An alternative national anthem for India

[mahakavi]

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OK, now that we have varied disagreement and any one particular regional language is not acceptable to all and that Sanskrit is not in common parlance let us have one in English. Bharathi's paean about the country can be rewritten in English and that can be the national anthem. I see lot of you nodding your heads in the negative since English is a foreign language. We all use English, right? We accepted Islam and Christianity in India (like it or not). So why not adopt English as our own? Of course it won't fly in the north at all where the "angrezi hatao" slogan reigns supreme. But the status quo is not acceptable to me.

 

[renuka]

PS: Sanskrit race / community are the south brahmins who read, learn, chant Sanskrit. It is our real mother tongue !!

Cheers,
JK

Dear JK,

Why are you leaving the North Indian Brahmins out?
They also read,learn and chant Sanskrit isn't it?

BTW the Indian National Anthem has lots of Sanskrit words in it.

 

[Jaykay767]

Hi Renuka,

Sorry no deliberate intent. Agree, this applies to North Brahmins as well.

I understand your view that the national anthem has sanskrit words in it. However this is mired in a lot of controversy. so there is no harm in looking for a new anthem that is more unifying

Cheers,
JK

 

[prasad1]

Is there a ground swelling demand, is there a nationwide strike for changing the National Anthem of India?
Or is it some idle mind exercise, to stimulate the mind.

If it is not broken don't fix it. There are lot more pressing problem to solve in India.

 

[mahakavi]

Is there a ground swelling demand, is there a nationwide strike for changing the National Anthem of India?
Or is it some idle mind exercise, to stimulate the mind.

If it is not broken don't fix it. There are lot more pressing problem to solve in India.

Yes, it is broken and needs fixing. It depends on the perspective that one has.
It is not just an idle exercise. Other prominent people have raised this issue before. The thinking in government circles including the judiciary is that "we adopted it and so we will not change it now". In their opinion it would tantamount to accepting a failure. The irony is either most people don't know the background and meaning or turn a blind eye and deaf ear to it. What I don't know does not hurt me--right?

As for solving this problem, it does not require monetary or other resources such as labor, time etc. It just requires a deliberation and a decision. They could even conduct a competition for a new anthem just like they did for the symbol for the rupee in international currency markets.

Anyway it was an exercise worth bringing up for discussion in this group, if nothing else.

 

[Brahmanyan]

"Janagana mana" is a good National Anthem. Though the purpose of writing this song was different, it fits in for our National Anthem nicely. Interestingly when I was a Scout cadet with the Hindustan Scout troupe during my school days, this song was our Scout Anthem. Driven by the wave of Nationalism Hindustan Scout movement was an alternate Scout movement started by Annie Besant, Geroge Arundale, Pt.Hridhyanath Kunzsru and some other nationalists against Baden-Powell Scouts which denied admission of natives in Boys Scouts & Guides . After independence this was merged into the Bharat Scouts & Guides.

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[sudeshwer]

No.5, Dr REnuka, I dont agree to have separate National Anthemfor center and States. That will be a dangerous proposal. yes this Mahakavi Bharathi'ssong could be translated into sanskrit and attempt could be made to make that as national Anthem. However, I dont think muslims will agree because they think sanskrit is fo Hindu language

 

[Raji Ram]

...........yes this Mahakavi Bharathi'ssong could be translated into sanskrit and attempt could be made to make that as national Anthem. However, I dont think muslims will agree because they think sanskrit is fo Hindu language[/QUOTE[That is why my suggestion in the earlier post was to translate in Hindi!

After all it seems to be our national language!!

 

[Raji Ram]

That is why my suggestion in the earlier post was to translate in Hindi! After all it seems to be our national language!!

Please read this: Hindi is NOT the National language of India

 

[Raji Ram]

IMHO, it may not be possible to change the national anthem now, after singing it for years together!

Bharathiyar's grandson Sri. Rajkumar Bharathi tried to change the tune of the famous song 'chinnanj chiru kiLiyE kaNNammA'

and it was a total flop. The tune introduced in the movie is accepted and followed by all the leading and amateur musicians.

So, what will happen if the lyrics and tune are totally different? Will all the Indians accept Bharathiyar's song?

PS: This is not as easy as changing 'Madras' as 'Chennai', 'Bombay' as 'Mumbai', 'Bangalore' as 'Bengaluru' or 'Calcutta' as 'Kolkata'! :juggle:

 

[mahakavi]

>>Bharathiyar's grandson Sri. Rajkumar Bharathi<<


correction: Rajkumar is the great-grandson of the mahAkavi Bharathi.

I agree it is difficult (if not impossible) to replace the existing anthem since it is entrenched. Tagore's song in Bengali script was converted to Devanagari script when it was adopted. So changing script is a positive.

 

[mahakavi]

...........yes this Mahakavi Bharathi'ssong could be translated into sanskrit and attempt could be made to make that as national Anthem. However, I dont think muslims will agree because they think sanskrit is fo Hindu language

The muslims objected to the song of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya's vande mataram song and hence was abandoned. Like that they will object to anything connected with Hindu (Sanskrit, sambhAr, tayir sAdham etc., too). As the saying goes, குனியக் குனியக் குட்டுவார் குட்டக் குட்டக் குனிந்தால்

 

[Raji Ram]

.. correction: Rajkumar is the great-grandson of the mahAkavi Bharathi........

Thanks for the correction. I shall remember this!

In this video notes, Poet Bharathi's great grandson is given as great poet Bharathi grandson.

Nalla kaalam varuguthu - Shri. Rajkumar Bharathi - YouTube

 

[sudeshwer]

understand. It is difficult for the North Indians to accept a song sung by a South Indian. even Vande matharam was not accepted. Moroever, South Indian politicians, particularly TN politicians dont have the bone to take up any issue strongly. take the care of Dr Abdul Kalam; which TN politicians support him for the Presidentship?? the above quoted Bharatjhiyar song has tremendous meaning on National nlevel. but Alas,it cannot gather any support from any quarter.

 

[sudeshwer]

well analysed, explained, clarified etc. yet I feel it will be a herculian task to try to change the present National Anthem.

 

[mahakavi]

Just a brief note on Bharathi's offspring. He had two daughters: tangammAL (born 1904?) and Sakuntala (born 1908). Thankam got married around 1920 (while Bharathi was alive) in Kadayam. Sakuntala got married in 1924 (?) after Bharathi's death. There are two other women Lalitha and Vijaya (grand-daughters of Bharathi-----I don't know whose daughters they are at this moment). They must have been born in the 1930s at the latest. Rajkumar Bharathi is the son of Lalitha Bharathi which makes him the great-grandson of Bharathi. Rajkumar Bharathi must have been born in 1950s. He has a son (niranjan) and daughter (Gayatri) and probably has other children.

Rajkumar is a very talented carnatic musician. He has a gentle smooth voice (similar to a blend of BMK and Jesudas). He has been singing quite a lot of Bharathi's songs, sometimes taking them as the main piece. I like his renditions very much. I haven't heard his live performance and of late I understand his voice is not cooperating with him. Those who know may inform.

Sorry to digress but it was something I could not resist whenever Bharathi's name comes up.

 

[mahakavi]

understand. It is difficult for the North Indians to accept a song sung by a South Indian. even Vande matharam was not accepted. Moroever, South Indian politicians, particularly TN politicians dont have the bone to take up any issue strongly. take the care of Dr Abdul Kalam; which TN politicians support him for the Presidentship?? the above quoted Bharatjhiyar song has tremendous meaning on National nlevel. but Alas,it cannot gather any support from any quarter.

Well, Abdul Kalam is a great soul. Politicians do not care for such people that much unless it suits their political goals.

Even today my gripe is that the DMK/ADMK and other paana dena mana MKs do not care for Bharathi because he was a brahmin despite the fact that Bharathi was a reformer and he conducted upanayanam (that we talk about boldly now) for a harijan. The same thing with U.vE. sA (thamizh tAththA). The so-called kalaignar vaTTAram and their cohorts never recognized his contribution to the renaissance of Thamizh literature.

 

[Raji Ram]

(In Thanglish) Namma National Anthem enna pAdu padugirathu, theriyumO?

Yesterday, I attended one Ayyappa Pooja. The singers sang a song with startled all of us!! It was a new AyyaappA song

set to the same tune as our National Anthem! I could not copy the words, though! So what!! A new set of lines could always

be written!! Friends... Please try to sing this song in the famous tune!!


Modern song on Swami Ayyappan!!

janangaLin manak kuRai pOkkidum dEvA!

pArilE bAgyangaL thA! thA! - anj

jAdha nenjudanE maNdalam ondru,

sAdhuvAy viradhangaL nOtru,

sindhaiyil unnaiyE dyAnam seythu,

thandhaipol guruvaich chErndhu,

iru mudi katti varuvEn;

thiruvadi dharisanam seyvEn;

thiruvaruL niRaivudan peRuvEn!

padhinettup padigaLai thAndi vandhOrkku,

pArilE bAgyangaL thaa! thaa!

swamiyE! sharaNam! ayyappA!

shraNam, sharaNam, ayappA!!

:hail: ... :hail: ... :hail: