Wednesday, July 5, 2017

076. Indian Weavers. Sarojini Naidu Poem. Appreciation By P S Remesh Chandran

076. 

Indian Weavers. Sarojini Naidu Poem. Appreciation By P S Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

By PSRemeshChandra, 1st Jul 2017. Short URL http://nut.bz/2ukdobo0/
First Published in Wikinut; Writing; Essays


Indian Weavers was written by Sarojini Naidu in the 1920s. Besides being a great poetess, she was one of the leading figures of the Indian Independence Movement. This article therefore is also a lookout into what happened to the weavers of India after independence. Indian weavers who were once favorites in king’s homes to poor man’s huts are now pushed to extinction by governments, politicians, large textile mills and arrogant bureaucrats. Suppose Sarojini Naidu returns, and finds this?

I. ABOUT SAROJINI NAIDU’S POEM INDIAN WEAVERS.

The range, variety and magnificence of  Indian weavers’ work.


Indian weavers weave at the break of day, at the fall of night and at midnight, i.e. throughout day and night. It is a back-breaking job they do round the clock to make a frugal living out of it. But it is not the perpetuality of their work that is discussed in the poem but the variety, range and magnificence of their products. At the break of day they weave the gay robes of a new-born child, as blue as the wing of a helicon wild. At fall of night, they are weaving the happy marriage veils of a queen, so bright like the purple and green plumes of a peacock. Thus the weavers have passed through a birth in the morning and a nuptial in the evening. Now they are to pass through a death at midnight. Their mirth and joviality are over and they are now solemn and still, preparing to weave the garment in the next order, an express order. In the moonlit chill of midnight they are now weaving the funeral shroud of a dead man, as white as a feather and as white as a cloud.

This here is the poet’s licentious use of the word Helicon which was a mythical Macedonian river in Greece which was blue only when it flowed peacefully in its halcyon days but then it never could have been wild also simultaneously. Or it might have dawned on her mind the butterflies belonging to the Heliconiinae species, some of which do have blue wings but are not wild, except during mating dances. When we hear the word Helicon, if we are poets, what normally comes to our minds is the image of an explosion of bright clouds in a serene blue sky, but poets are not normal always. If they are interested in a word and love to use it, they just use it without caring for the meaning the world uses it with. When they do this, we would love the meaning changed to what they meant.

New garments for new born babies, brides and bygone people are wet with tears of love, deliquescence, and blessings.

01. Village Weaver In North India By ShefShef.

We will wonder what thoughts might have been going through those weavers’ minds while weaving those fine garments. Weaving the robes of a new born child will surely rouse memories of their own children’s infanthood, of their want for new clothes and how they had been unable to provide them to make them happy. They will also no doubt think about whom these robes would be going to- to some obedient child or some unruly and abused child? Will it be an only child or one among many in a household? Will it be coloured like them or elite and white? Will it be blue blood or Brahmin? Weaving nuptial clothes for the bride will invariably rouse memories of their own marriages- how their parents had struggled to make money for the marriage, how they had struggled to purchase wedding clothes for the daughter, how they had wept when their land and house were sold to purchase gold for giving dowry, and how they had suppressed tears when sending their daughter away to husband’s house. Will the dress go to a virgin who will think about them perspiring behind the garment or will it be a harlot who would just consider it as merchandise? Will she be caring enough to keep it spotless and clean or will she just throw it to the cleaners? Will she be a kind and considerate human being worthy of wearing this hard-produced beauty or will she be a hard spoiled brat? Weaving the funeral shroud also would invariably remind them of their own passing away some day and the losses of many of their own beloved ones they suffered on the way. One thing we are sure of- newly woven garments for new born babies, brides or bygone people will be wet with tears of love, deliquescence, and blessings. 

II. ABOUT THE LIFE OF HANDLOOM WEAVERS IN INDIA.

Britain and America stole weaving industry from India.

02. Weaver In Indonesia By Michael Gunther.

Weaving in India was in comparatively good shape before the British came. From the royal court to the peasants’ huts, their hand-made products were in demand. Compared to other people and other artisans, they could even afford two story houses as they were enjoying the patronage of kings and queens and princes and princesses. Of course there were swindlers too among them. We have heard about the story of two swindlers who posed as weavers and cheated a king out of a fortune, and also made him laughable in the presence of a large number of his people. (Read the story at the end of this article).

After the American War of Independence England lost their factories in the colony and raw cotton from India was sent to their remaining factories in England. Thus raw cotton became short in India and weavers suffered. Then the British started weaving factories in India and flooded markets with their cotton goods- another blow to Indian weavers. They lost their export and domestic markets. Like when Napoleon Bonaparte banned the importing of British textiles to France to keep the silk industry in Lyons intact, the un-united kings in India could not foresee the same British textiles ruining the silk industry of India. Agricultural land replaced by crops like rubber during the British rule was yet another blow. The life of weavers in England at this time also was not good. The sad living conditions of weavers and peasants in England had been brought to world’s attention by then by Percy Bysshe Shelley in his poem Song To The Men Of England, one of the finest revolutionary poems in the world for which, luckily, he was not hanged. In India, no one was there to sing the dirge of the death bells of the Indian weavers then.

After the British, it was the Americans’ turn to bring down the handloom weaving enterprise in India. Cotton cultivation for non-silk handlooms was wrecked by the invasion of American genetic varieties and replacement of agricultural plantations by commercial plantations. Sericulture for silk handlooms also came to an end for want of land. Attacked from both front and back by the plantation policies of government and suffocating from lack of raw materials, this sunset industry with the largest number of weavers in the world gradually began to die out.


Innovations in weaving brought by weavers’ families, not by research institutes.
 03. Weaver In Bhutan By Franz Foto.

A weaver’s life is a desperate struggle against poverty, illness and competition from large textile mills. A weaver’s set up is not owned by him but lent to him by an investor who employs him for profit. Working sixteen hours a day, he earns only 500 to 600 rupees a month, completing a sari or a few dresses within this time. A hand-woven Indian sari is not just a sari but a work of art. The exquisite golden and silver designs woven into saris by Indian weavers were a thrill to the world once and these saris were coveted. Now imitation Chinese silk saris flood the market, promoted by bureaucrats in government, under trade agreements. A fine six metre silk Indian sari still brings 50,000 rupees but the weaver is paid 600 rupees. Even though Indian saris are much in demand, the weavers now are a neglected and lonely lot. The thousands of handlooms in Indian villages are silent now; villages which once had hundreds of looms have only one or two now. Poverty and malnutrition are prevalent among weavers, and left out of their traditional vocation, many of them beg in the streets and a few have turned to coolie labour in the agricultural and industrial sectors. Weavers want to continue in this art and, if offered other jobs, only a few are willing to go out of this profession. All innovations in weaving were brought about by weaving families, not research institutes, and they want to preserve this know-how in their families. But continuing in this profession and preserving this know how now is impossible for them. The large workforce of once-500,000 weavers in India has now been reduced to a few thousand and great weaving centres in Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra, Assam, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have been reduced to ghost villages. In India, weaving is now a precious endangered tradition. In Thailand, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka also the picture is not different. No education for children, no marriages for daughters, no jobs for sons, no hospital treatment for the old. This largest and one of the oldest industries in the world still provides employment to 13 million people, and next to agriculture, is the largest employment provider in rural India. 

The problems of wrinkle resistance, frequent weft changes and greenhouse gas emissions solved by handloom weavers.
 04. Weaving In Karnataka India By Pavanaja.

The handloom weavers’ skills are honed over centuries and have no substitute. The problem of wrinkle resistance, overcome by handloom weavers by using special types of fabric, weave, density and process unique to them, is persistent with mill-made clothes and machine-made imitations. Gold and silver-interwoven threads loose their polish, multi-colour designs needing frequent changes of weft loose their beauty, and poly-colour embellishments in border and body loose their delicateness with industrial machines. These are all yielding only to the skills of handloom weavers. Weaving fine delicate materials with yarn counts of 100 and above needing light jerks are also is possible in handlooms only. The handloom industry also is a challenge to the large textile mills industry in minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. The marching of mechanization and government’s indifference to protective laws for handloom weavers took their toll and financial institutions’ decisions to help only large industrial mills broke the backbone of this indigenous industry. The intricacies of skills in this industry, which will take many years to master and so has to be learned from childhood, has stopped passing from generation to generation, and technical institutes have been unable to preserve them for use of future generations in the country.

Deny raw materials, and you can break the backbone of any industry.
 05. Weaver Making Jamdani Sari By Kamrul V B.

Yarn and dyes are the basic requirements for weaving. Yarn is cotton fibers used to weave cloth vertically and horizontally. Hank yarn is the basic for handlooms and cone yarn is the basic for power looms and industrial machines. Today the monopolizing large yarn spinning companies send their stock to cloth mills only and village weavers are out of supply of hank yarn for their handlooms. Dyes for colouring also are costly now and most often unavailable to them. Cloth mills, governments, politicians and bureaucrats all want hand weavers pushed out of the field and it is a wonder how they still survive in this profession. These traitors of common people enacted laws giving preference to export of primary fiber and yarn products so that the remaining weavers also will be pushed out of the field. Large contributions to politicians and governments will come only from large cloth mills. Gandhi was thoroughly defeated and Nehru won. Had spinning units remained small and remained in villages like Gandhi envisioned in his Grama Swaraj (Self Sufficiency of Villages), instead of growing big and moving to large cities like Nehru wanted, the cost of yarn production would have remained low and their products would have been available to village weavers first.


Transition from Gandhi to Nehru meant transition from government support to government animosity towards weavers.

06. Weaving Silk Sari In Tamil Nadu By Saravan KM.

In times when weavers were based on local craftsmanship, local resources and catering primarily to local markets- a concept emphasized by Mahatma Gandhi in his Grama Swaraj- they were independent of machine commerce. Anyone could see in advance that machine commerce would destroy them. To warn against this, Gandhi himself was always seen spinning threads in his Charka, even while directing great conferences, to emphasize the importance of weaving and the need for protecting the weavers’ economy. Governments and the politicians since the independence of India wanted fast industrial growth and began to consider handloom weavers as an encumbrance and burden.

Governments’ subservience to large textile mills and refusal to allow subsidized raw materials to handloom weavers are unnoticed by people and human rights organizations in the field even while clothing remaining one of the three basic necessities of mankind. The hundreds of human rights organization in India, and the world, including those headed by top dignitaries eager only for collecting donations from whomever possible, has not raised voice against government pushing weavers to self deaths. If you write to them about a horrible human rights violation on you or someone you know, the first email you receive would be asking for a donation even while not acknowledging the receipt of your complaint. If you have doubts, write to them once and you will loose all confidence in the world’s human rights organizations. Practically there is no one there to speak for and defend the victimized child, woman, man or village. Some human rights organizations revel in submitting consolidated reports to UN as if they have climbed the Everest! Every scheme formulated by government to help weavers provide an opportunity for bureaucrats and politicians to pilfer public money from it as a recompense for looking away when top government officials loot public money from other sources. It is like throwing skin and bones to lower officials while top government people devour breast and legs.

Products from 38,00,000 handlooms brought 19,560 million rupees to India’s national revenue in 1998-99.

07. Weaving In Japan By 663HighLand.

The thousands and thousands of government offices in the country won’t use handloom clothes even as window curtains or table spreads. The cheap government officers sitting in these offices, coming from very low-income families and entered government employment through windows, not through doors, would only order mills-made silk and polyester cloth for office use, and demand full furnishing of their homes also as commission. Cabinet ministers who want to downsize weavers’ cooperatives do not want to downsize the cabinet they sit in. They accuse weavers’ cooperatives of recurring losses, over-expenditure and corruption, simply forgetting how much loss their governments incur and how much corruption in government there is. The number of handloom workers came down from 3.47 million in 1995 to 2.9 million in 2015- a 16 percent reduction in just 15 years according to the Handloom Census of India. Handloom products from the 38,00,000 handlooms- two thirds of them set up in homes- brought 19,560 million rupees to India’s national revenue in 1998-99 which proves they still have a world-wide market, even after fierce competition from large textile mills and China. Cotton farmers, weavers’ families, transportation firms and marketing firms and many other fields benefited from this turnover. This feat was achieved without any assistance in skill development and training from government, without polluting the environment and ecology much, with in-house transfer of skills from elders to youngsters and permitting all castes and communities to take up and take part this profession, a rare achievement in caste India. 

All benefits go to people’s representatives and politicians and none to weavers.
 08. Silk Punch Card Loom Mechanism Varanasi By Steve Kimberley.

Considering the huge amount of revenue handloom weavers bring to India’s national coffers, we would expect proportionate amounts to go back to them as pension and other welfare schemes. Old age pension allowed for a weaver by a state government is a ridiculous Rs. 75 per month where old age pension allowed for a member of that state’s legislative assembly is Rs. 75,000. And this Rs. 75 was granted by that group of legislative assembly members! They give Rs. 10,000 to the family of a weaver who committed suicide due to hunger due to government’s policies!! What is the amount of help package for the 500 member-strong parliament community of the country, compared to the help package of 30 crores for the 5,00,00,000-strong weavers’ community of the country? Free medical treatment is only for the members of the parliament, legislative assemblies and cabinets, not for the weavers. Medical administration rouses up from sinful sleep only when weavers commit suicides in hundreds. Governments do everything except shooting them to turn them to every other menial job so that the field would be cleared for mammoth industries to march over, instead of training weavers’ children in weaving and giving assistance to them in setting up their home units. Governments are discriminating towards weavers and every subsidy goes to large cloth mills and power looms. Co-operative societies formed for weavers were infested with and plagued by politicians and became centres of corruption. Government go down facilities are not open to them. Banks would not give them loans for creating new designs to compete in the market; they will give them only to large textile mills. The National Institute of Fashion Technology gulped down several hundred crores of rupees given to them for developing new designs for handloom weavers but gave them nothing, and gave everything they developed to large mills, acting like private institutions operated by the textile mills industry. Governments did nothing to patent and protect the designs already developed by weavers. Political parties including Congress (I), Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) see the fat purses of spinning companies and salivate and shed crocodile tears when handloom weavers take their own lives. 

III. THE IMPORTANCE OF BENARES SILK IN THE WEAVING INDUSTRY.

The centre of sari weaving and the City of Lights- Benares- falls into darkness and doom.
 09. Punch Card Handloom Silk Kanchipuram Sari By McKay Savage London.

The largest and the oldest handloom weaving centre in India is Benares, or Varanasi- the oldest lived-in city in the world, known in the ancient world as Kusi or the City of Light. The Islamic and Hindu weavers of this city, divided into clans famous for the distinctive designs of each, have been producing the famous high quality six yards-long silk saris for the past six hundred years, which once sold $600 million gross in the world a year. There was once even a saying that this Holy City in Uttar Pradesh is to handloom saris what Darjeeling is to tea.

The importance of Benares silk is in that it combined Chinese silk threads made easy to be woven into saris by recording design data in Jacquard Punch Cards developed by the French inventor Jacquard a century ago- the predecessor to all modern computers- and creating semi-automatic weave. This enabled international standard home-spun silk to be made in India without the use of heavy machinery. It also ensured the length and strength of saris to match the world’s-best Chinese silk. Weaving silk as saris needs an intricate pattern defining the threading in each row of the fabric. It needs defining in advance which threads get pulled up and which threads stay down, made possible through a criss-cross pulley strings system, which is where Jacquard Card System becomes useful. Here it is the cards which define which strings are to be pulled up and which strings are to stay down, making it easy to weave elegant and complicated patterns in saris. The more advanced the cards, the more number of colours can be used and the more gold and silver threads can be ingrained.

This City of Light is in darkness and doom now for the fall of this indigenous industry there. In Kancheepuram in Tamilnadu which was the second-best in hand woven silk saris in the world also the looms are becoming silent. Pochampalli in Andhra Pradesh which was perhaps the third largest centre for hand woven saris also is fading away. West Bengal, the home of Sarojini Naidu and Andhra Pradesh, the home of her husband, were home to great numbers of weavers’ families where their death bells are tolling now due to negligence and betrayal by Indian leaders.

Hollow words delivered to Indian weavers during election campaigns.

10. Finished Kanchipuram Silk Saris By Jonoikobangali.

Handloom weavers in India can be saved, and they do need saving within a few years, by promoting sari wearing. Indira Gandhi was the Sari Ambassador of India. This Prime Minister beautifully wearing sari in world capitals made sari popular. The present Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi reminded weavers that ‘every mother would want to gift her daughter with a Benares sari in marriage, there would be about 20 crore marriages in India in the next few years, and they need only to tap into this domestic market’. This Benares sari of Uttar Pradesh also is saying farewell to the world, after years listening to the hollow words of politicians. Mr. Modi’s election promises did not materialize and his help package to weavers did not appear and thousands of traders are withdrawing from this 1,80,000 million industry. His economic reforms also brought down the purchasing power of people except the immensely rich. Once the wife or daughter of a Nawab was given fifty one saris as her wedding present which sustained this industry, but now only wealthy film stars and politicians like the late Ms. Kumari Jayalalitha of Tamilnadu can afford such luxury.

The emperor has nothing on: exclaimed an innocent child.

11. Finished Handloom Saris To Market By Harsha K R.

Why this story is retold here is to note how the Indian authorities stand in protecting the weavers and the handloom weaving industry in the country: they stand with nothing on. Not all weavers were truthful in the past; there were swindlers too among them. The Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen in his story ‘Keiserens nye Klæder (The Emperor's New Clothes)’ told the story of an emperor who changed clothes every hour and engaged two swindlers posing as weavers to weave exquisite clothes for him. They claimed that they could weave magnificent fabrics which would not be visible to the stupid eyes. The emperor hoped these clothes could be used to measure the stupidity of his people also. These two swindlers took hold of large quantities of silk, gold threads and money from the emperor’s treasury and pretended to weave trousers and coats for the emperor. They were weaving nothing but just pretending through gestures to do so. Those who inspected and saw nothing praised the garments though none were there for fear of revealing their stupidity. The emperor also went through the same experience and exclaimed the garments were magnificent and fine. He even gave the title of ‘Sir. Weaver’ to each of these swindlers. On the day of parade they even pretended to cloth the emperor in new dresses and then fled. When the parade began, an innocent child exclaimed loudly: ‘But he has got nothing on’. Finally all spectators admitted that the emperor was totally naked and they all laughed at the joke the swindlers played on their emperor, but the parade went on for the vanity of the emperor.
 
IV. ABOUT THE AUTHOR’S WORKS ON SAROJINI NAIDU. 

Bloom Books Channel has a video of Indian Weavers.

12. Indian Weavers Video Title By Bloom Books Channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un-pWZcPmv4


Indian Weavers was written by Sarojini Naidu in the 1920s. It’s one of the most famous and endeared songs in the English language. A primitive prototype rendering of this song was made in a crude tape recorder decades earlier, in 1984. In 2014, a home made video of this song was released. This third version is comparatively better. The next version, we hope, would be fully orchestrated. This song was originally part of the project PROPÈS INDIA or ‘Project For The Popularization of English Songs In India’, recorded from an English class by Mr. P S Remesh Chandran. Today it belongs to Bloom Books Channel’s Sing A Song Project for children. It's free for reuse, and anyone interested can develop and build on it, till it becomes a fine musical video production, to help our little learners, and their teachers. Rushes of the original recordings were made available from the archives of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Our listeners mostly comprised of teachers and students who needed, and demanded, studio-versions with more clarity. Though beyond our limited resources, we release these new versions, for them. We thank them all for their support and goodwill. Why we, with only scanty resources, prepared these recordings in the first place and released and made them mostly public domain can be read about in the article, 'My First English Recitation Videos Took Thirty Years To Produce By P S Remesh Chandran' here: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.in/2014/05/058-my-first-english-recitation-videos.html

Bloom Books Channel’s video of Coromandel Fishers.


13. Coromandel Fishers Video Title By Bloom Books Channel. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhL8txK6RGI

The sea has been an attraction for man since his first appearance on this planet. Primitive forms of life originated first in the primeval soup of ancient oceans billions of years ago, migrated to land, and became bird, beast, reptiles and man. If we close both our ear openings with our fingers, we can still hear those reverberations of ocean waves crashing. Oceans have served not only as the ancient home to man but provided him with a multitude of marine products for his sustenance also.

Also read The Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu by the author.

14. Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu Article.

It is impossible to tell whether Sarojini Naidu was a poet or a politician. She left her footprints in both fields and her achievements in poetry and politics make it impossible for us to select either one as her favourite field. From studying in England as a teenager to dying while at work in the UP Governor’s office in India as Governor, her life was one of the most vibrant tales of Indian women, stretching through nations and touching peoples in Asia, Europe, Africa and America.’ (Excerpt from the article).

Links to Sarojini Naidu’s works by the author.

1. The Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu: Article

Article: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.in/2017/06/075-life-and-works-of-sarojini-naidu.html June 2017

2. Indian Weavers: Poem

Article: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.in/2017/07/076-indian-weavers-sarojini-naidu-poem.html
 July 2017

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un-pWZcPmv4 May 2015

3. Coromandel Fishers: Poem

Article: Sahyadri Books Trivandrum

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhL8txK6RGI May 2015

___________________________
Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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Picture Credits:


01. Village Weaver in North India PD By ShefShef.
02. Weaver in Indonesia By Michael Gunther.
03. Weaver in Bhutan By Franz Foto.
04. Weaving in Karnataka India By Pavanaja.
05. Weaver Making Jamdani Sari By Kamrul V B.
06. Weaving Silk Sari in Tamil Nadu By Saravan KM.
07. Weaving In Japan By 663HighLand.
08. Punch Card Loom Mechanism Varanasi Silk By Steve Kimberley.
09. Punch Card Loom Kanchipuram Silk By McKay Savage London.
10. Finished Kanchipuram Silk Saris By Jonoikobangali
11. Finished Handloom Saris to Market By Harsha K R
12. Indian Weavers Video Title By Bloom Books Channel.
13. Coromandel Fishers Video Title By Bloom Books Channel.
14. Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu Article Ad By Sahyadri Archives.
15. Author Profile of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.


Meet the author: About the author and accessing his other literary works.


Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of 'Swan, The Intelligent Picture Book'. Edits and owns Bloom Books Channel. Born and brought up in Nanniyode, a little village in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Kerala. Father British Council-trained English Teacher and mother university-educated. Matriculation with High First Class, Pre Degree studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship, discontinued Diploma Studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single. 

15. Author Profile of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives. 

Dear Reader,

If you cannot access all pages of P S Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum, kindly access them via this link provided here:
https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/wiki-nut-articles
 

Visit author's Sahyadri Books Trivandrum in Word Press at
http://sahyadribooks.wordpress.com/ and his Bloom Books Channel in You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/user/bloombooks/videos
 

Author's Google Plus Page: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PSRemeshChandran/posts

Face Book Page: https://www.facebook.com/psremeshchandra.trivandrum

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Bloom Books Trivandrum, English Articles, English Essays, English Poets, English Writers, Free Student Notes, Indian Poets, Indian Weavers, Indian Writers In English, Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu, Nightingale of India, P S Remesh Chandran, Poets, Quit India, Sahyadri Books Trivandrum, Sarojini Devi, Sarojini Naidu, Writers In English,

To download these articles, visit the Downloads Section in this blog.

To read these articles as Flip Books, visit P S Remesh Chandran in Internet Archives.
 
(Link:https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22P+S+Remesh+Chandran%22&and[]=collection%3A%22opensource%22)


First Published: 01 July 2017
Last Edited:

Identifier: SBT-AE-076. Indian Weavers. Sarojini Naidu Poem.
Articles English Downloads Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.
Editor: P S Remesh Chandran




Thursday, June 15, 2017

075. The Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu. Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

075

The Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu


P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

 

Article title image by Stefan Keller. Graphics: Adobe SP.
 
It is impossible to tell whether Sarojini Naidu was a poet or a politician. She left her footprints in both fields and her achievements in poetry and politics make it impossible for us to select either one as her favourite field. From studying in England as a teenager to dying while at work in the UP Governor’s office in India as Governor, her life was one of the most vibrant tales of Indian women, stretching through nations and touching peoples in Asia, Europe, Africa and America.

Sarojini Naidu’s father was a scientist, and mother a multi language poet.
01. Sarojini Naidu the student in 1912.

Sarojini Naidu’s father Dr. Aghoranath Chattopadhyaya was a scientist, philosopher, educator and politician who founded the Nizam College in Hyderabad and was the first member of the Indian National Congress in Hyderabad. He was a Doctor of Science from Edinburgh University. A progressive-minded Bengali Brahmin, he had close connections with the Nizam of Hyderabad, and was respected by the Nizam too. These connections but did not prevent his removal from the college for participating in the Indian Independence Movement against the British. This Nawab of Hyderabad, whom we know as the Nizam, was the famous miser and one of the richest men in India who imported Rolls Royces in dozens for idling in his garage and used billion-dollar diamonds as paperweights in his castle. Sarojini Naidu's mother Barada Sundari Devi was a well known poetess in Bengali who wrote in many other languages also. Sarojini Devi was the eldest of their eight children.


Her house in Hyderabad was a zoo where all kinds of human beings visited, lived, flocked to.


Their house in Hyderabad was, as her brother once described, a zoo where all kinds of human beings from scholars to illiterates, from scientists to religious street speakers, from kings to beggars, visited, lived or flocked to. The parents talked to each other in Bengali, to children in English, to servants in Telugu, to visitors in English or Urdu-dominated Hindustani. The father Aghoranath spoke English, French, German, Hebrew, Russian and Sanskrit fluently. He spent a lot of time in his life to extract gold from base metals which was a fashionable and standard pursuit among scientists and alchemists then which made him a scholar in chemistry anyway. We can guess what the children living in this house would grow up into later.

Article title image by Mark Murphy. Graphics: Adobe SP.


Sarojini Naidu’s brothers and sisters were poets, revolutionaries and diplomats.


02. Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu Article.

One of Sarojini Devi’s brothers, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, was a poet, playwright, and actor. Another brother, Birendranath Chattopadhyaya, was a revolutionary who turned communist and went to Moscow to seek Russian support for Indian independence. He was one of the brains behind the Berlin Committee and was killed by Joseph Stalin’s Russian troops in 1937. Even though the communists and the congress party men in India had parted ways and remained great enemies after the Quilaffat Movement in India, Sarojini Naidu remained a sympathizer and supporter of communists till the end of her days. Sarojini Devi’s one sister, Sunalini Devi, was a dancer and actress. Another sister Suhasini Chattopadhyaya was a communist leader and a freedom fighter. The other sister Mrinalini Chattopadhyaya was a famous national activist in Calcutta. Chattopadhyaya is a clan name among Bengali Brahmins. Earlier they were called Chatterjis. (See Special Note on ‘Communist Betrayal After The Khilaffat Movement).


To King’s College, London with a King’s scholarship from Telengana.

03. Sarojini Naidu in youth.

Her father wanted her to be a scientist like him but she wanted to be a poet. She learned well and mastered Bengali, Telugu, Urdu, English and Persian- a combination of languages unheard of among children then. When she was eleven years old, while wrestling with a difficult algebraic problem, she decided to wrestle with creating a long English poem instead. The result was a wonderful 1300 lines-long poem in the likeness of Walter Scott’s The Lady Of the Lake. She never wrote a poem like this again. She topped in the Matriculation Examination of Madras University and rose to national fame at the age of twelve. The next literary creation was the play Maher Muneer in Persian. Nizam and her father were impressed. The Nizam College gave her a scholarship to study at the King’s College, London and then at Girton College, Cambridge in England which was an achievement for a sixteen year-old girl- an act uncommon among the orthodox Hindus of those times.


Birth of an English poetess with themes of Indian life and events.

04. Sarojini Naidu in 1946.


Tennyson, Shelley and Elizabeth Browning were the inspirations for Sarojini Naidu’s poetry, and naturally, she acquired the traits of a Victorian poet in writing. Fine imagery, rich lyrical and musical content and use of varying rhymes and meters were the characteristics of her poetry then. Though her themes were follow-ups of those of her inspirations initially, she later changed and switched to Indian themes. A born reader and writer noted for poetry during college years, the littérateurs she met in England prompted her to adopt Indian themes which they thought would be mountains and rivers and temples for her naturally, but Sarojini Devi startled them all by wisely adopting contemporary Indian life and events as her themes.


Given the sobriquet the Nightingale of India.
 05. Sarojini Naidu’s residence the Golden Threshold in Hyderabad.

Intoxicated by new political connections and imbibed with new literary ideas, she returned to India in 1898 without waiting for graduation. While in England she had met an Indian doctor, Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu of Hyderabad, and after returning to India after studies she was married to him at the age of 19. He was a non-Brahmin and inter-caste marriages were considered a taboo in India then. Her father and family stood with her and thus Sarojini Devi became Sarojini Naidu, adopting her husband’s surname. As we know, her parents and family had already moved from Calcutta and settled in Hyderabad far earlier and as it was, there was no cultural difference felt between then. By the time she became 25, her collections The Golden Threshold 1905, The Bird Of Time 1912 and The Broken Wing 1912 had come out and attracted large audience in England and India, and she had become famous as an English poetess. The liquidity of her diction and the rich musical content and lyrical beauty of her poems gained her the sobriquet The Nightingale of India, or Bharat Kokila in Hindi.
 
Books written by Sarojini Naidu and her rapport with Muslims.

06. With Charlie Chaplin, Gandhi and his wife in London in 1931.

The first collection of her poems The Golden Threshold published in England in 1905 thrilled the English-speaking world and it soon had several reprints and editions. Then came The Bird of Time in 1912, again published from London which also was held by the world in high esteem. The Broken Wing arrived in 1917. Born as a Hindu in the Muslim Nizam-ruled Hyderabad, Sarojini Naidu knew well the ways of life of Muslims and had acquired fine rapport with the Muslim community there. In Indian National Congress, she functioned as one of the bridges between the Hindu and Muslim factions. In 1916 she authored and published a biography of Muhammad Ali Jinnah subtitled The Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity, as a tribute to this leading figure in the independence struggle of India who later favoured India’s partition and became the father of the Pakistan nation, like Gandhi became India’s. The Feast of Youth came out in 1918. The Wizard Mask and A Treasury of Poems were collections of poems and The Magic Tree and The Gift of India were selected works which followed. The Sceptred Flute was published in 1943 posthumously and The Feather of Dawn edited by her daughter Padmaja Naidu in 1961. The Golden Threshold, The Bird Of Time and The Broken Wing are the original collections of Sarojini Naidu’s poems. The Sceptred Flute and The Feather Of Dawn are collections of the same poems from the original three.
 
English poetry pages for the first time filled with eastern magic.


Arthur Symons described Sarojini Naidu’s poetry as Un-English and Oriental for their eastern magic, created through creating an atmosphere of sitar, tabala, flute, anklet bells, bangles, girls’ laughter, nightingales’ cooing and bazaar voices, which were all appearing for the first time in English poetry pages and becoming a new language unto itself within the English language. We can say that her love of poetry shattered her attempts for higher education, and her love of politics shattered her love of poetry. The three phases of Sarojini Naidu’s poetry are first, the themes of the home, its surroundings and nature, second, fellow human beings and fellow-creations and third, the entirety and vision of the world. The volume of the poetry she wrote was not much, like John Keats’ or Thomas Gray’s, but their beauty gained her equal fame as Keats’ or Gray’s. Perhaps the scantiness of her poetry makes her poems more endeared.

Article title image by Quang Praha. Graphics: Adobe SP.


Gandhi and India’s Independence Struggle consumed poets and writers in hundreds.


At one time, Sarojini Naidu walked the life of a joyous child, bathed in romantic thoughts and creating fine lyrical poems to the fullness of her heart but Gandhi arrested and stopped her and showed to her how the people of India suffered under the British rule. Not one poem flowed from her golden quill since then. For thirty years after publishing her third book The Broken Wing in 1917, she wrote nothing but immersed herself deep in speeches, meetings, marches, travels, and jails. Had she not walked the path of politics, she would have become one of the greatest poets in the English language. But she happily became the Traveling Music for the Indian Independence Movement and Gandhi and India’s Independence Struggle thus cost the English-speaking world one fine poet more. Rabindranath Tagore was another, who luckily escaped from getting involved in most of Gandhi’s political tantrums like Boycott of Foreign Clothes. One will wonder how many fine poets and authors Indian Independence Struggle and Gandhi consumed. Rajaram Mohan Roy, Kashi Prasad Ghosh, Aravinda Ghosh, Manomohan Ghosh, Michael Madhusoodan Dutt, Toru Dutt and Ramesh Chandra Dutt were fine writers whose literary careers ended when they came in contact with Gandhi in this massive freedom movement.


The political life of Sarojini Naidu as leader of the Indian Independence Movement.

07. Sarojini Naidu with Gandhi in Salt March 1930.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale urged Sarojini Naidu to use her literary and oratory skills to free the people of her country. Gandhi directed her to travel throughout India and influence people through speeches. Pundit Madan Mohan Malavya led her to spit-fire politics and active freedom fight. The division of her beloved Bengal into two by the British in 1905 made her jump into the forefront of people’s resistance. 1915-18 saw her traveling through cities and villages in India, delivering captivating and beautiful speeches. She was one of the founders of the Women's India Association, working alongside Annie Besant. In 1919 she was standing at the forefront of Champaran Indigo Workers’ Revolt against suppression and oppression. With the introduction of the infamous Rowlatt Act of 1919, Gandhi found his best follower in her for his Non-Cooperation Movement. She was delegated as the Home Rule League's Ambassador to England in 1919 and as the Ambassador to the East African Indian Congress in 1924. She also became the symbol of support for the freedom of people fighting in South Africa. (See Special Notes on Champaran Revolt and Rowlatt Satyagraha).

A one-woman force unstoppable in world capitals.
 
08. Sarojini Naidu with Gandhi and other women in 1940.

In 1925 Sarojini Naidu became the President of the Indian National Congress- the first Indian woman to hold this position. The same year she chaired the Kanpur Congress Summit. In 1928 the American people saw her delivering non-violence messages from Gandhi, in 1930 she was seen taking the leadership of non-violence movement following the arrest of Gandhi, and in 1932 participating in the Round Table Conference in London. Her brilliant speeches refuting the allegations against India raised by Katharine Mayo in her book Mother India captivated the American people. Gandhi sent her as his envoy to South Africa to help the Indians there against the oppressive rule of the South African government. This respectable one-woman force was becoming unstoppable in world capitals.


Imprisoned five times in British jails during India’s Freedom Struggle.

09. With K S Krishnan and Nehru at Indian Science Congress 1949.


In 1942 the world saw her in jail with Gandhi for nearly two years for leading the Quit India Movement which turned all Indians and almost the whole world against the British and limited British rule in India to just five years more. After her release from jail in 1944, she presided over the Steering Committee at the Asian Relations Conference. She was imprisoned five times during India’s freedom struggle. Her husband Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu must have been a great soul indeed to have endured all these sufferings along with her.


A star among a sky of luminaries.
 10. People of Champaran in 1906.

A rich man’s daughter, a rich man’s wife, and rich through writing, Sarojini Naidu did not but find it difficult to mingle with people from all strata of life. She made friends everywhere and was quick-witted and bold in her opinions. She did not fear to call names if needed. She even called Gandhi a Micki Mouse and Subhas Chandra Bose, a Glaxo Baby. In turn, some called her not by the name the Nightingale of India but the Naughty Girl of India. But she had no enemies. She was a very witty creature also. ‘The Indians spend millions to keep Gandhi poor’ was one of her famous jokes. 



Among the most eloquent speakers in India then were Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and Jawaharlal Nehru, all in the Congress Party, and among these luminaries the speeches of Sarojini Naidu were specially noted. (Dr. Rajendra Prasad became the first President of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan the next President and Jawaharlal Nehru the first Prime Minister of India. Dr. Rajendra Prasad authored Satyagraha at Champaran, Prison Autography, Since Independence and At The Feet Of Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. Radhakrishnan authored quite a number of world famous philosophy books including Towards a New World, Our Heritage, Recovery Of Faith and Religion, Science and Culture. Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous books were The Discovery Of India, Glimpses Of World History and Letters From A Father To His Daughter). It must be noted that the Presidents and Prime Ministers of India were famous writers, once. Some of Sarojini Naidu’s speeches made their way into history. It was a time of great speakers, litterateurs, lawyers and scholars in the political scene of India. Dadabai Navaroji, Gopalakrishna Gokhale and Balagangadhara Thilakan were scholars. Desabandhu Chitharanjan Das and Aravinda Ghosh were poets. Madanmohan Malavya, Surendranath Banerji, Anandamohan Bose, Annie Besant and Sarojini Naidu were eloquent speakers. Gandhi himself was a fine writer and speaker. (The quality of leaders in the political scene of India gradually declined and by the 1990s they were mostly a bunch of egotist position-seekers- under-qualified and allegation-shadowed, none of them writers, thinkers or statesmen).


After the Dandi March, Gandhi, the Half Naked Fakir of India and Lord Irwin, Viceroy of the British Empire where the Sun never set, are meeting in 1931. Tension mounts and the turmoil of the political struggles just past are clouding their minds. Suddenly Gandhi took out a book and began reading from it. Lord Irwin’s face lightened and became deliquescent and there was soon the melting of the snow. It was a book written by Sarojini Naidu. Gandhi was testing the sensitivity and beauty of poetry against political stiffness. They began discussing the beauty of those lines and from then onwards the switch to political discussion became easy and light.

Article title image by GLady. Graphics: Adobe SP.


Passing away while in office as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh.


On attaining independence, Bengal leader Dr. B. C. Roy was proposed to be the Governor of Uttar Pradesh but he declined, and so Sarojini Naidu was compelled to take up this position. She was the first woman to be made a governor in India. She was born on 13 February 1879 in Hyderabad and died on 2 March 1949 while working in her office in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh at the age of 70. She had two sons and two daughters- Jayasurya, Padmaja, Ranadheeran and Leelamani. Jayasurya became a physician and parliament member, Padmaja the Governor of Bengal and Leelamani worked in India’s Foreign Service. Sarojini Naidu’s birthday, 13 February, is observed as the National Women’s Day in India. Don’t mistake it with the World Women’s Day or the International Women’s Day on 8 March.


SPECIAL NOTES: CHAMPARAN REVOLT, ROWLATT SATYAGRAHA AND COMMUNIST BETRAYAL.


SPECIAL NOTE I: CHAMPARAN REVOLT: 

11. Gandhi's Satyagraha Appeal In Young India.

Indigo is a natural blue-dying agent cultivated by farmers in India which once had a high demand before artificial bluing agents were introduced. Farmers in Champaran in Bihar were forced by landlords to cultivate this commercial crop in their leased lands, paying high levies and taxes. Champaran farmers revolted and Gandhi and his followers assisted by introducing non-violent Satyagraha in 1917 for which he was arrested as usual but the court forced to release him following massive farmers’ protests. The Champaran Indigo Farmers’ Revolt was a success and their problems were somewhat solved through discussion.

SPECIAL NOTE II: ROWLATT SATYAGRAHA:

12. Jallianwala Bagh Sign At Memorial Site.

During the First World war, in the guise of preventing terrorist activities, as recommended by a committee headed by the British judge Sir Sidney Rowlatt, the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi enacted the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919 or the Rowlatt Act under the Defense of India Act of 1915, which enabled the British government to indefinitely incarcerate any Indian up to two years without trial and judicial review. Two Black Bills subsequently introduced gave police enormous powers to search and arrest any person without a warrant and imprison him indefinitely. Press and people were brought under an iron British police yoke to prevent Indian uprisings and prevent people from participating in political activities. The enactment of this undemocratic act and its merciless enforcement is a lesson in history proving how uncivilized and barbarian was the British behavior in colonies like India, Africa and America. Gandhi immediately started a Rowlatt Satyagraha against this inhumanity and soon riots started in Punjab and other states and the British army moved in. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 in Amritsar in which 2000 unarmed people were shot dead and thrown into a deep well was the result which exposed the uncivilized and brutal tyranny of British citizens serving in foreign lands under the British Crown. Non violence becoming impossible in the face of subsequent British atrocities, Gandhi suspended his Satyagraha. The tyranny of Britain exposed and the Crown’s face blackened in world’s view, the Rowlatt Act, the subsequent Press Act and twenty two other similar legislations were repealed in 1922. It was a victory for Indian revolutionaries that this act could never be fully implemented in spite of Britain’s might.

Article title image by Crazy Designs. Graphics: Adobe SP.
 




SPECIAL NOTE III: COMMUNIST BETRAYAL AFTER KHILAFFAT MOVEMENT:


Why communists and congress nationalists parted ways after the Khilaffat Movement is still a question of debate. The communists of India still try in many ways to explain their cowardice and betrayal during the freedom struggle of India which explanations even their members do not take seriously. The world Muslims considered the Ottoman Empire which was once held together by the Khilafat or the Caliphate of Turkey as their spiritual leadership. In the First World War, Britain and allies defeated Turkey and redrew the borders of countries and the borders of Islam also thereby, at least the Indian Muslims believed so. Educated Indian Muslims united under Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and joined forces with Indian Nationals and sought restoration of the Caliphate which the victors of the WWI declined. The Indian Muslims retaliated by fighting against Britain for the freedom of India, giving new energy to Hindu-Muslim unity. They provided additional man power for Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement against the British, and Gandhi in return provided moral support for the Khilafat movement. Turkey abolished the Ottoman Sultanate in 1922 anyway and the Caliphate in 1924. The combined Khilafat- Non-Cooperation Movement of 1919-24 was thus a failure. In 1917 a new soviet state had born and the allegiance of the Indian communists naturally turned to this new state of Russia. In the beginning they had collaborated with the Muslims in the Khilafat Movement as it was considered as an anti-colonial movement against Britain, but later, to stay in step with new international developments and relations and to keep in observance of the new Communist International’s directives, turned against the Khilafat Movement and began supporting Britain. By 1942 in the middle of the World War Second, the communists of India had become openly supporting Britain and allegedly spying against Indian nationals for the British.



In the post-independence years also the Indian communists were ill-famed for standing against India and the Indian people. They always looked to Europe for guidance and never learned to adapt communism to Indian conditions. They were neither bold enough to lead armed revolutions against governments as they did in China, Russia and Cuba, nor imaginative and resourceful enough to lead people in the non-violent path against government as leaders like Gandhi did. Of the more than two dozen states in India they have roots only in the two states of West Bengal in the far West and Kerala in the far South. In West Bengal they were wiped out after a continuous thirty years’ rule; in Kerala they come to power in alternative elections for five years. Wherever there is a rich man, they are in cahoots with him, betraying the poor workers under him, but still living at the expense of the contributions from these poor workers- a shameless life indeed, unworthy of the title of communists. Unlike the communists of Russia, China and Cuba, they have never fought a war for liberating their land; they just learned to live like parasites exploiting the peasants and workers joined in their party, in the name of trade unionism, in a land already liberated by others. They once supported Hitler as ordered by Stalin, supported Stalin when Hitler attacked Russia, and supported Britain and betrayed Indian nationals as Russia wanted them to support Britain after the Second World War when the victors were dividing the world and annexing countries as it happens after any great war. Their General Secretary Mr. Joshi’s letters which later came to light revealed that they offered unconditional support to Britain against Indian freedom fighters and were receiving money from the British government. They made secret pact with Muhammadali Jinna and supported the formation of Pakistan as a separate nation. The famous peasants’ agitation called Telengana Struggle which they once led was withdrawn when Stalin ordered this armed people’s movement to be stopped. And when China attacked India in 1962, they were in full support of China! But one thing must be said about the Indian communists: had they been not there on the Indian political scene, workers in the trade union sector would have had lesser, in fact no, bargaining power. And the land reforms they brought about in Kerala ensured at least a few cents of land for the landless and the homeless.


Bloom Books Channel has a video of Indian Weavers.


13. Indian Weavers Video Title By Bloom Books Channel.



Indian Weavers was written by Sarojini Naidu in the 1920s. Besides being a great poetess, she was one of the leading figures of the Indian Independence Movement. This article therefore is also a lookout into what happened to the weavers of India after independence. Indian weavers who were once favorites in king’s homes to poor man’s huts are now pushed to extinction by governments, politicians, large cloth mills and arrogant bureaucrats. Suppose Sarojini Naidu returns, and finds this?

Bloom Books Channel’s video of Coromandel Fishers.


14. Coromandel Fishers Video Title By Bloom Books Channel.


The sea has been an attraction for man since his first appearance on this planet. Primitive forms of life originated first in the primeval soup of ancient oceans billions of years ago, migrated to land, and became bird, beast, reptiles and man. If we close both our ear openings with our fingers, we can still hear those reverberations of ocean waves crashing. Oceans have served not only as the ancient home to man but provided him with a multitude of marine products for his sustenance also.


Links to Sarojini Naidu’s works by the author.


1. The Life And Works Of Sarojini Naidu: Article

2. Indian Weavers: Poem

Article: Sahyadri Books Trivandrum
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un-pWZcPmv4 May 2015

3. Coromandel Fishers: Poem

Article: Sahyadri Books Trivandrum
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhL8txK6RGI May 2015

First published on: 15th Jun 2017
 
Article title image by Lars Nissen Photoart. Graphics: Adobe SP.

___________________________
Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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Picture Credits:


01. Sarojini Naidu the student in 1912 By Unknown.
02. Life And Works Of S N Article Ad By Sahyadri Archives.
03. Sarojini Naidu in youth By German Federal Archives.
04. Sarojini Naidu in 1946 By Karthik Nadar.
05. Sarojini Naidu’s home Golden Threshold in Hyderabad By Unknown.
06. With Charlie Chaplin, Gandhi and his wife in London 1931 By LIFE.
07. With Gandhi in Salt March 1930 By Agence de Presse Meurisse.
08. Sarojini Naidu with Gandhi and other women in 1940 By Unknown.
09. With K S Krishnan and Nehru at Indian Science Congress 1949 By Unknown.
10. People of Champaran in 1906 By Unknown.
11. Gandhi's Satyagraha Appeal in Young India 1919 By Unknown.
12. Jallianwala Bagh Sign at Memorial Site By Mike Lynch.
13. Indian Weavers Video Title By Bloom Books Channel.
14. Coromandel Fishers Video Title By Bloom Books Channel.
15. Author Profile of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives. 


Meet the author: About the author and accessing his other literary works.

15. Author Profile of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of 'Swan, The Intelligent Picture Book'. Edits and owns Bloom Books Channel. Born and brought up in Nanniyode, a little village in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Kerala. Father British Council-trained English Teacher and mother university-educated. Matriculation with High First Class, Pre Degree studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship, discontinued Diploma Studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single. 

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