Independence Day: Facts, controversies around the National Anthem

It was reportedly first sung at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in December 1911. Read on to know more facts

On August 15 every year, India rises to celebrate its independence and laud the fighters who achieved this feat. In its second annual freedom celebrations during the Covid-19 pandemic, the crowds at the Red Fort where the Prime Minister will hoist the national flag may be limited but the chorus of the national anthem will be loud and sonorous.

As the nation celebrates its 75th Independence Day, here’s a look at some facts and controversies around India’s national anthem.

-Written by Rabindranath Tagore, the national anthem was originally composed in Bengali titled Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata. It was reportedly first sung at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in December 1911.

-It was labelled ‘national anthem’ by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose for the first time during the meeting of the German-Indian Society on September 11, 1942. However, it formally became the anthem in 1950.

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-The national anthem’s playing time is 52 seconds, according to the government.

-The national anthem was translated by Tagore into English in February 1919, titled ‘The Morning Song of India’. There is also a Hindi-Urdu version by Captain Abid Hasan Safrani, titled ‘Subh Sukh Chain’.

Controversies around the anthem

In the 1930s, the national anthem was part of a relentless controversial campaign as it was said that the song was only written to praise King George IV. Tagore had been asked many times to write songs praising India’s colonial rulers, which he had refused to do. In a letter to Pulin Behari Sen, Tagore finally responded to the debate saying, “I should only insult myself if I cared to answer those who consider me of such unbounded stupidity as to sing in praise of George IV or George V as the Eternal Charioteer leading the pilgrims on their journey through countless ages of the timeless history of mankind.”

He further said in the letter that when an acquaintance of his in His Majesty’s service asked the Nobel laureate to write a felicitation song for the Emperor, the request “amazed” him.

“I pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagya Vidhata 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,” Tagore’s letter read.

More recently, in 2016, the national anthem was caught in another controversy when the Supreme Court passed a law that required movie theatres to play it before every film.