Gunga Din

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  • Created by: Sunny03
  • Created on: 04-05-20 12:27
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  • Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Gunga Din’
    • Gunga Din
      • “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!” It became a well-known phrase and, in 1939, a film named after the poem’s hero was made starring Cary Grant, but there never was a real Gunga Din.
      • It is far from a flattering portrayal of an Indian’s lot in the British Army: he is beaten; called names like “limping lump o’ brick-dust” and “squidgynosed old idol”; and eventually killed while tending to the wounded.
        • Racism in the Time Period
      • A correspondent in the U.S, Richard E. Rieman statuses: I have read several commentaries on one of Kipling's great poems, none of which do it justice. I consider this poem to be an Act of Contrition.
        • The narrator is a soldier of long service, severely wounded (a belly wound), and apparently sent home to convalesce, or be mustered out. He appears to be in a canteen with other soldiers telling about a water porter that he abused with his fellows, and never recognizing his unstinting and good natured service to them over a considerable period of time.
          • Finally Gunga Din saves his life, and dies in the process. After he is transported to the rear he realizes what he owes to Gunga Din, but he is unable to square the account with a dead man. With a few beers in him, and sitting in a canteen in Aldershot, I can see a tough veteran telling such a story, and pouring his heart out to men who could understand his pain.
      • Philip Holberton notes the article by Sir George MacMunn in KJ 66 for July 1943 on "The Original Gunga Deen". He traces it to a song popular when Kipling was in India and gives what he can remember of the words.
        • Kipling borrowed the name, with its pronunciation though different spelling, the metre (except that the song repeats some words), and even the first line as his line 7.
          • Gunga Din
            • “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!” It became a well-known phrase and, in 1939, a film named after the poem’s hero was made starring Cary Grant, but there never was a real Gunga Din.
            • It is far from a flattering portrayal of an Indian’s lot in the British Army: he is beaten; called names like “limping lump o’ brick-dust” and “squidgynosed old idol”; and eventually killed while tending to the wounded.
              • Racism in the Time Period
            • A correspondent in the U.S, Richard E. Rieman statuses: I have read several commentaries on one of Kipling's great poems, none of which do it justice. I consider this poem to be an Act of Contrition.
              • The narrator is a soldier of long service, severely wounded (a belly wound), and apparently sent home to convalesce, or be mustered out. He appears to be in a canteen with other soldiers telling about a water porter that he abused with his fellows, and never recognizing his unstinting and good natured service to them over a considerable period of time.
                • Finally Gunga Din saves his life, and dies in the process. After he is transported to the rear he realizes what he owes to Gunga Din, but he is unable to square the account with a dead man. With a few beers in him, and sitting in a canteen in Aldershot, I can see a tough veteran telling such a story, and pouring his heart out to men who could understand his pain.
            • Philip Holberton notes the article by Sir George MacMunn in KJ 66 for July 1943 on "The Original Gunga Deen". He traces it to a song popular when Kipling was in India and gives what he can remember of the words.
              • Kipling borrowed the name, with its pronunciation though different spelling, the metre (except that the song repeats some words), and even the first line as his line 7.
      • Rudyard Kipling
        • English Journalist, Writer, Poet and Novelist
          • Born in India (inspiring much of his works)
          • Kipling turned down many honours in his lifetime, including a knighthood and the poet laureateship, but in 1907, he accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first English author to be so honoured.
        • 30th December 1865-18th January 1936
          • Born in Bombay, India.
          • Buried Westminster Abbey
        • In 1870, Kipling was taken back to England to stay with a foster family in Southsea and then to go to boarding school in Devon.
          • In 1882, he returned to India and worked as a journalist, writing poetry and fiction in his spare time.
            • In 1896, a quarrel with his wife's family prompted Kipling to move back to England and he settled with his own family in Sussex.
        • In 1915, his son, John, went missing in action while serving with the Irish Guards in the Battle of Loos during World War One.
          • Kipling had great difficulty accepting his son's death - having played a major role in getting the chronically short-sighted John accepted for military service - and subsequently wrote an account of his regiment, 'The Irish Guards in the Great War'.
          • He also joined the Imperial War Graves Commission and selected the biblical phrase inscribed on many British war memorials: 'Their Name Liveth For Evermore'.

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