Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu was born on 13 February 1879 in Hyderabad. She studied at the University of Madras, then at King's College London and Girton College, Cambridge.

She wrote poetry, and the Indian National Congress describes her as a poet, women's rights activist and freedom fighter. Her poetry earned her the nickname 'Nightingale of India'.

Sarojini Naidu joined the Indian national movement after the 1905 partition of Bengal. In 1917 she helped establish the Women's Indian Association, and that year she went to London with Annie Besant to press the case for women's franchise before a Joint Select Committee. She returned to India in 1920 to join Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha movement.

In 1925 she was elected President of the Indian National Congress at its 40th session, held in Cawnpore. She was the first woman to hold the office. She was jailed in 1930 after taking part in the Salt Satyagraha, and in 1931 she attended the Round Table Conference with Gandhi and Madan Mohan Malaviya. She was arrested again in 1932 and 1942, and in total spent 21 months in jail.

After independence, Sarojini Naidu was appointed Governor of the United Provinces, the province now called Uttar Pradesh. She held the post from 15 August 1947 to 2 March 1949. She was the first woman to serve as Governor of the province.

She died in office at Government House in Lucknow on 2 March 1949, of cardiac arrest, according to the Indian National Congress tribute.

The Indian National Congress remembers Sarojini Naidu as a poet, women's rights activist and freedom fighter, and as the first woman to lead the party. Her public life combined literary work, the independence movement and work for women, including the Women's Indian Association she helped establish in 1917.