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Congress compromised on Vande Mataram, says PM
Modi blamed India’s first PM and Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru for removing stanzas from the song, composed in the 1870s by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
Vande Mataram will remain an inspiration to create a self-reliant and prosperous India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, initiating the discussion on the 150th anniversary of India’s national song in the Lok Sabha.
Modi blamed India’s first PM and Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru for removing stanzas from the song, composed in the 1870s by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , and said this was done under pressure and to appease the Md. Ali Jinnah-led Muslim League : “Under pressure, the Congress divided Vande Mataram, and that’s why the Congress also had to bulk under pressure and partitioned India.”
The Prime Minister spoke about the long-lasting impact of the song, and said it became synonymous with India’s freedom movement and the aspirations and hope for generations. Modi dubbed it as an unparallelled poem in world history. He said that 150 years of Vande Mataram is “not just a moment to remember the past, but a source of energy and inspiration.”
“Our forefathers dreamt about an independent India. Today’s generation hopes for a prosperous India. Vande Mataram’s spirit cultivated the hopes of an Independent India.It will now support the plans for a prosperous India,” the PM said, ending his speech by chanting Vande Mataram thrice. He also read out the part of the song that was excised.
The song exemplified India’s can-do spirit, Modi said.
“When India faced challenges, it moved ahead with the spirit of Vande Mataram.... At one point of time, there was a food shortage. With the same spirit of Vande Mataram, our farmers filled up the repositories of foodgrains,” Modi said.
“When the country’s Independence was threatened, the Constitution was ignored and the Emergency was imposed, it was the same power of Vande Mataram that helped the country to rise again and defeat those powers. Whenever the nation faced wars or external challenges, our soldiers stood firm in the frontiers with the power of Vande Mataram and hoisted the Tiranga (national flag). Whenever we have faced a global crisis, the country has arisen with the spirit of Vande Mataram and moved ahead,” he added.
And now, as the country looks ahead to becoming self-reliant and developed (Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat) it is the same spirit of Vande Mataram that is driving it, the PM said.
“Vande Mataram manifests the power of this country. Like a river, it depicts a stream of consciousness and culture and it mirrors our development and prosperity. Vande Mataram is not a moment to remember the past. It remains a source of energy and inspiration. We owe it to Vande Mataram. The devotional song will inspire us to create an Atmanirbhar Bharat. to push swadeshi products and to make a developed India by 2047.”
Modi also highlighted the song’s spiritual side as well as its inspirational values . It was first published in Bangadarshan magazine in 1875—and later in a novel called Ananda Math in 1882— and was a counter to the British effort to impose Britain’s national anthem God save the Queen on India and Indians .
“Vande Mataram revived the ideology embedded for ages in the history of India. The song was not only a political mantra, didn’t just address to the limited idea of removal of the British Raj but also reminded us that the freedom struggle was also the pious task to free Mother India,” Modi said.
He explained that Chatterjee challenged the British view of Indians as inferior and sought to show that “Bharat Mata is a deity of knowledge and prosperity who can transform into Maa Chandi, armed with weapons, to thwart any challenges.”
“These words inspired thousands of Indians, who were reeling under slavery, to realize that the fight was not for a piece of land, nor for power, but to remove the chain of slavery and revive the thousand-year-old culture and history”.
In recent years -- including over at the weekend at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in Delhi -- Modi has spoken about the need for India and Indians to overcome the “slavish mentality” foisted on them by the British and their system of education, as the country progresses towards the goal of Viksit Bharat.
As a whole, the song consists of six stanzas. However, Rabindranath Tagore and others felt that the first two stanzas were enough to convey its meaning. The BJP’s objections mainly concerned the final stanza, which pays homage to Hindu deities such as Durga, Saraswati, and Lakshmi.
Modi questioned why the song, which Gandhi envisaged as the national anthem of India, faced “injustice”. He recalled that when Muslim League’s opposition to Vande Mataram started growing, the then president of Congress, Jawaharlal Nehru, gave in.
“On, October 20, Nehru wrote to Subhas Bose. In that letter Nehru supported Jinnah’s point of view and said, coming in the background of Ananda Math, Vande Mataram can irritate Muslims. I want to read Nehru’s quote: “I read the background of Vande Mataram. I think this background can instigate the Muslims.” On 26 October, a Congress Working Committee (meeting) was held in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Bengal to review the utility of Vande Mataram. The entire country opposed this proposal. But unfortunately, on Oct 26, the Congress compromised on Vande Mataram. The decision to remove lines from Vande Mataram was done as an act of social harmony,” Modi said.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi challenged the Prime Minister, saying that Vande Mataram was declared the National Anthem by the Congress Working Committee on October 28, 1937, with leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Nehru, Sardar Patel, and Rabindranath Tagore in agreement. She added that after independence, Dr Rajendra Prasad formally declared the National Anthem in the Constituent Assembly, with leaders including BR Ambedkar and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee present, and no objections were raised.
“To question this is an insult to our freedom heroes and the Constituent Assembly. Have the people in government today have become so arrogant that they consider themselves greater than Gandhi, Bose, Ambedkar, and Rajendra Prasad?” she said.
