National Anthem
A Thought Provoking Artcle:
"Do I see people standing...saluting the heroes and the nations past...well those who are doing the same should read the rest of this article with unbiasedness and sensibility as here is the english translation...
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.
The anthem was always an interest i had since my school days...i wondered who is the bharatha bhagya vidhata...i did my research and i found out something really interesting about the anthem and its original meaning...heres the real story behind our national anthem...
History
In the year 1911 Rabindranath Tagore was asked by Pandit Nehru to compose a poem, a poem which would be sung at the then British loyalist Indian National Congress annual convention in honour of an event which was due to take place in Britan. The event was the Coronation ceremony of King George V and his Queen. The poem Tagore composed was the Jana Gana Mana as we know it now. The poem was sung in the convention which was presided by the newly crowned King George V. A poem which sung high praises of the King of England...calling him the Bhagya Vidhata of India...Dispenser of Indias Destiny...now read the Anthem and think that the man it is so poetically glorifies is not some Indian spirit or God...Its the erstwhile British King...do i see Nationalist spirits dampening...well read on...there was another song by another bengali Vande Mataram by Bankim Chand Chaterjee...which was the Indian non violence movements war cry...a poem which symbolises the entire freedom struggle...why was Jana Gana Mana adopted as the National Anthem of Free India and not Vande Mataram...well the reason is as inexcusable and ridiculous as the present King in waiting Prince Charles talking to his plants and they in turn giving him advice on politics...the reason Vande Mataram was not chosen by Nehru and the reason we stand in praise of the King of England even today is because the Vande Mataram is very difficult to play on the band, whereas the Jana Gana Mana is rather simple to play.
The Forgotten Heroes
Two or three generations have gone by and the reasons are forgotten and the National anthem is sung and praised and stood to in the most nationalistically fervent manner all the while forgetting it actually insults our martrys and our "real" freedom struggle leaders. Nehru was always Pro British and so were his policies. I am not sorry about that. The biritsh did give us the railways, education systems, democratical government, parliament, english literacy among other things, but the price India and its people paid for all these things is something our present generations cant really comprehend and we take our freedom for granted as we were born and raised breathing the air of Free India...the price for that air is what people like Bhagat Singh, Azad, Tilak and the entire freedom strugglists paid with their lives. Maybe it is as the British still say...India did not "win" its Independence but rather the British Raj "gave" or "gifted" India its independence and as a "parting"(pun intended) gift also gave it Pakistan as the World War II had left them crippled and they needed to rebuild Britan and dint have the manpower or the resources to handle the Britsh Raj. The thought has you all screaming murder...well it doesnt matter...because inspite of we being "free" for 60 odd years we are still behind the development done till 1947 by the British. Why is it that India still a Third World Country...well we all blame the politics, the politicians and everyone else...well they are to be blamed but if you are looking for the nearest guilty person...look no further than a mirror...we all are to be blamed...We prefer working for a US based company and still blame the Indian Technological backwardness...we are the wealth of the Nation not the Kohinoor or Tipus Sword...the wealth is all here...nothing was taken by the British...as a great Telugu poet once said...Desham ante matti kadhura...Desham ante manshulu...meaning the Nation doesnt mean the land and its wealth...but the nation means the people who dwell in it...we are the wealth of the nation and we are donating our nation one piece at a time for a few american dollars or british pounds....78% of all engineers and doctors prefer working abroad...we seek greener pastures all the while forgetting and ignoring the nation which we were born in and are indebted to. National Spirits is now reserved only to 2 hours of the Republic Day Parade and 24 hours of the Independence Day...we need to reawaken our dormant spirit of nationalism...we need to bring India back on the path to glory...this was the land that explorers so desperately seeked out...this was the land that defeated Alexander...this was the land of milk and honey...and what do we have now...Inflation, a mockery of a political system and a national anthem that sings praise for a dead English King...like a hindi version of God save the Queen(and king).I know that the article makes you uncomfortable enough to think twice about rating or commenting on it....writing it made me uncomfortable thinking about whats gone by in those 60 years of freedom...but its a debt we owe to the people who have got us Independence...to think about what our future nation should be like...or shall we continue to blame everyone other than ourselves...
A Lost National Cause...
Can one person change all this...will writing this here change anything...will doing anything individually change anything...maybe not...but past history is a living witness that everything great was acheived one step at a time and one person at a time...so was there a point in me penning down almost 8000 characters that MS allows me to talk about India and Indians...well all I have to say is Even A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step...so next time you- an internet savvy educated indian doesnt use his franchise to vote...you are to be blamed...next time you encourage your far away cousin to go abroad inspite of him having a well paid job here...you are to be blamed. 60 years of forgetting our nation has got us here...imagine a 100 years later where will we be...some place that our freedom fighters definitely dint give their lives for.....Jai Hind everybody...hope this little article atleast changes one persons attitude towards their nations collective future...Yours. "
