India’s national song Vande Mataram will no longer be sung incomplete but in full. And now only 6 verses of this national song will be sung in any government event, the duration of which will be 3 minutes 10 seconds. But the question is why. After all, why was the national song, which has been a part of the Constitution of India since 26 January 1950, been sung incompletely till now? After all, why were only two verses of the song, which has a total of 6 verses, officially considered the national anthem?
After all, what was that debate in the Constituent Assembly, which recognized only the first two verses of this song emanating from Bankim Chand Chatterjee’s Anandmath as the national anthem of India and the most important question is whether Nehru was responsible for stopping the four verses of this song which have just been adopted by the government as the national anthem. After all, what is there in those four verses of Vande Mataram which were included 77 years after the implementation of the Constitution and why now a new debate has started on this decision of the government, the strings of which are also being connected to the Bengal assembly elections, today there will be a clear cut discussion on these issues.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was the one who composed Vande Mataram. He had written all its six stanzas in the year 1875 itself. But it was published for the first time in 1882. And even then it was not a separate poem but was a part of Bankim Chand Chatterjee’s Bengali novel Anand Math, in which this poem was written in Sanskritised Bengali. India was then ruled by the British and the title of this poem Vande Mataram became the biggest slogan of the ongoing fight against the British. If there was one unanimous slogan of every agitator, every protest, every revolution, it was Vande Mataram and Inquilab Zindabad.
Rabindranath Tagore himself sang this song in the Congress session held in Calcutta in 1896 and sang it in full. In 1901, when the Congress session was held again in Calcutta, Dakshina Charan Sen again sang this song in full. In the year 1905, when the Congress session was being held in Banaras, poetess Sarala Devi Choudharani also sang the entire Vande Mataram. Two years later, when Bhikhaji Cama made the first flag of India, the word Vande Mataram was written in the middle of that flag also. And in this way Vande Mataram became famous on the tongue of every Indian.
Then came the year 1937. Congress session was taking place. All India Muslim League and Mohammad Ali Jinnah had then lodged their objection regarding Vande Mataram and said that it should not be the national song. The Muslim League’s objection was that no one other than God can be worshiped in Islam, whereas in the last verses of Vande Mataram, the motherland has been compared with Goddesses Durga and Lakshmi, and this is against the religious principles of Islam. Apart from Muslim League, senior Congress leader Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had also given the same argument. Whereas another prominent Congress leader Purushottam Das Tandon argued –
‘Thousands of revolutionaries had kissed the noose while singing the song Vande Mataram, so removing it would be an insult to those martyrs. This is not a song but the ‘spiritual soul’ of India, the sentiment of the majority population and it should be respected.
In such a situation, Congress formed a committee to resolve this issue. Maulana Abul Kalam Azaz, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Acharya Narendra Dev and Rabindranath Tagore himself were present in this committee, whose work Jana-Gana-Mana had been published by then and that too was only an excerpt from his long Bengali poem Bharat Bhagya Vidhaata. When the controversy came to light, Subhash Chandra Bose asked Rabindranath Tagore for suggestions as to what should be done. Ravindra Nath Tagore said-
‘The origin of Vande Matam is the worship of Goddess Durga. This is absolutely clear and there is no doubt about it. Of course, Bankim Chandra ultimately shows Durga to be inextricably linked with Bengal, but no Muslim can be expected to worship the ten-handed goddess as his country in the name of patriotism. The novel Anandmath is a work of literature, and hence this song is appropriate in it. But Parliament is a meeting place of all religious groups, and this song cannot be appropriate there.
Then Mahatma Gandhi was also asked for suggestions and his opinion was more or less similar. Then Nehru was also asked for his opinion and he also supported the questions raised by Rabindranath Tagore. And said-
‘The first two stanzas of Vande Mataram are full of patriotism and have become a symbol of the freedom struggle. The final verses contain more religious metaphors, which may not be appropriate for the official symbol of a secular country.
In such a situation, it was decided that the first two stanzas of the poem Vande Mataram, which do not have any religious character, would be accepted as the national song of India. And this is what happened. In 1937 itself, the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram were accepted as the official national song of India and the remaining four stanzas were removed from the national song.
The reason for this was that in the original poem Vande Mataram, India has been seen as a goddess. Her prosperity has been talked about, she has been worshiped and she has been depicted as Goddess Durga. But the first two stanzas of this poem only talk about the country, the motherland and there is no religious character in these two stanzas. Therefore, in the Congress session in 1937, two stanzas of this poem were recognized as the national song.
After this, when India became independent and its own constitution was prepared, on 24 January 1950, Vande Mataram was given a place in the Indian Constitution and it was included as the national song of India. At that time, the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, also had an option to conduct voting in the Constituent Assembly and the side which had more votes would be heard. But in such a situation one side would lose and the other would win. Therefore, to ensure that there is no dispute of any kind, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, as Chairman, issued a statement and said-
‘The composition of words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, the words of which are subject to such changes as the Government may in due course authorize. And the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historical role in the Indian freedom struggle, will be honored and given equal status as Jana Gana Mana. I hope this will satisfy the members. ‘
There was no scope for debate after this statement of Rajendra Prasad. Therefore, all the members agreed to two stanzas of Vande Mataram as the national song and then it became our national song. Even today, when the House of Parliament begins, it may begin with Jana Gana Mana, but it ends with the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram. However, after the new rules of the government, everything has changed now.
And the biggest change is that Vande Mataram will no longer be sung incomplete but in full and it will also include those four verses, which were removed from the Constitution after the suggestion of Rabindranath Tagore and the statement of Dr. Rajendra Prasad. There have been some other changes as well. As-
# The entire Vande Mataram will be sung in a duration of 3 minutes 10 seconds.
# If both Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana are to be sung, then Vande Mataram will be sung first.
# According to the instructions of the Union Home Ministry, the entire Vande Mataram will be sung on the occasions of hoisting the tricolor, programs related to the arrival of the President and other formal events.
# Even when the President addresses the nation on All India Radio and Doordarshan, it will be mandatory to play the national anthem before and after.
# All the listeners will stand at attention while singing Vande Mataram.
# If in any news, film or documentary the national anthem is played as part of the film, the audience will not be expected to stand.
Now that these new changes have been implemented, it is obvious that the old debate will start again, through which a section of people will object to this entire Vande Mataram. There will also be an attempt to create new controversies through this. And today neither Maulana Abul Kalam is free to end the controversy by speaking his mind nor Dr. Rajendra Prasad is free to end the entire controversy before it starts with a single statement. Because now it is not a matter of including the national song in the Constitution, but now it is also a matter of assembly elections, which becomes necessary for Bengal in the context of this Vande Mataram.
