I guess blogging on an impulse has become a habit these days. This blog post is not a post that was supposed to be up five days back because the thought behind it is something that just struck me while i sat wasting time on youtube.
I realised that the lyrics to our national anthem are just too beautiful for words.I guess we never really try looking for what the words really mean, even after years of standing in the sun in assembly lines and singing the anthem.day in and day out.
I really dont want to get into the entire issue about Tagore actually composing the anthem to welcome some British king.But I want to point out how our national anthem does not praise a particular ruler, a la "God save our gracious Queen!
Long live our noble Queen!" or, even for that matter, the motherland. What it does instead, is to herald the minds of the people of India as the arbiter of India's destiny.( "Janagan" meaning "people", "Man" meaning "mind", "Bharata Bhagya Vidhata" meaning "arbiter of Bharat's destiny")
Can any truth get stronger than this? Doesnt the future of any country depend on the way its people think,plan and decide? The country, interestingly, has been described as the ruler of all the people's minds (Janagan Man Adhinayak) and not something like the "land of the free and the home of the brave".
Most importantly, it is set to a tune that can be sung by even the most musically challenged person unlike other anthems like "Amar shonar bangla" which is set to a very convoluted musical structure.
I dont even know why i got into this...not like i am on a patriotic overdrive or anything. Just got struck by the beauty of the lyrics and tried making sense of it by myself. Having done that,i now realise how the singing of "Ujjala Jaladhi Taranga" by ignorant,impatient schoolgirls standing in the sun, makes a huge difference to meaning of the anthem that goes "Uchhala Jaladhi Taranga"...
10 comments:
every time i hear the anthem a shiver runs through me of national pride
you're right. seldom does one actually try to decipher the meaning of the lines of our national anthem.
I love the composition, the way the melody floats and then gradually rises to the crescendo at the right point. Your post reminded me of another poem by Tagore...where the mind is without fear and the head is held high! Tagore gave a lot of importance to the human mind.
one of the many things that makes me proud to be an indian. And to be a bengali.
:)
u were kind. i am not. let me tell u, i hate every1 who can't get the pronunciation right.
ooh yes, i love the anthem too. It's so...well thought out! I especially love the fact that not only does it not praise a single ruler or section of people or whatever, it manages to mention so many places and encompass India as a whole rather than separate entities
I'm just thankful it has no mention of war like the American national anthem.
I really went thru the whole lyrics of our national anthem.. And in no way it sounds to me that the national anthem targets the British ruler.. Definitely every time I hear the national anthem something inside does happen. I wish the feeling always resonates at the back of my mind. But no it does not.
Such insightful deciphering!
you dont know me,just dropped by blog hopping.
Girls in my school made a royal mess of the National Anthem. Apart from saying "Ujjala", they also said "Sab jaya gata" instead of "Tab jaya gata".
Shocking.
there are many speculations regarding the purpose of the song. after reading many pieces of argument i have come to believe that rabindranath tagore wrote it not knowing it would be our anthem one day. it was probably not for King George the fifth. yes indeed the words are very very beautiful and till this day it has and till the day i die it will continue to raise my hair on ends.
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