Sarojini’s return to home was not all joy. She found that her father Dr. Aghornath Chattopadhyaya was seriously ill. She rushed to Calcutta to be by the side of his bed.
Dr. Chattopadhyaya passed away in the month of February, 1915.
It was such a grave loss that nothing could fill it up for her. The poetess had lost her father and a teacher-cum-guide.
Sarojini was beyond consolation.
Gokhale understood her painful loss and knew how tragic such calamity could be for a sensitive poetic heart. Feeling clearly the imminence of his own death he wrote to Sarojini—
‘I wish I were somewhere close to you to be able to meet you. Still I hope that your songs will absorb your grief and tragedy.”
In reply Sarojini wrote to Gokhale on 8th Feb. 1915.
‘I am grateful for your sympathetic letter. I write this letter sitting in the small room in which my father lived all his life. Even on his last day he kept talking to us in this very room in the morning before the death claimed him. Till his last breath he retained same sharp, wisdomful and magnetic charm to life and the death as well. He used to talk on the subjects of life, death and other matters of interest.
I can feel that this small room has become the refuge of his memories which is a proof of his being alive and awakened in elemental form. He had always been taught that the life and the death ware nothing but the the distance of the two levels between spiritual progress and the development. Today I understand it better and firmly believe in it which cushions my sorrow to a great degree. My father and I are now more integrated spiritually.
In the town of Muslims, Hyderabad, the way all the citizens are mourning the death of my father is a lesson for all those politicians who do not want to understand the importance of the Hindu-Muslim unity. We are taking back my mother after the Shraddh rites of my late father to the same city to live amongst the women who call her ‘mother’ and who always treated my father as their own sire.
This is the response to the great problem on which depends India’s future. My Brahmin parents had solved the problem through patriotism, rationalism and human understanding. It is a matter of great pride and satisfaction for me. I am grateful to Almighty God. As far as my question is, I will continue their work without thinking that they were trying to accomplish some great deed’.
Only a few days later, on 19th February, 1915 Sarojini Naidu got the sad news that Gopal Krishna Gokhale had passed away.
He had died in Poona.
And at that time Sarojini was in Calcutta, at her parental house situated on Lovelock Road. The day she got the news was the one on which her father’s Shraddh rites were to be performed. The news of her mentor’s death came to her as a bolt from the blue.
The grief poured out of her in the form of words of a poem called ‘Memory’—
‘O valiant!
The last man of hope of our age,
Why would you need,
Our love or odes to your greatness?
Behold! Those millions of grieving people,
Who go around your pyre,
Let them kindle,
Their souls with the fire,
That burns from the brave torch,
Fallen off your hands!
To protect and nurture
Our grief stricken nation.
And should the temple of unity,
Prosper with the daily prayers,
That you taught us.
Sarojini Naidu also wrote a tribute to Gopal Krishna Gokhale titled ‘Gokhale, A Man’.
The heart touching tribute was published by ‘Bombay Chronicle’. In her tribute Sarojini quoted several incidents connected with Gokhale. She wrote—
‘One day in the early morning he looked dismayed over the general national problems and asked me in a sad tone, ‘How do you view the future of India?’
I replied, ‘Hopeful.’
He put another question to me, ‘The future that is coming to you, how do you visualise it?’
My answer was full of elated conviction, ‘Unity between Hindus and Muslims in less than five years.’
He sighed and remarked in deflated voice, ‘My child, you are a poetess and are too much of an optimist. What you are wishing for is not going to happen in my or your lifetime. But as far as possible keep up your conviction and wish.’
I consider it a matter of great pride that I took part in and spoke at the historic Muslim League Convention held in Lucknow on 22nd March, 1913. In the convention the League adopted its new constitution through which it had made a resolve to cooperate with the fellow majority community (Hindu) faithfully and amicably in all the matters of the national welfare and progress.
After meeting Gokhale, I found that the world famed leader of the Indian National Congress was busy in studying the newspapers and the magazines that carried the Muslim League resolution along with their comments and editorials. (The leader referred to was Gokhale.) When he saw me he spread his arms invitingly and exclaimed excitedly, ‘Oh! So you come here to tell me that your visualisation is truth infact?’
One day in London, in 1913, I mentioned to him the delicate objective I had taken up on behalf of the London India League.
It was a new student federation founded by Mohammad Ali Jinnah encouraged by the activities and the profound support of Indian students based in London. He was trying to rally the Indian students who needed to be organised in the interest of the national cause. He wanted to start a tradition of cooperation and emotional unity between various groups and sections of Indian people which could serve as a model for the future independent federal union.
The federal union was the India of his dreams. While working for the realisation of this dream he deeply wished for two words of sympathy and blessing from his unique friend and the servant of India, Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
First he (Gokhale) firmly refused my request citing the severe restrictions put on his activities by the doctors considering his poor physical condition to avoid unnecessary tension and fatigue.
It put me in a dilemma.
I had unwittingly promised the members of the forum that I would get Gokhale to speak in their meeting. To save my face I tried again to persuade Gokhale with renewed vigour.
He muttered, ‘You don’t disobey the instructions of your doctors. Why do you want me to ignore the advice of my doctors?’
Suddenly his eyes sparkled and he asked, ‘Besides this, tell me what authority made you make a promise on my behalf?’
I replied cheekily, ‘The right to get the guidance of a hopeful message for the young generation from you.’
Some days later, on 2nd August, 1913 he gave an inaugural speech in Caxton Hall to a very mammoth, receptive and enthusiastic student gathering. He put before the students sublime lessons on patriotism and self improvement.
In his generation he was the only masterly elder who could teach those lessons so authoritatively and gracefully.’
Sarojini Naidu mentions one another incident—‘The evening was gradually growing darker. We sat silently. At last his golden voice broke the silence as if inspired by some deeply glorious wisdom.
Those words were so great, pious and arousing that I still feel excited whenever I recall them. He confided to me the sublime pleasure and glory that service to the motherland begets one.
He said, “Come here. Stand beside me. The stars and the mountains are witnesses. Before them dedicate all your life, intellect, creative power, your poems, speech, thoughts and the dreams to the cause of the motherland. O poetess! Borrow the vision from summits and peaks. Give your message of hope to the people who toil in the valleys’.
Four influences shaped the life of Sarojini Naidu. Those were : her father Aghornath who was truly a man of humanitarian spirit, the composite culture of Hindu-Muslim Hyderabad, relentlessly wisening liberal elder Gopal Krishna Gokhale and the young secular leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah (who appeared to be the destiny of federal India). Among all the four Gokhale influenced her most.
The reason was that Gokhale was an educationist scholar and Sarojini was a poet. The academic bondage welded their relationship. Another reason was that Sarojini came into contact with Gokhale in her formative years. That is why she considered him her political mentor.
Later on Sarojini was closely associated with Gandhiji and he also made a mighty impression on her. But his influence was secondary to that of Gokhale. Infact Gandhi was her political leader, friend and father all rolled into one. She sometimes made fun of Gandhiji to his face in good spirit.
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