EVERY nation has an anthem, but India is unique in having a song that competes for prestige. The two decisions -- on adopting Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana as national anthem and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Vande Mataram as national song – were made the same day in the Constituent Assembly. There was no discussion, nor any thought given to the role either would play in public life.Rules were written in later years, stipulating how and when the national anthem would be played, and the public deference that was its due. No equivalent rules exist for the “national song”.

THE global economy today is driven not just by commodities or capital but by data. While often termed the “oil of the 21st century”, this analogy is flawed. Oil is finite and consumed upon use. Data, by contrast, is a fertile soil that grows and generates new value with every application.

In the run up to the final moments of reckoning for the New York City mayoral elections, as it was becoming apparent that Zohran Mamdani would win, no one less than Donald Trump himself confirmed what was going to happen in his own inimitable fashion. A rank outsider in the political process in the United States, Mamdani was leading all the other candidates hands down.

THE second provincial conference of Naujawan Bharat Sabha was held in Lahore from February 22 to 24, in 1929. Sohan Singh was elected its president. S R Bakshi has mentioned that Naujawan Bharat Sabha had held Bhagat Singh Remembrance Day in July 1930 in Amritsar, for which action was taken against Babu Singh, Bishan Singh, Kuldeep Saigal and Sunder Das by the British government. NBS held many protest meetings against the British government on the martyrdom of Jatin Das in 1929 as well. During the hunger strike by Lahore Conspiracy Case prisoners, NBS had protested throughout.

One of the biggest failures of the RSS ideology is its fumbling, and faltering efforts to glorify Hindutva (or Sanatan) even while trying to convince the people that it condemns an integral part of Hindutva – the cruel and inhuman caste system. To establish the Hindu Rashtra, the RSS wants to rally around and unite all Hindus. That has been its primary goal, indeed, its very reason for existence. But simply narrating the so-called glories of Hindutva, as its ideologues and leaders have been doing for a century, is not sufficient.