National Anthem: An NE India perspective

Amrit Goswami

(amritg_2007@rediffmail.com)

The national anthem of a country is defined as an officially adopted patriotic song that evokes and eulogizes encompassing the physical boundary of its history, its rich culture and struggles of the people. The Constituent Assembly of India adopted the first verse out of the five verses of the song 'Jana Gana Mana' as the National Anthem on 24th January 1950 composed by the polymath Rabindranath Tagore on 11 December 1911 as 'Bharat Bhagya Bidhata'. The song was written in Bengali, but in a Sanskritized, dialect called Sadhu Bhasha and since the words are common in most of the Indian languages, it is accepted as such. The underlying message of the song conveys the spirit of pluralism or in more popular terms the concept of 'Unity in Diversity which lies at the core of India's cultural heritage. Tagore did not compose this immortal creation as a national anthem as at that time it was subjugated undivided British India. IWhenKing George V came to India in December 1911 for the coronation in the Delhi Durbar, he announced the abrogation of the Partition of Bengal which Lord Curzon had effected as the Viceroy in 1905 restoring the erstwhile Bengal. Having delighted on this the moderate leaders of the Congress decided to publicly acknowledge their loyalty to the Emperor and accord him a royal welcome from the dais of the Congress session in Kolkata scheduled from 27 December 1911 for three days.

Tagore was approached by an admirer of the Raj to compose a song in praise of the Emperor. It surprised Tagore and agitated on the proposal as it gave him a repulsive and demeaning feeling. However, a true patriot lionizing the Indian Independent movement, genius Tagore created such a literary piece of high intellectual design that it carries a variation in understanding and produced it to commemorate the victory of the real Bharat Bhagya Bidhata. The song was played on the second day of the Congress session followed by adopting a resolution welcoming the Royal Couple and declaring allegiance to them. Thereafter, a controversy started as many Anglo-Indian English presses in Kolkata reported that Tagore's hymn was a homage to the Emperor. Tagore's reputation came, however, in 1937 only after the death of King George V in 1935 as he did not want to contradict during the lifetime of the Emperor even though he renounced the Knighthood in 1919 after Jallianwala Bagh Massacre which was bestowed on him by the king on his birthday on 3rd June 1915 who was made to believe that the song 'Jana Gana Mana' was composed eulogizing him. The controversy did not end here but continued before and after the independence of India also mainly on several regional aspects that remained in it. Because, only those provinces that were under British rule viz Punjab, Sindhu, Gujarat, Maratha, Dravid, Utkal, Banga; mountains Himachal and Vindhya; holy rivers Ganges and Yamuna and none of the princely states were mentioned. Some say that Tagore mentioned only the border states to include complete India. However, this argument does not stand as the entire Northeast and the holy river Brahmaputra, an integral part of India are not mentioned to keep the song in its rhythm.

At the time of Tagore's immortal creation, the entire Northeast that came under British rule after the Yandabo treaty in 1826 was placed under Bengal Presidency and then under Chief Commissioner's Province with Eastern Bengal and re-established as a province in 1912. It means that in pre-independent India, Assam was always under the clutches of Bengal. Because of this, probably Tagore considered 'Banga' to suffice the entire region. But after independence, the physical map of India underwent a drastic change. Even at the final stage of considering 'Jana Gana Mana' as the national anthem, there were calls for replacing the name 'Sindhu' which went to Pakistan by 'Kamrup' the ancient name of the entire Northeast in the song and a resolution was also adopted in the Congress Legislature Party of Assam Legislative Assembly for it. The Constituent Assembly also went ahead even after opposition by the then Governor Sir Akbar Hydari and many regional Congress leaders. It was probably based on this creation the 'Staff Notation' of the national anthem appeared in 'The Times of India' on 26 January 1950 in which the word 'Kamrup' clearly appeared even though it is not known who created that 'Staff Notation'. However, the order of the places appeared instead as 'Kamrup-Punjab-Maratha-Gujarat-Dravid-Banga-Utkal' in that particular Staff Notational lines. It may be noted in this context that in December 1952 Nehru got appalled when he heard some Congress workers sing a version with Kamrup, instead of Sindhu. Nehru then firmly told them that since this had been the settled position of the Indian government, the revised version was not acceptable and probably that way the word 'Kamrup' got deleted and 'Sindhu' re-included. The issue appears from time to time for inclusion of the region's name in the national anthem at different levels. In 2016, it was placed this demand by the then Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan in the 65th plenary of NEC at Shillong where PM Modi was also present. Recently Rajya Sabha MPs Ripun Bora and Subramanian Swamy raised voices for necessary revision deleting the words not relevant to present-day India. Indeed, Tagore's 'Idea of India' that reflects pluralism, humanism and universal brotherhood and respect for religious and cultural diversities would de not shade even if there is made a necessary revision given present India. There is also no hindrance in it since the former President of India Dr Rajendra Prasad on 26 November 1949 made a clear statement that the Government may authorize as occasion arises in alteration of the words in future before the declaration of it as the national anthem of India on 24 January 1950. Even though this issue appears off and on, it seems to be perfunctory.

It may be noted that the contribution from NE India in the nation-building in every aspect is enormous. Even then there remain gender differentiation in many metropolitan cities towards the people of NE. Girls from NE states are embarrassed as 'Chinky' appellation. I have even come across many educated people in different parts of India asking a question like 'distance of Guwahati from Assam, currency runs in NE and so on. These develop the feeling of alienation that bears adverse effects on national integration. It is only when laurels are brought by the NE talents to the country they are celebrated as Indians. It is now only or never when both the Central Government as well as the entire NE region are under the umbrella of the same ruling party this sentimental issue should get priority to convince the Central Government. Considering the greater interest of integration of the country and to instil the feeling of belongingness among the people, all the NE states should come up with a proposal on this issue to the Central Government and it is believed that the valorous leader Narendra Modi would go for taking a bold step in this regard in the glorious 75 years of 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav'.