A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

queer · August 12, 2012, 6:25pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

that is what jana gana mana really is, muqawee. its the same exact anthem, but corrected for pronounciation in bengali. ;)

ninja_hattori · August 12, 2012, 6:25pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

I think Vande Mataram is Indian National Song

queer · August 12, 2012, 6:27pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem

that is true. i dont know my stuff anymore!

Faris_Udeen · August 12, 2012, 6:28pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem

So the national Anthem and national song are different?

Hmmm I like the Pakistan Anthem regardless of who wrote it, but its a bit softy softy…

I reckon when it comes to :faris: factor the French have the most Kick Ass anthem… shame they havent got the spirit to back it up. Now if only Pakistani qaum could borrow the French fervour… just think of the odds!

Faris_Udeen · August 12, 2012, 6:28pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem

Bro we all loose things sometimes… skills fade, memories fade, even our bones fade… I hope it goes easy for us all.

muqawwee123 · August 12, 2012, 6:29pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

What do you mean by national songs. Is there any official national song like thing in India? We don't have any such thing in Pakistan.

First it was jeevay Jeevay Pakistan that was part of ceremonies till Mid 80's and then all such ceremonies are incomplete without 'Dil Dil Pakistan', but there is no official national song in Pakistan IMO.

Faris_Udeen · August 12, 2012, 6:33pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

^ When I was a kid there was Ao bacho sayr karein hum thumko Pakistan ki... and the other popular one was Pakistan Zindabaad.

muqawwee123 · August 12, 2012, 6:36pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem

You should visit this thread for reviving Pakistani national songs

http://www.paklinks.com/gs/video-gallery/568543-music-history-for-august-14-a.html

ninja_hattori · August 12, 2012, 6:36pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

A strong minority of nationalist wanted Vande mataram as national anthem...but instead of making it national anthem...
government declared it national song to placate those nationalists:D

muqawwee123 · August 12, 2012, 6:39pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

strange they didn't make an anthem in Hindi, but made it in Bengali. Seems there are elements in India, who don't like Vande Mataram.

queer · August 12, 2012, 6:42pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

vande mataram is in sanskrit, jana gana mana is in moderately sanskritized bengali. personally i can understand more of jana gana mana than vande mataram, even though i dont know any bengali.

muqawwee123 · August 12, 2012, 6:44pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

BTW who was the writer of vande Mataram?

queer · August 12, 2012, 6:45pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

another bengali :D - bankimchandra chatterjee

muqawwee123 · August 12, 2012, 6:52pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem

Bengalis have edge over national anthems and songs of India.

Don’t tell me that ‘Mere des ki dharti ugle sona’ is also associated with a Bengali

the_kaur · August 13, 2012, 2:43am

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem

Sharmila Tagore is grand daughter of Kobiguru Robindranath Tagore, Tagore was a Brahmin,and so was Bonkim Chondra Chatterjee who wrote Vande Matram, Allama Iqbal was also decendent of brahmins:)

The poetry of Kobiguru has more than one meaning, it is not so easy to compehrnd him so easily.

Indeed, Amor Sonar Bangla, national anthem of Bangladesh was written by Robindranath Tagore, and Sri Lanka’s national anthem Namoh Namah Sri Lanka Matha was written by disciple of Tagore and is based on Robindro shongeet(literally rabindra music), Indian economist and nobel laurete Amartya Sen’s name was kept by Tagore himself who was nobel laurete in literature himself:)

Iconoclast · August 25, 2012, 1:32pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan's first national anthem

Atleast read the article b4 commenting Waleed bhai.

The article syas that it was NOT written by a hindu.

queen_24 · August 25, 2012, 2:38pm

Re: A Hindu wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem

jab raat ko....

Who really wrote our first official national anthem? | DAWN.COM

Jagan Nath Azad (1918-2004) was known for his fascinating Urdu poetry. His contribution to Iqbal Studies was equally important. But what gave him renewed fame a year after his death was the controversy that raged in the Indian and Pakistani media for quite some time and Azad was at the centre of the controversy.
**
A few days before his death in 2004, Jagan Nath Azad gave an interview to Luv Puri, an Indian journalist, in which he claimed to have written Pakistans first national anthem. According to the interview, published in The Milli Gazette s issue of 16-31 August, 2004, at the time of Independence Jagan Nath Azad was in Lahore, his beloved city, and did not want to leave it. Some of his Muslim friends asked him not to migrate to India and stay on, instead. They also took the responsibility for his safety and security. On August 9, 1947, a friend (not named in the interview) working at Radio Pakistans Lahore station brought him a message from Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, saying that the Quaid wanted Azad to write Pakistans national anthem.
**
Jagan Nath Azad claimed in the interview that he wrote the anthem within five days and the Quaid approved it within a few hours. He also claimed that it was Pakistans first national anthem and was broadcast (the interviewer has used the word sung) from Radio Pakistans Karachi station (the interviewer has used the words Pakistan radio, Karachi) since Karachi was then the capital of the newborn nation. Later, due to the worsening law and order situation, his friends advised Azad to migrate to India and he took their advice.

The interview did not have much impact at that time but Luv Puri got a report based on the same interview published in the June 19, 2005 issue of The Hindu, one of the leading newspapers of India. Titled A Hindu wrote Pakistans first national anthem, the report somehow struck chords among some Pakistani media persons and intellectuals and they began spreading the report, some of them feeling quite **overjoyed over Quaids gesture of asking an Urdu-knowing Hindu (to borrow the words from Puri) to write the national anthem of the nascent Muslim country. Well, this is indeed something one should be quite proud of.**

But there was a little problem: there were a few odd pieces that did not quite fit into the puzzle because the overjoyed writers did not bother to crosscheck the historical facts. Aqeel Abbas Jaferi in his new book Pakistan ka qaumi tarana: kya hai haqeeqat kya hai fasana (Pakistans national anthem: what is fact, what is fiction) has candidly listed all these facts ignored by Puri and his Pakistani counterparts while debating the issue. Jaferi has yet again come up with a book based on research and has very unemotionally presented his point of view, though it was quite possible for him to get emotional since he, as we all know, is a pakka Pakistani`. But, at the same time, he is a level-headed and fair-minded research scholar, too. What disturbs him, however, is that many of our friends get too emotional when bent upon proving something that suits their stance and in the process tend to forget their facts.

Jaferi has built his case like an intelligent lawyer. First he enlists the interview and report, translates their certain parts into Urdu, then he reproduces some excerpts from the writings of Pakistani intellectuals, such as Mahreen F. Ali, Zaheer Qidvai, Aadil Najam and Beena Sarwar. He also quotes from a write-up in PIAs in-flight magazine Hamsafar and the reader is convinced that they all looked too eager to accept Azads claim without any serious research. Jaferi also refers to a TV talk show anchored by Hamid Mir wherein everybody, except for Dr Khwaja Muhammad Zakaria, tried to prove that Jagan Nath Azad had written Pakistans first national anthem on the Quaids request and it used to be broadcast from Radio Pakistan till 1954. Pointing to yet another TV channel, Jaferi comments that the programme it aired on the issue was full of errors that it does not merit a mention even. This is the first chapter of Jaferis book and after summing up all the incorrect notions he ends it with the words: “repeat a lie till it becomes truth”. ** Then in the following chapters he slowly unfolds the facts one after another and after partially dismissing Azads claim tells the story of how and when Pakistans first, official national anthem was conceived and approved. As for Azads claim, he invites readers to consider some facts before deciding. He says, for instance, Radio Pakistans Karachi station had not even begun its transmissions in August 1947 and it was exactly a year later that it started its formal broadcasts, let alone broadcasting Azads newly composed national anthem**.

Secondly, the authentic record shows that neither Radio Pakistans Lahore station nor Peshawar station broadcast any anthem on the night of Independence. The maiden broadcast by Lahore station on the occasion included Iqbals poetry, a Punjabi song by Sehrai Gordaspuri and a poem by Zafar Ali Khan. In the case of Peshawar station, two nationalistic songs written by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi were broadcast on the night between August 14 and 15, 1947. So even if we give the benefit of doubt and suppose Karachi station was wrongly mentioned by Azad, it is incorrect after all. Dr Safdar Mahmood, an authority on Pakistan`s history, carried out a thorough research on the issue and it was confirmed by him that no anthem composed by Azad was broadcast on the night of Independence.

What seems strange, according to Jaferi, is that Azad remembers the names of all his friends except the one who conveyed the Quaids message to him. He never mentioned the name in any of his interviews or writings. Also, Azad traveled to Pakistan many times after migrating to India and attended many mushaeras here. He composed many poems about Pakistan in the later part of his poetic career. In Watan mein ajnabi , he has collected all his poetry on Pakistan but it does not contain Pakistans first national anthem. In fact, it is not included in any of his books. In 1993, Uni-Karians Pakistan arranged a function in Jagan Nath Azads honour in Dubai and on the occasion Azad said that the first tarana(anthem) of Pakistan broadcast at the zero hours of August 14, 1947 was written by him. Here Jaferi concludes that Azad had used the word tarana (song or anthem) and not quami tarana ` (national anthem).

Before concluding the debate, Jaferi has mentioned that there were many poetic compositions titled Pakistan ka tarana in the run-up to the independence. Asrar-ul-Haq Majaz was the first poet who wrote Pakistan ka milli tarana. Later, many poets tried their hands on writing national songs for Pakistan. They were Makhdoom Mohiuddin, Raees Amrohvi, Mian Basheer Ahmed, Asgher Saudai and many more. A few of the anthems were even titled Pakistan ka tarana but no poet claimed to have written Pakistans first national anthem. To cut a long story short, Jaferi has proved that the anthem written by Hafeez Jallundhry was officially approved in 1954 as Pakistans first national anthem though it too has a long story behind it. Before the anthem was approved, a tune composed by Ahmed Ghulam Ali Chagla was approved as official tune and poets were invited to write an anthem that went with it.

Published by Virsa Publications, Karachi, the book contains some rare photographs, too.

nice sharing :k: