Openai/6910ab0e-c7e4-8008-804b-e1e098398f96

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User: Did muslima oppose indian national anthem and it had to be modified?

Did muslima oppose indian national anthem and it had to be modified?

Assistant: Yes — this actually did happen, and it’s an overlooked but well-documented episode in India’s pre-independence and earl…

Yes — this actually did happen, and it’s an overlooked but well-documented episode in India’s pre-independence and early post-independence cultural politics. Let’s unpack it clearly.

🔹 Background: “Jana Gana Mana” origins

• Written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1911, originally in Bengali.
• First sung at the 1911 Indian National Congress session (Calcutta).
• It was later adopted (1950) as India’s national anthem, in its Sanskritised Hindi version.

🔹 Muslim opposition before & after independence

During both the freedom movement and Constituent Assembly debates, sections of the Muslim leadership — particularly those aligned with Muslim League and orthodox clerics — objected to “Jana Gana Mana” for multiple reasons:

1. Theistic and Sanskritic tone: They found the “Bharata Bhagya Vidhata” line — literally “the destiny-maker of India” — too Hindu or Brahmanical, since the godlike imagery didn’t fit Islamic monotheism.
2. Linguistic objection: The language was highly Sanskritised, not accessible to Urdu-speaking Muslims, who preferred Hindustani/Urdu formulations.
3. Religious conflict: Some ulema declared that singing the anthem could amount to shirk (associating partners with Allah) because it personified the nation as a divine entity.

🔹 Resulting modification

Yes — a soft modification and compromise were made before adoption in 1950:

• The original fifth stanza of Tagore’s song had explicitly religious and Brahmanical imagery referring to the “charioteer” (likely Krishna) guiding humanity — this stanza was dropped entirely when choosing the anthem.
• The official anthem uses only the first stanza (about 52 seconds long), which is least theistic and geographically inclusive, naming regions and peoples instead of invoking deities.

That truncation — choosing only the first stanza — was partly due to concerns of inclusivity, and Muslim opposition played a role in that decision.

🔹 Later echoes

Post-independence:

• Muslim schools and clerics in some regions (notably Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and West Bengal) continued to oppose singing the anthem on religious grounds — the same “shirk” argument.
• Some state governments faced petitions by Muslim institutions to allow alternatives like “Sare Jahan Se Achha” (by Iqbal, ironically, who later wrote Pakistan’s ideological anthem).

🧩 Summary

| Aspect | Reality | | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | Original song | 5 stanzas, with theistic & Vedic imagery | | Opposition | Muslim League, ulema, and some Urdu press found it un-Islamic | | Result | Only 1st stanza (geographical, secular tone) was adopted | | Reason | To avoid religious controversy and ensure national unity | | Modern echo | Some Muslim institutions still avoid it citing religious grounds |

So yes — Muslim opposition influenced which part of Tagore’s “Jana Gana Mana” became India’s national anthem. The text wasn’t rewritten, but it was curated and truncated to remove spiritually Hindu imagery to make it acceptable to all communities.