Vande Mataram Belongs to the Nation, Not to a Party
On the morning of August 15, India heard Vande Mataram in its entirety at the Red Fort. By sunset, the same song had become the subject of a political controversy at the headquarters of the country's oldest political party, with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi at the centre of the argument. That contrast is more revealing than the controversy itself. A song that once frightened the British Empire because it awakened India's national consciousness was now being fought over by Indians in a free Republic. The question was no longer simply how much of Vande Mataram should be sung. It was becoming a question of who had the authority to define its meaning. And that is where politics begins to obscure history. Vande Mataram did not become powerful because a government declared it so. Written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, it travelled from literature into the freedom movement and became one of the great cries of resistance to British rule. During the Swadeshi movement following the pa...
