Recent regime changes have triggered demands for replacing the national flag and anthem in some South Asian nations, blurring focus on the devil confronting all of them -- the economy and soaring food prices. 

Exceptions, although they have other 'distractions',  are Sri Lanka, just free from its presidential election that sorely needs the regional biggies China and India and the global lender, the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Nepal is not borrowing despite frequent government changes and ensuing political uncertainties, having ‘cautiously’ tackled its economy as per IMF assessment. The Maldives is also not looking to the IMF that says the economic woes are ‘temporary’. Helping the recovery is the positive change in relations with regional leader India after a year-long diplomatic spat. It welcomes both India and China. Having just elected a Marxist who has promised a pragmatic approach with the IMF, Colombo may also take a similar route.  

However, religion, domestic compulsions and failure to improve political conditions, with or without national elections, have embroiled Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, compounded by economic woes, in issues that impinge on their national identity.  

Afghanistan's music-less anthem

Since they took power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have changed the national flag and the national anthem. The latter has no musical content since they consider music un-Islamic. But while sitting out the global disapproval of their treatment of women and exclusion of minorities, they have succeeded in winning acceptance, if not diplomatic recognition. They enforce the new national anthem at home, but Afghan sportspersons competing abroad sing and salute the earlier anthem.  

Pakistani analyst Muhammad Ameer Rana writes (Dawn, September 22, 2024): “The Taliban’s anthem, ‘This is the Home of the Brave’, resembles a war song, with a tone often used by jihadist groups in their motivational music. In contrast, the pre-Taliban anthem was created by Article 20 of Afghanistan’s Constitution, which mandated that the anthem include the names of the country’s various ethnic groups and the phrase ‘Allahu Akbar’. This was an achievement for Afghanistan, a multi-ethnic country that created a consensus anthem in 2006.”

Pakistan’s ongoing spat with the Taliban, whose militants it had sheltered for two decades and facilitated their conquest of Kabul, has a recent twist. Acting Afghan consul general, Muhib Ullah Shakil, refused to stand when Pakistan’s national anthem was being played. A Taliban diplomat did the same at the 38th International Islamic Unity Conference with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian in attendance. Rana notes: “Iran is also a state run by the clergy, but its anthem contains music,” which the Taliban disapproves of. 

Demand for anthem change in Bangladesh

The clergy heavily influence decisions on issues of national identity in Muslim-majority countries. In Bangladesh, the new government’s Religious Affairs Adviser AFM Khalid Hossain, sensing that the issue could arouse public emotions, a known Bangladeshi trait, has said there were “no plans” to change the national anthem. The government “will do nothing that creates controversy.” The first Islamic scholar performing an advisory (ministerial) role in Bangladesh, he is the Vice President of Hefazat-e-Islam which has contributed significantly to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh.

"Amar Sonar Bangla" ('My Golden Bengal') is an ode to Mother Bengal. Its melody is derived from Baul singer Gagan Harkara's "Ami Kothay Pabo Tare", set to Dadra tala (tune). Its modern instrumental rendition was arranged by Bangladeshi musician Samar Das. It was written by Rabindranath Tagore who wrote India's national anthem. Sri Lanka’s anthem “Sri Lanka Matha”, composed by Sri Lankan composer Ananda Samarakoon, is also inspired by Tagore during the composer's days in Santiniketen, the university Tagore established.

Significantly, in Bangladesh, former military personnel who fought in the freedom movement and were decorated have joined hands with those who opposed freedom, according to Dr Q M Jalal Khan. Articulating the demand for change in the national anthem in an op-ed in Eurasian Times (September 2024), he cites other proponents including Abdullahil Amaan Azmi, son of  Ghulam Azam, a former Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Emir who was convicted for collaborating with the Pakistani authorities in 1971 and executed.

Khan’s list also includes Col. Oli Ahmed and Col. Rashed Choudhury, the latter one of the “killer majors” convicted in Mujib’s 1975 assassination, now a fugitive living in Canada. Khan claims that like him, they all believe that the present national anthem was ‘imposed’ by a ‘Hindu’ India immediately after the 1971 conflict.

Although Tagore lived and his family had estates in East Bengal, the critics call him a “Hindu poet” from “Indian Bengal”. D L Roy’s “Dhanno Dhanno … that Mujib supposedly favoured over the Tagore song, also gets disqualified for being written by a Hindu. But Jalal Khan also dismisses Qazi Nazrul Islam for the latter’s singing in praise of Hindu goddesses. He demands a song that refers to the “second independence” after the interim government of Chief Advisor Mohammed Yunus took office last month.

The demand for change began immediately after Sheikh Mujib’s August 1975 assassination. President Khondaker Mushtaq Ahmed set up a committee that proposed the replacement of the anthem with Kazi Nazrul Islam's "Notuner Gaan" or Farrukh Ahmed's "Panjeri". However, the move ended after Khondaker’s removal in November of that year.

Under President Ziaur Rahman, the ‘nationalists’ demanded adaptation of “a more Bangladesh-centric national anthem. In 1979, in a letter sent to the Cabinet Division, then Prime Minister Shah Azizur Rahman, a former Muslim League leader, argued that Amar Sonar Bangla was “contradictory to the national identity and the culture” as it was written by “a person who had a non-Bangladeshi background”. He proposed "Prothom Bangladesh" (“Bangladesh First”). During Zia’s presidency, the song was played after “Amar Sonar Bangla” on national television and during government programmes. It stopped after Zia’s  assassination in 1981. The song is currently the “party anthem” of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

His widow, Begum Khaleda Zia was the prime minister in 2002 when a minister and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Emir, Motiur Rahman Nizami, proposed an amendment to the Tagore lyric to incorporate “Islamic values and spirit”. Curiously, the Cabinet Division rejected this proposal. Nizami was convicted and hanged for collaborating with Pakistani authorities during the 1971 movement.

Ironically, unlike Bangladesh’s quest for a ‘Bangali’ anthem by a Muslim, Pakistan’s anthem, the “Qaumi Tarana” was originally written with prize money coming from South Africa. It was composed and sung by Hafeez Jalndhari, born in Jalandhar, now in India. Though a devout Muslim, Jalandhari also wrote in praise of “Krishna Kanhaiya”, in praise of the Hindu deity. That has not affected his fame or his songs.

As Rana notes: “National symbols unite people by creating an emotional bond among citizens. When these symbols fail to serve the purpose, a clear disarray within the citizenry becomes apparent.” 

That 'disarray' is evident in the "U-turns" sought to be enforced in some South Asian nations.  Bangladesh founding leader Sheikh Mujib's statues were destroyed and Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah's death anniversary was observed. Bangladesh's quest for national identity has not evidently ended even after two 'liberations' - in December 1971 and August 2024. 

(The author is a veteran journalist, columnist and author. Views are personal. He can be reached at mahendraved07@gmail.com)