*JANA GANA MANA –NATIONAL ANTHEM or Family Entertainer
*First of all, my sincere apologies on putting this respected poem / song in this category. I am too ordinary a mortal to comment on the content of the great work by the Nobel laureate Sri Rabindranath Tagore and I am not here for that. The National Anthem of our country is beyond all of us to give a review or comment on.
I instead would like to comment on the concept of the National Anthem being used as a family entertainer by His Majesties(that’s what I believe they think of themselves) Mr. Rakesh Roshan or Mr Johar or Mr Viudu Vinod Chopra.I am extremely sorry to say that these people have reduced the National Anthem to a family Entertainer or some Masala song to be fitted in a movie when due to their lack of creativity they do not find any song or scene to fit into the movie. The use of the National Anthem just to increase the length of the movie by 5-15 odd mins. is extremely disgusting.
Of course for all of you have seen Krazzy4, I am talking about the movie. To add salt to injury we have the National Anthem in a comical scene. For those who haven’t seen the movie one can really well imagine, a Pepsi and Pop Corn in the hands and a big laugh in the Hall and suddenly we have our National Anthem on stage. It’s only by the time we reach .Gujarat Maratha.that we have a few and very few people realizing what’s actually happening and standing up as a mark of respect. Due to a back seat, when I counted it was around 15 odd out of 100 odd people in the Hall. Shame India and Shame on you Mr. Rakesh Roshan. What are you doing? Testing the patriotism of the countrymen. I appreciate that you have given a few really good messages in your movie Krazzy4 and movies in general, but that does not bring you above us ordinary mortals.
I agree, that very unfortunately maybe only 20% of the so called " HIGHLY LITERATES" in our country would be knowing the National Anthem complete. But isn’t there a better way of educating people about the same?
Please Mr. Rakesh Roshan spare us the agony of seeing the National Anthem being insulted times and again. We respect you for what you are but such deeds are unpardonable. Please try to live upto waht your name means.
For those of you who want to know more about this HIGHLY RESPECTED SONG please read below:
Lyrics & Meaning(WE ALL KNOW) -
Jana Gana Mana is the national anthem of India. Written in Bengali, it is the first of five stanzas of an ode composed and scored by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. It was first sung at the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress, on 27 December 1911. Jana Gana Mana was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem on January 24, 1950. A formal rendition of the national anthem takes fifty two seconds. A shortened version consisting of the first and last lines(and taking about 20 seconds to play) is also staged occasionally. The music for the current version is derived from a composition for the song by Ram Singh Thakur.
The poem was composed in December 1911, precisely at the time of the Coronation Durbar of George V, and is considered by some to be 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.[6] 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 belief gained ground that the poem had been written in honour of the visiting monarch. Others aver that the newspaper reports cited were misguided, the confusion arising since a different song, written in Hindi by Rambhuj Chaudhary, was sung 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.
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."
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 which 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.
In July 1985 in the state of Kerala, some of the Jehovah's Witnesses' children were expelled from school under the instructions of Deputy Inspector of Schools for having refused to sing the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. A parent, V. J. Emmanuel, appealed to the Supreme Court of India for legal remedy. On August 11, 1986, the Supreme Court overruled the Kerala High Court, and directed the respondent authorities to re-admit the children into the school. The decision went on to add: "Our tradition teaches tolerance, our philosophy teaches tolerance, our Constitution practices tolerance, let us not dilute it".
English composition in Madanapalle
Rabindranath Tagore translated Jana Gana Mana from Bengali to English and also set it to music in Madanapalle, a town in Andhra Pradesh.
Though the Bengali song had been written in 1911 itself, it had remained largely confined to the pages of the Brahmo Samaj journal, "Tatva Bodha Prakasika", of which Tagore was the editor.
During 1918-19, Tagore accepted an invitation from friend and controversial Irish poet James H. Cousins to spend a few days at the Besant Theosophical College, of which Cousins was the principal. On the evening of February 28, he joined a gathering of students and upon Cousins' request, sang the Jana Gana Mana in Bengali. In the days that followed, enchanted by the dreamy hills of Madanapalle, Tagore wrote down the English translation of the song and along with Cousins' wife, Margaret(an expert in Western music), set down the notation which is followed till this day. Today, in the library of Besant Theosophical College in Madanapalle, the framed original English translation is displayed.
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.
