Explained : Vande Mataram and the Fight Over Indian Unity and Its Impact

Imagine the following scene: A cricket stadium packed with a hundred thousand or more spectators, frenziedly cheering an Indian cricket team as it tightens the screws in a decisive match.

For the past half hour or so, since the players in blue secured the match by the scruff of its neck, rollicking fans have been swaying to the DJ’s beats. Sensing that its time had come, the DJ has put on A.R. Rahman’s “Vande Mataram–Maa Tujhe Salaam”; in full volume, so that it can be heard by the tens of millions watching the match on TV. Few can deny that Rahman did more to popularise “Vande Mataram” than any other composer or singer when he remixed it in 1997 to commemorate India turning 50.

After the presentation ceremony and victory parade, the spectators begin to trickle out of the stands, but they soon return, with word that the gates are locked. “Maybe they want to ensure unhindered passage for the players and VIPs,” someone reasons.

But shortly thereafter, the light towers are switched off and a stern voice booms over the speakers: “All spectators are being detained for violating the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971. The charge against every person in the stadium, including minors and foreigners, is that the national song of India was insulted collectively by singing along with a distorted version of “Vande Mataram”, our revered national song.

“Additionally, people were seen swaying and dancing whereas they should have stood up in respect. Shortly, court officials will go from stand to stand, noting names and other details of the accused, who will be dealt with as per law.”

Such a scene may be enacted sometime in the India of a not very distant future. Perhaps outside a TV studio where a musical reality show is being recorded. There, too, the charge would be the same: “No respect shown to the National Song while contestants sang it. They also made alterations in the song, musical as well as in its lyrics. Others in the studio were not standing still during the performances.”

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These imaginary scenes can become reality if the Centre’s reported deliberations eventually leads to a high-powered group recommending the introduction of protocols to be followed during the recitation/singing of the national song “Vande Mataram”, similar to those in place for the national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana”.

Ahistorical allegations

The intention of the exercise is clearly punitive. The meeting’s agenda included deliberations on whether “rules or instructions should be framed on the circumstances in which the national song may be sung, whether it should be sung alongside the national anthem, and whether acts of disrespect should attract penalties”.

It is obvious that the Union Home Ministry has embarked on the path to “elevate the song’s standing” while accusing the Congress party of diminishing “Vande Mataram” due to its “appeasement” politics. It follows the events of the past three months, when the Centre and the BJP began to systematically undermine the agreement reached by the makers of the Indian Constitution who had declared “Jana Gana Mana” as the National Anthem and “Vande Mataram” as the National Song, which shall be “honoured equally with the former” and “shall have equal status with it”.

The decision was announced on January 24, 1950, in the Constituent Assembly by Rajendra Prasad, a man routinely valorised by the Sangh Parivar for his divergence from Jawaharlal Nehru and others on the reconstruction of Somnath Temple and Prasad’s participation at its inaugural.

After due deliberation, it was agreed upon and announced by Prasad that just the two stanzas of the song, as had become political practice by then, and with “alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises”, shall be treated as the National Song and “Jana Gana Mana” would be the National Anthem.

The song, as readers may know, was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, as a standalone poem sometime in the early 1870s, and later included in his famous novel Anandamath. Despite clutching at the wings of history, Sangh Parivar leaders, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, never engage with it in totality. Modi has campaigned ceaselessly since November 7, 2025, that the Congress party decided to demean “Vande Mataram” and slashed it to less than half because it wanted to “appease” Muslims.

Again, ahistorically, Modi put the blame for Partition at the doors of the Congress and its leaders by declaring that “this division sowed the seeds of the country’s partition”. He also asked why such “injustice was done to this great national mantra” and stressed that “today’s generation must understand this history”.

Armed with such affirmations, the BJP and the government are on “mission mode” to campaign for the restoration of the entire “Vande Mataram” as the National Song. The November reference made above is to Modi’s speech at the inauguration of the year-long commemoration of 150 years of the National Song, an event ostensibly created to mark the poem’s publication in the literary journal “Bangadarshan” as part of the serialised novel Anandamath.

In reality, however, this is just another instance of the current government harnessing another divisive issue to distract people’s attention from basic issues and livelihood concerns. As mentioned previously, among several accusations against the Congress, Modi said that the party had, in 1937, “severed” several paragraphs of the song/poem which were “parts of its soul”.

This is where we find evidence of the selective use of history by Modi and the Sangh Parivar. The Prime Minister did not once mention that the paragraphs in question were left out of the song at the suggestion of no less than the two giants who marshalled thoughts of literary-nationalism through three decades, starting with the early years of the 20th century’s second decade—Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. Their views resonate even now and are considered as sacrosanct by more than a billion Indians. Thus, to avoid naming them, the BJP and its leaders pretend that it was the Congress that suggested the deletion.

Intellectual giants are entitled to change positions, even confessing to their previous deficient understanding. In 1915, at a meeting in Madras, when he was not yet called a Mahatma, Gandhi referred to “Vande Mataram” as a “beautiful national song” which “lavished all adjectives” best suited for Mother India.

But some 30 years later, Gandhi unambiguously disregarded his previous understanding and took a critical view of the song. He now said that “Vande Mataram” was no “religious cry. It was a purely political cry… It should never be a chant to insult or offend Muslims”.

The change in Gandhi’s viewpoint in three decades stemmed from the song’s conversion from a nationalist call to an offensive chant aimed at mobilising Hindus during communal riots. In those three decades, “Vande Mataram” had begun to mirror the provocative manner in which the religious slogan “Allah-o-Akbar” began to be used by a section of Muslims, especially during communal riots.

Gandhi spoke about this and argued that just as Hindus objected and were terrified of this slogan, they too should not use the problematic lines of “Vande Mataram” to scare and insult Muslims. There were other, deeper issues too, such as the portrayal of the nation as a goddess that is impermissible in Islam and Christianity, which are monotheistic in nature.

As a result of the advice from Gandhi and Tagore, expressed after Nehru sought their views, the Congress began to render only the first two stanzas from 1937 onwards. This was implicitly endorsed after independence by the Constituent Assembly with Prasad’s announcement.

Political rhetoric

Modi has not let his accusation against the Congress die a natural death. Instead, he and his government are harping on it ceaselessly. Despite India grappling with numerous issues that required priority attention, the Winter Session devoted considerable amount of time to debate the “Vande Mataram”. Little purpose was served with this exercise, except divisiveness.

Not content, there was a surfeit of references to “Vande Mataram” during the Republic Day celebrations. President Draupadi Murmu’s speech on the eve of Republic Day, parroted Modi’s words that the song was “a prayer to the divine form of Bharat”.

An assertion that runs contrary to the religious beliefs of a significant proportion of Indians is contrary to the inclusive manner in which the President is expected to speak. Additionally, the tableau of the Ministry of Culture in the Republic Day Parade was on the theme of the 150th anniversary of the publication of the National Song.

There were two substantially problematic features in the tableau: One, the dramatic depiction had a giant idol of Goddess Durga atop the truck. Two, the lines quoted from “Vande Mataram”, printed as a giant scroll, were from its sixth stanza, specifically left out by the Constituent Assembly. It reads:

Twam hi Durga

Dasaprahar-dharini

Kamala kamaladala viharini…

The Republic Day Parade is no ordinary event where political rhetoric is permissible because it is the norm. On a solemn occasion when the adoption of the Indian Constitution is commemorated, it was highly inappropriate to display the idol of one goddess as personifying the nation on an official tableau.

During the official function held on November 7, 2025, to launch the year-long celebrations to mark the song’s 150th anniversary, the entire song was sung by a choir. Furthermore, during his speech, the Prime Minister claimed the “division of ‘Vande Mataram ‘sowed the seeds of division of the country”. Even if one agrees with Modi’s choice of phrases and descriptions about the post-1937 fate of the song, any reversal can be done only after a due process. But Modi and his government keep quoting from the dropped stanzas.

Similarly, it was most inappropriate for the Prime Minister of a secular country to refer in his speech to India’s capacity to “become Dashaprahana-Dharini Durga” (the ten-armed Durga bearing ten weapons) “for the destruction of terrorism,” using a religious Hindu imagination to describe India’s official position.

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Modi’s political belief is rooted in Hindutva, but it is inappropriate for this to be reflected not just in his speeches but in that of any constitutional authority, especially on matters concerning national security. The response to any challenge to national security has to be unmistakably secular and not grounded in religious imagery. If not, the Indian state too will be laid open to accusations of waging a religious war.

The entire distasteful episode underscores the duplicity of Modi and the government. On the one hand, as part of its political rhetoric, it lashes out at what it calls the Congress party’s decision in 1937 to leave out parts of “Vande Mataram” during public performances.

Yet, not just Modi, but even other government officials and bodies continuously recite or depict those same lines. In that case, what is the purpose in drawing attention to what it ahistorically insists the Congress did almost 90 years ago?

The absence of any rationale behind such a double-tongued approach leaves us with an elementary explanation: Modi and his government remain ever-dependent—even after 11 years—on solely ploughing divisiveness through their speeches and events, using whatever rhetoric is available on hand and entirely disregarding historical facts.

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay is an author and journalist based in Delhi-NCR. His latest book is The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project. He is also the author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.