Sarojini Naidu née Chattopadhyay (1879 – 1949) was an Indian political activist, poet and proponent of civil rights, women's emancipation, and anti-imperialistic ideas.
Naidu's work as a poet earned her the sobriquet 'the Nightingale of India', or 'Bharat Kokila' by Mahatma Gandhi because of colour, imagery and lyrical quality of her poetry.
Born in a Bengali family in Hyderabad, Chattopadhyay was educated in Madras, London and Cambridge (with scholarship received from the Nizam of Hyderabad). Her Bengali Brahmin father Aghorenath Chattopadhyay was specifically invited to Hyderabad to found and head the Nizam College, the first Institution of higher learning in the princely state.
She was the eldest of the eight siblings. Her brother Virendranath Chattopadhyay was a revolutionary, and another brother Harindranath was a poet, a dramatist, and an actor.
She married Dr Mutyala Govindarajulu Naidu in an inter-caste marriage approved by both their families. Her husband was associated with the Hyderabad Medical School (now Osmania Medical College).
Her social work for flood relief earned her the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal in 1911, which she later returned in protest over the April 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Following India's independence from the British rule in 1947, Naidu was appointed as the governor of the United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh), making her India's first woman governor.