Summary Of To The Indian Who Died In Africa?

The Poem In Detail:
Stanza 1:
Wherever a man may be, there is one place he yearns to be and the place is his home, his native place. He longs for his home and hearth, for the food cooked by his wife. He wishes to sit at his door peacefully enjoying the sunset and watch his grandchildren playing in the dust with the grandchildren of his neighbour. These feelings are of a soldier after the war is over.
Stanza 2:
The soldier at the end of his career has luckily survived the war in spite of receiving many scars on the battlefield. He has memories of the war and of the foreign soldiers he met   during the war who were like his fighting away from their homeland. These memories come to him when conversing with people.
Stanza 3:
A soldier is not destined to remain in his native land or die there. His destiny may take him away from his native place to a foreign land. If a country is home to one man, it is exile to another. The country where the soldier dies fighting becomes his home land, while his own country becomes a foreign land.
Stanza 4:
Addressing the dead Indian   soldier ,the poet says that Africa, where he and the other soldiers had come to fight, belonged to neither of them,but as they died in the soil of Africa fighting for their motherland ,Africa becomes their native or motherland.

Every common man yearns to live the last few years of his life in the security of his home, relishing his wife's cooking and watching his grandson playing with a grandson of his neighbour's. If this common man had been a soldier during the youthful phase of his life, he has many painful memories and scars which are brought up as reminiscences during his conversations with others. Men who have fought in other countries along with and against foreign people are affected the most. A man may not be able to spend his last years in his native land, as destiny might end his life in another. Even though a country which may be native land of one is foreign and strange to another, when a man is killed during battle, the place where he has perished becomes his home land. His own people should always remember his sacrifice, and his comrades should tell his native people about the man. We cannot tell if the actions of the man who has died will serve him well or be in vain. This will be decided by god.

Poem in detail:
Introduction(theme):
The British had colonial interest on Russia. In order to safeguard her interest she waged war against the Russians. This war was called the Boer's war. During this time India was already a colony of Britain and therefore had to fight on behalf of the Britishers. This is the reason why the Indian soldier goes to Africa with the Britishers to fight. Many poems were written during this period . This is one such literary piece that laments about the destiny of a soldier.

Destination is a place where one likes to reach. It is man's home land his village, his home and his family. It is his wife cooks food for him. It is as sitting at the sunset and watching his grandson playing in the dust. Whoever goes to an alien land would like to return to such a place, his own home, his own land. Man who settles in an alien land is often haunted by may memories of his home and his homeland.He remembers many things when he sits in the company of of his foreign friends.This poem emphasises the fact that a mans destiny may take him away from destination. In each country we have natives  who feel at home and people  at countries who feel at ease