It’s urgent that we go for the change of the current national anthem of Bangladesh, “Amar Sonar Bangla” (O My Golden Bengal). Far from strengthening our attachment to the soil, the song amounts to a denial of Bangladesh as it exists as a separate country with its own geographical qualifier, in an area of about 55,000 sq miles, populated by an overwhelming Muslim majority. It’s for this Bangladesh, not for the adjacent Hindu majority Indian province of West Bengal, that our people fought and died in 1971. We fought and died for Bangladesh but the anthem being sung is in praise of another geographical territory–West Bengal, or, at best, Bangladesh and West Bengal together. How can that be! Obviously, it’s treasonous, blasphemous, unpatriotic, and disloyal to our country to have what may truly be considered an existential threat to us. Such a proposition clearly obliges us to make haste to do away with the present national anthem which suggests a loss of national identity in an ongoing continuation of merger-convergence, both in cash and kind, of the land and culture and politics of Muslim majority Bangladesh with those of the bordering Indian West Bengal.
Thus, for Bangladesh, the song is as funny and ridiculous as though America would have an anthem like “My Golden Americas” or “My Golden North America” that would either suggest an American extension into Canada in the north and Mexico in the South or encompass both continents together–North America and South America, all under the command and control of the USA! A similar analogy may be drawn between the Greek province of Macedonia and the independent Republic of Northern Macedonia, both with their own geographical qualifiers with no direct or implied intrusion, encroachment, and stalking into each other!
The issue of the national anthem has kept the nation of Bangladesh deeply divided to the extent of being torn apart since 1971/72. Along with a few other key issues (like wrong father of the nation, wrong number of the war dead, God-less-ness or religion-less-ness in the name of so-called secularism, traditionally notorious Awami League and their nonstop carnival of terror and tyranny, and the spread of Awami supported Indian hegemony, for example), the country’s Muslim majority population never got reconciled and reoriented to the central idea of the bonding and crystallization of the nationhood of Bangladesh over the issue of its anthem. It’s not only a matter of symbolic and emotional ties to the country with its own history and land boundary, separate from the traditionally unneighborly neighbor Hindu majority India but also, more importantly, it’s a matter of concrete and material realization of our freedom, sovereignty, and independence all having to do with the formation of our Bangladeshi nationalism and national identity. That’s why, as the following references indicate, I’ve been writing about it since at least 2000:
“When Bangladesh Is Divided Over Its National Anthem: A Politico-Literary Perspective,” Ch. 14, in Bangladesh: Political and Literary Reflections on a Divided Country (New York: Peter Lang, 2018), pp. 465-490. The same is Ch. 10 in Readings in Oriental Literature: Arabian, Indian, and Islamic (UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015), pp.282-304. A shorter version was published in the weekly Holiday (Bangladesh), December 29, 2006. The earliest drafts appeared in Asian Thought & Society: An International Review (State University of New York Oneonta) 25: 74 (2000), pp. 157-61; in Politics, Administration and Change (Australia: University of New England) 34 (2000, 68-74; New Quest (India)152 (April-June 2003), pp. 29-35; Studies on Islam (Hamdard University India), 2:1(September 2006) and also in News from Bangladesh (an online outlet).
I wrote the above years ago, again and again, as I was always concerned about the lack of propriety and appropriateness of the euphemistic “Amar Sonar Bangla” to conventionally accepted norms and standards of what ought to be the national anthem of a country, in this case Bangladesh. I believed then as I believe now that the song in question had/has no relevance whatsoever to the historical fact of the phenomenally painful birth of Bangladesh in 1971 as an independent and sovereign country in its own right with and within its own borders. I believed then as I believe now that it was and still remains to be one of the five factual and foundational lies and errors (Sheikh Mujib issue, the number of the war dead issue, secularism-alias/versus-suppression of the Islamic religion issue, Awami-BAKSAL tyranny and authoritarianism issue and the national anthem issue) that are responsible for deeply distorting, diluting, and discoloring the very basics of the existence of Bangladesh that once emerged as an independent country with a geographical and territorial boundary of its own. The Indian-influenced wrong choice of the existing national anthem proved to be highly disastrous to the national and religious identity of Bangladesh. As we all know, India, under the garb and guise of a so-called secularism, is in fact a communal, fanatical and fundamentalist Hindutva country. It was so from the beginning in 1947 with the questions raised about its filthy and ferocious pursuit of “Akhand Bharat” hegemony as the State of Israel started pursuing its belligerent and warmongering pursuit of “Zionism” a couple of years later. In both cases it was the obstruction and obliteration of Islam and Muslims that was on their mind and still that end or aim remains to be the same.
It follows that it was India that imposed on the newly born Bangladesh the highly controversial song of “Amar Sonar Bangla” as the national anthem of Bangladesh that makes no distinction between Bangladesh as a separate geographical entity and the bordering Indian province of West Bengal. It did so with a nasty ulterior motive—a motive of exporting and propagating their hypocritically claimed secularist but actually fundamentalist Hindutva-suffused-and-Hindutva-saturated “Akhand Bharat” ideology. They were actively engaged in promoting the song through their lackeys and cronies during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. Therefore, it goes without saying that the Indian imposed existing anthem has always prevented the crystallization of the nationhood, nationalism and national identity of the independent Muslim majority country of Bangladesh.
If I may be allowed to stress, Rabindranath Tagore’s “Amar Sonar Bangla” never did and will never do ever as the national anthem of Bangladesh. Instead, there should be a new national anthem composed in direct correlation, commemoration, and celebration of the long overdue and much awaited liberation of Bangladesh on 5 August 2024. To be honest, the recent liberation is perhaps the truest and most real liberation of Bangladesh from decades of overwhelmingly fetid and fascist Awami regime. Taken into account their one-party reigns of murderous turmoil, bloody violence, unrest, famine, and lack of the rule of law, good governance, and social justice, the awfully autocratic Awami League has had no tradition in the history of Bangladesh except their all-engulfing and all-consuming tyranny and terrorism.
To repeat, the current national anthem “Amar Sonar Bangla” must go. There is nothing to debate about it. There are no pros whatsoever; they’re all cons. Pure and simple. The reasons for it to let go are not far to seek. They are, in no uncertain terms, incontrovertible, irreconcilable, irrefutable and unbridgeable, to say the least. As a national anthem, the current one is all improper and inappropriate in every sense of the term. It is inapt and illogical in every way that one may conceive and comprehend. The far-outweighing reasons against it are all crystal clear, there being no grey area to ponder or harbor any second thoughts. For good reason, the anthem is deeply divisive hurting, not helping the crystallization and solidification of the nationhood and national identity of the Muslim majority Bangladesh. Under this national anthem the ideals of independence, sovereignty and geographical entity are compromised and cannot be upheld with proud dignity, patriotism and attachment to the soil of the country we all belong to. No wonder there has recently been a lot of talk, both in social and print media, about the seriously divisive national anthem. Well-known nationwide, (Retd) Brig Gen Abdullahil Aman Azmi and Dr Col Oli Ahmad Bir Bikram and many other prominent figures such as the GOP leaders have already made a clarion call for it to be changed in the greater interest of the nation.
Instead, as just mentioned above, it is morally, culturally, politically, and constitutionally obligatory for the Bangladeshi nation to come up with a new national anthem in direct correlation and consideration of Bangladesh’s new and second (which may also be called the third or even fourth) liberation on 5 August 2024. This was in fact a true and real liberation, notwithstanding those on 16 December 1971, and 15 August and 7 November 1975. However, the first one on 16 December may have been a liberation of Bangladesh from the domination of Pakistan but it was also an immediate and outright enslavement to India, both in cash and kind, through hundreds of slavish and servile Awami agreements with them. As identified before, India is out-and-out a communal, fanatical and fundamentalist Hindutva country. The post-independence enslavement was later willingly and intentionally pushed further and deeper by Sheikh Mujib’s most cruel and ruthless dictator daughter Sheikh Hasina, who committed stark treason by her increasingly seditious and spendthrift expense of the national interest of Bangladesh to India in terms of our freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
With the key and crucial reasons already hinted above, the rationale for the much-desired change of the present national anthem could still be further spelled out in a few more bulleted words. Pressing and compelling as the reasons are, they are as follows: —
- The present national anthem was written long ago as a patriotic poem for a united Bengal, not the independent Bangladesh of today. “On July 19, 1905, Viceroy Lord Curzon announced the division of Bengal based on religion. It was implemented on October 16. Rabindranath Tagore wrote the lines of this song for the unity of Bengal. It was published in a magazine named Bangadarshan in September of the same year.” In other words, following the partition between East Bengal and West Bengal by the British Raj, the poem was written with the aim of the reunification of the two Bengals—Muslim majority East and Hindu majority West. It is therefore obvious that the song has nothing and could not have anything to do with the existence of Bangladesh as an independent country. With its own earned freedom and sovereignty after a 9-month long bloody struggle, Bangladesh is defined by its own geographical boundary, not to extend into the territory of India’s West Bengal. To repeat, the poem has no connection whatsoever with even the dream, let alone the birth of Bangladesh itself as a separate independent country in 1971. It’s therefore certainly both seditious and treasonous to have such a song as the national anthem of Bangladesh. Tantamount to a denial of Bangladesh in its own geographical and territorial integrity, the song is an existential threat to Bangladesh as it stands above the Bay of Bengal.
- The poem was written by a Hindu poet who did not belong to East Pakistan (or would-be Bangladesh) and who as such cherishes a head-bowing idol worship bestowed as if on the feet of a Hindu deity like Ma-Durga or Ma-Kali in a polytheistic sense. So, it not only hurts the sentiment of the Muslim majority of Bangladesh but also is considered blasphemous and sacrilegious by them. Unlike India’s own national anthem (also composed by Tagore), Pakistan’s national anthem, and the UK’s national anthem, there is no sense of the monotheistic One and Almighty God in the song.
- Like the Italian poet Petrarch, who was vehemently antagonistic to Muslim rule, culture and civilization in Southern (Andalusian) Spain during the Middle Ages and who had all the Muslim authored books taken off the shelves in Europe and who advocated the courses related to Islamic Studies to be dropped, Tagore was an anti-Islam Muslim hater. He didn’t want the academic, educational and intellectual development of East Bengal (Bangladesh). He, along with many other Kolkata-based prominent Hindu Brahmins of the time, petitioned seventeen times, as the prominent scholar Dr Salimullah Khan points out, to the British authority not to establish Dhaka University. He and his likeminded and biased Hindu minds thought East Bengal was only a land of illiterate farmers and shepherds not deserving an institution of higher education. And,
- All the imageries in the excessively euphemistic song like the Banyan tree do not testify to their rich abundance in the landscape of Bangladesh today. It is no longer as riverine as it once used to be and that’s also mainly because of India, who have been resorting to political enmity and animosity and environmental crimes towards Bangladesh. Dozens and dozens of rivers either have gone dry and are about to go dry or continue to overflow causing devastating floods due to India playing horribly hostile to Bangladesh.
- T S Eliot thought that Hamlet was an artistic failure because the hero (Hamlet) was suffering from an emotional imbalance that was in excess of the chain of events and actions he was facing. Similarly, “Amar Sonar Bangla” is marked by an excessive euphemism that ill behooves the state of Bangladesh and remains limited to an unnecessary overpraise and overestimation without rising to a magnitude of magnificence in terms of lofty goals and gravity a nation should aspire to.
- A simply sweet and melodious song cannot be a national anthem. There are many other criteria to be taken into consideration. They could be profound gravity, lofty vision, connectedness to the birth of a nation and the particular soil in question, to the exclusion of the rest. Again, mere sweetness and melody are not the only consideration for a national anthem. US, Canada, UK, France and many other countries, are those anthems sweet and melodious? No way. So, there must have been other reasons for those countries to choose their anthems. And who on earth knows who the writers of them were? Very unknown and obscure. Only the historians, academics and researchers in the field know the names of the authors.
- According to Col Rashed Chowdhury, a decorated freedom fighter, former diplomat and author of many books and articles on Bangladesh, “Who talks of the liberation war in this National Anthem debate? People are questioning the anthem that was composed in 1905 by Rabi Thakur. It is clearly against today’s Bangladesh. This sleep-inducing nursery rhyme type song has nothing about Bangladesh; there is no mention of the spirit, values and inspiration for which the people fought and sacrificed in 1971. It is contrary to Islamic spirit and values that more than 90% people of the land follow. No Muslim bows at the feet of a deity. What is there to inspire Bangladesh and its overwhelming Muslims? I have nothing against Rabi Thakur, who is undoubtedly a world-famous poet. So are Nazrul and thousands of others. Could we take a Sonnet of Shakespeare or a Shikwa of Iqbal as our national anthem? Certainly not. Let the National Anthem be local that inspires the people to love the country and die for the country and its values.” (Check South Asia Journal link at the end).
Here I must hasten to add that the fact that Tagore may have used the tune or music of Baul singer Gagan Harkora in his “Amar Sonar Bangla” is not a good reason to count. It was a common practice for and by many great poets, from Shakespeare to the Romantics to W B Yeats to T S Eliot, to sometimes, but not always imitate and emulate plots, lyrics and lyricism of others. It’s not that kind of theft or plagiarism that amounts to a serious violation, let alone crime. To borrow or be influenced by predecessors or even contemporaries is part of a poet’s creative and maturing process that involves both tradition and individual talent. Tagore was too super great a poetic genius to merely rely on the Baul music of somebody else. The beauty and variety and range and vastness of his creation defy and far exceed and excel the very limited realm of who was not more than a minor to him in status.
In any case, I think I was the first to write a full-length article, in one or two slightly expanded versions, against the national anthem of Bangladesh. In my previous writings, I suggested that the short, but cute and meaningful poem “স্বাধীন বাংলাদেশ” be made the national anthem of Bangladesh. It was by the well-known poet, translator, and literary magazine editor Talim Hossein (1918-1999), who, in literary tradition, was a follower of poet Nazrul Islam, belonged to the Muslim renaissance and a recipient of Bangla Academy and Ekushe Padak awards. The highly suggestive lyrics, loaded with “the pastness of the past” (to borrow a phrase from T S Eliot and yet a forward-looking meaning, are as follows:
স্বাধীন বাংলাদেশ
তালিম হোসেন (১৯১৮-১৯৯৯)
বাংলাদেশ—বাংলাদেশ/
মৃত্যুবিজয়ী বাংলাদেশ/
যুগ—যুগান্ত পথের প্রান্ত/
অতিক্রান্ত প্রান অশেষ/
বাংলাদেশ/
বহু সংকট পাড়ি দিয়ে আজ/
বিজয়ী বাংলাদেশ/ /
পেয়েছে আপন প্রান—চঞ্চল জীবনের উদ্দেশ/
বাংলাদেশ।
When set to music, the above short poem, neutral, yet highly patriotic, could be very nice with its uplifting, aspiring and ennobling visions and aspirations. But that was probably written with the 1971 independence in mind. I also mentioned in my previous writings the great composer and lyricist Gazi Mazharul Islam’s (and the most famous vocal artist Shahnaz Rahmatullah’s) highly patriotic “প্রথম বাংলাদেশ আমার শেষ বাংলাদেশ” but I also argued that it couldn’t be acceptable by many because it has become the party song (দলীয় সংগীত) of the BNP. Also, it doesn’t have the sense of One God in the spirit of religious monotheism enshrined in it. In my previous writings, I also mentioned D L Roy’s patriotic ধন ধান্য পুস্পভরা but he is also from West Bengal thus making the song as unfit for a national anthem candidate as Tagore’s “Amar Sonar Bangla.” By the way, it’s worth mentioning that it’s said that Sheikh Mujib, upon his arrival at New Delhi on his way from London to Dhaka on 11 January 1972, expressed his desire for this song by D L Roy and regretted that India and their allies already chose to impose the song by Tagore for the purpose. One may be able to find out about Mujib’s choice by checking any major Indian newspaper of 12 January 1972. To me, neither Nazrul Islam’s “চল চল চল” (a martial or military song) nor Syed Farruk Ahmed’s “পাঞ্জেরি”, though a nice poem of arduous night-long journey to a desired destination in the morning, would be a good choice as a national anthem.
Following the successful 5 August revolution, I changed my mind and I propose that a new national anthem be written directly connected with the unprecedented bloody July-August student-people uprising and the new found freedom—a great and glorious relief and emancipation from the unbearable decades-old Awami (BAL) state and party terrorism, to be completely eradicated and eliminated from Bangladesh.