Guys get your facts right
Check this out to find out the truth.
National Anthem...please gets your facts cleared 6/20/2006 12:24 AM
To my shock I received a mail today (20th june 2006) from a friend who tried to explain me the "true" meaning of the National Anthem of India. The explanation was such that it gave me an impression that Tagore wrote the Anthem in a drive to get the honour of a Nobel laureate.
The explanation was as follows:
"I have always wondered who is the "adhinayak" and "bharat bhagya vidhata", whose praise we are singing. I thought might be Motherland India! Our current National Anthem "Jana Gana Mana" is sung throughout the country.
Did you know the following about our national anthem, I didn't.
To begin with, India's national anthem, Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka, was written by Rabindranath Tagore in honour of King George V and the Queen of England when they visited India in 1919.
To honour their visit Pandit Motilal Nehru had the five stanzas included, which are in praise of the King and Queen. (And most of us think it is in the praise of our great motherland!!!)
In the original Bengali verses only those provinces that were under British rule, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha etc. were mentioned. None of the princely states were recognised which are integral parts of India now Kashmir, Rajasthan, Andhra, Mysore or Kerala. Neither the Indian Ocean nor the Arabian Sea was included, since they were directly under Portuguese rule at that time.
The Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka implies that King George V is the lord of the masses and Bharata Bhagya Vidhata is "the bestower of good fortune".
Following is a translation of the five stanzas that glorify the King
First stanza (Indian) People wake up remembering your good name and ask for your blessings and they sing your glories. (Tava shubha naame jaagetava shubha aashish maage, gaaye tava jaya gaatha)
Second stanza Around your throne people of all religions come and give their love and anxiously wait to hear your kind words.
Third stanza Praise to the King for being the charioteer, for leading the ancient travellers beyond misery.
Fourth stanza Drowned in the deep ignorance and suffering, poverty-stricken, unconscious country? Waiting for the wink of your eye and your mother's (the Queen's) true protection.
Fifth stanza In your compassionate plans, the sleeping Bharat (India) will wake up. We bow down to your feet O' Queen, and glory to Rajeshwara (the King).
This whole poem does not indicate any love for the Motherland but depicts a bleak picture. When you sing Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka, whom are you glorifying? Certainly not the Motherland. Is it God? The poem does not indicate that.
It is time now to understand the original purpose and the implication of this, rather than blindly sing as has been done the past fifty years.
Nehru chose the present national anthem as opposed to Vande Mataram because he thought that it would be easier for the band to play!!! It was an absurd reason but Today for that matter bands have advanced and they can very well play any music. So they can as well play Vande Mataram, which is a far better composition in praise of our dear Motherland India.
Wake up, it's high time! Shouldn't Vande Mataram be our National Anthem."
soucre :
http://www.humnri.com/HumZ/Articles/Article.aspx?number=13750
This explanation astounded me and I being an appreciator of the works of tagore could not digest such an explanation. I tried searching over the net for the explanation of the National Anthem and found one another variant of the same.
Here it goes (basically its translation into English)
Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
dispenser of India's destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, the Maratha country,
in the Dravida country, Utkala (Orissa) and Banga ( Bengal);
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
it mingles in the rhapsodies of the pure waters Jamuna and the Ganges.
They chant only thy name,
they seek only thy blessings,
They sing only thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hand,
thou dispenser of India's destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to thee.
After reading the first explanation when you read the second one your mind (biased) keeps on drifting to the first explanation and you might continue to think that it infact was written in the honour of The Queen and King Goerge V. I have written to Visva Bharati and am still awaiting a reply from them, but mean while a friend of mine clarified the controversies after looking up her resources.
It was found out that the .....................................................................................
......................."Controversy exists regarding the appropriateness of Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem of an independent India. The poem was composed in December 1911, precisely at the time of the Coronation Durbar of George V, and is a paean in praise of "the overlord of India's destiny". The composition was first sung during a convention of the then loyalist Indian National Congress in Calcutta on Dec. 27, 1911 [1]. It was sung on the second day of the convention, and the agenda of that day devoted itself to a loyal welcome of George V on his visit to India. The event was reported thus in the Indian press:
"The Bengali poet Babu Rabindranath Tagore sang a song composed by him specially to welcome the Emperor." (Statesman, Dec. 28, 1911)
"The proceedings began with the singing by Babu Rabindranath Tagore of a song specially composed by him in honour of the Emperor." (Englishman, Dec. 28, 1911)
"When the proceedings of the Indian National Congress began on Wednesday 27th December 1911, a Bengali song in welcome of the Emperor was sung. A resolution welcoming the Emperor and Empress was also adopted unanimously." (Indian, Dec. 29, 1911)
Unsurprisingly, the belief gained ground that the poem had been written in honour of the visiting monarch. Others aver that the newspaper reports cited above were misguided, the confusion arising since a different song, written in Hindi by Rambhuj Chaudhary, was sung [2] on the same occasion in praise of the monarch. However, the two poems were written in different languages; Tagore already enjoyed much fame in India, and newspaper reports are both consistent and categorical on the point of Tagore having himself sung his composition on the occasion.
Nevertheless, other explanations for the motivations that informed the creation of the poem have been proposed. On a visit to India, The poet Yeats received a visit from an Indian admirer who was also, in Yeats' words, "an Indian devotee" of Tagore. In a letter to a lady friend, Yeats quoted this unnamed devotee as giving him a 'strictly off the records' version of events dealing with the writing of Jana Gana Mana. That version, as presented in 1968 by the Indian Express newspaper, was this:
"He (Tagore) got up very early in the morning and wrote a very beautiful poem.... When he came down, he said to one of us, 'Here is a poem which I have written. It is addressed to God, but give it to Congress people. It will please them." [3]
Thus, Tagore is said to have written the poem in honour of God. In a letter to Pulin Behari Sen, Tagore himself wrote:
"A certain high official in His Majesty's service, who was also my friend, had requested that I write a song of felicitation towards the Emperor. The request simply amazed me. It caused a great stir in my heart. In response to that great mental turmoil, I pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagya Vidhata [ed. God of Destiny] of India who has from age after age held steadfast the reins of India's chariot through rise and fall, through the straight path and the curved. That Lord of Destiny, that Reader of the Collective Mind of India, that Perennial Guide, could never be George V, George VI, or any other George. Even my official friend understood this about the song. After all, even if his admiration for the crown was excessive, he was not lacking in simple common sense."
If you read the whole song (5 verses) (the bengali version) then the song is no doubt is a prayer song praising the eternal Lord. If you read the 4 th verse of the song, here Bharat Bhagya bidhata is depicted as female (Tumi Mata). King George could not be female, however someone now may argue it means British queen).
4
Ghoro Timiro Ghono Nibiro
Nishithay Pirito Murchhito Deshe
Jagrata Chhilo Tabo Abichalo Mangalo
Nato Nayanay Animeshe
Duhswapnay Atanke
Rakkha Karilay onke
Snehamoyee Tumi Mata
Jano Gano Dukho Trayaka
Jaya Hey Bharata Bhagya Bidhata
Jaya Hey, Jaya Hey, Jaya Hey,
Jaya Jaya Jaya, Jaya Hey
Janagano mano is a prayer song, which uniquely describes the geography of then India (in the first verse), and quite logically was adopted as the National Anthem for secular India.
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 who 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."
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jana_Gana_Mana#Controversies and
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/asim_k_duttaroy/Genesis_of_Janagana.pdf
I & my friend thought it was our moral responsibility to make you aware of this so that you donot loose faith in your own National Anthem. We believe that its now your social responsibility to spread this knowledge.
