Below is the Bengali transliteration of Janna Ganna Mana, the Indian National anthem:
Jana-gaṇa-mana adhināyaka jaya he
Bhārata bhāgya vidhātā
Pañjāba Sindh Gujarāṭa Marāṭhā
Drāviḍa Utkala Baṅga
Vindhya Himācala Yamunā Gaṅgā
Ucchala jaladhi taraṅga
Tava śubha nāme jāge
Tava śubha āśiṣa māge
Gāhe tava jaya gāthā
Jana gaṇa maṅgala dāyaka jaya he
Bhārata bhāgya vidhāta
Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he
Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he.
Ever the cynic, I was arguing with my family today about our National anthem. I am extremely suspicious about saying something I don’t understand, which is why I never chant any prayers or sing in Sanskrit, as it is a language of exclusion; that I believes keeps out understanding and encourages mindless zombism.
My family argued that it promoted nationalism, and hence was ‘good’. This was exactly the ‘mindless zombism’ I was talking about. I may have ruined my family’s breakfast by my insistence that ’it was wrong to force the whole country to sing something only 1% of the population could understand’;
but it created another skeptic. I decoded what I could decipher: india, cheer good, Punjab, Sindh, Gujrat, Maratha, Vindya, Himachal, Yamuna, Ganga. One thing became glaringly obvious. Only the north Indian states, and rivers, that too, a very select few, were mentioned. How did anyone manage to force South India to sing a song about the nation that did not include them? It was like forcing you to sign above someone elses name in a form.
I agree that the song sounds good, which is why all of us would throw up our heads proudly and feel our hearts soar when we sung as a group in our assembly in school every Friday. All our complaints about our country would disappear as we sucked in the atmosphere and lent strength to the pillar of rising voices, to finish of satisfactorily with :Jaya Jaya, Jaya hai!’.
Okay, it sounds good, but what does it mean? If this was the olden age, I would have sought my ‘wise old grandmother’, but since it is not, I sought wise old Wikipedia.
All I found below is taken from https://www.google.co.in/search?q=english+translation+jana+gana+mana&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&gws_rd=cr&ei=iCBOUraoEoaAiQf60oCwBQ
Jana Gana Mana written in Sanskritised Bengali is the first of five stanzas of a Brahmo hymn composed and scored by Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. It is addressed to King George V. It was written to welcome him during his India visit. He is addressed as Bharat Bhagya Vidhata. Somehow this song that was written in praise of the ruler of the Empire, became a National Anthem, without proper understanding of its meaning and significance.
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 and Maratha,
Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganges and is
chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hand,
Thou dispenser of India’s destiny.
victory forever.
I rest my case. I now doubt anyone knows what they are singing when they chant like parrots what the millions of people sing around us. The national anthem, of India then, is the British National Anthem. That’s what I thought as soon as I finished reading this.
However, it is always good to be sceptical, even when you find out something that gives strength to your suspicion. On Wikipedia, this song is claimed to be sung to god, not the Empire.
It says it was wrongly reported by the Anglo-Indian community, since George’s visit was in sync with the anthem’s first public performance.
According to Wikipedia, the poet claims in a letter written in 1939: “I should only insult myself if I cared to answer those who consider me capable of such unbounded stupidity.”. In another letter to Pulin Behari Sen, Tagore later 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.”
Whatever the truth maybe, the National anthem is yet another way we urge ourselves to fall prostrate, helplessly at the feet of someone, either George, an icon of the British Empire, or else at the imaginary feet of ‘god’. It is more a prayer, as empty as all the slokas babbled in temples, mosques , churches and other places of worship.
I give credit where it is due. One good thing about the national anthem is that it is not jingoistic. It doesn’t preach that India is better than the rest, like ‘Saare Jaha Se Accha’, nor does it go on forever, which is a blessing to tired kids who have to sing it every day at assembly. However, if “the saving of all people waits in thy hand,” why do we need the Indian army, navy or air force? Or even the Indian Government?
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