The Mahatma and The Poetess

A selection of letters exchanged between Gandhiji and Sarojini Naidu


The Mahatma and The Poetess

THE MAHATMA AND THE POETESS

Compiled by : E. S. Reddy
Edited by : Mrinalini Sarabhai


Table of Contents

  1. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Feb 23, 1915
  2. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Mar 6, 1915
  3. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu May 4, 1915
  4. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Sep 20, 1918
  5. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Nov 18, 1918
  6. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Jun 14, 1919
  7. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Jul 17, 1919
  8. Cable from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu and others Jul 28, 1919
  9. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Nov 6, 1919 (extract)
  10. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji [before Mar 17,] 1920
  11. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Jul 15, 1920
  12. Correspondence Between Mr. E. S. Montagu and Sarojini Naidu
  13. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji September 2, 1920
  14. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Feb 13, 1924
  15. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Feb 29, 1924
  16. Cable from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Mar 1924
  17. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji before May 15, 1924 (extract)
  18. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji before Jul 2, 1924 (extract)
  19. Telegram from Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Aug 4, 1924
  20. Telegram from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Aug 4, 1924
  21. Telegram from Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Aug 11, 1924
  22. Telegram from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu [on or after Aug 12,] 1924
  23. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Mar 2, 1925
  24. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu May 30, 1925
  25. Telegram from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jun 17, 1925
  26. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jul 6, 1925
  27. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Nov 26, 1925
  28. Postcard from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Dec 2, 1925
  29. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Dec 20, 1925
  30. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Mar 9, 1926
  31. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Mar 11, 1926
  32. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Mar 24, 1926
  33. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Apr 11, 1926
  34. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Jul 20, 1926
  35. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jun 25, 1927
  36. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jul 1, 1927
  37. Telegram from Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Aug 6, 1927
  38. Telegram from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu [on or after Aug 6,] 1927
  39. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Apr 16, 1928
  40. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Aug 7, 1928
  41. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Sep 2, 1928
  42. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Sep 17, 1928
  43. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Oct 12, 1928
  44. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Nov 19, 1928
  45. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Dec 16, 1928
  46. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Feb 11, 1929
  47. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji [before Apr 11,] 1929
  48. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Jun 18, 1929
  49. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jul 21, 1929
  50. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Aug 7, 1929
  51. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Nov 9, 1929
  52. Telegram from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Nov 14, 1929
  53. Cable from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Dec 5, 1929
  54. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Apr 16, 1930
  55. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu May 6, 1932
  56. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Aug 8, 1932
  57. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Sep 17, 1932
  58. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Feb 22, 1934
  59. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji [before Aug 17,] 1934
  60. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Nov 26, 1938
  61. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Feb 12, 1940
  62. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Apr 18, 1941
  63. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jul 18, 1941
  64. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jul 18, 1941
  65. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Aug 4, 1941
  66. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Sep 22, 1941
  67. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jun 13, 1942
  68. Pyarelal and Sushila Nayyar To Sarojini Naidu Jul 6, 1942
  69. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jul 17, 1944
  70. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Aug 20, 1944
  71. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Mar 3, 1945
  72. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Apr 12, 1945
  73. Pyarelal To Sarojini Naidu May 25, 1945
  74. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jun 9, 1945
  75. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jun 16, 1945
  76. Telegram from Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Feb 15, 1946
  77. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Jul 30, 1946
  78. Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji Dec 26, 1946
  79. Gandhiji To Sarojini Naidu Oct 7, 1947

APPENDIX I

  1. Speech at Reception to Gandhiji in London, August 4, 1914
  2. Foreword To A Collection of Gandhiji's Speeches, 1917
  3. "My Father, Do Not Rest": Broadcast on the All India Radio, Delhi, February 1, 1948
  4. Foreword to Mahatma Gandhi, by H.S.L. Polak and others, 1949

APPENDIX II

  1. Comment on April 11, 1918
  2. Sarojini the Singer, 1924
  3. A Call to India's Poetess, 1928
  4. Foreign Propaganda and Sarojini Devi, 1928

About This Book


The Mahatma and the Poetess

Compiled by :E. S. Reddy
Editor : Mrinalini Sarabhai
Volume Published by :
Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan,
Mumbai,


Letter 2: Sarojini Naidu To Gandhiji
March 6, 1915

Hyderabad, Deccan
6 March, 1915

Dear Friend:
What am I to say to you? My heart has been torn and my right hand cut off from me. As I have said the irony of God lies heavy upon me and I have very little strength and courage left to endure it much longer. In the brief space of three weeks I have been called to face the loss of two great sons and faithful servants of India - my father and my friend... and my love for both was leavened with passionate worship and devotion; and to both it was my privilege to stand in a special relationship and though I am in some way only a co-sharer in the universal grief I feel I have my own incommunicable share, because of the incommensurable tenderness and understanding that lay between me and my father, between me and my friend. But it is of the friend I would speak to you now. You never knew my father - that great soul whose heart was incarnate love and his mind incarnate truth and spirit incarnate wisdom... He used to honour you because he felt that in you dwelt love and truth and wisdom in such signal measure. Had you known him you would have come under the spell of his radiant and noble personality.
What am I to say of Gokhale? Even to you who considered him your guru and of whom he so often said to me, "He can mould heroes out of common clay..." What beautiful things he used to say of you to me in the course of those long and intimate personal talks it was my privilege to have with him in London... Some day I will remember them all and tell you so that they might serve as a further inspiration to your life of perfect sacrifice and love... I have a hundred memories of the man - too poignant and too personal to reveal to the world, but I have written a short sketch of him giving a few of those reminiscences of him, chiefly in his own words, that I can allow the world to share with me. The man Gokhale was a marvelous, great, and complex embodiment of God's dreams of a splendid patriot: complex he was essentially and many sided and it is his triumph that he focused all his myriad qualities into supreme and single-hearted achievement of service: he was literally a servant of India and in that he fulfilled the proudest and the highest destiny of man: what can be a more gracious fate than to be allowed to serve?
My little sketch will first appear early next week in The Bombay Chronicle and I propose, if the members of the Servants of India Society approve, to expand it a little and give it more permanent form as a pamphlet and issue it for sale - and devote the proceeds - however humble - to their fund. It is only my poor way of showing my desire also to "stand and wait" at the gates of the temple of service where once he made me take an oath in his presence, with the stars as witness - but of that you will read in my little tribute. Will you please convey to the members of the Society my deepest fellowship with them in their sorrow and loss? I too was among his chosen disciples but for me he chose other modes of work than them... "Your function of service is to inspire," he would say to me, "you are a songbird and must sing to the heart of the nation. You are a flame and must act like a beacon light of Hope." Oh I cannot think of all his loving and moving words without anguish... He was an incomparable friend, stern and loyal in admonition and reproof, tender and gracious in sympathy and kinship, generous and ready in praise, chivalrous to defend and to shield and (to) uphold, equally ready to guide as to follow in the right path... unspeakably gentle and loving and unselfish in all his intercourse as friend and comrade, whose love was a benediction and crown. My health is, I regret to say, a source of much anxiety to my husband: my heart has suffered severely from the two shocks I have recently sustained - but my life is excessively full - overcrowded with work and duties of all kinds with the public as well as the social life of the place - special kind of work with education, women's associations, the young men and their enthusiasm, and now of course the war relief work which keeps us all continuously engaged with our hands as well as our sympathies. Our Indian ladies, both Hindu and Mussalman, have turned out splendid workers behind their seclusion!
On the 18th there is to be a huge memorial meeting for Mr. Gokhale. Mr. Syed Hussain Bilgrami, his old colleague and admirer, will preside and I hope the speakers will represent every community and creed. I of course have the honour to be one of the principal speakers on this sad occasion because of my close personal association with him.
My husband sends you his warmest respects. He is an exceedingly busy man but not too busy to find leisure to appraise and value to the full a great man's worth and work. My children who think they really know you and your wife because of my frequent mention of you send you their love and hope to see you soon. Will you not come some day to Hyderabad, to the great city which is the true centre of Hindu-Muslim unity and brotherhood? How our women will flock to offer their tribute of love to your wife; how every man and woman will vie with one another to see the man who moulds heroes out of common clay and does not even know that he has done a godlike deed of creation!
Believe dear brother. With much affection for you both,
Your sincere friend
Sarojini Naidu

From: SN 6160