Vande Mataram: Keep Politics Out Of It |
Some twenty years ago when Dr. Amartya Sen published his ‘The Argumentative Indian’ he perhaps did not foresee that soon his India would really take each and every issue and debate about it. No wonder a national song ‘Vande Mataram’ [Mother, I bow to you] that inspired generations of freedom fighters, violent and non-violent alike, would be a hotly debate issue in 2025! That is exactly what India has become these days.
Monday, the first day of winter session of Parliament witnessed heated discussion on this song written by Bankim Chandra and was published in the year 1882 as part of his novel ‘Anandmath’ which was written in Bengali. This song was originally written in Sanskit and which was officially adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1905. Those days the nationalist movement was it its peak and Congress adopted it to further the pan-Indian feelings among the patriot Indians. Same song was adopted as ‘national song’ in the Republic India on 26th January 1950, ‘Jan Man Gan’ became the national anthem. 2025 marks the 150th year anniversary of the song.
As the history has it, the song was partly composed in Sanskit and partly in Bengali in the year 1875. It was included in Bankim Chandra’s novel which, as per the fashion of that era, was serialized in the........