THE GIFT OF INDIA

- SAROJINI NAIDU
Sarojini Naidu (1879 - 1949) popularly known as
Nightingale of India was a very known face among the freedom fighters
of India. Ever since her youthful days, she was especially attracted by
literature mainly because she was influenced by her parents. Her
mother was a passionate poet of her own and this hugely inspired
Sarojini Naidu to write her own poems.

The Gift of India written in 1915 is a tribute to the contribution of Indian

soldiers in World War I. Over ten lakh Indian soldiers from the British
Indian Empire served in the Allied forces in the First World War and
fought at different locations. A vast number of them sacrificed their
lives.. However, the contribution of the Indian soldiers is overlooked in
the vast expanse of the War’s history. These selfless sacrifices of the
Indian soldiers for the western agitation are captured in Naidu’s poem
‘The Gift of India’.

This poem is emotionally and sentimentally charged with the feelings of

respect and love for the Indian soldiers who sacrificed their lives to
honor their motherland. Through this poem, Sarojini Naidu has
attempted to pay homage and respect to the martyred Indian soldiers
and awaken the nation’s people to cultivate and nurture a spirit of
patriotism for their own country.
The poem ‘The Gift of India’ is a simple and elegant poem written in twenty-four lines, divided into 4 six-line stanzas. Each stanza
of the poem is complete in itself despite its connectedness with the central theme. The first two lines of each stanza introduce an
idea, and the next two lines build upon them. The final two lines serve as a conclusion for the stanza. The poem follows a simple
and rhyme scheme of “AABBCC” end rhymes throughout the poem.
STANZA 1
Is there ought you need that my hands withhold,
Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold? RHETORICAL QUESTION
Lo! I have flung to the East and West
METAPHOR Priceless treasures torn from my breast,
And yielded the sons of my stricken womb
To the drum-beats of duty, the sabers of doom. METAPHOR

• The first stanza of the poem ‘The Gift of India’ begins with a rhetorical question (A rhetorical question is a question that’s asked
for effect, not because someone is expecting a genuine answer to it.) The question enquires whether the British needed any
more gifts from Mother India. These are 'Rich Gifts', which the British snatched when the Indians were in their control. She has
given the world rich gifts of cloth(raiments), food grains, and precious things like gold. India has flung priceless treasures of her
land to the countries of the East and the West. Moreover, she has sent her sons, that is, the youth of her land in distant
battlegrounds to fight someone else’s war. She questions what more can the nations of the world expect her to give them.
• Reference to World War 1- India was still under the British rule. A lot of Indian soldiers employed in the British forces fought in
the World War for the allies.
• “Sabers of doom”- Saber is a fencing sword. In this context it is metaphorical expression denoting the nature of the war and
the devastation it leaves in its wake.
 STANZA 2
SIMILE Gathered like pearls in their alien graves
Silent they sleep by the Persian waves,
SIMILE Scattered like shells on Egyptian sands,
They lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands,
SIMILE They are strewn like blossoms mown down by chance
METAPHOR On the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.

• In this stanza, the poet paints the sacrifices of the Indian soldiers
made in the alien lands and the horrors of war and war-fronts in
a rich poetic language. The poet uses visual
imagery and metaphor to distinguish the sacrifice made by
Indians. The similes “Gathered like pearls” and “Scattered like
shells” denotes the careless treatment given the bodies of the
soldiers. The comparison of the warriors to ‘blossoms’ signifies
how the motherland sees them as valuable human resourceThe
terms “alien graves”, “Persian waves”, “Egyptian sands”, and
“Flanders and France” in the stanza explicitly present how the
soldiers are buried far away from home, from their dear and
near ones.
• The image of death and devastation is intensified with the lines
like “pale brows and brave broken hands” denoting the horrors
of war.
 STANZA 3
RHETORICAL QUESTION Can ye measure the grief of the tears I weep
& PERSONIFICATION Or compass the woe of the watch I keep?
Or the pride that thrills thro’ my heart’s despair
And the hope that comforts the anguish of prayer?
And the far sad glorious vision I see
Of the torn red banners of Victory?

• The third stanza also begins with a rhetorical question. The poet talks
to the foreign countries and asks them if they can measure her grief
and her tears or know her woe, her sufferings when she watches all
these. She says that they can never fathom the pride that thrills
through her heart, in spite of her despair. Despite her sadness and
deep rooted anguish, she is proud of her sons who have fought bravely
and brought victory. She gives expression to the voices of countless
Indian mothers whose sons have fought in the war. The poet says that
the people of the warring nations can never comprehend the small
hope that comforts these mothers from the pain of praying for their
sons’ safety.
• She asks if they can understand the vision of glory she sees. It is a sad
one, because she has lost her sons for it. The torn red banner of
victory, which has come at the expense of so much blood, is sad and
meaningless for her. The “torn red banners of Victory” symbolizes the
blood of Indians who sacrificed for the victory of their colonizers.
 STANZA 4
When the terror and the tumult of hate shall cease
And life be refashioned on anvils of peace,
And your love shall offer memorial thanks
To the comrades who fought in your dauntless ranks,
And you honour the deeds of the deathless ones,
Remember the blood of thy martyred sons!
The poet urges people to remember and respect the contribution of Indian soldiers when love and peace take over hatred and
cruelty. She asks the British to remember and value the sacrifices that Indian soldiers have made for them. Thus, she throws
light on the devastating after effects of the war. The phrase ‘on anvils of peace’. This implies that the process of getting life
back to normal will not be an easy one.

This poem can be read as an anti-war poem that brings forward the tragic aspect of wars. The horrid image of the soldiers lying
dead in alien lands and the blood-tainted meadows bring forward a picture that is hard to praise. Mother India’s lamentation
for the loss of the Indian soldiers in wars can be seen as a reflection of every Indian mother lamenting the loss of her martyred
son. In the end, she hopes for a world free from the brutality of war, a world that would be modeled on peace and harmony, a
world that will remember the contributions of the martyred Indian soldiers.
 PATRIOTISM

UNRECOGNIZED AND
UNAPPRECIATED ANTI WAR
SACRIFICES OF THE INDIAN ELEMENTS
SOLDIERS

NO GLORY IN
WARFARE