Question

What role did the phrase vande mataram play in our freedom struggle?

Answer 1

History, Significance and Sanctity of Vande Mataram


{From “Bandemataram Album” republished by Mrs. Padma Sundaram, Ennappadam Educational Publishers, Chennai-85 as designed by Sri Thanga Kamaraj, Chennai, based on the 1923 publication by Shiva Narayana Mishra Vaidya of Prakash Pustakalaya, Kanpur, containing beautiful paintings drawn by Sri. K. Tejendrakumar Mitra illustrating some of the glorious Sanskrit words from the song}


November 7, 1876: - The song Vande Mataram was written and composed and dedicated to the Motherland by Sri Bankin Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894) at the Kantal Pada village of Bengal. It appeared in his novel “Anandamath,” published in 1882.


1896: - Rabindranath Tagore sang Vande Mataram at the Calcutta Congress Session. It was the first political occasion when Vande Mataram was sung in chorus. Tagore also set the song to music.


1901: - The Indian National Congress rehearsed the singing of Vande Mataram in 1901 under the guidance of Sri Dakina Charan Sen, who also sang it in another session of the Congress in Calcutta.


1905: - Vande Mataram became the national battle cry for freedom from British oppression, especially after the launching of Swadeshi Movement (7 August 1905) and the partition of Bengal (16 October 1905) by Lord Curzon.


Smt. Sarala Devi Chaudharani, niece of Rabindranath Tagore, sang Vande Mataram at the Benares Congress Session, despite the ban on its singing by the British Government.


Matangani Hazra’s last words were Vande Mataram when shot dead by Crown Police.


1906: - Lala Lajpat Rai, Lion of Punjab, started a journal called Vande Mataram from Lahore.


In March 1906, the Barisal Parishad was created and a Provincial Conference of Bengal held at Barisal. The delegates defied the ban imposed by the government and took out a massive procession through the city chanting Vande Mataram. They braved lathi-charges shedding blood and the conference came to an abrupt end.


On 7 August 1906, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) started his paper Vande Mataram, which became an immortal and unforgettable newspaper in the history of Indian Journalism.


1907: - Madame Bhikaiji Cama (1861-1936) unfurled the tricolour in the Congress of the Second International at Stuttgart. The Tricolour (Green, Saffron and Red) National Flag of India was designed by her and her friends in 1905 bearing the immortal words of Bande Mataram.


August 11, 1908: - 19 year old Kudiram Bose was hanged and he became immortal with the song of Vande Mataram on his lips.


August 17, 1909: - 26 year old Madan Lal Dhingra (1883-1909) was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London. He became immortal with Vande Mataram on his lips.


1915: - Indian National Congress adopted the singing of Vande Mataram as a sacred tradition to begin every session.


1927: - Gandhiji, who often extolled the grandeur of Vande Mataram, said the song held up before one’s mind the picture of the whole “Bharat one and indivisible.”


1943 to 1945: - Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose made Vande Mataram the song of his Indian National Army and it was regularly broadcast from his Singapore radio station.


Ever since Vande Mataram became the battle cry of the freedom movement, hundreds of eminent nationalist leaders and millions of freedom fighters have sacrificed their lives for this nation by chanting the sacred mantra Vande Mataram as their last words.


Sadly and unfortunately, as the forces of appeasement (read moderates) took over the reins of Indian National Congress, the forces of nationalism (“extremists” as called by the ‘moderates’) started waning from the scene and the Indian National Congress started viewing Vande Mataram as an “irritant” in the path of winning over Muslims. The end result was that the party failed to declare Vande Mataram, the soul of the freedom movement, as the National Anthem and opted for “Jana Gana Mana”. It also adopted Mohammed Iqbal’s Sare Jahan Se Accha as an associate national anthem, just to satisfy the Muslims.


Fortunately, the Constituent Assembly had the sense to make the final decision of giving equal importance to both “Vande Mataram” and “Jana Gana Mana”. While presiding over the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950, Dr. Rajendra Prasad stated, “The composition consisting of words and music such as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations as the Government may authorize as occasion arises, and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it. I hope this will satisfy members