Author: Swapan Dasgupta, TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 13, 2025
URL:    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-plus/politics/150-years-later-why-the-vande-mataram-debate-is-still-relevant/articleshow/125949286.cms

The linkage between the partition of Vande Mataram and the Partition of India is not to be scoffed at. Even if the full song is unlikely to be insisted upon and A R Rahman’s catchy version will continue to be mistaken for the real thing, the Vande Mataram debate is likely to be a landmark

Some years ago, a perceptive British writer observed that his country was sharply polarised between the ‘somewhere’ people and those who could be dubbed the ‘anywhere’ people. In a curious sort of way, the clash between those who saw themselves as grounded in India’s distinctive nationhood and those whose sense of modernity stretched into multiculturalism and post-nationalism was evident during last week’s parliamentary discussion to commemorate 150 years of Vande Mataram.

To those uneasy with the Modi govt’s assertive nationalism, there was no earthly reason why valuable parliamentary time was expended on marking the landmark anniversary of the Constitution-decreed ‘national song’.

Judging by the subtext of their displeasure, a grand, possibly well-choreographed function in one of Delhi’s grand sarkari venues may well have sufficed. Judging by the somewhat supercilious intervention of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi, the debate was occasioned by the Prime Minister’s waning confidence in his own governance and to divert attention from the more pressing problems confronting India.

In all likelihood, those with Nehruvian mindsets would have considered exploring the fascinating bylanes of the nationalist movement less of a priority than articulating the woes of travellers inconvenienced by the mismanagement of India’s largest airline.

In the new history that has been dished out to generations of Indians since the Left takeover of education in the 1970s, Vande Mataram, while undeniably the most inspirational mantra of the freedom struggle, also carried Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s more problematic baggage. The entire song, apart from being couched in difficult language, was also seen to be too full of Hindu imagery to be acceptable to Muslim and secular sensitivities. This mattered to Jawaharlal Nehru who, in the words of Nirad Chaudhuri was “usually repelled by anything pronouncedly Hindu.”

Although the troubling verses equating the sacred motherland to Goddess Durga had been shelved by the Congress in 1937 — a truncation that had the endorsement of Rabindranath Tagore — the secularists were always uneasy with the consolation prize of ‘national song’ awarded to it by the Constituent Assembly chairman’s ruling on January 24,1950. Like the Constitution’s embarrassing Directive Principles that called for cow protection, prohibition of alcohol and a uniform civil code, there was a quiet hope that in time Vande Mataram would steadily become decorative. This hasn’t happened, as evident from its unceasing popularity on flag-waving occasions.

It is interesting that the BJP rather than the Congress has always taken the lead in trying to make Vande Mataram India’s parallel national anthem, rather than a symbolic afterthought. BJP MP Ram Naik took the initiative in 1992 to ensure Vande Mataram was sung at the end of each parliamentary session. The suggestion was endorsed by PM P V Narasimha Rao whose personal attachment to the song overshadowed the misgivings of some colleagues.

In his Rajya Sabha intervention, home minister Amit Shah spelt out its enormous importance. There was, first, the shared association with the national movement, particularly the martyrs who went to the gallows chanting Vande Mataram. For some time, there has been a conscious bid by the saffron ecosystem to widen the scope of the nationalist legacy to include those the Nehru family-centric view of the past either left out or marginalised.

The incorporation of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sardar Patel, not to mention Birsa Munda and Lachit Borphukan, in the pantheon of national heroes is also part of the process of crafting a new inspirational history. The widening of the national inheritance was facilitated by the Congress abdicating the nationalist space. The indifference of the Congress’ first family to the Vande Mataram debate was underlined by Shah.

Second, the importance attached to the ‘censored’ verses from Bankim’s Ananda Math is quite deliberate. It is not that prior to 1937, the full version of Vande Mataram was always sung. However, by trying to accommodate Jinnah’s objection to the recurrent idolatry, the Congress Working Committee resolution of 1939 failed to stem the tide of Muslim separatism. Eight years later, Pakistan had become a reality.

The lesson that top BJP leadership drew from this controversy is that minority appeasement invariably leads to escalating demands and a corresponding emasculation of nationhood. The linkage between the partition of Vande Mataram and the Partition of India is not to be scoffed at. Even if the full song is unlikely to be insisted upon and A R Rahman’s catchy version will continue to be mistaken for the real thing, the Vande Mataram debate is likely to be a landmark.

The forthright speeches of the three top ministers of the govt have indicated without a shred of doubt that the post-Independence squeamishness associated with the mantra Sri Aurobindo evocatively described as the “religion of patriotism” has been finally junked.

Vande Mataram will remain a metaphor for national pride, just as it was 150 years ago.