our national anthem

[abhishek]

Just a thought for the National Anthem!

How well do u know about it?

I have always wondered who is the "adhinayak" and "bharat bhagya
vidhata", whose praise we are singing. I thought may be God!
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 honor of King George V and the Queen of England when they
visited India in 1919. To honor their visit Pundit 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 were 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 which glorify the King:

1st stanza (Indian)People wake up remembering your good name and ask
for your blessings and they sing your glories.

2nd stanza Around your throne people of all
religions come and give their love and anxiously wait to hear your kind words.

3rd stanza Praise to the King for being the
charioteer, for leading the ancient travelers beyond misery.

4th 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.

5th 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.

[amar0974]

Bilkul Sahi Baat sa

[sanjaychhikara]

bilkul right

[anujkumar]

I found this information misleading and FALSE. May you please share the source?

[akdabas]

Baat to bilkul thik hei - Vande matram is much more patriotic song.

But if we change the perception for these five stanza's. When I sing I always sing keeping our motherland in heart and never any george king.

[abhishek]

http://www.freeindia.org/vmataram/genesis_of_janaganamana.shtml

http://www.newsindia-times.com/2002/08/16/tow-24-jgm.html

http://www.geocities.com/narenp/history/info/anthem.htm

[mbamal]

i m amazed...never knew all this information before..

[rsdalal]

Got this from a South Indian friend long back.
Is it realy true or just cooked up by somebody and floated over the net...

[abhishek]

this one goes in support of tagore...where the person accepts that it was indeed written for King George V

http://www.cs.brockport.edu/~smitra/janaganamana.html

[akdabas]

Actually, I have same feeling.

You know why ?

I was talking to one south india guy just couple of days back at my work place. He said that hindi language has come out of urdu. I was so pissed off.

Then, I again searched net and found that actually urdu is derived from hindi and I sent that south indian guy all the links.

After that only he believed me that Hindi is older then urdu and more close to sanskrit.


Ranvir Singh Dalal (Jun 10, 2003 12:43 p.m.):
Got this from a South Indian friend long back.
Is it realy true or just cooked up by somebody and floated over the net...

[anujkumar]

This is quite a controversy. I do not want to believe it, even if it is true. "Jan Gan Man" has (and is) is serving the purpose, it was expected to as our national anthem, execellently. Thanks for telling.

[rkumar]

Abhishek is 100% correct. In fact this is a movie song in one pre-inpendent India film. I have the complete song with me some where and will post to any one wanting.

All I can say is that how pathetic we have been historically. Even our constitution is copied from British constitution with some minor changes. Till date Indian budget is presented at 5 PM (12 noon in London). List is long and we can go on..

Nehru was very British at heart when it came to aristocracy. Let us face it, its all club culture. Those who are in upper league, are only heard and sung..

In todays India no one will feel emotionally charged by talking anti-west. Don't really know how bankrrupt mentally our people can be at times. Best is to know the mentality of ruling class and learn from it and not to feel emotionally about it. People at top are same no matter who they are and where they are. Its only the middle class who worry about moral and all other such issue. There is a dialogue in one english movie " My Fair Lady" where hero/ heroine talks of middle class morality.

Please note that loyality is a one way rule and applies only on the subjects and not on rulars. So let us not get emotional. The examples are too many, we will be really disturbed if we start on this. Just for the benefit of members here are few which will tell everything. In history loyality can get you only slavery and can never make you rulars;

1. GD Birla: This gentleman was very close both to British and Congress. Was part of all round table conferences and at the same time a leading industialist. Gandhi always lived in his house and dies there.

2. Sindhiya family of Gwaliar ditched Laximi Bai and was always with British. Still congress accepted them as leaders and freedom fighters.

3. Congress took almost all ex maharajas in its fold who were suppoting British all along.

I never get carried away by this any more. After seeing the world i find that people at top will unite irrespetive of their nationalities. Hope members know that at any given time there were no more than 10,000 british posted in India. Its our own people who ran their affairs. It was not a British who sentensed Bhagat Singh, it was his own pamjabi fellow called Shadi Lall who later becaie Sir Shadi Lal.

These are hard truths friends and let us accept them as human trait.

Regards
Rajendra

[parul]

[



GD Birla: This gentleman was very close both to British and Congress. Was part of all round table conferences and at the same time a leading industialist. Gandhi always lived in his house and dies there.
......
But what differnce does this make..?
G D Birla was a visionary for sure, he gave best educational institutions to this country.
-Parul

[mbamal]

even nehru gave the best educational institutes to india..like all the iit's were nehru's idea..

[rkumar]

Parul (Jun 11, 2003 09:09 a.m.):
[



GD Birla: This gentleman was very close both to British and Congress. Was part of all round table conferences and at the same time a leading industialist. Gandhi always lived in his house and dies there.
......
But what differnce does this make..?
G D Birla was a visionary for sure, he gave best educational institutions to this country.
-Parul

Agreed Parul. That way British gave many more educational institutions, Railways, post offices, hospitals, Andaman Nicobar Islands and much more...I am not downplaying anybody's positive contributions. I just said how intelligent the people can be and appear to be on both the sides. However, these people are just for themselves and no body else. Rest is all illusion. Anyway..

Rajendra