Facts About National Anthem

Here are some interesting facts about our anthem which you probably were not aware of:

Facts at a Glance:

1. The song Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India which was composed by Rabindra Nath Tagore, originally in Bengali.

2. It was adopted by the constituent assembly on January 24, 1950, in its Hindi version.

3. The song "Jana Gana Mana" was first published under the title “Bharat Vidhata” in Tattva Bodhini Patrika in January 1912.

4. The song was translated into English in 1919 with the title “Morning Song of India”.

5. The very first time it was sung at the Kolkata Session of Congress on 27 December, 1911.

6. It takes about 52 seconds for its total completion, while it takes 20 seconds for the first and last lines of the stanza.

7.The false myth that Jana Gana Mana was written and composed by Tagore to praise George the Fourth, who visited India in 1911.

In a letter dated 19th March 1939, Tagore wrote - "I should only insult myself if I cared to answer those who consider me capable of such unbounded stupidity as to sing in praise of George the Fourth or George the Fifth as the Eternal Charioteer leading the pilgrims on their journey through countless ages of the timeless history of mankind. That pretty much explains it."

8.    A hoax message spread like wild fire across e-mail, Whatsapp and social media, that UNESCO announced our anthem as the 'Best National Anthem' in the world. UNESCO intervened and denied any such declaration from their end.     

9.    The first rendition of the song was during a convention of the Indian National Congress on December 16th, 1911. 'Jana Gana Mana' was performed for the first time in Hamburg on 11th September, 1942. It was only on 24th January 1950 that this song was officially declared as India's national anthem.

10.    The musical notations for the English translation of our national anthem were set by Margaret, wife of poet James H. Cousins, who was the principal of Besant Theosophical College.

11.    Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose commissioned a free translation of the national anthem from Sanskritized Bengali to Urdu-Hindi. The translation was written by Captain Abid Ali, composed by Captain Ram Singh Thakur and was called Subah Sukh Chain.

12.    There is no provision of law which compels anyone to sing the national anthem. It is not considered disrespectful to the nation or to the anthem if a person chooses only to stand up in respectful silence.  

13.    Formal rendition of the anthem should take 52 seconds by law, and not 54 seconds.

14.    Interestingly, Rabindranath Tagore has written the national anthem of Bangladesh as well.

15.    In 2005, many protested and called for deleting the word Sindh and to replace it with the word Kashmir. Argument was that Sindh is now a part of Kashmir.

On 7th of July, 2015, Rajasthan Governor, Kalyan Singh has called for replacing the word Adhinayaka with the word Mangal, basing his argument on the myth Tagore himself busted back in 1939 itself.