Tuned into India: Sitar maestro Hidayat Husain Khan drops fresh rendition of national anthem
There’s no one answer to the ‘best version’ of the Indian national anthem. Jana Gana Mana has been sung by many artists. From Naga music sensation Imnainla Jamir playing a rock version on electric guitar in 2022, Grammy Award-winning musician Ricky Kej bringing a 100-piece British orchestra and 14,000 tribal children on board last year to an AI-powered musical experiment done by Google in 2020 inviting users from across India to sing it — new technology, Western instruments and grand orchestras have been put into service of the anthem.
On January 21, sitar maestro and son of legendary sitar-player Vilayat Khan, Hidayat Husain Khan, dropped a new version, ‘Jai Hind’. With countless versions being made since the inception of the national anthem in 1911, why does the country need another version? Khan has all the answers — rooted in the syncretic culture of India.
Simply Indian
The music video of ‘Jai Hind’ out on YouTube, uses just Indian instruments and classical vocals. It opens with a surreal picture of Mount Kailash kissed by sunrise. The video spotlights Khajuraho temples, Delhi’s Jama Masjid, monasteries in Leh-Ladakh, the desert of Rajasthan, backwaters of Kerala, and several temple towns against the shimmering sound of sitar. Khan says, “The composition begins with a meditative alaap and takes the listener right into the core values that define India’s historical evolution.” As the video moves ahead, the dynamic beats of tabla echo the changing face of modern India. “The rhythmic tabla patterns capture our nation’s joyous diversity. It peaks with a fast-paced jhala (that marks the end of composition or raga), representing India’s dynamic energy, before culminating in a solo symbolising unity in diversity. The alaap and jhala sections were improvised in the studio with my tabla player, Avirodh Sharma. Even the vocal delivery was totally instinctive and from the heart. It was recorded in one go.”
Instead of a grand ensemble, the composition has a small team — Ayon Ghosh Naad as producer, Avirodh Sharma on tabla and filmmaker Hrishi Shah for visuals, besides Khan on sitar and vocals. The number of instruments used is minimal — the tabla, sitar and the mridangam

For Indian classical music
Khan conceived the idea during a performance in New York. “I was invited to a Diwali function where they asked me to perform the national anthem. Before performing, I started listening to various versions. I noticed that most of them were Western-influenced. Some had grand productions, others had guitar and drums. While they were all wonderful, nobody, in a very long time, has presented it in a very organic and Indian way — the manner in which an Indian classical performance is imagined.”
For Khan who has performed all over the world, in Europe, Japan, USA, Canada and Malaysia, this version is all about representing Indian classical music. “I live in the US and have been travelling a lot abroad since a very young age. I have done fusion and crossover of Indo-Western. It has already got a lot of attention. But Indian classical music is yet to be highlighted,” he says, adding that as a “media-shy” person whenever he puts out content from an Indian classical lens on Instagram, it earns wide appreciation. “On social media, there is no representation of Indian classical music in a three-minute video or a Reel. Why does one have to perform for an hour and a half to enjoy classical music? You may read a book that you really like and a Rumi couplet of two lines may have the same impact on you. It’s about how you want to communicate,” he says.
In the last two decades, several Indian bands have made fusion their forte — such as Bandish Projekt blending Indian elements in electronic format, Agam blending Carnatic classical with progressive rock, Raghu Dixit Project melding Kannada folk with rock, and Swarathma melding folk and classical with blues, rock and reggae. But where is ‘Indianness’ in a globalised age of remixes, mashups, and one genre-bending music? “Not just music, but everything around us has changed a lot — from our lifestyle, food habits, clothing, the way we greet etc. Some things are lost in transition. When I was young and used to visit my Sikh friend’s house and would greet his parents by saying ‘Sat Sri Akaal’, at my Gujarati friend’s house, I would say ‘Jai Shri Krishna.’ Now everybody just says, ‘hello’,” he says, adding, “But I’m an optimistic person. There will always be people who will keep their identity strong and yet be part of the world.”
The artiste feels “blessed” and yet carries the weight of legacy. “My father and composer Ravi Shankar, along with their contemporaries have inspired the next generation of sitar players,” he says. “In my generation, there are at least 20 inspiring others. Today, social media can make someone instantly famous or can give instant critical feedback. But that’s not significant. To aspiring musicians, I would say, don’t focus on the destination, just enjoy your journey!”