Why Peacock is our National Bird?

On May 28, 2014

India is a land of music. It has produced Tansen and Baiju Bawara. Even the birds of our country are find singers. In fact, the whole of India looks like a nest of singing-birds. Our mainas, cuckoos, pigeons and nightingales are all sweet singers. Our crows and cocks are not good singers. But they do ring warning bells early is the morning. We must come out of the world of sleep and dream and enjoy the music of our song-birds. What a feast of music!

But our peacock is the loveliest creation of the great Artist. A peacock is a living rainbow. How many colors! How bright they are! A peacock alone has the whole world of colors. What a feast to our eyes!

But a peacock does not please our ears. It is not a singer. Why is it, then, that the peacock is our national bird?

A parrot can never be our national bird, it is beautiful, no doubt, but it cannot sing. It only talks and even makes speeches like a third class leader. It has no brain. It only repeats what is taught. So it cannot represent the great thinkers of India. Our cuckoo, too, has no claim to be our national bird. It is not beautiful. True, it sings very sweetly but its song is sad. A sad song, no doubt, is sweet but it fills you with despair. India, we know, believes in a life of hope. There is nothing like sorrow. There is nothing like death. There is beauty in sorrow and even in death. Every Indian is a born philosopher. He finds nothing but joy and beauty everywhere. So, here, even death is beautiful, not fearful. Death in India is only a change and a beautiful change at that. How, then, can a cuckoo be our national bird? A nightingale, too, loses its case on the same ground.

But what is the claim of a peacock?

The richness of colors gives it a heavenly beauty. True, it does not sing. But yet it is an artist and an artist of the first water. It is a born dancer. It dances madly in a fit of joy. It is a symbol of beauty and a symbol of joy forever. In other words, a peacock represents the very essence of Indian philosophy. So, it is our national bird.