The Unsung Anthem

The national anthem was relaunched last week in its complete five verses.

As India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, his greatest gift to India—the national anthem—was relaunched last week in its complete five verses. The song was first sung at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1911. The first stanza of this song was then officially adopted as the Indian national anthem on 24 January 1950.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, I&B Minister Ambika Soni and Culture Minister Selja Kumari unveiled Jaya Hey, an eight-minute audio-visual presentation of the original Jana Gana Mana, produced by Saregama in collaboration with I&B Ministry. Talking to Open, Soni rubbished the theory that Tagore wrote the verses in praise of King George V. “I am completely sure of this, having gone  through research by the culture ministry and other departments, including the speech Tagore himself gave in 1937, where he more than clarified that this was written for India,” she says. It took Harsh Neotia, the man behind Jaya Hey, more than 15 months to record 39 artistes for the CD.

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Arindam Mukherjee