A decade-long discussion on India’s national song, Vande Mataram, resurfaced in Parliament on Monday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a 10-hour debate in the Lok Sabha to mark the song’s 150th anniversary. The discussions will continue in a one-day special Rajya Sabha session on Tuesday, presided over by Home Minister Amit Shah.
During the debate, PM Modi traced the song’s origins and its role in the freedom struggle. He criticised the removal of certain stanzas in 1937, calling it a “division and partition of the song,” and argued that this act contributed to the eventual Partition of India. “Vande Mataram was divided first, and then the country was divided,” he asserted, accusing the Congress and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of compromising on the national song.
This raises the question: was the song deliberately abridged to appease Muslims? Historical records and expert analyses suggest a more nuanced explanation.
Origins And Adoption
Vande Mataram, penned by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875 and popularised through his novel Anandamath (1882), became a rallying cry against British rule. While the original two stanzas celebrated the motherland, the expanded version in Anandamath included six additional stanzas, depicting Hindu monks fighting Muslim rulers in Bengal during the Sanyasi Rebellion of 1776-77.
This led some Muslims to perceive the song as idolatrous or hostile. Historians note that the chant was sometimes used to provoke communal tensions during the freedom struggle. Despite this, Congress leaders, including Gandhi, Nehru and Rajendra Prasad, recognised the song’s symbolic power and adopted it for the party.
To address communal sensitivities, only the first two stanzas, the earliest written by Chatterjee in 1875, were adopted and eventually declared India’s National Song in 1951. The remaining six stanzas, which referenced Hindu deities and the historical conflict with Muslim rulers, were left out.
A Song That United, Yet Divided
Historian Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, in his 2003 book Vande Mataram: The Biography of a Song, notes that the slogan of Vande Mataram was employed to provoke Muslims in the early 20th century, turning it from a symbol of national pride into a point of contention. Bhattacharya highlights that Gandhi had even compared Vande Mataram to “Allahu Akbar” in certain communal contexts to illustrate the intensity of religious slogans.
The Congress leadership’s decision to restrict the national song to its first two stanzas was deliberate and openly recorded, despite objections from Muslim leaders in the Muslim League and Congress.
Tagore’s Guidance To Nehru
Subhas Chandra Bose advocated for the adoption of the full song, but Nehru, then Congress president, feared alienating Muslims. In a 1937 letter to Bose, Nehru noted that the novel’s context “is likely to irritate the Muslims.”
Nehru consulted Rabindranath Tagore, who had popularised the song at the 1896 Congress session in Calcutta. Tagore recommended using only the first two stanzas, emphasising their “gentle devotion” and celebration of the land’s beauty, while leaving the rest of the poem in its literary context. He wrote to Nehru, “I freely concede that the whole of Bankim’s Vande Mataram poem… is liable to be interpreted in ways that might wound Moslem’s susceptibility, but a national song, though derived from it… has acquired a separate individuality and an inspiring significance of its own in which I see nothing to offend any sect or community.”
The Congress Working Committee met in Calcutta from 26 October to 1 November 1937, with Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Bose, Azad, and Rajendra Prasad in attendance. Nehru’s resolution confirmed the selective adoption, “Whenever and wherever Vande Mataram is sung, only the first two stanzas should be sung, with perfect freedom to the organisers to sing any other song of unobjectionable character in addition to, or in the place of, Vande Mataram,” Gandhi stated.
Legacy Of Truncated Song
After independence, the Constituent Assembly enshrined the two-stanza version alongside Jana Gana Mana as India’s National Song. Today, it is sung in schools, at official events, and in stadiums, including popular renditions by AR Rahman. The full version remains preserved in literature, retaining the original spirit and historical context of Chatterjee’s work.
While the song was shortened, historical records indicate this was intended to foster national unity rather than specifically appease any community. Vande Mataram continues to embody India’s struggle for freedom and the challenge of uniting a diverse nation.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
