Editing Gunga Din

{{short description|Poem by Rudyard Kipling}}
{{About|the poem}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

"'''Gunga Din'''" ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|ɡ|ʌ|ŋ|ɡ|ə|_|ˈ|d|iː|n}}) is an 1890 poem by [[Rudyard Kipling]] set in [[British Raj|British India]].
The poem was published alongside "[[Mandalay (poem)|Mandalay]]" and "[[Danny Deever]]" in the collection "[[Barrack-Room Ballads]]". 

The poem is much remembered for its final line "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/46783|title=Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling|date=31 March 2018|website=Poetry Foundation}}</ref>

==Background==
{{Quote box |width=300px |align=right |salign=right
 |quote  =<poem>
        Though I've belted you and flayed you,
        By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!<ref>{{cite book |last=Kipling |first=Rudyard |author-link=Rudyard Kipling |title=Rudyard Kipling's Verse |date=1940 |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, NY |edition=Definitive |oclc=225762741 |url=https://archive.org/details/rudyardkiplingsv0000kipl/page/404 |pages=404–406}}</ref></poem>
|source ="Gunga Din", lines 82–84<br/>
View the [[wikisource:Gunga Din|full poem]] on [[Wikisource]]}}

The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of [[Army of India|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 {{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|iː|n}}, to rhyme with "green".

[[T. S. Eliot]] included the poem in his 1941 collection ''[[A Choice of Kipling's Verse]]''.

==Adaptations and references in popular culture==
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2022}}

The poem inspired the 1939 adventure film ''[[Gunga Din (film)|Gunga Din]]'' from [[RKO Pictures]], starring [[Sam Jaffe]] in the title role, along with [[Cary Grant]], [[Victor McLaglen]], [[Douglas Fairbanks Jr.]], and [[Joan Fontaine]]. This movie was remade in 1961 as ''[[Sergeants 3]]'', starring the [[Rat Pack]] with [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] as the Gunga Din character, in which the locale was moved from British-colonial India to the old West.<ref>{{Cite news|last=French|first=Philip|date=2007-07-14|title=Philip French's DVD club: No 79: Gunga Din|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/jul/15/dvdreviews|access-date=2020-07-09|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Many elements of the 1939 film were also incorporated into ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]''.<ref>Jaap van Ginnekan,  ''Screening Difference: How Hollywood's Blockbuster Films Imagine Race, Ethnicity, and Culture'', p. 143. {{ISBN|978-0-7425-5584-6}} "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."</ref> The film ''[[Three Kings (1999 film)|Three Kings]]'', set during the [[Gulf War]] of 1990–1991, also has many resemblances, including a "heist theme", to the film ''Gunga Din''.

[[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."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/I%27m+a+faster+man+than+you+are%2C+Heinie+Zim-a0216411856 |title=You're A Faster Man Than I Am, Heinie Zim |author=Richard A. Smiley |date=2006 |work=The National Pastime |issue=26 |publisher=SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) |pages =94–103 |accessdate=24 February 2021}}</ref>

[[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".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bobbydarin.com/thatsthewayloveis.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020916111815/http://www.bobbydarin.com/thatsthewayloveis.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 September 2002|title=BobbyDarin.com: That's The Way Love Is|website=bobbydarin.com}}</ref>

In 1964 Duane Hiatt and the group The 3Ds released an album of classic poetry set to music, including Gunga Din, with lyrics almost word for word from Kipling's poem.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.byuradio.org/d51f84d3-287b-486f-8765-e33f655f4796/the-apple-seed-duane-hiatt-and-the-3ds |title=Duane Hiatt and the 3Ds }}</ref>

Songwriter [[Jim Croce]] set the words to music as "The Ballad of Gunga Din" and released it on his 1966 ''[[Facets (album)|Facets]]'' album.

In ''[[Carry On Up the Khyber]]'' (1968), part of the ''[[Carry On (film series)|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."

Gunga Din is the only fictional person, out of more than twenty individuals mentioned, in the 1970 [[Neil Diamond]] song "[[Done Too Soon]]."<ref>https://genius.com/Neil-diamond-done-too-soon-lyrics; see also [[Done Too Soon]]</ref>

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]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSpv2tdMBvE|title = - YouTube|via = [[YouTube]]}}</ref>

In [[The Sopranos]] Season 1 Episode 6 ‘Pax Soprana’ Livia Soprano states the woman living next door is constantly running water and states "Water, water, water. It's like I'm living next to Gunga Din!"

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.

==See also==
*''[[No Heaven for Gunga Din]]'', with a similar theme about the treatment of native servants by colonial military officers.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* George Robinson: "Gunga Din" (article on the 1939 Hollywood film).  ''Soldiers of the Queen'' (Journal of the [[Victorian Military Society]]).  September 1994.

==External links==
* {{wikisource-inline|Gunga Din|"Gunga Din"|single=true}}
* [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46783/gunga-din Text of the poem at The Poetry Foundation]

{{Rudyard Kipling}}

[[Category:Poetry by Rudyard Kipling]]
[[Category:Rudyard Kipling poems about India]]
[[Category:1890 poems]]
[[Category:Jim Croce songs]]
[[Category:Characters in poems]]