Our National Anthem : A Controversial Poem : MadanMohan Tarun

Our  National  Anthem : A Controversial Poem

 

MadanMohan Tarun

 

Whenever  I  hear  our  national anthem ‘ jana  gaNa  mana ADHINAAYAK  jai  he, Bhaarat  bhaagya  vidhaataa’ , I don’t  feel  comfortable  as I  am aware  of  the historical  facts  of this  poem.

 

Basically,  this  poem  was  written  in  1911  by  Ravindranath  Thakur  to  pay honor  to  king  George 5th of  England when India was under British rule. He  visited  India  on 24th of   December 1911.  It  was  sung  by  Ravindranath Thakur on 26th of December 1911 as  his welcome  song.

 

On  28th  of   December  1911  ‘STATESMAN’  commented –

 ‘  THE BENGALI POET RAVINDRANATH TAGORE  SUNG  A SONG  COMPOSED  BY HIM  SPECIALLY  TO WELCOME  THE  EMPEROR.’

 

‘ENGLISHMAN’  commented –  

‘ THE PROCEEDING  BEGAN  WITH  THE SINGING BY  RAVINDRANATH  TAGORE  OF  A  SONG SPECIALLY  COMPOSED  BY  HIM IN  HONOR  OF  THE  EMPROR.’

 

‘ INDIAN’  commented  on  December  29 . 1911 –

 ‘ WHEN  THE  PROCEEDINGS STARTED  OF INDIAN  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  LEAGUE  ON  WEDNESDAY  27TH DEC. 1911 ,  A  BENGALI  SONG   IN  WELCOME  OF  THE  EMPEROR  WAS SUNG.  A  RESOLUTION  WELCOMING  THE  EMPEROR  AND  EMPRESS  WAS ALSO  ADOPTED’

 

India  adopted  a  few  stanzas  of  the  same  controversial  poem as  it’s  national anthem  on  24th January  1950.

 It  would  have  been  better  if  we   had  adopted  ‘VANDE  MATRAM’ by  Bankimchandra  Chattopadhyaaya  as  our national  anthemwhich  we  accepted only as a national song .

I  invite  you all for  a  discussion.

 

I  invite  you all for  a  discussion.