NAIDU, SAROJINI (1879– ), Indian poet and feminist leader, eldest child of Dr. Aghorenath Chattopadhyay, a noted Bengali Brahrhan educationist and principal of the Nizam's col lege, Hyderabad, was born there on Feb. 13, 1879. Passing the matriculation examination of the Madras university at 12 she began writing English verse in her early teens. Sent to England in 1895 she studied at King's college, London, and Girton college, Cambridge. Her first volume of verse, "The Golden Threshold," was sponsored by Arthur Symons, and the second, "The Bird of Time," by Edmund Gosse. "The Broken Wing" followed. These volumes have been translated into most of the Indian vernaculars and some into Continental languages, while portions of her verse have been set to music. Her marriage in 1898 to Dr. M. G. Naidu, a Rajput in the Nizam's service, caused some sensation and re sentment in orthodox Hindu circles. Her address at the all-India Social Conference at Calcutta in 1905 marked the beginning of an active career as a most eloquent speaker on social and political questions, and as a leader in the women's movement in India. She
gained the enthusiastic admiration of Indian students by her sympathy with their outlook and her power of thrilling presenta tion. She had some share in the militant women's suffrage move ment in England before the World War, and this experience tended in later years to draw her to Gandhi's non-cooperation movement. A tour in South Africa in 1924, on behalf of the Indian settlers there, deepened her strong criticism of British rule in her own land. In 1925 she was the first Indian woman to preside over the annual Indian National Congress at Cawnpore. Her acute mental equipment was linked with a certain attractive mischievousness, but her eloquence was inspired and deepened by a strong burning patriotism. In 1928 she visited England and America, to lecture upon Indian affairs. (F. H. BR.)