It was originally composed as "Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata" in Bengali by writer and activist Rabindranath Tagore[1][2] on 11 December 1911.

[3][4][5] The first stanza of the song Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India as the National Anthem on 24 January 1950.

[14][12][15] The song was first publicly sung on the second day of the annual session of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta (Kolkata) on 27 December 1911 by Rabindranath Tagore's niece in her school assembly.

The poem was published in January 1912, under the title Bharat Bhagya Bidhata in the Tatwabodhini Patrika, which was the official publication of the Brahmo Samaj with Tagore then the Editor.

[19] In 1917, the song was again performed at the Congress conference and this time in aid of instrumental music by the Mahraja Bahadur of Nattore.

Based on the notes provided by Tagore himself, the song was preserved in 1919 in Western notation at Madanapalle of Andhra Pradesh by Margaret Cousins and her students.

The next day Rabindranath gave the swarams(notes) of "Jana gana" to Mrs.Cousins so that the melody should have accurate permanent record.

And soon it took its place in the "daily deciation" of the combined school and college of Besant Hall in Madanapalle and is still sung to this date.

[9] The poem was composed in a literary register of the Bengali language called Sadhu Bhasha, which is heavily Sanskritised.

It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of the Yamuna and Ganges and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Ocean.

The event was reported as such in the British Indian press: "The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore sang a song composed by him specially to welcome the Emperor."

(Statesman, 28 December 1911)"The proceedings began with the singing by Rabindranath Tagore of a song specially composed by him in honour of the Emperor."

The confusion arose in the Indian press since a different song, "Badshah Humara" written in Hindi by Rambhuj Chaudhary,[34] was sung on the same occasion in praise of George V. The nationalist press in India stated this difference of events clearly: "The proceedings of the Congress party session started with a prayer in Bengali to praise God (song of benediction).

This was followed by a resolution expressing loyalty to King George V. Then another song was sung welcoming King George V." (Amrita Bazar Patrika, 28 December 1911)"The annual session of Congress began by singing a song composed by the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.

That letter in Bengali can be found in Tagore's biography Rabindrajibani, volume II page 339 by Prabhatkumar Mukherjee.

In response to that great mental turmoil, I pronounced the victory in Jana Gana Mana of that Bhagya Bidhata [ed.

"[35][36]Again in his letter of 19 March 1939, Tagore writes:[37] "I should only insult myself if I cared to answer those who consider me capable of such unbounded stupidity as to sing in praise of George the Fourth or George the Fifth as the Eternal Charioteer leading the pilgrims on their journey through countless ages of the timeless history of mankind."

Earlier, in 1915, after Tagore was awarded the Nobel Literature Prize, George V had conferred a knighthood on him, which he renounced in 1919 in protest over the Jallianwala Bagh massacre; writing a letter addressed to the viceroy of India Lord Chelmsford: "The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in their incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part wish to stand, shorn of all special distinctions, by the side of my country men.

The Supreme Court affirmed the principle that it is not for a secular judge to sit in judgment on the correctness of a religious belief.

On 3 July 2023, an executive magistrate in Srinagar sent 11 men to jail for a week, allegedly not rising for the anthem at a 25 June event in the presence of J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha.

[46][47][48] A cinema club in Kerala (whose film festival was required to comply with the order, leading to several arrests) challenged the order as an infringement of their fundamental rights, arguing that cinemas were "singularly unsuited for the gravitas and sobriety that must accompany the playing of the national anthem", and that the films screened would often "be at odds with sentiments of national respect".

[50][51][52] In October 2019, a video of a Bengaluru couple being bullied for not standing up during the national anthem in a movie hall went viral.

There was a debate on the issue; some lawyers recalled Article 21, some people called it a way to gain media attention and some recommended attending the movie after the national anthem is played to avoid any problems.

But after the debate, the Supreme Court reversed its earlier order making it mandatory for cinema halls to play the National Anthem.

[53][54] Another controversy is that only those provinces that were under direct British rule, i.e. Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha, Dravida (South India), Utkal (Odisha) and Bengal, were mentioned.

[56] To this, the then minister Rockybul Hussain replied that the state government would initiate steps in this regard after a response from the newspaper.

[56] In 2017 the state government of Jharkhand under the Bharatiya Janata Party proposed making the singing of the national anthem compulsory in Madrasas.

This was met with opposition from a section of Muslim clerics because it violated the basic principles of the Islamic centres of learning.