Write the summary and appriciate the literaly qualities of the poem 'the gift of india' by sarojini naidu in 450 to 500 words.
Answers
Explanation:
The Gift of India is a poignant and patriotic poem by the Sarojini Naidu which praises the sacrifices made my the Indian soldiers in World War I . Dealing with the theme of courage and selfless sacrifice, The Gift of India is also an ode to the unsung heros, the children of Mother India who laid their lives for others.
The Gift of India : The Title
When the First World War broke out Britain faced a serious problem. It had a shortage of soldiers to fight against Germany. Thus it asked its colonies for help. The title here talks of the Gift that India bestowed upon Britain during this critical juncture. The poet here takes on the voice of Mother India and talks about the greatest gift that she has bestowed upon the Empire, the gift of her sons who have been martyred in far away lands fighting an enemy with whom they have no immediate conflict. The poem consist of 24 lines a follows the rhyming scheme of aabbcc.
The Gift of India : Summary and Analysis
Stanza 1
Is there aught you need that my hands withhold,
Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?
Lo! I have flung to the East and West
Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabres of doom.
The poem opens in first person point of view wherein India, in the figure of the Motherland asks a rhetorical question concerning the sacrifice of her brave sons. This is a host of what she has to say:
Is there something that you want that I have ever held back? I have already given you rich gifts of clothing food and gold. I have already sent my most priceless treasure: the sons of my womb who have gone all around the world to march to the beating of drums and perish at the hands of enemies.
Mother India makes a mighty claim in the very first stanza of the poem and while it may seem like a claim heavily tinted by sentiments, one mustn’t forget that it is a claim based on hard facts. The role of India (or any other colonies for that matter) in World War 1 has been largely ignored but the fact remains that over a million Indian soldiers actively to fought for British interests alongside Allied fforces . The rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold isn’t a mere poetic invention either. British India supplied around . And the fact that India helped the British despite being under their colonial rule is a much underappreciated fact.
A literary technique is used to emphasize the extent of help provided to the British :
Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold?
This technique of repeating successive conjunction in a line is known as polysendenton.
The personification of India as mother is made explicit when she says that her sons (priceless treasures) have been torn from her breast and that she has yielded her children from her “grief stricken womb” to the horrors of the battlefield. Her claim of having flung her priceless treasures to the East and West the fact that Indian soldiers were posted in various battlefronts, ranging from East Africa to the Western Front. The image of a mother who gives away the sons of her womb to the service of the Allied forces speakers as much of her own valour and sense of duty as that of her brave sons’. The call of duty (drum beats if duty) and swords of death and ruin (sabres of doom) evokes the atmosphere of war. This image is extended in the second stanza which brings to full view the horrors of war. Interestingly, the “drum-beats” of the last line of the first stanza lead is to the the sights of the war in the second stanza is similar to the manner in which the war-cry and the drum beats herald the actual war.