A Postcolonial Feminist Analysis Of Sarojini Naidu’s Political Rhetoric (1915−1918)
Open Access
Author:
Ghadai, Ummekulsoom
Area of Honors:
English
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Cheryl Jean Glenn, Thesis Supervisor Lisa Ruth Sternlieb, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Indian; Poet; Feminist; President; Rhetoric
Abstract:
This thesis examines the platform oratory of Sarojini Naidu, an eminent Indian politician and poet from the early to mid-twentieth century. What follows is a brief inquiry into the complex feministic nature of a woman who functioned as the representative for all Indian women due to her presence in the public sphere as, first, a poet and, then, a nationalist leader. Yet there are questions to be asked about her life and prose writing. In her platform oratory, what types of arguments did Sarojini Naidu employ to campaign for gender equality? I analyze the ways Sarojini Naidu transitioned from her status as a poet to that of a politician, a nationalist, and a platform orator by studying records of her speeches her from a postcolonial feminist perspective. I begin with a symptomatic account of Naidu’s poetry and her transference into the independence movement. Then, I discuss Naidu’s role as a jingoistic feminist by engaging with representations of feminist platform rhetoric to probe how she persuaded her audiences to believe that female equality was a necessary precursor to the independence of India. In the final section of this essay, I consider the conclusions and inferences that can be drawn from this thesis, as well as pedagogical implications in terms of future research.
