Sarojini Naidu, the eldest daughter of scientist-philosopher, Aghornath Chattopadhyaya, and Barada Sundari Devi, a poetess was born on 13 February 1879 in Hyderabad. Her father was also a linguist, a crusader, who established the Nizam's College in Hyderabad in 1878, pioneering English and women's education.
Sarojini was a bright child who passed her matriculation at the age of 12 standing first in the Madras Presidency. She studied at the King's college, London and Girton College, Cambridge for a while. During this period her creative urge found expression in poems. She also happened to be a good singer. Her ability to sing charmingly fetched her the title 'Nightingale of India'. After 1917 she stepped into active politics. In 1898 she married Dr. Govindarajulu Naidu.
During 1903-17 Sarojini came into contact with Gokhale, Tagore, Jinnah, Annie Besant, C.P.Rama Swami Iyer, Gandhi and Nehru. She began her political career in 1906. From 1915 to 1918 she lectured all over India on welfare of youth, dignity of labour, women's emancipation and nationalism. After meeting Jawaharlal Nehru in 1916, she took up the cause of the indigo workers of Champaran. In 1925 she was elected as the President of the Congress.
Sarojini actively campaigned for the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms, the Khilafat issue, the Rowlatt Act, the Sabarmati Pact, the Satyagraha Pledge and the Civil Disobedience Movement.
In 1919, she went to England as a member of the all-India Home Rule Deputation. After 1920 she toured widely as the President of the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee opposed Council entry in Calcutta and protested against the anti-Moplah measures in Calicut.
From 1922-26 she espoused the cause of Indians in South Africa, she took part in the Salt Satyagraha and the Round Table Conference in London and campaigned for participation of women and youth in the
She argued and fought for all women to have access and with it freedom to choose when and or if they wanted to be mothers.
Born in Cederville, Illinois, on September 6, 1860, Jane Addams founded the world famous social settlement of Hull House. From Hull House, where she lived and worked from it’s start in 1889 to her death in 1935, Jane Addams built her reputation as the country’s most prominent women through her writings, settlement work and international efforts for world peace. In 1931, she became the first women to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Despite the law she began to travel and lecture across the nation for the women's right to vote. She also campaigned for the abolition of slavery, the right for women to own their own property and retain their earnings, and she advocated for women's labor organizations.
Susan B. Anthony was a prominent women’s rights activist and a social reformer. She dedicated her life to spread awareness of the danger and unfairness of social inequalities and slavery. She helped creating or advocating many US and International organizations. She lobbied the creation of laws to protect the rights of citizens regardless of their ethnicity or gender. She was "one of the most loved and hated women in the country. "Her opponents often described her as "nsexed, an unnatural creature that did not function as a true woman, one who devoted her life to a husband” (Barry). She passed away
She was an abolitionist and women’s right’s activist and was born a slave in New York State. She bore around thirteen children and had three of them sold away from her. She became involved in supporting freed people during the Reconstruction Period.
Summing up, Antigone decides to express her discontent with what she considers to be the unethical new regime of King Creon by burying her brother's body. By taking this bold step, Antigone shows the strength that an individual’s actions hold in a democracy. Creon, with his stubborn attitude, shows how a democracy where peoples’ voices are not heard can be dysfunctional, and that laws should be made by taking other people into confidence and not on an individual basis. In the end, Antigone resolves to sacrifice her own life in the service of a greater justice. It is this kind of formidable resolve that changes the course of history, and that is something that we can respect equally in the 5th century B.C. and the 21st century A.D.
Aristotle once said that a Greek Tragedy must include an important person that has a flaw. By this flaw, the audience should feel pity and fear. Creon, a character in the Greek tragedy “Antigone”, resembles a perfect example of a tragic hero. This play was written by Sophocles, a historic playwright during the 5th century. It begins with the illegal burial of Polyneices, Antigone’s beloved brother. Creon, the King of Thebes, is coerced to condemn his niece Antigone to death. Being loyal to his city, Creon follows through with his punishment of Antigone. By doing so, his character is changed forever. Creon has the qualities of a tragic hero: he is a good person with superior status, he has a tragic flaw, and he comes to realize the role he plays in his own downfall.
today as a great journalist and activist. Her organizations that she formed long ago such
• AW was active in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. She has spoken for the women’s movement, the anti-apartheid movement, for the anti-nuclear movement and against female genital mutilation.
Besides being an anti-imperialist, she was largely for equality and that everyone could participate in important situations and issues. She was part of many women’s leagues and was the founder of the Hull House. The Hull Houses gave a life to the poor and immigrants who struggled in a competitive world. It gave them education, a home, health care, social circumstances, and safety. She was never married, so she spent her life dedicated to promoting peace. She believed that war, force, and violence only brought pain, struggle,and problems for family. She saw working together instead of using force was way more powerful and successful. War and violence only hindered the world and created a loss in compassion and kindness. At the Chicago Liberty Meeting, which protested imperialism in the Philippines, Jane was the only woman to speak. “To ‘protect the weak’ has always been the excuse of the ruler and tax-gatherer, the chief, the king, the baron; and now, at last, of ‘the white man’” (Addams 1899). The United States often didn’t listen to the anti-imperialists but they continued to peacefully fight for
In the awe-inspiring play of Antigone, Sophocles introduces two remarkable characters, Antigone and Creon. A conflict between these two obstinate characters leads to fatal consequences for themselves and their kindred. The firm stances of Creon and Antigone stem from two great imperatives: his loyalty to the state and her dedication to her family, her religion but most of all her conscience. The identity of the tragic hero of this play is still heavily debated. This tragedy could have been prevented if it had not been for Creon's pitiful mistakes.
In the Antigone, unlike the Oedipus Tyrannus, paradoxically, the hero who is left in agony at the end of the play is not the title role. Instead King Creon, the newly appointed and tyrannical ruler, is left all alone in his empty palace with his wife's corpse in his hands, having just seen the suicide of his son. However, despite this pitiable fate for the character, his actions and behavior earlier in the play leave the final scene evoking more satisfaction than pity at his torment. The way the martyr Antigone went against the King and the city of Thebes was not entirely honorable or without ulterior motives of fulfilling pious concerns but it is difficult to lose sight of the fact that this passionate and pious young woman was condemned to living imprisonment.
Antigone, a tragic drama written by Sophocles explores the different ranges of characters: static and dynamic or flat and round. Creon, King of Thebes in the dramatic play Antigone takes on the role that of a static character. Throughout the whole play Creon believed the idea that he was above the law of the Gods and his decrees cannot be disputed. Unknowingly, who would think that Creon’s sense of pride would cause him the life of his wife, son, and niece? However, at the very end of the play Creon returns to the palace, holding his son’s lifeless body, where he finds out that his wife has killed herself as well. Overwhelmed with grief about the death of his loved ones, Creon turns to the Chorus and says, “Lead me away. I have been rash and foolish. I have killed my son and wife. I look for comfort; my comfort lies here dead. Whatever my hands have touched come to nothing. Fate has brought all my pride to thought of dust” (1833). Creon takes responsibility of the death of his son and wife by calling himself a “rash” man and this is where Creon undergoes the changes of a dynamic character by admitting that he was wrong.
In an effort to help free India from the British rule, Mahatma Gandhi once again contributed to a protest against salt taxes, known as the Salt March. This protest advocated Gandhi’s theory of satyagraha or nonviolent disobedience as the nation came together on March 12, 1930 to walk the 241 miles long journey to the shores of Dandi to attain salt. Although some Indians criticized Gandhi for not achieving direct independence from the Raj or British rule, Gandhi’s execution of the Salt March helped to create a stronger nation for the Indians to live in. Gandhi motivated the Indians to act robustly against the injustices of the salt taxes through nonviolent means. This caused Gandhi to create a temporary compromising pact between Gandhi and the British viceroy over the turmoil created by the salt taxes. In addition, Gandhi drew a plan known as the “Quit India” resolution, whose immediate effect brought India closer to obtaining independence than before.
The first meeting solely dedicated to women’s rights was the Seneca Falls Convention on July 19-20, 1848 and was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The convention attracted nearly one hundred people, in which two-thirds of those in attendance were women. It was here that the Women’s Rights Movement was born. Elizabeth Stanton created the “Declaration of Sentiments, Grievances and Resolutions” which mimicked the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence. She wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal” ("Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony—."). From this point on women addressed their limited rights in society and the barriers holding them back. The Seneca Falls Convention served as a breeding ground for female activists to come together and fight theses social and economic issues.