Padmaja Naidu was an Indian politician and freedom fighter. She is best known as the daughter of Sarojini Naidu. Padmaja served as the fifth Governor of West Bengal from November 3, 1956 to June 1, 1967; she was the first female and longest-serving governor of West Bengal.
Wiki/Biography
Padmaja Naidu was born on Saturday, November 17, 1900, in the British Indian state of Hyderabad (now Hyderabad, India). He was 74 years old. Her mother Sarojini Naidu was the first Governor of the United Provinces and had a significant influence on her daily life. During India’s struggle for independence, she often watched her mother Sarojini Naidu and other freedom fighters prepare for the revolutionary war that would liberate India from the rule of the East India Company. Deeply influenced by her mother, she decided to work hard for the progress of the country and became a revolutionary herself.
family
Padmaja Naidu was born in a Telugu family in Hyderabad.
Parents and siblings
Padmaja was born to Mutyala Govindrajulu Naidu and Sarojini Naidu. Her father was a Telugu doctor and her mother was a famous Bengali poet, Indian political activist and freedom fighter. She has four siblings: Jayasurya, Leelamani, Nilawar and Randheer.
Padmaya Naidu’s parents
Padmaja and her mother Sarojini Naidu
Relationships/Affairs
Padmaja had a close relationship with Jawahar Lal Nehru. She had good family relations with the Nehru family, including Jawahar Lal Nehru’s sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit. Indira Gandhi’s friend Purpur Jayaka, an Indian cultural activist and writer, heard from Vijaya Lakshmi that her brother had lived with Padmaja for many years; however , Nehru did not marry Padmaja because he did not want his daughter Indira Gandhi to be upset by the marriage. Padmaya also reportedly wanted to marry Nehru and she had been waiting her whole life for Nehru to propose to her. In Mo Mattei’s memoirs about Nehru, in a chapter titled “Nehru and Women”, Sarojini Naidu’s daughter Padmaya Naidu lamented: “Nehru was not A man of only women!” This shows that Nehru had relationships with other women. Women too. Even after her retirement, she lived in a bungalow at the Teen Murti Bhavan estate, the government residence of Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, until her death. Later, in order to commemorate him, it was turned into a museum.
Profession
politician
She co-founded the Indian National Congress in 1921 at a very early age in the princely state of Hyderabad. She was 21 years old at the time. When the Quit India movement was in full swing, Padmaja along with Harishchandra Heda, Gyankumari Heda, Vimalabai Melkote, GS Melkote and others struggled in the struggle against the British. Padmaya boldly changed the national flag on her apartment building to a Congress flag. For this, she was arrested and imprisoned. After India’s independence from British rule, Padmaja was elected to Parliament; however, she had to withdraw from her membership due to poor health.
Governor of West Bengal
In 1956, Padmaja Naidu was appointed Governor of West Bengal; she served from November 3, 1956 to June 1, 1967, becoming the longest-serving governor of West Bengal.
Padmaja Naidu as Governor of West Bengal
freedom fighter and philanthropist
In 1942, Padmaya actively participated in the “Quit India” movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi and was jailed for this. She encouraged people to use Indian products like wearing khadi clothes and boycott foreign goods. Later, she joined the International Red Cross Movement, a voluntary humanitarian organization that protects human life and health, and served as President of the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) from 1971 to 1972. Additionally, she is also associated with Bharat Sevak. Samaj, Nehru Memorial Fund and All India Handicrafts Council. After India’s independence, she was selected as one of the members of the flag presentation committee.
Awards
- In 1962, Padmaja Naidu was awarded the Padma Vibhushan Award.
heritage
Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoo is also known as Darjeeling Zoo, named after Padmaja Naidu. It is located in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India and opened on August 14, 1958. It is India’s largest high-altitude zoo, with an average altitude of 7,000 feet, and more than three hundred thousand visitors every year. The zoo has special breeding programs for animals adapted to high mountain areas and has a successful captive breeding program for animals such as snow leopards, red pandas and the highly endangered Himalayan wolf.
Darjeeling Zoo named after Padmaja Naidu
die
She died of cerebral hemorrhage in New Delhi, India, on May 2, 1975, at the age of 74.
Facts/Trivia
- She was close friends with Ruti Petit, wife of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
- In the 1970s, Padmaja commissioned The Golden Threshold, her mother’s residence, to the University of Hyderabad. First, it became the Department of Social Sciences, then the Sarojini Naidu School of Communication and now the Center for Distance and Virtual Education. The university is reportedly planning to transform the site into a museum and cultural center.
- Padmaya loved to collect letters and manuscripts, and after her mother’s death, Padmaya collected all of her mother’s poems and published them in the form of a book, Feathers of the Dawn, in 1961.
There is a book called “Feathers of Dawn”
- Sheela Reddy, author of Mr and Mrs Jinnah: The Marriage That Shook India, praises Padmaja Naidu’s collection of Ruti (Jinnah’s wife) letters to Padmaja Naidu Maya’s letters that helped her write the book. In an interview, Sheila said of this,
Ruttie (Jinnah’s wife) wrote letters to both Sarojini and Padmaja Naidu but her letters to Sarojini are now lost as Sarojini lived an itinerant life and never bothered to save her from her numerous friends and acquaintances or even herself of children and letters received there. husband. Thanks to Padmaja Naidu, who preserved every letter she received from her mother and Ruti, I was able to piece together the story of Jinnah’s marriage. ”
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education