INDIAN WOMEN’S RENAISSANCE.
The following is extracted from an address delivered by Mrs. Sarojini Naidu at the Indian Ladies’ Club, Pittapuram, in 1915:
The time is ripe when not men but women themselves should learn to recognize the sacred and inalienable trust and responsibility of their womanhood, in shaping the destinies of the country. For it is the womanhood of a nation that is the true giver and true upholder of its ideals… I say that it is time for us all, women of India, to awake, whatever our race, or caste, or creed, or rank in life, to awake and grasp the urgency of the situation, the immediate need of adequate and equal cooperation, and the comradeship in guiding, moulding, sustaining and achieving those lofty and patriotic ideals that thrill the heart of every generation, and in whose fulfilment lies the noblest destiny of man.
On this happy occasion I, who have come from so far to be with you, do bring you a message of awakening from the women in other parts of the country, north and south, east and west, from the women who may, indeed, be separated from you by difference of language and creed and custom and even race, but who are essentially one with you in all those imperishable realities of life that make them coinheritors with you of common duty and common devotion in the service of the citizens.