Sarojini Naidu (born as Sarojini Chattopadhyay)

also known by the sobriquet as The Nightingale of

India, was an Indian independence activist and poet.
Naidu served as the first governor of the United
Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949; the
first woman to become the governor of an Indian
state. She was the second woman to become the
president of the Indian National Congress in 1925 and
the first Indian woman to do so.

Early life and background

Sarojini Naidu was born in Hyderabad to Aghore Nath Chattopadhyay and Barada
Sundari Devi on 13 February 1879. Her parental home was at Brahmangaon
in Bikrampur (in present-day Bangladesh). Her father, Aghor Nath Chattopadhyaya, with
a doctorate of Science from Edinburgh University, settled in Hyderabad, where he
founded and administered Hyderabad College, which later became the Nizam's College
in Hyderabad. Her mother, Barada Sundari Devi, was a poet and used to write poetry in
Bengali.
She was the eldest among the eight siblings. Her brother Virendranath
Chattopadhyaya was a revolutionary and her other brother, Harindranath was a poet, a
dramatist, and an actor.
Naidu, having passed her matriculation examination from the University of Madras, took
a four-year break from her studies. In 1895, the Nizam Scholarship Trust founded by the
6th Nizam, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, gave her the chance to study in England, first at King's
College London and later at Girton College, Cambridge.
Naidu met Govindarajulu Naidu, a physician, and at the age of 19, after finishing her
studies, she married him. At that time, Inter-caste marriages were not allowed, but her
father approved the marriage.
The couple had five children. Her daughter, Padmaja, became the Governor of West
Bengal. Padmaja was a part of the Quit India Movement.

Kasturba Mohandas Gandhi

listen (helpinfo) (born Kastur Kapadia; 11 April 1869
22 February 1944) was the wife of Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi. In association with her husband,
Kasturba Gandhi was a political activist fighting for civil
rights and Indian independence from the British.

Early life and background

Born to Gokuladas and Vrajkunwerba Kapadia of Porbandar, little is known of her early
life. In May 1883, 14-year old Kasturba was married to 13-year old Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi in an arranged marriage, according to the custom of the region.
Recalling the day of their marriage, her husband once said, "As we didn't know much
about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing
with relatives." However, as was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend
much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband. Writing many years later,
Mohandas described with regret the lustful feelings he felt for his young bride, "even at
school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting
was ever haunting me."
When her husband left to study in London in 1888, she remained in India to raise their
newborn son Harilal Gandhi. She had three more sons: Manilal Gandhi, Ramdas
Gandhi, and Devdas Gandhi. Kasturba also had a son who died very young and even
though she had four sons later on, she never truly got over the death of her first
newborn. Kasturba's relationship with her husband can be described by the following
extract from Ramachandra Guha's novel Gandhi Before India; "They had, in the
emotional as well as sexual sense, always been true to one another. Perhaps because
of their periodic, extended separations, Kasturba deeply cherished their time together.

Aruna Asaf Ali (16 July 1909 29 July 1996), born Aruna
Ganguly, was an Indian independence activist. She is widely
remembered for hoisting the Indian National Congress flag at
the Gowalia Tank maidan in Bombay during the Quit India
Movement, 1942.
After the independence, she remained active in politics,
becoming Delhi's first mayor in 1958. In the 1960s, she
successfully started a media publishing house.
She received India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna,
posthumously in 1997.
Early life and background
Aruna Asaf Ali was born Aruna Ganguly on 16 July 1909 in Kalka, Punjab, British
India (now in Haryana, India) into a Bengali Brahmo family. Her father Upendranath
Ganguly hailed from Barisal district of Eastern Bengal but settled in the United Province.
He was a restaurant owner. Her mother Ambalika Devi was the daughter
of Trailokyanath Sanyal, a renowned Brahmo leader who wrote many Brahmo hymns.
Upendranath Ganguly's younger brother Dhirendranath Ganguly (D G) was one of the
earliest film directors. Another brother, Nagendranath, was a university professor who
married Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore's only surviving daughter Mira
Devi. Aruna's sister Purnima Banerjee was a member of the Constituent Assembly of
India.
Aruna was educated at Sacred Heart Convent in Lahore and then at All Saints'
College in Nainital. After her graduation, she worked as a teacher at
the Gokhale Memorial School in Calcutta. She met Asaf Ali, a leader in the Congress
party, in Allahabad. They got married in 1928, despite parental opposition on grounds of
religion and age (he was a Muslim and her senior by more than 20 years).
My father was no more when Asaf and I married in September 1928. My paternal uncle
Nagendranath Gangulee, a university professor who regarded himself as my guardian,
said to relatives and friends that as far as he was concerned I was dead and he had
performed my shraddh. Aruna Asaf Ali