The song Jana Gana Mana written and composed by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was adopted as the Indian national anthem on 24^th January 1950 two days before the Republic of India. Tagore originally wrote five stanzas in Sanskritized Bengali and the first stanza of it was adopted as the Indian national anthem. As many of its words are in Sanskrit it is highly comprehensive.

The Indian national anthem Jana Gana Mana contains 13 lines and the formal rendition should take fifty two minutes to sing the full song. The song is sung at all the public functions, functions conducted at the educational institutions, etc, at the end to mark the end of the function. Whenever the Indian national anthem is sung one has to stand up from his seat to give respect to it with his hands stretched straight, legs closer to one another and his fists closed.

The Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore has also written the national anthem of Bangladesh, Amar Sonar Bangla. He has obtained Nobel Prize for literature for his book Gitanjali. He has translated the Indian national anthem into English by himself. The praise of the mother land is ruling the minds of people living in Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Dravida, Orissa, Maratha and Bengal and energizes them. The name is echoed in the Vindhya and Himalaya ranges and blends with the sounds of rivers Yamuna and Ganges. The waves of Indian Ocean are murmuring the name and everyone is singing the praise and glory of the mother land and seeking its blessings. As it is supposed to determine the destiny of India, victory is sought forever and nothing other than victory. The song is addressed to the Universal Spirit that is guiding India. It acts as a unifying force of various ethnicities of the nation.

The song was first published in the journal Tatva Bodha Prakasika in 1911. He sang this song on 28^th February 1919 among the students of Besant Theosophical College. Then it became the prayer song of the college. He composed its music in the town Madanapalle in Chittoor. The song became The Morning Song of India and later as the Indian national anthem. The handwritten copy of this song by Tagore is still found in the Besant Theosophical College library in Madanapalle.

The song Jana Gana Mana was first sung on 27^th December 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress. It was sung as a mark of welcome to the King George V. So some newspapers wrote that this was written by Tagore as a salute to the Emperor George V. But this was a wrong notion. He had addressed it to the divine entity that had shaped the destiny of India and guided it through many triumphs and tragedies and not addressed to the King.

Before the independence of India, the song Vande Mataram written by Bankim Chandra Chatterji was considered as the national song of India and was song with great patriotic fervor in public meetings and during freedom struggle. However as this song was hurting the monotheistic beliefs of Muslims, Jana Gana Mana was adopted as the Indian national anthem instead of Vande Mataram.

Article Posted By : Sumazla  On December 07, 2011lView All Articles

Suhaina Mazhar is a freelance content writer and blogger with five years experience in content writing. http://sumazla.blogspot.com is her blog.

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Keywords :
INDIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM , indian national anthem , Jana Gana Mana