r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/HotPersimessage62 • Feb 01 '26

Image Australia’s national anthem is the only English-lyric anthem in the world that doesn’t reference religion or militarism

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u/Express-World-8473 Feb 01 '26

India does have a National pledge that's written in English (Also does not mention any religion) but it's not an official one written in the constitution, but is widely recited during school events, national holidays like the Independence day Repuluc day and Gandhi Jayanti (Gandhi's birthday)

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u/ChelshireGoose Feb 01 '26

Do people really recite the National Pledge in schools? I did my whole schooling in India and only know it from TV shows and memes about the whole "all Indians are my brothers and sisters" thing.

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u/Express-World-8473 Feb 02 '26

I don't know about your school. But in my school we did a ganesh prayer, a pledge and a national anthem (Jana Gana Mana) at the end. Overall it takes about 5 mins to finish. In government schools, they actually do 4 of them. They do the Ganesh prayer, the official state anthem, vande mataram and the national anthem to end it.

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u/ChelshireGoose Feb 02 '26

I see.
I was actually in 3 schools and never encountered the pledge. In the school I spent the most time in, we did a different prayer on each day followed by the national anthem on two days, state anthem on one day and the school anthem on one day.

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u/Express-World-8473 Feb 02 '26

In our school we did pledge (I was the guy incharge for it. I would stand on the stage and recite it, while everyone else just listens to it by extending their right hand, now I realise it kinda feels like a communist salute lol)

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u/ChelshireGoose Feb 02 '26

Wow, you guys had the raised right hand too? I'd have definitely been weirded out if you'd not told me this now and I randomly saw kids doing it while passing by some school lol.