Vande Mataram: The national war cry

By: Ankush Khanna ‘Vande Mataram’ inspired the freedom struggle of India and became the national war cry of Indians against the mighty British. Though the nation is celebrating 100 years of the national song on September 07, the song was written over 130 years ago.Poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote Vande Mataram on November 7, 1875 to glorify the motherland. The song first appeared in Bankim Chandra’s novel Anandamath, published in 1882. The credit for popularising the song goes to Rabindranath Tagore, who sang it in 1896 at the Calcutta Session of the Congress (INC). This was also the first political occasion when it was sung in chorus.In the 1901 session of the Congress, it was again rehearsed, with Dakshanrajan as the composer. Since then, it became a norm to start all Congress conventions with Vande Mataram.The song, though popular in Bengal, was still not a national cry. It was in 1905, because of the partition of Bengal and other events, that the song crossed the frontiers of Bengal and became a national phenomenon. Since then, till the freedom was achieved in 1947, it remained on the lips of the freedom fighters and inspired millions to give their lives for the motherland. As Vande Mataram was originally written in a highly Sanskritised form of Bengali language not all could understand it. With the purpose to further popularise the song, Shri Aurbindo translated it in English. He also started an English daily ‘Vande Mataram’. By 1915, the song had gained immense popularity among Indians. While on one hand the militant revolutionaries faced the bullets with Vande Mataram on their lips, Mahatma Gandhi and all those who believed in non-violent means of protests used the song as a prayer.A song unlike many other anthems

Gandhiji once wrote, “ …To me it (Vande Mataram) seems rather a pious devotional and emotional song. Unlike many other anthems, it doesn’t talk about negatives of any other nation state.” Even Subhash Chandra Bose had adopted this song for the Indian National Army. Till early 1930s, there was no marked opposition to singing Vande Mataram. Even Muslim leaders, including M A Jinnah and others, used to sing it in the ‘Khilafat’ movement conventions. The opposition started surfacing in 1936 as the Muslim leaders could not find a better issue that was desperately needed to strengthen the Muslim League formed in 1906. The opposition came from Muslim leaders who were against the singing of Vande Mataram for two reasons: First, for its origin as part of Anandmath, a novel they felt was anti-Muslim and showed the community in poor light. Second, Muslims believe that the song depicts a portrait of Hindu goddess, amounting to idol worship, which is banned in Islam. Electoral politics over Vande Mataram Under opposition from Muslim leaders, the Congress leaders set up a committee to review the song. On the recommendations of the committee, it was decided that, “Whenever the Vande Mataram is sung at national gatherings, only the first two stanzas should be sung.” This was decided as the two stanzas had no religious allusions and they described in tender language the beauty of the motherland and her abundance of gifts without hurting religious sentiments. But as the opposition by Muslim leaders was inspired by electoral gains rather than religious sentiments, even this could not satisfy MA Jinah, who in 1938 demanded that the song should be entirely discarded. He even presented the Congress with a new set of demands which included- equal status for the League flag and recognition of Urdu as a national official language. Clearly, Jinnah was sowing the seeds of divisions, which eventually resulted in the partition of the country. Though the song played a very important role in the entire freedom struggle, when the time came for the adoption of a national anthem, Vande Mataram lost the battle to Ranbindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana, written in 1911. But, even Jana Gana Mana is not free from controversies. It is believed that the song was written by Tagore to welcome Geoge V, who visited India in 1911. The reason given for not adopting Vande Mataram as the national anthem was that it did not suit band music and that there was no proper musical rendering of the song. In 1948, Jawahar Lal Nehru told the Constituent Assembly that Jana Gana Mana had been selected as the national anthem as a proper musical rendering of the song had been produced. The final decision on the issue of adoption of national anthem came with Dr Rajendra Prasad’s statement on January 24, 1950: “ The composition consisting words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the national anthem of India, subject to the alterations as the Government may authorise as occasion arises, and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic role in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it.”Struggle for status Though Vande Mataram could not become the national anthem, it remains our national song and has got the same status as that of the national anthem. It is interesting that the national song not only inspired our freedom struggle, but even today the mere recitation of the two words- Vande Mataram, instills a sense of pride and fill the hearts of all Indian with tremendous love for the motherland. In the recent times, though opposed and criticised by orthodox Muslim leaders, the song got a rebirth by the composition made by none other than A R Rehman. Among the youth of the present day generation, the song became an instant hit only because of Rehman’s ‘Ma Tujhe Salaam…’ Even Sufi singer Zila Khan has sung it in a Sufiana style and finds nothing wrong in singing the song This makes it clear that the song’s intention is not to harm anyone’s religious feeling. The song is much above religious orthodoxy and is meant to Salaam the motherland.