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.
