There are moments in a nation’s life when its identity is not merely argued or legislated into being but sung into presence. The creation of Vande Mataram was one such moment in India’s awakening, when Anandamath offered the country a divine feminine form through which to imagine itself. This must be read within a global moment when nationalism was being shaped and contested. Against this backdrop, India articulated a uniquely civilisational variant rooted in cultural memory rather than territorial assertion.

Indian nationalism has always been plural and metaphorical, shaped as much by political movements as by lyrical, devotional utterances. Vande Mataram is a cultural gesture that condensed into two words the emotional grammar of a civilisation seeking freedom not only from colonial rule but from internal diminishment. Yet, a century and a half after Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay composed it, Independent India finds itself returning to debates that the freedom struggle had already settled.

When sections of today’s political class refuse to stand with the symbolism of Vande Mataram, framing their objection in doctrinal terms, they inadvertently echo the anxieties of pre-Independence communal politics. The irony is stark. Those who claim to defend pluralism repeat arguments once advanced by the........

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