In the past two days, there’ve been some murmurs of astonishment over a song in a Bengali film that has been sung in the tune of Jana Gana Mana, India’s National Anthem.
To the ignorant (which is most people in this country), it seems like a contemporary song, fashioned after the Anthem and using its elements such as the chorus.
But it is, and isn't the National Anthem. Here's the technicality explained:
Rabindranath Tagore did not actually compose a National Anthem. What he composed, was a poem called “The Morning Song of India”, which is his English translation of the Bengali original written in 1911. That poem now has two titles. It is listed ast No 14 under the title 'Swadesh' in Geetabitan, a collection of lyrics published by Vivwa Bharati. The other title of the poem is "Bharat Vidhata" as published in Sanchayita, a volume of all of Tagore's poems and lyrics, also published by Visva Bharati.
The first stanza of that poem was titled Jana Gana Mana and adopted by the Republic of India as its National Anthem on January 24, 1950. The National Anthem is in sadhu Bengali or tatsama Bengali, which is a heavily Sanksritized form of the language.
The song Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata in the Bengali film Rajkahini (yet to be releaed) is actually the rest of the song. Listen to the rest of the song from which the National Anthem has been selected and read Tagore’s own translation sourced from Wikipedia:
The rest of the song:
Day and night, thy voice goes out from land to land,
calling the Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains round thy throne and the Parsees, Mussalmans and Christians.
Offerings are brought to thy shrine by the East and the West
To be woven in a garland of love.
Thou bringest the hearts of all peoples into the harmony of one life,Thou Dispenser of India's destiny,
Victory, Victory, Victory to thee."
The procession of pilgrims passes over the endless road, rugged with the rise and fall of nations;
and it resounds with the thunder of thy wheel.Eternal Charioteer!
Through the dire days of doom thy trumpet sounds, and men are led by thee across death.
Thy finger points the path to all people.
Oh dispenser of India's destiny!
Victory, victory, victory to thee.
The darkness was dense and deep was the night; my country lay in a deathlike silence of swoon.
But thy mother arms were round her and thine eyes gazed upon her troubled face
in sleepless love through her hours of ghastly dreams.
Thou art the companion and the saviour of the people in their sorrows,
thou dispenser of India's destiny!
Victory, victory, victory to thee.
The night fades;the light breaks over the peaks of the Eastern hills,
the birds begin to sing and the morning breeze carries the breath of new life.
The rays of the mercy have touched the waking land with their blessings.
Victory to the King of Kings,
victory to thee, dispenser of India's destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to thee.