'Bharat Mata ki jai' or Vande Mataram, can't put words in our mouth
The attempt to promote Vande Mataram by forcing people to sing the song may only be hurting it. The song has had an enviable past, but its glorious history is tainted with intermittent controversies of the kind which is taking shape now.
In the backdrop of a Hindu-Muslim controversy over Vande Mataram in 1939, Mahatma Gandhi, who associated "purest national spirit" with the song, said all that was "pure gold" had become "base metal". "Unfortunately, now we have fallen on evil days," Gandhi wrote in Harijan on July 1, 1939, while stressing on the need to avoid such controversies, which only undermined the worth of the song.
Some recent controversies have brought the slogan "Bharat Mata ki jai" and the song Vande Mataram in news once again - for all the wrong reasons. While a controversy over forcing people to sing the song or chant the slogan to show their allegiance to the nation was yet to die down, some of the prominent political parties in Maharashtra joined hands to suspend AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan from the state Assembly over refusal to chant the slogan.
Incidentally in the Bijoe Emmanuel case, the Supreme Court held in 1986 that one could not be compelled to sing the national anthem if it was against his religious belief. With Muslims avoiding singing of Vande Mataram for religious reasons, forcing people to sing the song can neither promote nor test the spirit of nationalism. Such attempts only taint the glorious history which keeps alive the song and the spirit behind it.
"Vande Mataram is obviously and indisputably the premier national song of India with a great historical tradition... That position it is bound to retain and no other song can displace it," first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said in a statement made in Parliament on August 25, 1948. Gandhi also predicted that Vande Mataram, which was enthroned in the hearts of millions, "will never suffer from disuse".
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| A Muslim family was allegedly thrown out a cinema hall for refusing to stand up for national anthem in November 2015. |
Given the role it played in uniting and inspiring people to join the freedom movement, the singing of Vande Mataram was listed as the first item on the agenda for the August 14-15, 1947 Assumption of Power Ceremony which is remembered for famous "Tryst with Destiny" speech by Nehru. Sucheta Kripalani sang the first stanza of Vande Mataram after the Constituent Assembly met at 11pm on August 14, 1947, for the midnight ceremony.
Some members of the Constituent Assembly entered after the singing was over. When Dr Rajendra Prasad, President of the Assembly, was called upon to take action on the conduct of the members on the solemn occasion, he preferred to ignore rather than rake up a controversy. "I do not know what can be done by pursuing the matter further. I think we had better drop it there," he said, giving a burial to the matter which was taken up seriously by some members on August 26, 1947.
Though Muslims avoided singing of the song for religious reasons, the fact never came in way of the song inspiring and uniting people under one umbrella during the freedom movement. The 1896 session of the Indian National Congress was the first political occasion when the song, set to music by Rabindranath Tagore, was sung. Later in 1906, Tagore himself sang the song on the opening day of the Congress session.
Taking note of religious sentiments, the Congress working committee passed a resolution in the 1930s mandating singing of only first two stanzas of Vande Mataram at national gatherings with freedom to organisers to choose any other song.
Following the first Assembly elections of the Madras presidency in 1937, political overtones were seen in the objection to Vande Mataram. The Muslim members, though not forced to sing, staged walkouts over singing of Vande Mataram in the Assembly.
This prompted the governor to shoot a letter in 1938 to the then viceroy seeking his views on discontinuing singing of Vande Mataram in the Assembly. The reform division of the legislative department, which examined the matter thereafter, disagreed with the view that singing of Vande Mataram affected "the interest of minority".
Making a statement in the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1949, to declare Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem, Dr Prasad said the song Vande Mataram "shall be honoured equally" and shall have "equal status" with it.
Not singing the song does not undermine its status, but forcing it on people does. The spirit behind the song has been to unite and not to divide.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)