To the Indians who Died in Africa?

Answer 1

Eliot's poem is a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died during the British Empire's African campaigns during WWII.

The key lines in the poem are:

Where a man dies bravely

At one with his destiny, that soil is his.

The message of the poem is that perhaps India never 'belonged to' Britain (even though it was for several centuries a part of the British Empire), and that Africa never 'belonged to' Britain either. So a casual or shallow analysis would ask why Indian troops were fighting in Africa to defend the British Empire.

But Eliot says that this is the wrong question. The North African campaign was a 'just war' (it was fought against Hitler - whose deep-seated racism would have been as damaging to India as to Africa) - so it is right that anyone should have fought it anywhere (including Indian troops fighting in Africa).

Eliot is saying that where you come from is important:

A man's destination is his own village,

His own fire, and his wife's cooking;

but who you are is much more important than this:

A man's destination is not his destiny,

Every country is home to one man

And exile to another.

Eliot is saying that we should not ask why Indian troops were fighting in Africa. They were heroes - they died in a just and necessary war. They died, and were buried, alongside English heroes:

This was not your land, or ours: but a village in the Midlands,

And one in the Five Rivers, may have the same graveyard.

Where they came from, where they died - these things may be important.

But the most important thing is that they died as heroes. They were heroes first, Indian nationals second.

Answer 2

theme of detachment has been brought in this poem