Vande Mataram
"Vande Mataram" (also pronounced "Bande Mataram") (IAST: Vande Mātaram) (transl. Mother, I bow to thee) is a Sanskrit poem written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1870s, which he included in his 1882 Bengali novel Anandamath. The poem was first sung by Rabindranath Tagore in 1896. The first two verses of the song were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress Working Committee prior to the end of colonial rule in August 1947.
Quotes
[edit]- It was an anti-imperialist cry... Vande Mataram had gripped me, and when I first heard it sung, it enthralled me. I associated the purest national spirit with it... Its chosen stanzas are Bengal's gift ... to the whole nation .
- Mahatma Gandhi, Harijan July 1939, in Lal, K. S. (2002). Return to roots. New Delhi: Radha.(50)
- The supreme service of Bankim [Chandra Chatterji] to his nation was that he gave us the vision of our Mother.... It is not till the Motherland reveals herself to the eye of the mind as something more than a stretch of earth or a mass of individuals, it is not till she takes shape as a great Divine and Maternal Power in a form of beauty that can dominate the mind and seize the heart that ... the patriotism that works miracles and saves a doomed nation is born... It was thirty-two years ago that Bankim wrote his great song and few listened; but in a sudden moment of awakening from long delusions the people of Bengal looked round for the truth and in a fated moment somebody sang Bande Mataram. The Mantra had been given and in a single day a whole people had been converted to the religion of patriotism. The Mother had revealed herself.
- Aurobindo, Bande Mataram, April 16, 1907, quoted from Sri Aurobindo, ., Nahar, S., Aurobindo, ., & Institut de recherches évolutives (Paris). India's rebirth: A selection from Sri Aurobindo's writing, talks and speeches. Paris: Institut de Recherches Evolutives. 3rd Edition (2000). [1]
- We used the Mantra Bande Mataram with all our heart and soul, and so long as we used and lived it, relied upon its strength to overbear all difficulties, we prospered. But suddenly the faith and the courage failed us, the cry of the Mantra began to sink and as it rang feebly, the strength began to fade out of the country. It was God, who made it fade out and falter, for it had done its work. A greater Mantra than Bande Mataram has to come. Bankim was not the ultimate seer of Indian awakening. He gave only the term of the initial and public worship, not the formula and the ritual of the inner secret upasana [worship]. For the greatest Mantras are those which are uttered within, and which the seer whispers or gives in dream or vision to his disciples. When the ultimate Mantra is practised even by two or three, then the closed Hand of God will begin to open; when the upasana is numerously followed the closed Hand will open absolutely.
- Aurobindo, quoted from Sri Aurobindo, ., Nahar, S., Aurobindo, ., & Institut de recherches évolutives (Paris). India's rebirth: A selection from Sri Aurobindo's writing, talks and speeches. Paris: Institut de Recherches Evolutives. 3rd Edition (2000). [2]
- Bande Mataram, apart from its wonderful associations, expresses the one national wish—the rise of India to her full height. And I should prefer Bande Mataram to Bharat Mata-ki-jai, as it would be a graceful recognition of the intellectual and emotional superiority of Bengal.
- Mahatma Gandhi quoted in B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946)
- And Bose's tragedy came to serve this turncoat (Nehru) in yet another context. He hated India's hallowed national battle-cry, Vande Mataram. It was couched in Sanskrit which he had never understood and never honoured. But worst of all, it offended the Muslims whom he wanted to please and pit against "Hindu communalism". So, while the name of Netaji was still stirring the people, he pleaded that Vande Mataram should be replaced by Jai Hind, a cocktail phrase hurriedly coined by the Azad Hind leaders in the heat of an emergency. I myself heard him, in several crowded meetings, asking his audience to shout Jai Hind more loudly than they had done. He himself gave the lead by raising his voice to the highest pitch. I also heard him singing qadam qadam baDhâyê jâ, the marching song of the Azad Hind Fauj, and expressing dissatisfaction when people failed to repeat the refrain in the right tune. He suffered from no qualms in fattening himself on the fame of a "fascist".
- S.R.Goel, GENESIS AND GROWTH OF NEHRUISM , Vol I
- A most telling instance in point is the one relating to Vande Mataram. That celebrated song first appeared in the historical novel Ananda Math of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. It was a hymn of love of motherland sublimated into an ecstatic devotion to the Divine Mother-Bharat. In that exalted vision was manifest the trinity of Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge and cuiture), Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth and beauty) and Durga (the goddess of strength and energy). When Bengal was partitioned in 1905, Vande Mataram became the battlesong of the entire nation. Congress too, thereafter, adopted it as the national anthem and it was Rabindranath Tagore who sang it for the first time in the Congress session. To the British imperialist the very utterance of that simple expression Vande Mataram became the proverbial red rag to the bull. The Lt. Governor of East Bengal had ordained that no one should utter that word ; it was a ‘crime’. Thousands of young men had mocked that order and braved the British lathis and boots in the streets of Barisal by their thunderous roar of Vande Mataram. They had shed their blood and sanctfied that word into a potent and holy Rashtra-Mantra. It soon became the joyful and inspiring chant playing on the lips of the literate as well as the illiterate, the rich and the poor, the urban and the rural, the old and the young—in fact of one and all-men, women and children. Hundreds of revolutionary heroes ascended the gallows with that final obeisance to the Mother. Gandhiji would often extol the grandeur of that song. At Comilla, in 1927, he said that the song held up before one’s mind the picture of the whole of Bharat-one and indivisible. Those two simple words had, indeed, wrought a miracle which even thousands of speeches and articles could not have achieved. It had become the cry of the awakened and resurgent national soul.
- “First of all it has to be remembered that no formal national anthem has been adopted by the Congress at any time. It is true, however, that the Bande Mataram song has been intimately associated with Indian nationalism for more than thirty years and numerous associations of sentiment and sacrifice have gathered round it,” Nehru informed, according to the Congress and the Muslims. “We have recognised that in the rest of the song there is ideology, imagery, allegory, etc., which people of various groups cannot put up with. Remember, we are thinking in terms of a national song for all India. Therefore if there is an ideology which various groups in India cannot honestly and sincerely accept, then, it is an improper ideology for a national song,” Nehru argued further fuelling the objections raised by the Islamists. “I, for myself, cannot really enthuse over an ideology, Hindu or Muslim. As soon as the ideology comes. I forget Bande Mataram. People’s mind is diverted to other thoughts and it introduces a sense of confusion in their minds, since their attention is diverted to allegories, phraseologies and ideologies which do not suit other people,” he boasted. He stated, “The Congress has not officially adopted any song as a kind of national anthem. In practice however the Bande Mataram is often used in national gatherings together with other songs. The reason for this is that 30 years ago this song and this cry became a criminal offence and developed into a challenge to British imperialism.” “It contains too many difficult words which people do not understand and the ideas it contains are also out of keeping with modem notions of nationalism and progress,” Nehru contended to justify his absurd statement and added, “We should certainly try to have more suitable national songs in simple language.” “I suppose in time we shall get something good. Meanwhile, there is no reason why we should not give full permission for the use of the Bande Mataram as well as other favoured songs which many people have come to associate with our struggle for freedom,” he concluded.
- “Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore once said that Bankim Chandra’s ‘Anandmath’ is not just a novel. It is a dream of an independent India. Every word written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, not Bankim Babu, had deep meaning. This song was created during the time of slavery, but it is not limited to that time… The Vande Bharat song is relevant in every era. It has attained immortality. One-fourth share of global GDP was held by India just a few centuries ago,” he said.
“In 1875, when Bankim Babu published ‘Vande Mataram’ in ‘Bang Darshan’, some people thought it was just a song. But in no time, ‘Vande Mataram’ became the voice of India’s freedom struggle. A voice that was on the tongue of every revolutionary, a voice that expressed the emotions of every Indian! When freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar, living outside Bharat, met each other, their greeting was always Vande Mataram. Many revolutionaries, even while standing on the gallows, said Vande Mataram,” the PM added.
“For those who consider the nation as a geopolitical entity, the idea of viewing the nation as a mother might seem surprising. But India is different; in India, the mother is both the creator and the nurturer. And if a crisis befalls the child, the mother becomes the “destroyer” as well. Our Vedas have taught us that the nation is our mother and we are her children… We have worshipped our nation in this form since the Vedic period… The notion that a nation can be a mother can be surprising for those who view nations as geopolitical entities. But India is different. Here, a nation is also the one that gives birth and nurtures… She is also a destroyer if a child is in danger… Because of this emotion of considering the nation as mother and a form of Shakti, mahila shakti was forefront in building the nation…” the PM stated.- N. Modi, 2025, quoted in “Removal of significant verses in Vande Mataram sowed seeds of partition”: PM Modi
