Kalyan Singh

There is no evidence that Tagore was referring to the British monarch. But even if we go by what Singh alleges, the logic leads us to a rather peculiar position. Because then it would imply that the entire anthem was meant for the British monarch, and by a natural extension of Singh’s logic, all the lines would have to be revised and an entirely new anthem penned in its place—perhaps with lots of mangals in it, if Singh gets to do the honours.

Actually, there is very little to be gained from such nominal tokenism beyond satisfying some politician’s whims. There are far more pressing current issues to ponder than which potentate Tagore meant.