India’s independence day was on the 15th August and friends and family all over replaced their facebook profile pictures with the Indian flag. It is great to see such patriotism even in the face of our national team’s abysmal performance at the India-England 2011 test series.
The day itself also made me think of India’s national anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana’. Since we left India when I was just six, I was not lucky enough (no sarcasm intended) to have it drilled into me during school assemblies. And in Sweden, there weren’t many occasions to catch up so as a result, I guiltily confess to not knowing my national anthem.
Luckily with the help of YouTube and Wikipedia, I can hear and understand the complete version of the song (only the first stanza out of the 5 composed by Tagore is sung as the national anthem).
Here is the wiki link to the translation:
But here’s the interesting thing about this song. Apparently Tagore wrote the song in honor of King George V and the Queen of England when they visited India in 1919. Is this really true? If so, I find it highly ironic and sad that our national anthem is sung in praise to our former British rulers.
If someone can set this straight, please do!
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