Sarojini Naidu—The Forgotten Orator of India

Abstract

Sarojini Naidu’s platform rhetoric suggests that she functioned as the representative for Indian women due to her presence in the public sphere as first a poet, and then a nationalist leader. Naidu used her role as a jingoistic orator to persuade her audiences to believe that female equality was a necessary precursor to the independence of India. In her speeches, she reasoned with her listeners using the ancient Indian method of Nyaya and other various rhetorical techniques to strengthen her arguments.

Notes

¹ I thank RR Editor Theresa Enos and reviewers David Kaufer and Keith Lloyd for their constructive feedback on this article. I would also like to acknowledge my husband, parents, and children for their inspiration, support, and encouragement throughout the duration of this venture. Finally, I am indebted to Dr. Cheryl Glenn of The Pennsylvania State University, without whose guidance and support this manuscript would not exist.

² For further reading on this five-part method, see M. M. Satista Chandra Vidyabhusana. The Nyaya Sutras of Gotoma. Ed. Nanda Lal Sinha. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990.

³ All direct quotations in the following analysis have been taken from Speeches and Writings (1919).

⁴ All direct quotations in the following analysis have been taken from Speeches and Writings (1919).

⁵ All direct quotations in the following analysis have been taken from Speeches and Writings (1919).

⁶ Quoted in Paranjape, Sarojini Naidu—Selected Letters, 1890s to 1940s, 213.

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Notes on contributors

Ummekulsoom Shekhani

Ummekulsoom Shekhani graduated with her BA in English from The Pennsylvania State University in 2014. While there, she completed her honor’s thesis under the guidance of Dr. Cheryl Glenn. She enjoys spending time with her husband and children at their home in southern California.