Union Ministry of Home Affairs January 28 notemaking it mandatory for all six stanzas of India’s national anthem Vande Mataram to be played or sung before the national anthem Jana Gana Mana on certain occasions, has sparked a backlash in poll-bound West Bengal.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders said the Center paid tribute to Bengali literary icon Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, whose 1870s works in Sanskritized Bengal became the driving force behind the independence movement. (AP)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders said the Center paid tribute to Bengali literary icon Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, whose 1870s works in Sanskritized Bengal became the driving force behind the independence movement.
On the other hand, academics argued that the Constituent Assembly adopted the first two stanzas as the national anthem on January 24, 1950, because the fourth and fifth stanzas referred to Goddess Durga. Center for Studies in Social Sciences Prof. Maidul Islam told HT that the Constituent Assembly took its decision to ensure communal harmony.
“The fundamental duty of citizens, which includes singing or playing the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram, was adopted in the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976 when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister. It seems that the present government wants to erase the policy and practice,” Nehruvian said.
“Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore, who composed the national anthem, both wanted a secular nation. Singing of all hymns of Jan Ganaman should also be made mandatory, as it refers to India as a nation of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Parsis and Christians,” he added.
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Political science professor Udayan Banerjee welcomed the Centre’s decision but with riders.
“Vande Mataram as a song has religious symbolism but there is no denying that it inspired thousands of freedom fighters and strengthened the spirit of nationalism. The song is unique. However, only the first two stanzas should be performed and the decision should be implemented by amending the constitution,” Bandopadhyay told HT.
“Many have pointed out that Anandamatha, Chattopadhyay’s 1882 novel into which Vande Mataram was later inserted, had some subtle anti-subtle themes. But that had nothing to do with the song. It remains out of the books even today,” added Bandopadhyay.
Chatterjee’s researcher Ratan Kumar Nandi has also highlighted the same.
“The mention of Durga may not be acceptable to many religious groups, such as Muslims, who have no physical form of the Almighty,” Nandi told a press conference.
Controversy over Vande Mataram erupted in West Bengal in November last year when the BJP and the Center launched nationwide celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the composition of the song. The Trinamool Congress government tried to create a different narrative by forcing children to sing Bengalar Mati, Bengalar Jal, a song composed in protest against the partition of Bengal by the British in 1905, in state schools.
Adopted by the TMC government as the official national anthem in 2023, Bengalar Mati, Bengalar Jolti was sung by Tagore at the Raksha Bandhan ceremony that began on October 16, 1905, for unity between Hindus and Muslims amid the Swadeshi movement against partition ordered by the then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. The song became equally popular in the Muslim-dominated East Bengal province which became East Pakistan after the partition of 1947 and Bangladesh after the 1971 liberation war.
On the other hand, Vande Mataram was written as a tribute to the motherland. It was inserted into the Ananda Math which told the story of Hindu monks and tax collecting landlords engaged in guerilla warfare against the British during the Bengal famine of 1770. The song soon became a symbol of the nationalist movement and is said to have been first recited by Tagore at the annual conference of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta in 1896.
