The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a British soldier in India. Its eponymous character is an Indian water-carrier (a bhishti) who, after the narrator is wounded in battle, saves his life, only to be shot and killed. In the final three lines, the soldier regrets the abuse that he dealt to Din and admits that Din is the better man. The poem was published as part of a set of martial poems called the Barrack-Room Ballads.
In contrast to Kipling's later poem "The White Man's Burden", "Gunga Din" is named after the Indian and portrays him as a heroic character who is not afraid to face danger on the battlefield as he tends to wounded men. The white soldiers who order Din around and beat him for not bringing water to them fast enough are presented as being callous and shallow and ultimately inferior to him.
Although "Din" is frequently pronounced to rhyme with "pin", the rhymes within the poem make it clear that it should be pronounced /ˈdiːn/, to rhyme with "green".
Grantland Rice's 1917 column describing Heinie Zimmerman's infamous World Series gaffe wherein Zimmerman futilely chased speedster Eddie Collins across home plate (rather than initiating a rundown by tossing the ball to a player covering home) ended with "I'm a faster man than you are, Heinie Zim."[5]
Robert Sheckley's short story "Human Man's Burden" (1956, anthologized in Pilgrimage to Earth) alludes to the story by featuring a robotic servant named Gunga Sam, programmed to behave in a manner similar to the stereotypical colonial native servant. While stated to have no soul, he ultimately proves to be no less human and wise than his owner in actions.
In 1958, Bobby Darin wrote and recorded the song "That's the Way Love Is" in which, referring to the unsolved riddle of love, he sings "And if ya come up with the answer, You're a better man, sir, than I ... Gunga Din".[6]
Songwriter Jim Croce set the words to music and released it on his 1966 Facets album.
In 1996, the animated television series Animaniacs featured a segment called "Gunga Dot", in which the "Warner Sister" Dot has a job serving water to the patrons of a resort in a boiling hot desert near Bombay. After growing tired of the constant complaining, she releases the valve on the Warner Bros. Water Tower, which placates the guests and somehow creates the Indian Ocean.[7]
In 2015, The Libertines, an English rock band, composed the single "Gunga Din" for their comeback album Anthems for Doomed Youth. The verse "You are a better man than I am" is used throughout the lyrics.
In Carry On Up the Khyber (1968), part of the Carry On series of British comedy films, the rebel warrior chief is called Bungdit Din (Bernard Bresslaw), a parody of Gunga Din. In a scene where he boasts of wiping out the Khyber Pass garrison, the "Khazi of Kalabar" (Kenneth Williams) replies: "You're a better man than me, Bungdit Din."
See also
No Heaven for Gunga Din, with a similar theme about the treatment of native servants by colonial military officers.
^Jaap van Ginnekan, Screening Difference: How Hollywood's Blockbuster Films Imagine Race, Ethnicity, and Culture, p. 143. ISBN978-0-7425-5584-6 "Spielberg conceded that Gunga Din was one of the major sources of inspiration for the second Indiana Jones movie, and it does indeed contain many of the same elements."
^Richard A. Smiley (2006). "You're A Faster Man Than I Am, Heinie Zim". The National Pastime. SABR (Society for American Baseball Research). pp. 94–103. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
