Surprising facts about Vande Mataram

The current controversy over the `National Song' Vande Mataram is both riveting and relevant, but the furore over it notwithstanding, there are points about it that most don't know. It would surprise and embarrass many to know that September 7, 2006 was not the centenary of Vande Mataram.

Contrary to belief, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote the lyrics of Vande Mataram well before he penned Anandamath, his novel, which described unified Bengal's sanyasi uprising against tyrannical Muslim rule in the 1770s.

For those wanting to be informed, Vande Mataram was originally written in 1876, and appeared in Anandamath in 1881.

The Sangh Parivar, which included the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) celebrated the 125th anniversary of the song in 2002. So, in 2006, it was not the 100th year of Vande Mataram, but the 129th anniversary of the `National Song", which was first recited at the Indian National Congress session of 1896.

Before it was adopted as the `National Song' at the Congress' Varanasi session on September 7, 1905, Vande Mataram had won India's heart as its war cry of freedom.

It was brought at par with the National Anthem officially by the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950.

The pan-Islamic diatribe against Vande Mataram because of its 'idolatrous' content began in the 1890s. India's Congress party capitulated before Islamic opposition at its Kakinada session in 1923 not only on the Vande Mataram issue, but also to virtually all symbols and values held national and sacrosanct.

The hasty withdrawal for the compulsory singing of Vande Mataram by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry has been brought on by the fact that this evocative song, which is recited at the conclusion of every session of India's state Assemblies and Parliament as per convention, means little to those steeped in obnoxious politico-religious 'correctness.'

The HRD ministerial diktat to compulsorily sing the song throughout the country on September 7 occupied much media space and re-ignited a debate on India's national song and its acrimonious journey over the last 130 years.

India continues to wage a relentless battle to navigate through notoriously sanitised and ideologically doctored versions of its timeless history, with considerable schisms in the nation's polity and mind.

Bureau Report