How ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ became national anthem of Bangladesh

“Amar Sonar Bangla Ami Tomay Bhalobashi
Chirodin Tomar Akash Tomar Batash Amar Praney Bajay Banshi”

Ten years of school have passed with these verses of the national anthem. Every morning, which was once extremely disliked, today the choir of the school children next to the house makes me nostalgic with this anthem. One of the key components of an independent country is it’s ‘national anthem’. The national anthem played at the beginning of every national/state event, big or small, has an underlying significance. It depicts the emotions, pride and traditions of a country and its people.

Although Bangladesh became independent in 1971, the national anthem of was composed almost six decades before. In 1905, when Bengal was divided into two parts on the basis of Muslim and Hindu majority, Bishwa-Kobi Rabindranath Tagore composed the song ‘Amar Sonar Bangla‘ in support of the Swadeshi movement that became vocal against the partition of Bengal. The exact date of composition of the song is not known as the manuscript of the song has not been found. According to Satyen Roy, the song was first sung at a demonstration in Kolkata on 7 August 1905. However, there is no evidence of this.

The song was published on 7 September of that year (22 Bhadra of 1312 BS) in the Sanjivani and in the Ashwin issue of Bangadarshan magazine in the same year. According to noted Rabindra biographer Prashanta Kumar Pal, ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ was first sung on 25 August 1905 at the reading session of essay ‘Obostha O Byabostha’ (Status and System) at the Town Hall of Kolkata. Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay in his book ‘Gitabitan – Kalanukramik Suchi’ also mentions the same about the context of the song.

The tune of this song of Dadra Taal has been taken from the tune of Gagan Harkara’s song ‘Ami Kothay Pabo Taare Amar Moner Manush Je Re’ sung in 1889. When they went to look after their zamindari at Shilaidaha in Kushtia, the postman Baul Gagan Chandra Das regularly reached the letters of Rabindranath Tagore. During those days, the postmen in Bengal were called Harkara, so he was known as ‘Gagan Harkara’. His innate singing and natural talent attracted Rabindranath Tagore. As part of Rabindranath Tagore’s work to reintroduce and popularize Baul songs among the middle class Bengalis, he used Baul tunes in several songs. Rabindranath Tagore mentioned Gagan Harkara several times in his letters to Sarala Devi.

However, earlier in the month of Baishakh in 1307 BS, Sarala Devi Chaudhurani published the notation of the song composed by Gagan Harkara in her collection of hundred songs. The song was first recorded in the voice of artist Gopal Chandra Sen. At that time, the song became very popular among the Bengalis to spark nationalism.

With the partition of India in 1947, Bengal was divided again. At this time, as a result of the anti-Bengali attitude of the Pakistani rulers, Rabindranath’s popularity in East Bengal (East Pakistan) began to decline. In 1961, the worldwide celebration of the 100th birth anniversary of Tagore was also observed in East Pakistan. Ignoring the threatening look of the ruling class, a group of intellectuals celebrated the birth centenary of the poet in East Pakistan.

During the same time, ‘Chhayanaut’ was formed as a result of various initiatives taken to preserve the language, culture and tradition of the Bengali people. Chhayanaut established the song ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ as a symbol of the cultural struggle of the Bengalis. On the other hand, politically, the Bengalis started to stand up against the discrimination of Pakistani rulers. In different political rallies, the programme started with the national anthem ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’.

On 1 March 1971, the Swadhin Bangla Chhatra Sangram Parishad was formed and a public meeting was held on 3 March at Paltan Maidan in the center of Dhaka. The song was declared as the national anthem in the manifesto announced there. The song was first sung as the national anthem at the oath-taking ceremony of the independent Bangladesh government in Mujibnagar on 17 April 1971. During the war of liberation in 1971, Ajit Roy, the composer of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, composed the current instrumental tune of the song.

However, it is said that there was some controversy about the tune of ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’. This song was picked according to the recorded version sung by Suchitra Mitra. But it is said that the artists themselves moved away from that tune and ever since the beginning of the liberation war it has been sung that way. In this regard, Professor Sanjida Khatun wrote in the article titled ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ of her book ‘Akash Bhora Kole’, “After the independence of Bangladesh, many questions were raised about the tune and notation of ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’. At that time, in a meeting of the Cabinet Division, Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) said that the tune of our national anthem would be the one that had been sung for the independence of the country. Bangabandhu’s decision corrected our mistakes. Even today, ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ is sung in that tune.”

On 13 January 1972, the Government of Bangladesh formally decided to sing the first ten lines of the 25-line song as the national anthem. Article 4 (1) of Part I (Republic) of the Constitution of Bangladesh states, “The national anthem of the Republic is the first ten lines of ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’.” The first four lines of the song are used in instrumental music and in the military. In the same year, the notation of the song ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’, which was used as the national anthem of Bangladesh, was approved by the Visva-Bharati Music Board.

In 1970, Zahir Raihan filmed the national anthem for the first time in his famous film ‘Jibon Thekey Neya’. In 2006, the song took the first place in the list of top twenty Bengali songs made by BBC Bangla according to the choice of the listeners. According to the Daily Guardian, the national anthem of Bangladesh is second in comparison to the national anthems of the 205 participating countries in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The first position holder was the national anthem of Uruguay. On the 44th Independence and National Day of Bangladesh, more than 300,000 Bengalis sang the national anthem together, making it to the Guinness World Records.

In 2006, the High Court declared illegal the use of the national anthem as ringtone and welcome tune on mobile phones in response to a writ petition filed by lawyer Kalipada Mridha. At that time, the court fined Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink Tk 30 lakh each.

After independence, ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ was sung to the tune of the national anthem approved by the government of Bangladesh every day along with the messages on Bangladesh Television and Betar. During the military regime of Ziaur Rahman, the broadcast of the national anthem with messages was stopped on Bangladesh Television since 1976. After some time, the broadcast of the national anthem was also stopped on Bangladesh Betar. After the assasination of Ziaur Rahman, only instrumental music of the national anthem was played on Bangladesh Television and Betar.

There had been debates centering the national anthem of Bangladesh several times. And the main theme of this debate was the birth history of the national anthem. The controversy revolved around the fact that the song, written in 1905 opposing the partition of Bengal, was justified as the national anthem in the present reality and that there was no mention of a large section of Bengali Muslims in Bengal. It is believed that Ziaur Rahman, the founder of the ‘Bangladeshi Nationalist’ political party BNP, stopped the broadcast of the national anthem for this reason. On the other hand, the Awami League, which believes in ‘Bengali nationalism’ and claims to be in favor of independence, never questioned the national anthem. It is also known that Dwijendralal Roy’s song ‘Dhana Dhanya Pushpa Bhora’ was considered as the national anthem of Bangladesh. However, among the two songs, ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ has been accepted as more relevant and meaningful. It is questionable, apart from these two songs, why the other songs that could represent our liberation war, territory and culture more were not considered in this case.

The national anthem has not been used in world history for a long time. Japan’s national anthem ‘Kimi Ga Yo’ was composed between the years 794 and 1185 but became anthem after 1880. Later, Britons and Americans wrote national anthems to formally establish their glory and triumph. Today, every independent country in the world has a national anthem – some countries have more than one national anthem. However, Rabindranath Tagore is so far the only person who has the honour of composing the national anthems of two countries.