India National Anthem
Wednesday, 3rd October, 2007
India National Anthem
Rabindranath Tagore’s song jana-gana-mana was adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24th Jan. 1950 and gave Vande Mataram-the national song equal honour. It was first sung on 27 Dec, 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress.
THE MUSIC SHEET OF THE ANTHEM
The first stanza (out of 5 stanzas) of the song forms the National Anthem. Playing time of the full version of the national anthem is approximately 52 seconds. A shorter version consisting of the first and last lines of the stanza takes 20 seconds to play and it is played only on certain occasions.
Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka jaya he
Bharata-bhagya- vidhata
Punjaba-Sindhu-Gujarata-Maratha
Dravida-Utkala-Banga
Vindhya-Himachala- Yamuna-Ganga
Uchchhala-Jaladhi-taranga
Tava Subha name jage,
Tava Subha asisa mage,
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 Tagore’s English rendering of the stanza:
Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, Dispenser of India’s destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of the Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, Of the Dravid and Orissa and Bengal. It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of the Jamuna and the Ganges and is chanted by the waves of Indian sea.
They pray for the 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.
If we look into the history, we find that controversy exists regarding the appropriateness of Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem of an independent India. To some, it was a poem composed by Rabindra Nath Tagore in praise of the visiting monarch of the day George V. Jana Gana Mana was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem in January 24, 1950
In 2005, there were calls to delete the word “Sindh” and substitute it with the word Kashmir. The argument was that Sindh was no longer a part of India, having become part of Pakistan as a result of the Partition of 1947. Opponents of this proposal hold that the word “Sindh” refers to the Indus and to Sindhi culture and people which are an integral part of India’s cultural fabric. The Supreme Court of India refused to tamper with the national anthem and the wording remains unchanged.
