Banglar Mati Banglar Jol: ‘Banglar Mati, Banglar Jol’ is now the national anthem! It must be sung in schools every morning

state anthem: From now on, the singing of the state anthem ‘Banglar Mati, Banglar Jal’ will be mandatory in all government and government-aided schools in the state. The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education issued a directive to this effect on Thursday.

The guidelines state, “Headmasters of all upper primary and secondary schools are hereby informed that it is mandatory to regularly sing the state anthem ‘Banglar Mati, Banglar Jal’ in the morning prayer meeting every day.”

The decision was announced by state Education Minister Bratya Basu on social media X (formerly Twitter). He wrote, “With the approval of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the 1905 song ‘Banglar Mati, Banglar Jal’ composed by Rabindranath Tagore will henceforth be sung at the beginning of prayer meetings in all government and government-aided schools in the state.”

The minister further said, “If the national anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana’, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, is also sung regularly, it will play a special role in social and communal unity.”

It is worth noting that in September 2023, a citizens’ conference was called at the initiative of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to select the state anthem. In that meeting, representatives of political parties, religious leaders and prominent citizens unanimously selected this song by Rabindranath Tagore as the state anthem. Later, a resolution was passed in the state assembly and ‘Banglar Mati, Banglar Jal’ was recognized as the state anthem. It was decided that the state anthem would be sung at the beginning of all official functions of the state government and would end with the national anthem.

The new directive from the education board comes at a time when the Centre and the BJP are celebrating the 150th anniversary of ‘Vande Mataram’. BJP leader Rahul Sinha said, “When the whole country is celebrating Vande Mataram, the Trinamool Congress also feels that they have to do something. When the Centre has taken such an initiative, they suddenly have a surge of Bengali emotion and ‘Bangla pride’.”

On the other hand, Bratya Basu countered at a press conference on Thursday, saying, “BJP practices divisive politics. Now they are trying to create a rift between Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. BJP has always disliked Rabindranath. Because, Rabindranath was a member of the Brahmo Samaj, he was not a Hindu-Brahmin. Secondly, his writings always spoke of Hindu-Muslim unity. Thirdly, Congress — be it Gandhiji, Nehru or Netaji — all deeply respected Rabindranath.”