Guv, India has a polyphonic playlist

On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi walked out of the state assembly after 'Tamil Thai Vaazhthu' (Invocation to Mother Tamil) - set to the words of 19th-c. poet Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai and officially adopted as the Tamil Nadu state anthem in 1970 - was played at the start of the session. Ravi, it turns out, believes that by playing a state anthem, the national anthem has been 'insulted'. Clearly, the representative of GoI in the state isn't a big fan of the idea of polyphony.

State anthems should coexist with national anthems. Patriotism - fondness for one's 'desh' - exists in concentric circles starting with one's city/town/village rippling out to one's state, country, and should ideally encompass the world that contains all of these units of belonging. Canadian unity is not in peril because of the state anthem, 'Alberta'. The US isn't worried about becoming disunited because of the existence of 'You are my sunshine' as Louisiana's state song. And Indonesia isn't upset that its Aceh province has its own 'Aceh Mulia' (Noble Aceh) anthem.

The existence of multiple anthems in a multifarious nation is a celebration, not a concession. Nations are not homogenous blobs; they are gorgeous imaginative quiltworks of languages, accents, cuisines, grudges and preferences that segue into one single entity. A single anthem would flatten things out in bland uniformity. State anthems are a glorious polyphony, a reminder that unity is not sameness, but the ability to sing in different keys without turning into a cacophony. So, let the national anthem do its unifying thing. But let state anthems work their tantalising harmonies. Together, they form the soundtrack of a true democracy. Why settle for one hymn when you can have a playlist?