Jana gana mana voted the best national anthem

So many blogs today have the news of the Indian national anthem being declared as the world's best by UNESCO. While I spent twenty minutes searching the official UNESCO website, I did not find any announcement there. So the whole issue was made up, eh?

Assuming it WASN'T, these are the thoughts that came to me:

One, what is the 'best' national anthem? Isn't it like saying my mom is the best mom in the world?! There can certainly be no specific criterion to determine that - unless we have a reality show were people send messages to vote for the 'best' national anthem. (As a side-note, it's often the 'favourite' that wins and not the 'best' at reality shows like these)

Two, what would the old news of 'national-anthem-was-written-for-the-british-viceroy-or-someone' say now? The news said that the Indian national anthem was a hymn in the praise of the British Raj and not the country. The anthems of countries throughout the word have been addressed to 'Ladies' and 'Queens'. I do not know what the truth is - whether Jana Gana mana was actually written with the intention that these rumours mention. The fact is, however, I don't care.

A national anthem is a self-identifying anthem of a country, a composition that makes me feel like a part of my country. Jana gana mana does.

Best anthem or no best anthem, written for British viceroy or not- being an Indian, Jana gana mana invokes in me the feeling of pride.

Kinship

Kinship is affinity. It is a feeling of belonging to something or someone and hence, the liking for the particular thing/entity. It exists within all of us; the reflection of this inherent feeling is situational, in my opinion. We, as schoolchildren, have had disputes with our friends from other schools as to which school is better. We have often given our inputs about our own community during a discussion about the traits that different groups of people possess. We have represented our school and college during a ‘higher level’ competition – or the firm we work for among a group of peers at a conference. The more lucky ones have had the chance to represent the country.

 Does being proud of one’s school, family, community, workplace mean being self-centered? Most definitely, not. Pride does not imply supremacy. Kinship – this feeling we experience, is in no way connected to denial of virtues of something/someone else.

 Kinship exists at different levels. The term ‘team spirit’ is closely linked to kinship when you are a part of some team. ‘Communalism’ (often used in the negative sense) is at the community level. The generic term ‘love’ is also a form of kinship. ‘Patriotism’ lies at the national level – which most of us fail to experience in the truest sense. At the topmost level known to humans till now, is ‘humanity’ – belonging to the human race that believes it dominates the world.

 Affinity is the most natural thing in the world. From the electrons that move around the nucleus of an atom to the planets that do something similar around the sun, there is some affinity, some kinship (which Physics terms as ‘force’) involved. The world is composed by  this kinship that we is all-pervasive.