THE TRUE STORY OF OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM

The nation was outraged when Laloo Prasad Yadav sat through the national anthem at a parade in Bihar. Many leaders belonging to various political parties took this as an opportunity to earn brownie point against him calling this act as an outrage, disrespect to the national anthem . To all of them Laloo Yadav sent a recent piece of paper which happened to be a decision made by THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA …………..

TODAY I will tell you a fact which has come to my knowledge right now and as a true Indian I want every other Indian to hear about it.

It was 1911. George V , the reigning king of England was to visit India. To welcome him , as a token of appreciation (which was never needed) and gratitude (which the British government never deserved ) a song was written for him by a man known to quite a few of us …. Rabindranath Tagore . The song itself may sound familiar to you

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he

Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.

………………………….Tava shubha name jage,

Tava shubha asisa mange,

Gahe tava jaya gatha,

Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he

Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.

Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he,

Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he!

The following is its English rendering

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,

dispenser of India’s destiny.

………………………….They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.

The saving of all people waits in thy hand,

thou dispenser of India’s destiny.

Victory, victory, victory to thee.

Yes friends , the national anthem is least NATIONAL . It was never meant to be NATIONAL . It was meant for the king , he was called the’ bhagya vidhata’. Don’t you ever wonder why no freedom fighter ever sang JANA GANA MANA during the days of freedom struggle . It was because they identified themselves with the song VANDE MATARAM written by another Bengali ( and a true nationalist) Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay . So much so that when the 15 year old Chandra Shekhar Azaad was slashed 15 times every time the words that came out of his mouth were …..VANDE MATARAM.

Now an interesting fact. In 1914 Rabindranath Tagore was awarded the Noble prize. Do you know who was the noble prize committee chairman ?...... George V. But the king realized that a prize could not be given just on the basis of a song . And so came the book by Tagore ….. GITANJALI …. an obscure piece which many intellectuals cannot understand.

It was in 1940 that Rabindranath Tagore wrote a letter to his brother in law in which he admitted that JANA GANA MANA was the worst song he ever wrote . He also asked his brother in law to publish the letter after his ( Tagore’s) death. The letter was never published .

This is the true story of JANA GANA MANA. The supreme court of India in its ruling has said that nobody can be forced to sing JANA GANA MANA .( I am never going to sing it again).

BUT IT WAS NOT TAGORE’S FAULT THAT JANA GANA MANA WAS CHOSEN AS THE NATIONAL ANTHEM . THE TRUTH IS FAR MORE SINISTER. IT WILL COME UP IN PART 2 OF MY BLOG.