The National Anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ is engraved in each Indian citizen’s mind and heart since childhood. The evocative lyrics fill each Indian with a sense of pride and patriotism. While its words are imprinted at the tip of our tongue, not many are familiar with some interesting facts about the anthem. Originally composed in Bengali, it is an adoption from song, ‘Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata’, written by poet and playwright, Rabindranath Tagore. The complete song consists of 5 stanzas in Sanskritized Bengali that reflects India’s culture, values and independence struggle and was first published in Tattwabodhini Patrika in 1905.
It was first publicly sung by Tagore himself on the second day of the Calcutta Session held by Indian National Congress on December 27, 1911. The first stanza of the song Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on January 24, 1950 and was first performed (not sung) in Hamburg, Germany on September 11, 1942.
On February 28, 1919, Tagore wrote an English translation of the song titled ‘The Morning Song of India’ and its musical notations were set by Margeret Cousins, wife of poet James H. Cousins, principal of Besant Theosophical College at Madanapalle, where Tagore was visiting. Its Hindi-Urdu version was commissioned by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from Sanskritized Bengali to Hindustani and the translation was written by Captain Abid Ali of Indian National Army, called ‘Shubh Sukh Chain.’
Another lesser-known fact about it is that the complete National Anthem must be sung within 52 seconds by law while its shorter version (consisting of first and last lines) can be sung within 20 seconds. However, the claim that it was written in honour of the British Monarch, King George V whose coronation ceremony as Emperor of India took place the very next day it was composed, was rejected by Tagore himself in a letter written on November 10, 1937. Tagore has also written the national anthem of Bangladesh.
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