A National Anthem should be sung in its original version in the original language it was composed. All citizens should learn the meaning whatever race they belong. The national Anthem should be sung in Sri Lanka only in Sinhala. One national anthem, one nation.
Article 7 of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka states “ The National Anthem of the Republic of Sri Lanka shall be "Sri Lanka Matha," the words and music of which are set out in the Third Schedule”.
The third schedule contains only the words in Sinhala. As such the only valid and legal version of the National Anthem is the official Sinhala version. Sri Lankas literacy rate is very high, all citizens can know the meaning of the national anthem and sing it within an hour. It is the Tamil politicians with militant ideologies who are provoking and inciting unrest amongst the people and the international community.
Recently it was reported that a responsible Tamil politician had denied that the Tamil version was abolished. This was an indirect blow to the Government being with the Government. There was never an official legal version of the National anthem for it to be abolished. It never existed and never should be an issue hereafter. We cannot translate names to suit the whims and fancies of Tamil militants who are still trying to resuscitate terrorism for their own benefits whilst playing lip service to democracy.
A national Anthem (also national hymn, song etc.) is a patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history and traditions of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through used by the people.
Anthems rose to prominence in Europe during the 19th century, but some are much older in origin; the oldest national anthem is "Het Wilhelmus", the Dutch national anthem, written between 1568 and 1572 during the Dutch Revolt.
"God Save the Queen", the national anthem of the United Kingdom and one of the two national anthems of New Zealand, was first performed in 1745 under the title "God Save the King".
Spain's national anthem, the "Marcha Real" (The Royal March), dates from 1770 (written in 1761).
The oldest of Denmark's two national anthems, "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast" was adopted in 1780 and "La Marseillaise", the French anthem, was written in 1792 and adopted in 1795.
The majority of national anthems are either marches or hymns in style. The countries of Latin America tend towards more operatic pieces, while a handful of countries use a simple fanfare.
In some countries, the national anthem is played to students each day at the start of school as an exercise in patriotism. In other countries the anthem may be played in a theatre before a play or in a cinema before a movie. Many radio and television stations have adopted this and play the national anthem when they sign on in the morning and again when they sign off at night.
A few anthems have been composed by Nobel prize winners. India and Bangladesh adopted two songs written by the first Asian Nobel prize winner and noted Bengali poet/author Rabindranath Tagore as their national anthems, Jana Gana Mana and Amar Shonar Bangla, respectively. This is a very rare occasion where one person is the author of the national anthems of two different countries, if not unique.
Sri Lanka Matha is the national anthem of Sri Lanka. The words and music were written by Ananda Samarakoon in 1940 in the Sinhala language, and was officially adopted as the national anthem on November 22, 1951 by a committee headed by Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne.
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