92-year-old Hindi poet Gopal Das ‘Neeraj’, a Padma Bhushan awardee, opined that ‘Vande Mataram’ or ‘Jhanda Ooncha Rahe Humara’ should replace ‘Jana Gana Mana’ as the national anthem.
The Padma Bhushan awardee added that the ‘Jana Gana Mana’ penned by Rabindranath Tagore is reminiscent of British rule in India, in 1911, at the coronation of George V, the King of United Kingdom.
“In ‘Jan Gan Mana Adhinanayak’, ‘adhinayak’ stands for dictator. ‘Jayahe Bharat Bhagya Vidhaata’, he is the creator of the destiny of Bharat. Punjab Sindhu Gujarat Maratha, where is the Sindh now in India?
“Even ‘Jhanda Ooncha Rahe Humara’ was a better Song. This is the good song to honour the national flag. But if ‘Jan Gana Man’ is the national anthem, what can be done?,” added Neerja favoring ‘Vande Mataram’ for the new national anthem.
“I have written in English also during my initial years as a poet. But, it was Harivansh Rai ‘Bachchan’ ji who asked me to focus on writing in Hindi. He told me ‘Kavita maatribhaasha mein hi hoti hai’ (poetry is done only in mother tongue),” Neeraj revealed in an interview.
“Now it is the trend that if someone writes in English, they are taken as big men while those writing in Hindi are small. We have been slaves (of British) and our national anthem is also from the era when we were a British colony. The Britishers have left, but some still continue to remain slaves (of English language),” said Neerja when asked if he felt there was a bias in the acknowledgement Bestowed on litterateurs based on the language in which they work.