Mahatma Gandhi's Poem 'A Red Blanket Address'

“A nation 's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. “ - Mahatma Gandhi. Culture is what we pass on to our children. It is what makes us unique, what we use as our foundation. In the poem A Red Blanket Addresses Christians, the poet addresses his people and expresses his disgust in them. A Xhosa is referred to as a red blanket. They are those who refuse to welcome Western education and Christianity, which was introduced to their people by the whites. They stick to their roots and rituals and refuse to accept change to their customs. Irony is used throughout the poem

You can feel the disgust that the poet is trying to express from the first line.

The writer expresses how she feels about her countrymen and women being educated

The daughters just left their families and their mother express great regret for them. All of their children are educated but how does that help them? Their mothers words fall on deaf ears like written by the poet in line 7 “advising the air and pleading in vain”. They are a lost cause and the poet sees that trying to persuade them would only waste his time.

“Jails crammed to capacity, courts jam-packed with the learned products of school education:” The poet is mocking the Western Education system. She states that all those people in jail and court are educated people and yet look where they ended up. The Western Education system is a joke to the poet. The certificates that you earned don’t mean a thing to the people in charge. They laugh and mock them according to the poem. Their achievements don’t mean a thing or account for anything.

In the fourth stanza the poet is angry. All the thieves and crooks are in the schools. The Western Education system is failing them because they turn a blind eye to the bad people that enter their schools. According to the poet, they don’t deserve to be there, she will kick them out herself if she has to. Their education system has failed