And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabres of doom.
Gathered like pearls in their alien graves
Silent they sleep by the Persian waves,
Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,
They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands,...
writes the Nightingale of India, Sarojini Naidu, in one of her poems, The Gift of India (1917).
More than a century later, Shruthi Rajasekar explains this poem to an audience of thousands, who didn’t live in colonial India, but are linked to it through the society they come from. She says, “All of the clothing, the grain, the gold, all the resources you have taken. I have yielded everything, and still you take my sons to feed your wars. Now, they lay blood-brown, dead.”
This poetic tribute to the services of the Indian Army, was composed as a symphonic work by Shruthi with an unusual ensemble comprising a 165-member choir, an 80-piece symphony orchestra — most of them from abroad — and two Carnatic soloists — Nirmala Rajasekar and Muruga Bhoopathy — who came together to tell this story on the life and legacy of Sarojini Naidu and the Indian freedom movement, through a 45-minute choral ‘Sarojini’ on commission from the Hertfordshire Chorus, UK.
This portion of the composition did not have any music in the background because “the Britishers have actively silenced so many Indians because we dared to speak out. I wanted the silence to say something. It’s like the music has paused to say these gut wrenching words,” adds the composer.
Performing it live thrice — at the premiere in October 2022 at St Albans Cathedral, at the University of Warwick, in the UK in March 2025, and then in October 2025 in Minnesota — musician Nirmala Rajasekar from Chennai, notes, “Gift of India was a gut wrenching feeling while performing. You feel so helpless, angry, powerless, and the whole auditorium was just silent because that was a hard moment for all of us, feeling all those emotions lived by the Indians.”
In an interaction with CE, the mother-daughter duo reflected on the conception and creation of this composition, which blends Western and Indian classical music to create a space for much needed conversations.
Rooted in research
This composition was commissioned in early 2020, when Shruthi and the Hertfordshire Chorus began exploring themes. “Very early on, they were interested, as was I, in telling the story of the Indian independence. They wanted to talk about the painful and dark history,” shares Shruthi.
Choosing Sarojini Naidu was deliberate. “My parents actually helped me decide on Sarojini Naidu as the figure,” she notes. Her mother Nirmala, adds, “I pushed her towards Sarojini. I gave many women leaders as options because there’s hardly any mention of women of India.”
For Shruthi, this choice was also layered. “In many ways, Sarojini was a self-made woman. Although her parents were artistic, cultural, and education leaders, she was the first to be politically active, and generations after her followed in her footsteps,” she points out. Equally compelling was her literary output, making it a much stronger case to present. “I found her poetry amazing. But we don’t have it in our curriculum for everyone to read. With this project, I want to spread that to as many people as possible.”
With this vision, the entire process of curation took a year and was deeply research-driven. Shifting between the US and UK, laying hands on archival materials and understanding less known facts to bring it to the world were easy. “When I wanted physical copies of her poetry like The Golden Threshold or The Broken Wing, the University of Minnesota had them. There were also some rare and early editions.”
Shruthi credits the Indian government for digitising archival records, including speeches by Indian women leaders. But there is a gap in the extent of materials available and accessible. She complains, “One of the challenges was that we don’t have a central biography of Sarojini Naidu. I would implore historians and scholars in India to write one.”
The extensive research is translated into the composition, which draws almost entirely from Sarojini’s own writings. Of the 45-minute piece, probably 40 minutes features her texts, says the composer.
Telling the truth
The rest of the composition had personal perspectives of the composer. One line, in particular, ‘trampled by the royal boots’, sparked intense reflection. Shruthi recalls, “All the performers said, ‘This is history. We are going to sing this line. And it provoked conversations.’”
She sees the work as a space for confrontation. “I have very strong views and perspectives, and I have put that in.” She reflects, “Can I, as an Indian American living in America, look at American history and confront the truth a bit? Can we as Indians do that with parts of our history that we’re not as proud about?”
Nirmala shares, “Through the arts, they (diverse audiences) believe we can have these tough conversations.”
For the team, it’s really important that this piece gets seen by the powers as it’s about Indian political history. “The performance was done for the 75th anniversary of Indian independence. We timed it as such,” points out Shruthi. Nirmala adds, “We all will get to relive this history. Sometimes after independence, we tend to forget that the freedom that we are sitting with today has been fought for very bravely, very courageously, with a lot of sacrifice, from a lot of people.
Five movements, one vision
The composition unfolds in five movements, each drawing from Sarojini Naidu’s writings, ideas, and the life lived.
The first, ‘Kalakaar’, focuses on her as an artiste. “I wanted to talk about her as an artiste before we discuss her legacy,” says Shruthi. “Her artistic vision enabled her to be an activist.” Sarojini’s vivid imagination, her idealism and optimism, she notes, shaped both her poetry and politics.
The second movement, ‘The Gift of India’, is one of the most emotionally demanding parts. Based on Sarojini’s World War I poem, it uses irony to devastating effect. “She writes how the sons of the land lay far away from home, torn from Mother India and flung to serve. What war? What victory? What does that mean? So this poem in this movement is very important,” she elucidates. Shruthi adds, “She makes India maternal here. This is a pain women know — being silenced and told to keep quiet.”
Movement three, ‘The Real Nation Builders’, draws from Sarojini’s speeches on women’s education. “She says it is not you, pointing to the men, but we women who are the real nation builders. To build an independent country, women need to do it,” she explains with a quote by Sarojini.
‘Swaraj’, the fourth movement, is a call to action. “She says it does not matter what your background or education is. Every single person should be dedicated to uplifting the country.” Her idea of patriotism, Shruthi points out, was expansive. “Your love should not be limited to your own kind. If India deserves self-rule, so does every colonised nation.”
The final movement, ‘The Dreams That Remain’, looks ahead. “Her point is that even if we achieve some dreams today, others remain. We must gather those dreams and not let them die.”
Midway through the composition appears Saare Jahan Se Achha, set to Pandit Ravi Shankar’s tune. “We wanted to pay homage to him. Even though this is about Sarojini, it’s also about the many leaders we know and the many we don’t talk about.”
By the end of it, what surprised Shruthi the most was how deeply the work resonated beyond India. “The singers would come up and tell me this reminds them of the challenges women face in America today. The fact that they could see themselves in Sarojini Naidu is a testament to her greatness.”
Walking home
Back home, Shruthi is in touch with people who could bring this production to the Indian audience. “It’s important that people here relive this history. Almost 75 years on, we forget that these freedoms came from enormous sacrifice,” she says.
The major takeaway from creating the composition is the need to collect, preserve, and revisit these histories to remember the long road the country has travelled.