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Row builds over Vande Mataram

Row builds over Vande Mataram

Author: Amita Verma
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: August 21, 2006

The year-long centenary celebrations of Vande Mataram may end on a discordant note, with a section of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh objecting to the Union government's directive to ensure recitation of the song in all schools on September 7.

Muslim leaders and clerics term Vande Mataram as un-Islamic because the song equates the motherland to God. "This is unacceptable in Islam and we cannot revere anyone except Allah. We consider recitation of Vande Mataram by Muslim students as un-Islamic and I have no hesitation in advising members of our community to shun it," said Maulana Khalid Rasheed, a prominent Islamic cleric, who heads one of India's leading Islamic institutions, popularly known as Firangi Mahal.

[Union human resources development minister Arjun Singh, seeking to quell the controversy over his ministry's directive to schools, said in Varanasi on Sunday that the measure was not mandatory, reports PTI. The recitation of the song on September 7 to pay tribute to martyrs and freedom fighters was entirely "voluntary in nature", Mr Singh said at a gathering at a minority academic institution. "The song should not be viewed otherwise," the minister added, saying that he did not think that Muslims should have any objection to reciting the song.]

Explaining his objection to recitation of Vande Mataram, Maulana Khalid Rasheed, who is also a member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, said: "The song tends to equate the nation with God, which Islam does not permit. Even the Prophet Mohammed cannot be placed on an equal pedestal with Allah, the Almighty. Our opposition to Vande Mataram must not be construed as any kind of disrespect to another religion. It is simply because our religion does not allow any Muslim to bow his head before anyone other than God, the Almighty."

Another senior member of the Muslim Personal Law Board, Mr Zafaryab Jilani, echoed similar sentiments when he said: "Reciting the Vande Mataram is against the tenets of the Shariat (Islamic law) and we cannot permit our children to sing the song, though we have no objection to the national anthem."

This, incidentally, is not the first time that Muslims have objected to the recitation of Vande Mataram in schools. In 1997-98, the BJP government's efforts to make recitation of Vande Mataram compulsory in schools had met with stiff opposition, and the political heat that the issue generated had finally led to the dismissal of the then education minister Ravindra Shukla and withdrawal of the order.

This time, it may be recalled, HRD minister Arjun Singh had written to all chief ministers to ensure that the first two stanzas of the song are recited in all educational institutions across the country on September 7 - the day marking the culmination of year-long centenary celebrations of the song.

The song, composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1876, was adopted as the national song at the Varanasi session of the All India Congress Committee on September 7, 1905. The Vande Mataram centenary celebrations began in September last year.

UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who received the letter from the HRD ministry on Saturday, has sent his formal consent to the Union government and has also issued a circular for compliance to all concerned departments on the matter.


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