Vande Mataram The National Song of India

The song Vande Mataram was composed in the year the 1870s. Vande Mataram is a poem written by the Bengali poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Initially, he wrote the poem in Sanskrit and Bengali. He was also included in the Bengali novel Anandamath, which was published in 1882. Vande Mataram first sung session was held in Indian National Congress at Calcutta in 1896, and Rabindranath Tagore was the first person to sing the song. Indian National Congress adopted the Vande Mataram as the National Song of India in October 1937 to find an end to colonial rule before 1947.

The author of Vande Mataram also included it in the Bengali script “Anandmath”.   On 24th January 1950,  the Constituent Assembly of India started adopting  "Vande Mataram" as a national song.  Later, Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, said that the song has an equal honour to the national anthem of India, "Jana Gana Mana". But the constitution did not release any official notice regarding Vande Mataram National Song Of India. 

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The above image shows Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who is an author of Vande Mataram. 

A Brief History About Vande Mataram Indian National Song

In 1870, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay served as a district collector under British rule. He wrote the song Vande Mataram in the novel Anandamath to glorify the nation’s freedom movement among the people of India.  He published the novel Anandamath in 1882. The central theme of the Vande Mataram is to explain the struggle of India’s freedom movement. At that time, India was under the British empire. Many revolts started against the British rule among Indians. Chattopadhyay’s Anandamath created a much more nationalistic feeling among the people of India.

Vande Mataram During Independence Movement 

The song Vande Mataram was composed in the year 1896 by Rabindranath Tagore. This song played an important role during the Indian independence movement. Vande Mataram Sung for the first time by Rabindranath Tagore in the Indian National Congress held in Calcutta. Sri Aurobindo, a spiritual Indian nationalist and philosopher, also referred to Vande Mataram as the "National Anthem of Bengal". Later, the colonial government also banned the novel, which contains this song. But, Indians fought against the ban and gained their independence from colonial rule in 1947. The first two stanzas of Vande Mataram are referring to the motherland and mother. But the other four stanzas of the song mentioned the goddess Durga. So, this song was not specified as the national anthem of India.

Then, "Vande Mataram" emerged as the most popular song for protesting against British rule for the Indian independence movement.  So, the British empire banned the book and marked it as a crime by narrating or singing the song publicly. The British government also imprisoned the independence activists, who disobeyed and used the song for creating a revolution. But the public never obeyed the rule and violated the rules many times by gathering together and singing the "Vande Mataram" song. After Rabindranath Tagore, In 1901, Dakhina Charan Sen sang the same song in another congress session, which was held at Calcutta. In 1905, Poet Sarala Devi Chaudurani sang the song in Benares Congress Session. Lala Lajpat Rai also started publishing a journal with the name  Vande Mataram from Lahore.  In 1905, Hiralal Sen created the first Indian political film.

Later, Mahatma Gandhi also supported the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram as a national song. In 907, Bhikaiji Cama took measures to frame the first version of India’s national flag in Stuttgart, Germany, and he wrote Vande Mataram in the middle of the flag band.

In 1929, Arya Printing Press in Lahore and Bharatiya Press in Dehradun published the book  Kranti Geetanjali, which contains the first two stanzas of the Vande Mataram. Kakori Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil also wrote a book and composed Matra Vandana and a ghazal, but the British rulers forbade the publication.

In January 1946, Mahatma Gandhi also supported adopting the Vande Mataram song. But he said that it should not replace  "Jai Hind". Initially, People kept Vande Mataram as the National anthem of India. Later, many people thought that the  Vande Mataram was utterly dependent on Hinduism. So, this added fuel for war between Hindu and Muslims. Also, for the partition of India and Pakistan. After India, Pakistan partition, In 1951, Vande Mataram was removed from the status of the National anthem as it is religiously contentious and placed “Jana Gana Mana”, which was written by Rabindranath Tagore as the country’s national anthem. But Vande Mataram was honoured by keeping them as a national song.

Important Facts About Vande Mataram Indian National Song

1. The song Vande Mataram was composed in the year 1876, which was authored by the Bengali poet, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in Bengali and Sanskrit. 

2. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote the song at Chinsurah, which is near the River Hooghly. 

3. This song was taken from the novel Anand Math, which was published in 1882. 

4. He wrote the Vande Mataram song while serving as a district collector. 

5. After he completed the poem, Jadunath Bhattacharya asked him to compose a tune for the poem. 

6. On 24th January 1950, Vande Mataram Song got an equal status to the national anthem “Jana Gana Mana”

7. Vande Mataram first sung session is in the Indian National Congress session, which was held at Calcutta in 1896.

8. The main aim of the song is to promote Mother Land India. Vande Mataram Indian National Song played an important role in the Indian independence movement.

9. The original Vande Mataram song has six stanzas. 

10. Shri Aurobindo from Karmayogin translated the poem Vande Mataram into prose on 20th November 1909.

11. Vande Mataram was sung for the first time by Rabindranath Tagore.