I undertook the "Assignment Sarojini Naidu" with great pleasure, but it was entrusted to me too late. There were hardly six weeks to August 15, when the manuscript was required by the Committee.

Anyhow, I took up the work as a 'labour of love'-as a part of the debt I owed to the late Sarojini Naidu for all she did for me and for the Indian nation.

I was helped to complete the work in time, mainly because of two admirable biographical works-Padmini Sengupta's definitive biography of Sarojini Naidu, which is the last word on the subject, and Tara Ali Baig's book in the "Builders of Modern India series" which, though shorter, supplements Mrs. Sengupta's book admirably with her own research, her own experiences of meeting with the subject of her book. In fact, both Mrs. Baig and Mrs. Sengupta were fortunate to have known Sarojini Naidu personally and met her repeatedly. Naturally, it has given their work a particular perception and perspective. I myself had only a reporter's encounters with this leader of the Congress, as I had with others, and two meetings of a personal nature, the last of which is described in some detail in the chapter on her Governorship of U. P.

I am grateful to all those who talked to me, or wrote to me sharing their opinion and assessment of Sarojini Naidu, specially Shri Sadiq Ali, Governor of Maharashtra, who was the first to respond to my invitation to share with me his views on Sarojini; Mrs. Devika Rani Roerich who wrote from Bangalore, despite her own ill- ness, and Shrimathi Sumati Morarji who contributed her memoirs, despite her preoccupations, and my old friend, Harindranath Chattopadhyay, who gave me a prolonged interview, though he was in bed after a serious operation. To the Nehru Memorial Museum, I am thankful for sending me Xerox copies of her letters to Nehru, which were invaluable source material. I am also grateful to my Secretary Shri Syed Abdul Rehman, who alone could decipher my abominable handwriting and typed the first draft of the manuscript.