‘Arijit Singh wrote Vande Mataram’: Street quiz viral video leaves Internet divided, ‘not funny at all’

Digital creator Rehan Khan asked random young people who had written the National Song of India. Many seemed confused between the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, and the National Song, Vande Mataram. However, one particular answer stood out.

“Arijit Singh,” answered one lady while asked the question. The video throws Amitabh Bachchan’s famous “Saat Crore” expression to pad up the unique answer.

One of them said Rabindranath Tagore, apparently confusing the National Song of India with the National Anthem, which Tagore had written and composed. Another said the National Song had been written by “some Bengali person”, but she could not remember it.

One lady said she did not “know” about the National Song while another said, “No idea!”

The “some Bengali person” referred to here is Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, one of the most legendary novelists from Bengal. In October 1937, the Congress adopted the first two verses of Vande Mātaram as India's National Song. It was a poem by Chatterjee written in Sanskritised Bengali.

The poem, published in 1882 in Chatterjee's Bengali novel ‘Anandmath’, played an important role in the Indian independence movement. It became politically significant when Rabindranath Tagore recited it at Congress in 1896.

Netizens reacted to the answers

The apparent naivety of the young Indian generation did not impress many social media users.

“This is not a funny Video at all. Good u brought this up. We don’t even know the basics of our own independence history. What an Irony!” wrote one of them.

“They should thrown out from the country. Talking in English behaving modern but really they should shame on themselves. They have nothing special to feel proud of themselves,” wrote another.

“Are they really gawar (ignorant)?? Or pretending to be??” wondered another while another commented, “Shame!They even don’t know the difference between National Song and Anthem.”

“The answer Arijit Singh made me leave India...”posted another.