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Should the word 'Sindh'
be deleted from National Anthem 'Jan Gan Man'?
- by Raj Shekhar of Toronto, Canada
I, like many others
happened to read a news item that a petition has
been filed by an individual in the Supreme Court
of India asking the word 'Sindh' be dropped and
replaced by the word 'Kashmir' or any other word
representing province not named so far in our
national anthem. It is so sad that even Supreme
Court sought the government's response to this
petition seeking the deletion of the word Sindh,
If somebody has lots of time to play with
sentiments of any poet's or any artist's
creativity by trying to tamper like this type of
vulgar attempts should be ignored but action of
supreme court is deplorable for sure. Our
National Anthem is after all a glorious poetry
about our motherland representing the entire
nation from sea to sea to the loftiest mountain
ranges of Himalayas - it is not about naming a
province or a geography lesson for the middle
school kids.
Poetry expresses
everything that cannot be described by
intellect, cannot be reduced to law:
extravagance of language imagery matches the
extravagance of colour, form, scent, and sound
in nature itself. Our national Anthem is not
just a wonderful poetry of Tagore, but it's also
gift to our nation and as well as a blessing
from him to us that we should cherish.
The tsunami victims
need aid and we are willing to help. However, we
have to focus on what is needed by the affected
people and send that. Many people are
de-cluttering their homes and sending old
clothes and stuff like that. These old clothes
are pilling up at railway stations as people do
not want them. The same is true for cooked food
which gets spoilt in the time taken for
transportation. We must remember the victims are
self respecting citizens some of whom were
pretty well off before the tragedy. They refuse
to accept just anything and everything. By
sending such unwanted items we will create more
problems than we solve. We have to be careful we
send in what is needed. I have made cash
donations as I feel that cash donations can be
converted into the exact needs of the people. I
appeal to all to contribute wisely.
Kashmir Yes,
Assam No? - by Omar Luther King of Delhi
On January 3 this
year, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the
Central Government of India on a petition
seeking deletion/replacement of ‘Sindh’ from the
Indian national anthem and its substitution by a
proper word like ‘Kashmir’. It is hoped that the
apex court will not decide in favour of the
petitioner to replace ‘Sindh’ with ‘Kashmir’.
Fully aware of the
fact that Sindh did not belong to independent
India we, the people of India, have been singing
Jana Gana Mana for over half a century now.
Would we not make a laughing stock of ourselves
if we suddenly became over-sensitive to the
geo-political reality and deleted or replaced
“Sindh” from our national anthem and substituted
it by “Kashmir”? Besides, by replacing “Sindh”
with “Kashmir” we will not be able to keep the
tune and rhythm of the song intact.
Pakistan has been
good enough not to make an issue of our reciting
in the anthem the word “Sindh” which is a part
of that country. So where is the question of
violating the sovereignty of Pakistan, as the
petitioner would have us believe? As I am an
Indian from Assam, my feelings will certainly be
hurt if “Kashmir” finds a place in the anthem
and my beloved Assam is ignored and excluded.
We the people, and
not the Supreme Court, are sovereign. So let us
advice our representatives in Parliament not to
make any changes in our national anthem, and let
the objectors reconcile them to fait accompli.
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Comments: |
Regarding the national anthem of
India, "Jana Gana Mana" was written
for the British Monarch and should
be BANNED. Why are we singing an
outdated national anthem which was
originally written for the British
monarchy? India never ceases to
amaze me. Those who came to power
after independence were not
nationalists but simply those who
were jockeying for power after the
vacuum left by the British. India
really should start getting its act
together. - Nidhi Singh 1/7/05
I
suppose this 'Jana Gana Mana'
controversy is really unwanted as
our country is going through a major
relief operation in the aftermath of
the Tsunami that hit Indian coast on
26th Dec. I think the people should
better contribute towards or work
for helping those who have suffered
by the nature's hand rather than
indulging in some nonsense like
changing some of the words of our
national anthem. I wish the people
of India were mature enough to
understand the demand of the time
rather than being a 'lakir ka
fakir'. - Rakesh Kumar Singh 1/10/05
I
strongly felt embarrassed by the
move that some word denoting a
regional sense should be deleted and
replaced by another word. This is
shameful to think that after singing
our national anthem for more than 50
year we are now demanding a change
in it. The change (if allowed) will
not limit to this. With the creation
of every state or representative of
any ethnic group can demand change
in national anthem. - Dr. Vijay Kumar
Singh 1/10/05
I strongly feel we should change the
entire national anthem with a new
one which could be understood in all
the languages of India. I am still
not able to understand the current
one which was written in 1911 by
honorary Mr. Rabindranath Tagore.
New national anthem should say how
we fought our independence, for what
we fought our independence, and what
we have to achieve as Hindustani. -
Pritesh J. Desai 3/17/05
Also see
this write-up |
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