature book filled with philosophical
reflections and thoughts. In this poem Sarojini calls herself figuratively the
Bird of Time. The poem is important in so far as Sarojini indicates the
subject matter of her poetry and the source where from she has learnt the
changing measure of her songs. Asked about the nature of her songs, the
Bird of Time replies that her songs deal with life’s glory and gladness,
sorrow and conflict, joy and hope — faith, twilight and death.
The poem ‘The Bird of Time’ rings with melody throughout, and suggests
the totality of life wherein pleasure and pain hold an even scale. The poem
consists of two stanzas of nine lines each.
In the first stanza, the Bird of Time has been addressed and asked about the
subject matter of her songs. The reply is that the songs are about the varied
emotions of human life i.e. joys, sorrows, troubles, fights, hopes, faith,
peace and death.
In the second stanza, she has been asked to disclose the location where she
learned the “changing measures” of her song. And the reply that comes is:
that almost any situation has been able to evoke and inspire the Bird of Time
to sing. It may have been the forest or the waves at the sea-side. It could
have been the laughter and happiness of a new bride. It may have been the
dawn of hope or the dawn of despair; or the emotions of pity, hate or pride.
Therefore, any situation or emotion has been capable of inspiring the songs
of the bird of Time.
The poetry of Sarojini Naidu embodies her bold defiance of fate. Eternal joy
can be experienced only by those who have strength and courage to defeat
the deceptive designs of fate. In this poem, when the poetess asks the bird
about the sources of its profound joy its delightful music, it points to the
precious possession emanating from the triumph over fate.
The desire to escape from the hard realities of life does not touch the valiant
souls that aspire to defy and defeat fate. They learn to pass through the
moments of failure and frustration easily and to extract peace and joy from
them. Sarojini herself lived a life of this type. She continually suffered from
ill health and gloom and often longed for peace and poise, but soon her
indomitable spirit would come out of such a state of despondency triumphantly
and she would rush to the joyful realm of dreams and hope. The variety of
emotions that goad the bird in the poem to burst in spontaneous music make
it a typical Indian bird.
Sarojini Naidu is a gifted artist who shows in all her poetry a great flair for
ornamental and highly sophisticated style which abounds in lovely similes,
metaphors, images and symbols.
Check Your Progress 3
1) How does the poem ‘The Bird of Time’ reflect Naidu’s optimistic nature?
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
12
......................................................................................................................
 Sarojini Naidu
1.6 ‘BANGLE SELLERS’
And finally, let us take up the last and third poem by Sarojini Naidu:
Bangle-seller are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair
Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circle of lights?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lines,
for happy daughters and happy wives.

Some are meet for a maiden’s wrist,

Silver and blue as the mountain-mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
On the tranquil brow of a woodland stream;
Some are aglow with the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of new-born leaves.

Some are like fields of sunlit corn,

Meet for a bride on her bridal morn;
Some, like the flame of her marriage fire;
Or rich with the hue of her heart’s desire,
Tinkling, luminous tender, and clear
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.

Some are purple a gold-flocked grey,

For her who has journeyed through life midway,
Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest
And cradled fair sons on the faithful breast,
Who serves her house-hold in fruitful pride,
And worships the Gods at her husband’s side.

Glossary
fair : fete
rainbow tinted : multi-coloured like a rainbow
circles of light : brightly shining
radiant : glowing brightly with joy
meet : fit
maiden : young unmarried girl
flushed : blush  to go red in the face
tranquil : peaceful
aglow : glowing
bloom : healthy/fresh appearance
cleaves : sticking together
limpid : clear
hue : colour/shade
13
luminous : glowing with light
Poetry
1.6.1 Interpretation
‘Bangle-Sellers’ as you can see is a poem of 4 stanzas of 6 lines each
rhyming aa bb cc.
This poem throws light on Sarojini Naidu’s conception of Indian womanhood.
According to her, the lives of women should be radiant, the lustrous token
of which are the delicate bright rainbow-tinted bangles. The first duty of a
woman is to be happy, since her happiness radiates happiness to those who
come into contact with her. To be a happy daughter and wife is the goal to
which Indian women ought to aspire. Marriage to an Indian woman means
much more than to a man since the woman is in most cases economically
dependent. It is, therefore, a turning point in her life.
Sarojini symbolizes the heart’s desire of a bride with the rich red colour of
her bangles. The would-be bride responds to the laughter of the intimate
companions of her girlhood as they tease her about her coming marriage.
She sheds tears as she leaves her father’s house for her husband’s. Hence
Sarojini Naidu speaks of the bridal laughter and the bridal tears which like
the bangles she wears are, “Tinkling, luminous, tender and clear”.
‘Bangle Sellers’ confines itself to the different stages in a woman’s life,
relating each stage to the bangles appropriate to it. Thus the “rainbow-tinted
circles of light” carried by the bangle sellers to the temple fare are ‘Lustrous
tokens of radiant lives/for happy daughters and happy wives’.
The focus here is only on the radiance and not on the desolation at all.
Sarojini Naidu mingles description with reflection in ‘Bangle Sellers’. It is
beautifully executed and shows her descriptive skill with sustained thought.
Check Your Progress 4
1) How does the poem “The Bangle Sellers” throw light on Sarojini Naidu’s
conception of Indian Women?
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................

1.7 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit we have
x given you a brief background to the beginnings of Indian English poetry
x introduced you to the Indian poet Sarojini Naidu
x interpreted three poems by her

1.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress 1
1) English education was introduced in India by the British. Macaulay’s
14 Minute formally sealed the pact of introducing English. Macaulay
 believed that the use of this language would “form a class of persons Sarojini Naidu
who were Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, opinions and
intellect.”
Check Your Progress 2
1) The poem is an allegory on the movements of time which is carrying
man towards his ultimate destiny.
2) Sways like a flower, skims like a bird, floats like a laugh, hangs like a
star, springs like a beam and falls like a tear, are some very suggestive
images.
Check Your Progress 3
1) ‘The Bird of Time’ reflects Naidu’s optimism, because inspite of a
variety of emotions like joy, sorrow and conflict, the bird still bursts
into joyful song. Sarojini Naidu herself suffered from ill health and
gloom but her indomitable spirit would spring out of despair and
despondency and rush into the happy realms of hope and dreams.
Check Your Progress 4
1) Sarojini Naidu believed that women’s lives should be radiant like the
rainbow coloured bangles. A woman’s first duty was to aspire for
happiness.

15