Jana Gana Mana" - Just a thought for the National Anthem! How well do you know about it?
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 recognized 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 jaage; tava 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 travelers 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. Come Join together to put Vande Mataram as our National Anthem. Please dont break the chain lets see how many people are coming to know about it.
RE:Vande Mataram
by Md. Yazed Alam Khan on Aug 25, 2006 04:05 PM Permalink
Hey Kamaal, as I didn't migrate to Pakistan after independence, I must sing Vande Mataram, as it is our National anthem. Why do you stay in India, if religion is so important to you? Religion is a way of life and should be practised at home only. Why don't you go to the land of HELL (Pakistan)? Had I been in power, I would have dragged all you theocratic people out of this country!!!! Just get out and vaccate India!!!
RE:Vande Mataram
by Bodhisattwa Dasgupta on Aug 24, 2006 03:20 PM Permalink
Kindly note that whatever you know about Janaganamana or whatever you mentioned here, is utter horse shit. Kindly contact me if you really want to know the story or rather the facts.
RE:Vande Mataram
by venky on Aug 29, 2006 09:24 PM Permalink
Who's this Sharminda? she makes me laugh...haha... You got to be kidding, aren't you by asking Verma to go Nepal, rt? Forget about India and indians blaming mulsims what bout the world? do you think whole world againist islam? do you Sharminda? Dont crack this kinda jokes,ok? enogh of ur B....shit.Now tell us whether singing Vandemataram or not? If not go to Balochistan...hehe.
RE:Vande Mataram
by arjun Bhave on Aug 25, 2006 08:12 PM Permalink
this translation doesnot make sense. donot try to distort history. you mock the whole nation when you nake such irresponsible allegation. you were not even born when this song was written. did you hear it sung in the praise of King george? is there any shred of historical document ... any newspaer article from that time that says that the national anthen was sung in honour of King george... the song was chosen as the national anthen by eminent people who were member of India's constituent assembly. Do you mean to say that they were all fools?
RE:Vande Mataram
by kamaal on Aug 24, 2006 03:54 PM Permalink
Bull shit. Every Indian, be it a muslim or hindu or anybody cannot be forced to sing the Vande Mataram song. If anybody finds it offensive to their religious beliefs,they have to right to not sing it. Nobody is stopping anyone to recite vande mataram. Muslims will instead sing Saare Jahaan Se Acha....which in my view is a better song than Vande Mataram whose meaning is not known to 95% indians. Saare Jahaan se acha is such a beautiful and easily understood song, however as it was written by Iqbal, it didn't got its due and instead other controversial songs were given importance.
Just like Lata mangeshkar got Bharat Ratna and Mohd Rafi got Padma bhushan....
RE:Vande Mataram
by sharminda on Aug 25, 2006 10:33 PM Permalink
Dear Varma,
I blame media for all this. Do you know, if muslims are killed in Kashmir media will tell civilians and if any one hindu then they will publish in front page as "Hindu massacred". What about the killings in bihar by upper caste, Kaveri riots in karnataka and tamil nadu, what abt caste killing in UP, Bihar and our hindu fanatics like VHP, RSS and Bajrang dal countless attrocites. Growup Varma Growup, at the moment "Jana gana mana" is our national anthem not "Vande Mataram" or "Sare Jahanse achcha". we fought many wars with Pakistan and our muslim brothers fully supported India, Its BJP who wanted to raise unnecesaries issues to fool people like you to come to power. If you have any problem go to Nepal.
RE:Vande Mataram
by Yashendra on Aug 24, 2006 03:45 PM Permalink
Yes ! Lets start a movement to have Vande Mataram as the National Anthem. Jana gana Mana can be the anthem of the Commonwealth. Not India.
Thos who do not believe in India should leave India. Or thrown out. We caanot tolerate intolerance. We ought to to completely intorerant to intolerance.
RE:Vande Mataram
by Kaleem on Aug 27, 2006 02:33 PM Permalink
My Dear friends,
95 % of us don't know the meaning and we are raising a big issue out of it. Simply I ask one thing - if U were told to praise any british instead of your hindu gods, will you do that..?
May be U will think for a while, I will not. Because I know whom should I praise. See my friend, India is a secular state and religious beliefs should be given importance.
I am Indian Muslim living in UK. we have only one god, that is Allah(SWT), we should worship only thee not even Prophet Mohammed(SAW). Prophet Mohammed(SAS) is dearest of Allah(SWT).
We are Allah's(SWT) servants not to any other person or thing, we are living on his(Allah's) mercy not any others- definitely not the king george V.
so Judge yourself--- you wnat to praise some british, instead of your gods. R U King George V's servant..?
Think youself. This is the issue and some ppl R raising terrorism and all. My dear friend every one knows that we Indians had not given independence to Kashmiris as we agreed at the time of new govt. formed by Nehru, so they are fighting for that.
I am indian Muslim I am supporting my country and I will. I will fight with any one to protect my India.
RE:Vande Mataram
by Asif on Aug 25, 2006 04:37 PM Permalink
hmmmm....just wonder what makes you say that muslims don't love India?? How many muslims do you know to make such a statement. I am an Indian Muslim.....yes the Indian comes before, and mind you I am a proud Indian Muslim!! This country is as much mine as it is yours so open your eyes and mind, as communalism is not taking us forward but pushing us years behind. It's become a trend to point fingers at the muslim community but then mind you the community is much bigger than the 5% odd crazy fanatics, which are found in every community, remember the caste killings in UP and Bihar? As for your cancer, poverty, illiteracy, corruption are a bigger issue, focus on them instead of spreading hatred!
RE:Vande Mataram
by shiban on Aug 28, 2006 11:13 AM Permalink
Hi Adam, Your observations on killing of Kashmiri muslims are understandable but misleading.The figure of 1.20 lakh is grossly exagerated beyond imagination.Don't be mislead by the Pakistani propganda or their cronnies in Kashmir. Who is to blame for this? There were no killings by the Army during 1947-89? What happened thereafter? Kashmiri muslims instigated,brainwashed in the madrassas and shown the dream Islamic Shariat Rule of Kashmir by the Pakistanis started a guerrila war against the Indian Nation for creating a theocratic state.How was the Indian Nation to respond .It responded with limited force taking huge casualities on it to save innocent civillians instead of using artillery fire,helicopter gunships and commando operations as Pakistan did and is doing in Balochistan.If thirty to forty thousand guerrilas have been killed in fighting who is to blame, certainly not the Indian Army or the Nation.Mr.Adam you owe an appology to the Nation for assisting the enemy in spreding the cannard against the Indian Army.
RE:Vande Mataram
by SENTHIL on Aug 25, 2006 03:40 PM Permalink
Kamaal - it is difficult to see muslim with patriotism! you are not the different one, thats why your community is regarded by the whole world as terrosit religion. Opprtunist people.
The Parbhakaran of LTTE is the one person gives fitting reply to the muslims like you. In srilanka all muslims are Tamil speaking people. When Tamils are affected, they told we are not Tamils but muslims. Hence, they sided with Sinhalese, but the prabakaran even last week killed more than 100 people. here in India Hindus are gullible, that is the reason you are able to write like this. Is it possible to write in same manner for a Hindu in pakistan. Do not worrythe western world is giving fitting reply to you and your community!
Just know the facts and they start barking...just read below the message of Mr Dimitros and you will understand...guess people like you should be taught a few things first...
And Mr Kamaal,
You donot understand Vandemataram, thats your problem of less education and nothing esle. The song is written in Sanskrit, a better language than hindi, I suppose. You don't want to sing Vandematarm, great...don't...but donot say things that people donot understand the meaning of Vandematarm, you may not but we do...
RE:Vande Mataram
by ravindra on Aug 28, 2006 01:55 PM Permalink
Blaming all Muslim may not be fair, there are muslim freinds like you can see some of them quoted here are true Indians. A true Indian can be Muslim or Hindu. In Hindu also you have people like Arjun Singh (B.....), who are worse than many other people, whom we should reallt blame. Its Bukhari, Arjun Singh and like minded people who have problem in Vande Matram may be either Muslim or Hindu should be thrown out of the country like Pakistan or else where.
