Opinion | Restore 'Vande Mataram': A National Song Should Not Be Half Sung |
In no other country would a revered hymn elevated to the status of the National Song not be acceptable to all its citizens. Only in India have crucial stanzas of Vande Mataram been redacted so that it is acceptable to all Indians.
A national song by its very definition is meant to evoke patriotic fervour. And Vande Mataram (which literally translates to ‘Hail Motherland’) does just that.
It was a patriotic Bengali poem penned by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, first published in his 1882 novel Anandamath and, within a few years, became a powerful rallying cry for India’s freedom movement. All Indians irrespective of creed, caste and class sang it as a symbol of their devotion to the Motherland and their desire to unshackle her from colonial subjugation.
The genius of the song lay in its ability to evoke pride in the grandeur........