The state secretariat Nabanna on Tuesday brought back ‘Bangali’ by removing ‘Bangla’ in the state anthem Banglar Mati Banglar Jol by Rabindranath Tagore, bringing to an end to the controversy since 2023 when the Mamata Banerjee government passed a Bill in the state Legislative Assembly making the poem as a state song.
With a surprising proposal of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, her government had made a change in the original song’s lyrics of Tagore about one-and-a-half years ago. The usage of ‘Bangali (Bengali)’ in the song was replaced with ‘Bangla (Bengal)’ triggering controversy across the state.
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Tagore had penned Banglar Mati Banglar Jol protesting the colonial bifurcation of Bengal in 1905.
Today, the state chief secretary, Manoj Pant has issued an order mentioning the paragraph of the Tagore song that will be recited as the state anthem.
According to the order, the paragraph ‘Banglar maati, Banglar jol, Banglar baayu, Banglar phal – punnyo hok, punnyo hok, he bhagaban. Bangalir praan, Bangalir mon, Bangalir ghore jato bhai bon-ek hok, ek hok, ek hok, he bhagaban’ – will have to be recited within one minute.
The order didn’t also clearly mention anything whether it’s mandatory to recite the state song by standing up but it states that it’s encouraging when the national anthem or state anthem is sung while standing.
The first two stanzas of the four-stanza Tagore’s song seeks blessings and praises Bengal’s soil, water, air, fruits, homes, markets, fields and forests. The next two stanzas seek fulfilment of the resolve, hope, action and language of Bengalis and, unity of the Bengalis’ souls and minds and of all the brothers and sisters in Bengali households.
In August 2023, a meeting was held at the conference room of Nabanna to discuss choosing a day to be celebrated as Paschimbanga Divas (West Bengal Day) and the song would be adopted as state anthem. Apart from political parties, the government had invited members of civil society, religious groups, industry and major sporting clubs. The Bharatiya Janata Party, Left Front and the Congress did not send any representative, but leaders of leftist parties Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) or SUCI(C) and CPI(ML)(Liberation) attended the meeting.
‘Banglar Mati Banglar Jol’ is entwined with the history of the Banga Bhanga movement against the division of the state and Raksha Bandhan, the bard’s way of promoting communal harmony in 1905.
Tagore experts say ‘Banglar Mati Banglar Jol’ is an appropriate song for the state anthem. It is a commonly used as Rabindrasangeet, they felt.
