SAROJINI NAIDU: THE ORIENTAL CLOCK OF INDIA

While I was deeply engaging in my literature studies, it is when I came to glance upon Ms. Sarojini Naidu and her works. What differentiates her from other authors of her time was the uniqueness of her works. This may be due to her political and personal upbringing when women writers were not much prominent. After having an in-depth knowledge about western literature, she tried to bring the same quality and style into her works through an Indian lens. Many of her works resonates the same. It is the Indianness or to be more certain her portrayal of India in her works made me to write a book on her. Although Ms. Sarojini Naidu’s aesthetic and lyrical quality have been researched by academic scholars, the textual discourse or narrative specialization about India has not been much focused upon previously. I went through 2 of her most famous anthologies namely Golden Threshold and Bird of Time. Unfortunately, the book will not be completed without analysing the last of 3 among her anthologies i.e., The Broken Wing, which I might include in the second edition of this book. The main challenge that I could find researching in her works is that it is so immense and deeply spiritual that may consume hundreds of times in order to understand the religious and social context in which she wrote these poems. Thus, this book is a short overview and brief outline about her 2 anthologies namely Golden Threshold and Bird of Time and the Indianness in it. I have also compared her poems to present situations in India and also made a comparison of how she like her western counterparts (e.g., Chaucer) gives the different aspects of Indian life in her works.