The background first.
The song was written by Bonkim Chandra Chatterjee in the late nineteenth century, and is a part of a novel called Anandamoth. The song was a milestone in the Indian nationalist movement. Equating country with father or mother was not a familiar concept to Indians. This way of worshipping and idolizing was essentially European – and the “English educated” Bonkimchandra picked up this clue from them. The song was probably also an alternative to ”God save the King” that the Indians in the pre independence era would have been forced to sing. Later the song was adopted by Congress – and in the post independence era made into National anthem. Credit to Rabindranath Tagore who recognised the central concept in the song to be alien to other religions before independence, and explained this in a letter to Subhas Chandra Bose.
Lets come to the current times now.
To any sensible observer, this shall be clear that the topic has no relevance in today’s age and time. India has far better things to worry about. However this does lead us to face some uncomfortable facts, about our democracy.
It seems that in India patriotism is all about the tricolour, the flag, the charka and the song. Somewhere in this “patriotic” rant the truth that a nation is for its people and not the other way round seems lost. We tend to chose honouring inanimate symbols, because it is the easier option. Put forward the task of making a difference to the biggest asset of a nation, its people - and the majority of our “patriots” will have melted away into the crowd. Be a humanist first – and a patriot will almost certainly follow!
This also proves how easy it is for factions in our diverse country, to hijack issues to prove their point. Religious communities can project compulsions to sing the national song as an example of deliberate attempts to subordinate their faith. Political organisations in turn can use this defiance to brand them as unpatriotic. And we have much ado about nothing..............except, that it unmasks the real lack of will in the country to make an actual difference.
What seems most important actually goes way beyond this issue. It is the issue of establishing parallel authorities in the country. Should any group – religious, political or cultural, whatever their description have powers to dictate choices in our lives. It is this assumption of control, which should make us more uncomfortable.
