Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks at the November 7 launch of the sesquicentennial celebrations of Vande Mataram sparked a political crossfire that resurfaced in Parliament on Monday.
The Prime Minister had criticised the Congress for approving a shortened version of the National Song in 1937, alleging that the decision ‘sowed the seeds of Partition.’
The Opposition countered the claims and insisted that the move followed the Congress Working Committee’s recommendation. They argued that this recommendation emerged from consultations with prominent national leaders.
The Opposition maintained that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sarojini Naidu, and Abul Kalam Azad shaped the advice. They also stated that poet Rabindranath Tagore influenced the committee’s decision.
During the Lok Sabha debate, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra argued that the officially recognised National Song includes the original verses penned by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. She stated that these verses date back to around 1875.
She pointed out that when Chattopadhyay later incorporated Vande Mataram into his 1882 novel Anandamath, he added additional stanzas that expanded its devotional and allegorical themes.
The Santans and the Allegory of the Motherland
Anandamath portrays a band of ascetic warriors, the ‘Santan’, who dedicate themselves to the liberation of their motherland.
In the narrative, the Santans not only chant Vande Mataram as a greeting but also worship the motherland through three symbolic images: the nation in its flourishing glory, the nation in its suffering, and the nation as it would be resurrected in radiance.
The frequently quoted opening stanza, ‘Vande Mataram; Sujalam suphalam’, introduced as an expression of devotion to a fertile, peaceful, life-nurturing land.
Through the voice of Bhabananda, Bankim Chattopadhyay elaborates the beauty of the Motherland, describing moonlit nights, blossoming flowers and the land’s benevolent nature.
In Anandamath, Bhabananda’s emotional praise of the Motherland draws from the idea that one’s motherland is ‘greater than heaven’, a sentiment that inspires the Santans’ loyalty.
But this devotional portrayal is also what later drew objections.
In the 1930s, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League protested certain stanzas, claiming they referenced Hindu goddess imagery.
It was this concern, historical accounts suggest, that drove the Congress to limit the officially accepted version of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas, an issue that continues to ignite debate nearly eighty years after Independence in a nation constitutionally committed to secularism.
Also Read: Priyanka Gandhi Criticises Govt Over Vande Mataram Debate
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