In a historic move, the State Government on Sunday declared “Bande Utkala Janani” as the State Anthem. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
“Bande Utkala Janani” is now Odisha’s anthem following approval by the State Cabinet, informed Forest & Environment Minister Bikram Keshari Aarukh after the Cabinet meeting.
Arukh told reporters, “Responding to a call by CM Naveen Patnaik, the way Odia people across the globe sang ‘Bande Utkala Janani…’ to honour corona warriors at 5.30 pm on May 30 was incomparable indeed. Entire Odisha right from rural and urban areas reverberated with the song and it showed the 4.5-crore Odia population’s love for the Odia race.”
To keep the memory alive, around 10 lakh people from Odisha and other places have sent the videos featuring them singing “Bande Utkala Janani” to the State Government expressing their gratitude to the Chief Minister for his noble purpose, Arukh informed.
“Bande Utkala Janani…” is a timeless creation of Odisha’s great poet Kantakabi Lakshmikanata Mohapatra. Filled with patriotism, the poem inspires every Odia to move forward in life. The State would remain obliged to the illustrious poet for his noble effort to bind the entire Odia race and language in a single thread, Aarukh said.
“Bande Utkala Janani” is being sung since 1912 in different sessions of the Utkal Sammilani. It virtually continued to remain in every Odia’s heart and emotion as the State Anthem since April 1, 1936 when Odisha got the Statehood status.
On November 9, 1994, the Government led by late Chief Minister Biju Patnaik had decided at a meeting chaired by the then Assembly Speaker to sing “Bande Utkala Janani” as the concluding song on final day of every Assembly session. Since then, it is being sung in the Assembly, Aarukh pointed out.
However, the Cabinet decided that the anthem can be sung under following conditions:
(1) The complete song written by the Kantakabi
(2) The particular tone and style in which the song will be sung will be decided by the State Information & Public Relations Department
(3) The anthem will be played or sung at different official programmes and Assembly sessions without lyre
(4) It will be played or sung with lyre in schools, colleges, meetings, cultural events
(5) Whenever the anthem is sung or played, all shall stand to attention. However, senior citizens, patients, infants, physically-challenged persons and pregnant women are exempted from the rule
(6) The anthem will be played on various occasions with different lyres including police band, flute and sitar
(7) There will be no restrictions on creative presentation for promoting the anthem
(8) The School & Mass Education and Higher Education Departments are directed to include the anthem in school and college curriculums