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Mumbai: Even though
India attained independence Aug 15, 1947, the country was
undecided on its official national anthem on the auspicious day,
an archived letter made public here Saturday has indicated.
The current national anthem, 'Jana Gana Mana', penned by Nobel
laureate Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted and accorded the status
only much later, by the Constituent Assembly Jan 24, 1950.
A few days prior to Indian independence, many district collectors
of the erstwhile Bombay state (now, divided into Maharashtra and
Gujarat), had written to the then chief secretary on this issue.
They sought directions on whether they should still allow the
singing of the British national anthem, 'God Save the King' as
India's national anthem on the dawn of country's independence Aug
15, 1947.
Replying to the ticklish historic query, the chief secretary
informed all collectorates by an 'express letter' Aug 11, 1947,
barring the singing of 'God Save the King'.
"In connection with the celebrations of the 'Independence Day',
all collectors are informed that 'God Save the King' should not be
played or sung on the 15th August and that there will no objection
to 'Vande Mataram' being played or sung if so desired," the
communique dated Aug 11, 1947 said.
"Orders regarding the new national anthem will be issued in due
course," said the communique, signed by an official, J. Chaves, on
behalf of the chief secretary to the Government of Bombay,
Political and Services Department.
However, there is no clarity on what was sung officially at the
Independence Day celebrations Aug 15, 1947, 1948, and 1949.
In January 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted 'Jana
Gana Mana' -- penned by Tagore and sung for the first time Dec 27,
1911 -- as the country's official national anthem.
It also adopted the first two verses of Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyay's 'Vande Mataram', penned in 1882, as India's
national song.
The historical details are now available for public viewing at the
newly-created Raj Bhavan Archives, an initiative of Governor K.
Sankaranarayanan, which was thrown open to the public from
Saturday.
A Raj Bhavan official said that so far 5,000 files and 100,000
documents from the period between 1929 and 1991, which could throw
light on many historical state and national events, have been
classified and numbered.
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