Odisha's state anthem now included in textbooks of Class 9 and 10

‘Bande Utkala Janani’, written by famous Odia poet Laxmikant Mohapatra and notified as state anthem last year, will be taught to Class IX and X students from the current academic session.

‘Bande Utkala Janani’, written by famous Odia poet Laxmikant Mohapatra and notified as state anthem last year, will be taught to Class IX and X students from the current academic session.

Odisha's state anthem now included in textbooks of Class 9 and 10

In a notification, the Board of Secondary Education said ‘Bande Utkala Janani’ will be included in the First Language Odia (FLO) syllabus for both Class IX and X.

The poem envisages Utkala, one of the former names of present-day Odisha, who maintains her self-respect and dignity from a position of confidence and strength rather than insecurity and fear. The poem inspires every Odia to move ahead in life.

The song was first sung at the Utkal Sammilani’s conference at Balasore in 1912, a few months after Rabindra Nath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana, now the national anthem, was sung.

Last year, the state government had adopted Bande Utklala Janani or Glory to mother Utkala as the anthem of Odisha. Since then, the anthem is being played or sung in schools, colleges, meetings, cultural events. Whenever the anthem is sung or played, everyone will have to stand in attention except senior citizens, patients, infants, disabled and pregnant women.