In a fit of competitive nationalism, Indian politicians across parties have called for a number of changes to the national anthem, demanding that it reflect the country in the 21st century.
The anthem, Jana Gana Mana, was adopted by a newly independent India in 1950. But some of its anachronisms derive from the original source of the lyrics: a 1911 poem composed and set to music by the Nobel-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore.
That poem, running to five stanzas, hailed the “dispenser of the destiny of India” and was first sung in December 1911 at a meeting of the Congress party. British newspapers claimed that Tagore was praising King George V, who was visiting India at the time, as this dispenser of destiny.
But Tagore himself clarified that he was opposed to British rule, and that his poem referred to a divine deity. “Neither the Fifth nor the Sixth nor any George could be the maker of human destiny through the ages,” he wrote in a letter to a friend.
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Read more: The origin and meaning of India's national anthem
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Other sections of the anthem, which is from the first stanza of Tagore’s poem, continue to provoke debate.
The lyrics include an incomplete tour of India in Tagore’s time, name-checking various provinces and geographical features. A resolution moved in the upper house of parliament last week calls for the inclusion of a reference to north-eastern India, which does not get a mention.
"The North-east is an important part of India; it is unfortunate that it is not part of the national anthem," said Ripun Bora, a Congress party MP from the north-eastern state of Assam, in a letter accompanying his resolution.
“On other hand, Sindh is mentioned, which is no longer part of India but part of Pakistan, which is a hostile country.”
The anthem was adopted subject to amendment, Mr Bora pointed out. He quoted the president of India in 1950, Rajendra Prasad, as saying that the anthem would permit “such alterations in the words as the government may authorise as occasion arises”.
Mr Bora’s resolution will be discussed in the upper house this week.
A demand to delete Sindh from the anthem was raised in parliament by the Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant in 2016. India possessed no state called Sindh, Mr Sawant said; the word was a relic of a British-ruled India that stretched from the province of Balochistan, now in Pakistan, to the city of Sylhet, now part of Bangladesh.
On Saturday, Anil Vij, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, suggested that the word “adhinayak,” which translated in Tagore’s poem into “the ruler of our minds”, be expunged.
In the context of an anthem, Mr Vij said, “‘adhinayak’ means ‘dictator’, and in India we don’t have a dictatorship but a democracy”.
Mr Vij also expressed support for Mr Bora’s resolution and called for the mention of Sindh to be dropped.
Nandita Bhavnani, the author of a history of India’s Sindhi community, which traces its origin to the province in Pakistan, pointed out that the anthem “isn’t a list of states where we add and subtract. How can we possibly be updating it every time a new state is created?”
She said Tagore's poem could be seen as "a way to embody the spirit of South Asia".
"When politicians make these demands, it feels like they're mainly trying to win mileage within their own constituencies," Ms Bhavnani said. "If an MP can replace the word 'Sindh' in the anthem with the name of his home state, can you imagine the publicity he would get?"
Previous efforts to amend the anthem have proved futile.
In 2005, a lawyer named Sanjeev Bhatnagar filed a petition in the Supreme Court pleading that the invocation of Sindh in the anthem infringed upon Pakistan’s sovereignty and offended the sentiments of Indians.
Members of India’s Sindhi community filed a counter-petition, arguing that the deletion of “Sindh” would amount to a negation of the community’s presence in the country.
The court dismissed Mr Bhatnagar’s petition.
“A national anthem is a hymn or song expressing patriotic sentiments or feelings,” a two-judge bench wrote. “It is not a chronicle which defines the territory of the nation which has adopted the anthem.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, David Warner, Adam Zampa
French Touch
Carla Bruni
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RESULTS
Bantamweight title:
Vinicius de Oliveira (BRA) bt Xavier Alaoui (MAR)
(KO round 2)
Catchweight 68kg:
Sean Soriano (USA) bt Noad Lahat (ISR)
(TKO round 1)
Middleweight:
Denis Tiuliulin (RUS) bt Juscelino Ferreira (BRA)
(TKO round 1)
Lightweight:
Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR) bt Joachim Tollefsen (DEN)
(Unanimous decision)
Catchweight 68kg:
Austin Arnett (USA) bt Daniel Vega (MEX)
(TKO round 3)
Lightweight:
Carrington Banks (USA) bt Marcio Andrade (BRA)
(Unanimous decision)
Catchweight 58kg:
Corinne Laframboise (CAN) bt Malin Hermansson (SWE)
(Submission round 2)
Bantamweight:
Jalal Al Daaja (CAN) bt Juares Dea (CMR)
(Split decision)
Middleweight:
Mohamad Osseili (LEB) bt Ivan Slynko (UKR)
(TKO round 1)
Featherweight:
Tarun Grigoryan (ARM) bt Islam Makhamadjanov (UZB)
(Unanimous decision)
Catchweight 54kg:
Mariagiovanna Vai (ITA) bt Daniella Shutov (ISR)
(Submission round 1)
Middleweight:
Joan Arastey (ESP) bt Omran Chaaban (LEB)
(Unanimous decision)
Welterweight:
Bruno Carvalho (POR) bt Souhil Tahiri (ALG)
(TKO)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
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Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
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More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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UAE squad
Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)
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Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
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Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
- 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
- 2nd Test Thursday-Monday at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
