India @75: Freedom songs that catalysed struggles against colonialism

India @75: Freedom songs that catalysed struggles against colonialism

Subject: Modern History

Section: Freedom struggle

Context:

Poets like Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghosh, Subramania Bharati, Vallathol Narayana Menon, Sarojini Naidu, Mahadevi Verma and others in India rejected the racialised territorial notion of nationalism during the freedom struggle and linked it to the larger cause of humanity and cosmopolitan patriotism.

• Aurobindo pleaded for independence for India in the wider interest of humanity. Thus, while western thinkers believed that homogeneity was essential to build the idea of a nation-state, Indian poets looked at nationalism as the source of spiritual energy and moral enthusiasm to the nation.He wrote poems like “Bride Of The Fire Life”,”The Golden Light”,”TheDreamboat”.”Life And Death”, “Who”,” O Coil, Coil”.
• Rabindranath Tagore, who famously said, “I will never allow patriotism (read nationalism) to triumph over humanity as long as I live”, also wrote India’s national anthem Jana Gana Mana as our sacred obligation to celebrate freedom.
• If Tagore celebrated provincial freedom in his poems such as BanglarMaatiBanglar Jol (Earth of Bengal, Water of Bengal), he also expanded the notion of nationalism by transgressing the boundaries of narrow walls of geographical and ethnographical prejudices, saying, “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high..”
• BankimChandra Chatterjee’s Vande Mataram (I Praise Thee, Mother), originally in Bengali, for the first time, personified India as a mother goddess and the love of one’s country was construed as the highest spiritual act.
• It also acquired the status of national song in the context of India’s struggle for independence and was sung in the political context, for the first time, by Rabindra Nath Tagore at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress.
• Sarojini Naidu, known as Bharatiya Kokila (The Nightingale of India), presented a much broader humanist vision of nationalism in her poems like ‘To India’.
• In contrast, Subramania Bharati, the Tamil poet known as ‘Mahakavi Bharathi’, articulated the anguish of the oppressed people and awakened them to fight against the British yoke and also proclaimed his faith in the pantheistic philosophy with crystal clarity. Three of his greatest works namely, KuyilPattu, PanchaliSapatham and Kannan Pattu were composed during 1912.
• Savitribai Phule, considered the first modern, radical Marathi poet, raised issues pertaining to caste and gender through her writing and speeches, as well as through direct intervention. In her book of poems “Kavya Phule”, she wrote about ‘breaking the shackles of caste’, and gave a clarion call to the lower caste
• As we are celebrating the ‘Har GharTiranga’ campaign, part of India’s 75th independence day celebrations (Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav), it’s timely to recall that flag song (ZandaGeet) was written by poet Shyamlal Gupta and it was given the status of national song at the Haripur Congress of 1934.
• Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, a renowned poet from the Hindi heartland, further extended the universe of nationalism by giving a brilliant tribute to the valour of Rani of Jhansi with her immortal lines:“Khoobladimardaaniwohtoh Jhansi wali Rani thi..”
• In the hands of poets like Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, hailed as a Rashtrakavi (national poet), patriotic poetry found a new fervour of veer rasa and also poetry of rebellion. One can’t forget chilling lines of his poem SinghasanKhaali Karo Ke Janata Aaati Hai (‘Vacate the throne, for the people are coming’).
• Similarly, Ram Prasad Bismil, one of the founding members of Hindustan Republican Association,galvanised millions of youths with his revolutionary poem “Sarfroshi ki tamanna” during the freedom struggle.
• Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poem Subh-e-Azadi brings back haunting memories of the freedom struggle and partition