'Jana Gana Mana' | From freedom’s soundtrack to India’s identity

The pealing anthem swells the note of praise’. This line from Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ is an excellent definition of an anthem—it invariably is a song in praise. By extension, a national anthem of a nation state is a lyrical and stirring melody extolling the subject nation. Most national anthems have a halo of sacredness associated with the words and music. A national anthem is the identifying call of a nation state.

This last and important point was articulated by India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, when he told the Constituent Assembly (Legislative) on 25 August 1948:

The question of having a National Anthem tune to be played by orchestra and bands became an urgent one for us immediately after August 15, 1947. It was as important from the point of view of our Defence Services and our foreign embassies and legations and other establishments. It was obviously not suitable for ‘God Save the King’ to be played by our army bands, or abroad, after the changeover to independence. We were constantly being asked as to what tune should be played on such occasions. We could not give an answer because the decision could only be made by the Constituent Assembly.

The ‘Jana Gana Mana’ tune, slightly varied, had been adopted as National Anthem by the Indian National Army in South-East Asia and had subsequently attained a degree of popularity in India also.

The matter came to a head on the occasion of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1947 in New York. Our delegation was asked for our National Anthem for the orchestra to play on a particular occasion.

Quite clearly, the General Assembly of the United Nations felt, as per the prevailing practice, to have a piece of music which could be identified with the new-born Indian nation state. All nation states have national anthems, and they serve as one of the identifying symbols of the nation state together with the national flag. The flag and the anthem stand for the nation.

As noted, India’s national anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was a poem written and then set to music by Rabindranath Tagore in 1911. In the speech referred to above, Nehru added that the Indian delegation to the UN in New York had with them a record of ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and the delegation gave this to the orchestra who practised and played it. When the piece was played before a large gathering, it won applause and approbation. The tune struck them to be, in Nehru’s words, ‘distinctive and dignified’. This is perhaps the first occasion when ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was played in an international forum as India’s song, even though it still had not been adopted as the national anthem of India by the Constituent Assembly. Nehru had emphasized that only the Constituent Assembly could decide which piece of music/song would be India’s national anthem.

The formal announcement that ‘Jana Gana Mana’ would be the national anthem of India was made by President Rajendra Prasad to the Constituent Assembly when it met for the last time on 24 January 1950 to sign the Constitution of India. Rajendra Prasad said:

There is one matter which has been pending for discussion, namely, the question of the National Anthem. At one time it was thought that the matter might be brought up before the House and a decision taken by the House by way of a resolution. But it has been felt that instead of taking a formal decision by means of a resolution it was better if I make a statement with regard to the National Anthem. Accordingly, I make this statement—‘The composition consisting of the words and music known as Janaganamana is the National Anthem of India subject to such alteration in the words as Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram which has played a historic part in the struggle for freedom shall be honoured equally with Janaganamana and shall have equal status with it’.

Once the signing of the Constitution was over, a member, Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, requested that the assembled members should collectively sing ‘Jana Gana Mana’. The president gave his consent. Members of the Constituent Assembly, including the president, sang ‘Jana Gana Mana’ in chorus which was led by Purnima Banerjee (one of the fifteen women members of the Constituent Assembly). It could be said that this was the formal debut of ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the national anthem of India.

At the risk of digressing a little bit, two rather significant points need to be noted. One is what Nehru wrote regarding India’s national anthem in the centenary year of Tagore’s birth. While penning a moving tribute to the poet and his many-splendored creativity and personality, Nehru wrote:

During my last visit to him I requested him to compose a National Anthem for the new India. He partly agreed. At that time I did not have ‘Jana Gana Mana’, our present national anthem, in mind. He died soon after. It was a great happiness to me when some years later after the coming of Independence, we adopted ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as our National Anthem. I have a feeling of satisfaction that I was partly responsible for this choice, not only because it is a great national song, but also because it is a constant reminder to all our people of Rabindranath Tagore.

The second is how Subhas Chandra Bose, in exile from India in the early 1940s, adopted ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the national anthem. When Bose inaugurated the Free India Centre in Europe on 2 November 1942, the song was chosen by him as the national anthem—this predated by eight years the official acceptance of the song as the national anthem of the Indian republic. Under Bose’s leadership, a Hindustani version of the song was made the national anthem. This version was rendered by Abid Hasan, and Mumtaz Hussain composed the song in three verses. Ram Singh Thakur made a score for bands to play based on the original tune.

It is noteworthy that two outstanding patriots— Nehru and Bose—roughly around the same time, were thinking of a national anthem for a new and independent India. Bose in 1942 had already adopted ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the national anthem; and Nehru in his last meeting with Tagore, shortly before the latter’s death in 1941, had requested the poet to compose a national anthem.

(Excerpted with permission from Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s Song of India; published by Aleph Book Company)