"Vande Mātaram" is a poem that was adopted as the national song of the Republic of India in 1950. It was written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the 1870s, and was first published in 1882 as part of Chatterjee's Bengali novel Anandamath.
The poem is an ode to the motherland and became an important symbol of Indian nationalism during the Indian independence movement. It was sung at the Indian National Congress session in 1905 and became a prominent political slogan during the Swadeshi movement. On 24 January 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India declared Jana Gana Mana to be the National Anthem and stated that Vande Mataram, because of its historic role in the struggle for Indian freedom, would be "honoured equally" with it and have "equal status".
The first two stanzas of the song address the motherland in imagery centred on its natural beauty and do not explicitly invoke a Hindu deity, while the later stanzas contain references to Hindu religious imagery, including Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati. These later references became a subject of debate within the Indian National Congress during the 1930s. In 1937, the Congress Working Committee decided that only the first two stanzas should be sung at national gatherings, citing the religious allusions in the later stanzas and concerns about their suitability for gatherings representing different religious communities.
In 2026, the Government of India issued guidelines providing for the performance of the full six-stanza version of Vande Mataram at specified official functions. Parliament also amended the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 to extend statutory protection to the National Song, making it an offence to intentionally prevent its singing or cause a disturbance to an assembly engaged in singing it.
History
Composition
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was one of the earliest graduates of the newly established Calcutta University. After completing his Bachelor of Arts, he joined the colonial government as a civil servant, becoming a Deputy Collector and later a Deputy Magistrate. Chattopadhyay was very interested in recent events in Indian and Bengali history, particularly the Revolt of 1857 and the previous century's Sanyasi Rebellion. Around the same time, the administration was trying to promote "God Save the King" as the anthem for Indian subjects, which Indian nationalists disliked. It is generally believed that the concept of "Vande Mataram" came to Chatterjee when he was still a government official, around 1876. He wrote "Vande Mataram" at Chinsura (Chuchura), in a white colour house of Adhya Family near Hooghly river (near Jora Ghat) in West Bengal.
The novel Anandamath is noted for pro-British sentiments. In this novel, Chatterjee argues that the British rulers are the saviour of India and Indians cannot overcome arrogance without the British rule.
Chattopadhyay wrote the poem in a spontaneous session using words from Sanskrit and Bengali. The poem was published in Chattopadhyay's book Anandamath in 1882, which is set in the events of the Sannyasi Rebellion. Jadunath Bhattacharya was asked to set a tune for this poem just after it was written.
Indian independence movement
"Vande Mataram" was one of the most popular songs of protest during the Indian independence movement. The colonial government in response banned the book and made the recital of the song in public a crime. The colonial government imprisoned many independence activists for disobeying the order, but workers and general public repeatedly violated the ban many times by gathering together in the presence of colonial officials and singing it. Rabindranath Tagore sang "Vande Mataram" in 1896 at the Calcutta Congress Session held at Beadon Square. Dakhina Charan Sen sang it five years later in 1901 at another session of the Congress at Calcutta. Poet Sarala Devi Chaudurani sang the song in the Benares Congress Session in 1905. Lala Lajpat Rai started a journal called "Vande Mataram" from Lahore. Hiralal Sen made India's first political film in 1905 which ended with the chant. Matangini Hazra's last words as she was shot to death by the Crown police were "Vande Mataram".
On 20 May 1906 in Barisal (now Bangladesh), more than ten thousand people, both Hindus and Muslims, marched together with Vande Mataram flags in a landmark nationalist procession.
In 1907, Bhikaiji Cama (1861–1936) created the first version of India's national flag (the Tiranga) in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1907. It had "Vande Mataram" written on it in the middle band.
A book titled Kranti Geetanjali published by Arya Printing Press (Lahore) and Bharatiya Press (Dehradun) in 1929 contains the first two stanzas of the lyrics on page 11Kranti Geetanjali (Poems of Pt. Ram Prasad 'Bismil'), . as Matra Vandana, and a ghazal composed by Bismil was also given on its back, i.e. page 12. The book written by the famous martyr of Kakori Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil was proscribed by the colonial government.
Mahatma Gandhi supported adoption and the singing of the Vande Mataram song. In January 1946, in a speech given in Guwahati (Assam), he urged that "Jai Hind should not replace Vande-mataram". He reminded everyone present that Vande-mataram was being sung since the inception of the Congress. He supported the "Jai Hind" greeting, but remanded that this greeting should not be to the exclusion of Vande Mataram. Gandhi was concerned that those who discarded Vande Mataram given the tradition of sacrifice behind it, one day would discard "Jai Hind" also.Speech at Prayer Meeting (Guwahati, Assam) , The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, 10 January 1946, page 212
Adoption as national song of India Parts of the "Vande Mataram" was chosen as the national song in 1937 by the Indian National Congress as it pursued the independence of India from colonial rule, after a committee consisting of Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, Acharya Deva, and Rabindranath Tagore recommended the adoption.A. G. Noorani (1973), Vande Mataram: A Historical Lesson , EPW, Vol. 8, No. 23 (9 Jun. 1973), pages 1039–1043 The entire song was not selected by Hindu leaders in order to respect the sentiments of non-Hindus, and the gathering agreed that anyone should be free to sing an alternate "unobjectionable song" at a national gathering if they do not want to sing Vande Mataram because they find it "objectionable" for a personal reason. According to the gathered leaders, including the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, through the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are references to the Hindu goddess Durga. Tagore believed Vande Mataram could not unite all communities. The All-India Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah completely opposed the song in 1937.
In 1937, Indian National Congress President Subhas Chandra Bose asked Tagore for his views on Vande Mataram. Tagore replied:
Thereafter, with the support of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian National Congress decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song to be sung at public gatherings, and other verses that included references to Durga and Lakshmi were removed.
Rajendra Prasad, who was presiding the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950, made the following statement which was also adopted as the final decision on the issue:
...The composition consisting of the words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise 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. (Applause). I hope this will satisfy the Members. —Constituent Assembly of India, Vol. XII, 24-1-1950
Identification with Mother India and Mother Bengal
While the poem is an ode to the motherland, and the text does not explicitly name the figure, the question of its intended subject is debated. Even though some argue that, the poem initially refers to Mother Bengal a view supported by Sri Aurobindo, who referred to it as the "National Anthem of Bengal,"Sri Aurobindo commented on his English translation of the poem, "It is difficult to translate the National Anthem of Bengal into verse in another language owing to its unique union of sweetness, simple directness and high poetic force." Cited in Bhabatosh Chatterjee (ed.), Bankim Chandra Chatterjee: Essays in Perspective, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi, 1994, p. 601. conversely, a more substantial number of bipartisan political parties, historians and national sources emphasize the poem's broader significance as a pan-Indian symbol: it was officially adopted by the Indian National Congress (INC) for all-India use in 1905 and again by the Congress Working Committee in 1937 when it was sung by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore to serve as a militant salutation to Bharat Mata (Mother India), a concept integral to the pan-Indian Indian independence movement against the colonial British Raj. Its status as a symbol of the larger national resistance culminated in the Constituent Assembly granting it official status as the National Song in 1950, to be honoured equally with the National Anthem. Adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India on 24 January 1950, Vande Mataram is the national song of the Republic of India, sharing equal honour with the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. This status was initially affirmed by President Rajendra Prasad, and reaffirmed by the Madras High Court in 2017, and the Bhartiya Janta Party-ruled Government of India in November 2022, despite the Constitution of India containing no explicit reference to a "national song".
The poem played a vital role in the Indian independence movement. It first gained political significance when it was recited by Rabindranath Tagore at Congress in 1896. By 1905, it had become popular amongst political activists and freedom fighters as a marching song. The first two verses of the poem were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress. The song, as well as Anandamath, were banned under British colonial rule under threat of imprisonment, making its use revolutionary. The ban was ultimately overturned by the Indian government upon independence in 1947.
Official status as the national song
On 24 January 1950, the Constituent Assembly of India adopted "Vande Mataram" as the national song of the Republic of India. President of India Rajendra Prasad stated that the song should be honoured equally with the national anthem of India, "Jana Gana Mana".
In July 2017, the Madras High Court ruled that the "Vande Mataram" shall be sung or played at least once a week in all schools, universities and other educational institutions of Tamil Nadu. The Court also ruled that the song should be played or sung in government offices and industrial facilities at least once a month.Madras High Court makes Vande Mataram mandatory in schools and colleges , India Today (25 July 2017) However, in November 2017, the Madras High Court backtracked and left the decision for the Tamil Nadu's government to make the decision. In November 2022, the Union government filed an affidavit at the Delhi High Court, stating that "Jana Gana Mana" and "Vande Mataram" would "stand on the same level" and should be accorded equal respect by citizens, even though the Constitution of India does not make an explicit reference to a "national song".