NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 1 Bharat Our Land (poem) — Check Your Understanding
Book page 25–28 Updated on2026-09-08
Q1.
I. Fill in the blanks by choosing appropriate words from the box given below to complete the summary of the poem.
Box: warriors peerless Upanishads Ganga Buddha Himavant sages praise historical greatness Brahma-knowledge
The poem is a tribute to India, celebrating its natural beauty, spiritual heritage, and 1. ______. The poet praises the 2. ______, describing it as mighty and unparalleled. The 3. ______ is depicted as generous and graceful, while the 4. ______ are honoured as sacred and unmatched. The poem highlights the contributions of 5. ______ and 6. ______ who have enriched the land with their bravery and wisdom. It also acknowledges the presence of 7. ______ and the teachings of 8. ______, highlighting India’s deep-rooted spiritual and philosophical traditions. The poet repeatedly asserts that India is 9. ______, urging everyone to 10. ______ her.
Answer
The poem is a tribute to India, celebrating its natural beauty, spiritual heritage, and 1. historical greatness.
The poet praises the 2. Himavant, describing it as mighty and unparalleled.
The 3. Ganga is depicted as generous and graceful, while the 4. Upanishads are honoured as sacred and unmatched.
The poem highlights the contributions of 5. warriors and 6. sages who have enriched the land with their bravery and wisdom.
It also acknowledges the presence of 7. Brahma-knowledge and the teachings of 8. Buddha, highlighting India’s deep-rooted spiritual and philosophical traditions.
The poet repeatedly asserts that India is 9. peerless, urging everyone to 10. praise her.
How each blank is decided from the poem, not from guessing:
2 and 3 are fixed by the adjectives the summary itself uses. “Mighty” is the poem’s word for Himavant; “generous” and “grace” are its words for the Ganga.
5 and 6 must be in that order because the summary ends “with their bravery and wisdom” — bravery belongs to the warriors, wisdom to the sages, and the pairs match up in sequence.
7 and 8 come from the last stanza: “Here Brahma-knowledge has taken root, / and the Buddha preached his dhamma here.” Note the grammar of the blank — “the teachings of ______” needs a person, so Buddha goes in 8.
9 and 10 are the refrain, split in two: “she’s peerless, let’s praise her!”
1 is what is left, and it fits: warriors, sages and the Buddha belong to history rather than to nature or to scripture.
Q2.
II. Complete the following features about the poem.
1. The impact on the readers (mood): __________
2. The poet’s attitude (tone): __________
3. The rhyme scheme: __________
4. Examples of personification: __________
Answer
Feature
Answer
Evidence
1. Mood
Proud, uplifting and celebratory — the reader is left elated and patriotic, as after a hymn
The exclamation mark of the refrain, the accumulation of glories, and the invitation “let’s praise her!” which draws the reader in rather than leaving him watching.
2. Tone
Reverential and assertive — admiring, devotional and completely confident
“there’s no equal anywhere on earth”; the rhetorical questions “which other river can match her grace?” and “what scriptures else to name with them?”, which expect no answer because the poet allows none.
3. Rhyme scheme
There is no regular end-rhyme; the poem is in free verse
Stanza 1 ends its lines ours / earth / ours / grace / ours / them / ours / her; stanza 3 ends root / here / Bharat / her. What the ear actually hears is not rhyme but repetition — “is ours—” closing four lines in a row, and the refrain closing two stanzas. That is what gives the poem its chant-like beat.
4. Personification
The Ganga and Bharat are both spoken of as women
“The generous Ganga is ours— which other river can match her grace?” — generosity and grace are human qualities, and the river becomes “her”. So does the country: “she’s peerless, let’s praise her!” and “Of hoary antiquity is Bharat, she’s peerless”.
Mood and tone are not the same thing. Tone is what the poet feels about the subject; mood is what the reader is made to feel. Here they run together — a reverent poet produces an elated reader — but they can easily part company. A bitter poem about war can leave the reader pitying rather than bitter.
Check it yourself: before you write “ABAB” for any poem, read the last word of each line aloud in order. If you cannot hear a returning sound, do not invent one — say the poem is unrhymed and then describe what is repeated. That is the harder and better answer.
Q3.
III. What is the impact of the refrain, ‘she’s peerless, let’s praise her!’?
Answer
The refrain closes the first stanza and then returns to close the last, so it acts as the hinge of the whole poem. Four effects, in order of importance:
It converts a list into a song. Everything before it is a catalogue — mountain, river, scriptures, warriors, sages, music, Brahma-knowledge, the Buddha. The refrain gives all of it one destination, so the poem stops sounding like an inventory and starts sounding like a chorus.
It makes one claim unforgettable by repeating it. Not that India is beautiful or old or holy, but that she is peerless — without an equal. Everything else is evidence; this is the verdict.
It draws the reader inside the poem. “Let’s praise her” is first person plural and imperative at once. The poet is not stating his own admiration; he is calling the reader to join it. Private feeling becomes public participation.
It is what makes the poem an ode you can chant. A refrain returning at fixed points is how devotional and patriotic songs are built, so that a crowd who does not know the verses can still sing the chorus. Bharati’s poems were meant to be sung in exactly this way.
Notice where it does not appear: the middle stanza — warriors, sages, music, auspicious things — ends without it. The gap makes the return of the refrain in the last stanza feel earned rather than mechanical.
Q4.
IV. Complete the following sentence appropriately.
India is metaphorically described as ‘this sunny golden land,’ suggesting that it is _________.
Answer
…suggesting that it is a bright, richly fertile and infinitely precious country — warmed by abundant sunlight, golden with ripe harvests, and as valuable as gold itself.
The phrase carries three pictures at once, and a good answer separates them:
Sunny — literally true of a tropical land, but also figurative: light stands for cheer, openness and hope. A “sunny” land is one where life flourishes.
Golden — the colour of ripe wheat and paddy, so the phrase promises abundance and a good harvest.
Golden again — the metal, the standard of value. India is not merely pleasant; she is precious.
It is a metaphor and not a simile because the poet does not say India is like gold. He calls the land golden outright, so the quality is transferred completely.
Tip: “Golden age” works the same way in English — no gold is involved, only the idea of the most valuable time. Watching a word carry its literal and its figurative sense together is the heart of reading poetry.
Q5.
V. The poet uses symbolism. Match the symbols in Column 1 to what they suggest in Column 2.
Column 1: 1. Himavant 2. Ganga 3. Upanishads 4. Gallant warriors and sages 5. Brahma-knowledge and Buddha’s Dhamma 6. Sunny golden land
Column 2: (i) knowledge and enlightenment (ii) spiritual and philosophical legacy (iii) purity and generosity (iv) richness and glory (v) strength and permanence (vi) courage and wisdom
Answer
Symbol
Suggests
Why
1. Himavant
(v) strength and permanence
A mountain is the one thing in a landscape that does not move or change. The poem’s own adjective is “mighty”, and “there’s no equal anywhere on earth” is a claim about size and endurance.
2. Ganga
(iii) purity and generosity
The poem calls her “generous” — she gives water to everyone alike — and she is the river to which purity is traditionally attributed.
3. Upanishads
(ii) spiritual and philosophical legacy
They are texts, and texts are what a civilisation hands on. “What scriptures else to name with them?” places them at the head of an inheritance.
4. Gallant warriors and sages
(vi) courage and wisdom
The pairing is exact: gallant gives courage, sage gives wisdom. The poem sets the two kinds of greatness side by side deliberately.
5. Brahma-knowledge and Buddha’s Dhamma
(i) knowledge and enlightenment
Brahma-knowledge is the knowledge of ultimate reality; the Buddha’s dhamma is the path to enlightenment. Both are about seeing truly.
6. Sunny golden land
(iv) richness and glory
Gold is wealth and splendour together; the sun adds radiance. The land is being called both fertile and glorious.
What the matched list reveals: read the right-hand column downwards — strength, purity, legacy, courage and wisdom, enlightenment, glory. Bharati has not chosen his symbols at random. Two come from nature, two from books and belief, one from people, one from the land itself, so the country he builds is physical, intellectual and moral at the same time.
Q6.
VI. The poet uses imagery (descriptive language to create vivid mental pictures that appeal to the senses). Give any two examples from the poem.
Answer
Two clear examples, one visual and one auditory:
“The mighty Himavant is ours— / there’s no equal anywhere on earth.” — visual imagery. The single adjective mighty raises a wall of snow and rock in the reader’s mind; the second line then widens the picture to the whole earth so that the mountain is seen against everything else there is.
“The divinest music has been heard here” — auditory imagery. The poem stops appealing to the eye and turns to the ear. Divinest does not describe the tune but its effect, so the reader supplies the sound himself.
Two more, if you need them: “This sunny golden land” — visual imagery of light and colour, the whole country seen at harvest; and “The generous Ganga… her grace” — visual and kinaesthetic together, a wide river moving unhurriedly and smoothly, like a dancer.
Tip: When a question asks for imagery, always name the sense it appeals to. “The Himalayas are described” is a summary; “mighty creates a visual image of immense scale” is an answer about craft.
Q7.
VII. What is the impact of the use of hyphens in the first stanza? Select the options that are true.
1. Creates deliberate pauses to reinforce the sense of admiration and pride
2. Emphasises the contrast between India’s strengths and weaknesses
3. Lends to the lyrical quality giving it a measured, chant-like rhythm
4. Suggests hesitation or uncertainty in the poet’s claims about India
5. Presents a key element of India’s greatness before the hyphen and makes a strong assertion about its uniqueness after the hyphen
Answer
True: 1, 3 and 5. False: 2 and 4.
Option
True?
Reason
1. Deliberate pauses reinforcing admiration and pride
TRUE
The hyphen halts the voice for a beat after “is ours”, and a pause before a claim makes the claim land harder. Read the line aloud without the pause and the pride drains out of it.
2. Contrast between strengths and weaknesses
FALSE
No weakness is named anywhere in the poem. There is nothing to contrast with.
3. Lyrical, measured, chant-like rhythm
TRUE
The hyphen falls in the same position four times running — “Himavant is ours-”, “Ganga is ours-”, “Upanishads are ours-”, “land is ours-”. A pause at a fixed interval is exactly what makes a chant.
4. Hesitation or uncertainty
FALSE
The tone is the opposite of hesitant. What follows each hyphen is an absolute — “there’s no equal anywhere on earth”. A hesitant poet does not write “no equal”.
5. Key element before the hyphen, strong assertion after it
TRUE
This describes the structure precisely. Before: the possession — Himavant, Ganga, the Upanishads, the land. After: the verdict — no equal, no rival river, no comparable scripture, peerless.
Why a mark of punctuation counts as a device: the hyphens are not needed for grammar; the sentences would be complete without them. They exist only to control the reader’s breathing — name, pause, assert; name, pause, assert. Bharati’s poems were written to be sung, and this is the printed page trying to keep time.
Q8.
VIII. The poet uses hyperbole in the poem.
Hyperbole (hi-puh-buh-lee) is a figure of speech that involves extreme exaggeration to highlight a point or create a dramatic effect. It is not meant to be taken literally but is used to make something sound more impressive or intense.
For example:
• My luggage weighs a tonne. Does the luggage actually weigh a tonne?
• She was so happy that her smile was a mile wide. Can a smile be a mile wide?
Identify the hyperbole in the poem and explain the effect.
Answer
Four places where the poem exaggerates deliberately:
Line
The exaggeration
Its effect
“there’s no equal anywhere on earth”
An absolute claim about the entire planet that no one could ever verify — the Andes and the Alps exist.
The scale of the claim measures the scale of the poet’s feeling, not of the mountain.
“which other river can match her grace?”
Phrased as a question, but it forbids an answer — it assumes no river anywhere does.
A rhetorical question hides the exaggeration inside an appeal to the reader’s agreement.
“what scriptures else to name with them?”
Suggests that no other scripture in the world may even be mentioned in the same breath.
Raises the Upanishads above comparison rather than above competition.
“The divinest music has been heard here” / “she’s peerless”
Superlatives that admit of no degree — the most divine, and having no equal at all.
Together they close the poem’s argument: comparison is not merely lost, it is refused.
Why the exaggeration is not dishonesty: hyperbole is a statement about the speaker, not about the world. “My luggage weighs a tonne” tells you how heavy it felt to me. In the same way “no equal anywhere on earth” tells you how the Himalaya feels to a poet who belongs to that land. The reader is expected to hear love, not geography — and an ode is exactly the form in which that expectation is normal.
Q9.
IX. The poem is an ode.
An ode is a lyrical poem that expresses deep admiration, praise, or reverence for a person, place, object, or idea. It is often written in an elevated and formal style, celebrating the subject with enthusiasm and emotion. An ode’s language is often grand and expressive; and it seeks to highlight the extraordinary qualities of its subject.
Now, identify examples from the poem that correspond to it being an ode.
Answer
Feature of an ode
Where the poem shows it
A worthy subject, addressed with reverence
The subject is Bharat itself — “Of hoary antiquity is Bharat” — and she is spoken of as a person to be honoured, not a territory to be described.
Direct, open praise
The refrain is an instruction to praise: “she’s peerless, let’s praise her!” — repeated so that no reader can miss the poem’s purpose.
Elevated, formal diction
“hoary antiquity”, “sanctified”, “auspicious”, “gallant”, “peerless”, “divinest” — not one of these belongs to ordinary speech.
A catalogue of extraordinary qualities
Mountain, river, scriptures, land, warriors, sages, music, Brahma-knowledge, the Buddha — the poem works by accumulation, each item raising the subject higher.
Enthusiasm and emotional intensity
The exclamation mark of the refrain, and the two rhetorical questions that dare the reader to disagree.
Lyrical, song-like movement
The repeated “is ours—” and the returning refrain give it the measured, chant-like rhythm of a song meant to be sung aloud.
Did you know? Subramania Bharati wrote in Tamil and set many of his poems to music; several are still sung. Reading this as an ode is not a classroom label imposed from outside — it is close to the form the poem was actually born in.
Q10.
X. The poet uses allusion in the poem.
Allusion is a literary device where a writer makes an indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or cultural element without explicitly mentioning it. The reader is expected to recognise and understand the reference based on prior knowledge.
Now, read the explanations and identify the matching allusions from the poem for the following.
• An allusion to the ancient Indian scriptures that form the philosophical core and symbolise deep wisdom and enlightenment.
• An allusion to the concept of spiritual knowledge associated with self-realisation and ultimate truth.
• An allusion to Gautama Buddha’s teachings, which include compassion, non-violence, and enlightenment. This highlights India’s role in shaping major religious and philosophical traditions.
Answer
Explanation given
Allusion in the poem
What the reader is expected to know
Ancient Indian scriptures forming the philosophical core; deep wisdom and enlightenment
“The sacred Upanishads are ours— / what scriptures else to name with them?”
That the Upanishads are the concluding philosophical portions of the Vedas, the source of Vedanta. The poet names them and says no more, trusting the reader to supply the weight.
Spiritual knowledge associated with self-realisation and ultimate truth
“Here Brahma-knowledge has taken root”
That brahma-jnana is the knowledge of Brahman, ultimate reality — the realisation that the self and the absolute are one. “Taken root” adds that this knowledge grew here, like a tree, rather than arriving from outside.
That the Buddha taught in this land, and that dhamma (Pali for dharma) means his whole teaching — the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, ahimsa and compassion.
Why allusion suits a poem this short: the poem is sixteen lines long and covers the philosophy, religion, geography and history of a civilisation. It can only do that by pointing. Three words — Upanishads, Brahma-knowledge, dhamma — carry libraries between them, and the poet borrows all of it without spending a line on explanation.
Tip: an allusion works only if the reader recognises it. That is why item X sits at the end of this exercise: the poem is quietly testing what you already carry into it.