Political Diary

New Delhi, 7 November 2009

It Is Only A Song

MUSLIM ANTE ON VANDE MATRAM

By Poonam I Kaushish

 
A tempest in a teapot. That is the sum total of the zero sum game over the needless hungama over Vande Mataram. Yet again. No matter that it ignited patriotism, galvanised Indians to gang up against the British and throw out the firangis and won India its freedom.

Stirred by who else, but the widely respected Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind (JUH) which out of the blue issued a fatwa against singing Vande Mataram. In a resolution on the concluding day of the three-day conference at Deoband in UP the Islamic clerics stated that singing the national song was anti-Islamic and amounted to worshipping the motherland. This went against the concept of tawheed (oneness of God), according to which a Muslim cannot supplicate to anyone except Allah. Besides, patriotism didn't require singing Vande Mataram in schools.

Arguably why now? A question that has perplexed many given there was no immediate provocation and all was quiet. Why a fatwa? Many shrug it off by averring that opposition to Vande Mantara taken from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya’s 19th century Hindu nationalistic novel, Anandamath, has a long chequered history of reservation among certain Muslim groups and would continue to be fodder for future debates Besides, the Supreme Court has indicated that singing of the national song must not be made compulsory for all.

Not a few assert that the national song is just another prop to celebrate the nation State and undue importance mustn’t be given to it. Others aver that singing Vande Mataram must neither be made a test case of patriotism nor should people be obstinate about not singing it. Notwithstanding, that it is compulsorily played at the end of every session of Parliament.

However, some suggest there is some method in this madness. The Muslims seem to be tilting towards the Congress given the Party’s unexpected victory in 20 seats Lok Sabha seats from UP in the General Elections.  But with a rider. Fulfill our demands, like implementation of the Sachar Committee report etc.  Knowing that by doing so, it has put the Party in a quandary. If the Congress concedes this, it could lose the upper-caste Hindus vote-bank which is slowly returning to its fold. Thus, the safest bet for the JUH is to raise the ante on an emotional issue to ignite the rabid Hindutwa brigade  and leave the Grand dame with no option.

But with a rider. Fulfill our demand, like the implementation of the Sachar Committee report. Knowing that if the Congress concedes this, it could lose the upper-caste Hindus vote-bank which too seems to be returning to its fold. Thus, the safest bet for the JUH is to raise the ante on an emotional issue to ignite the rabid Hindutwa brigade, put the Party in a quandary and leave it with no option.  

In this context, it is pertinent to understand how and why Vande Mataram came to be recognized as a national song and why the Muslims consider it un-Islamic, full of hatred against Muslims and offensive. Vande Mataram was written in 1875 and published in Chatterjee’s Anandamath in 1882. The story starts with a group of sadhus who call themselves santan, the children of Bharat Mata whose leader Satyanand is imprisoned by the Nawab. The sadhus vow to set their guru free, shout that they would throw the Muslims into the river and set their houses on fire. They not only succeed in freeing their guru but welcome British rule in India. In short, atrocities against Muslims, is a recurrent theme in the novel.

When Bengal is ravaged by the 1770 famine, the East India Company, forces the farmers to cultivate cloth whitener instead of foodgrains as it is a big export earner. Triggering an anti-British revolt wherein Vande Mataram soon became the popular battle cry for freedom from British Raj. Large rallies all over the country worked themselves to a feverish pitch by shouting Vande Mataram. Many were jailed and the song was banned. But it failed to stop the patriotic fervour. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore sang it in 1896 at the Calcutta Congress Session and Lala Lajpat Rai started a journal called Vande Mataram from Lahore.

The Congress formally adopted it as a national song through a resolution at its Varanasi Session on September 7, 1905. Thereafter, it became the opening note for all the Congress meetings and sessions. Its powerful patriotic lines stirred the whole nation. Neta Subhash Chandra Bose made it the Indian National Army's principal song and his Singapore-based radio station regularly broadcast it.

In October 1937, some Muslim leaders objected to Vande Mataram on the ground that it contained verses that were in direct conflict with the beliefs of Islam. True, the first two stanzas of the hymn eulogise Mother India and its beautiful natural bounties with “hurrying streams, gleaming orchards…..” But the fourth stanza of the song, for instance, addressed Mother India as, "Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen, with her hands that strike and her swords of sheen, Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned…." It was argued that by singing this, a Muslim was forced to equate his country with the Hindu goddesses Durga and Lakshmi. This went against the concept of Islam according to which a Muslim could not supplicate to anyone except Allah.

Nehru understood his Muslims brethrens’ religious predicament and soon worked out a compromise formula through some fine balancing. Even as he underscored the hymn’s national importance in the freedom struggle. The Congress Working Committee met in Kolkata in 1937 under his Presidentship and adopted a resolution, whereby only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram would be sung. Moreover, freedom was given to the organisers to sing any other song of an unobjectionable character, in addition to, or in the place of, Vande Mataram.

Interestingly, while Vande Mataram was treated as India’s national anthem for long, Jana Gana Mana was chosen as the national anthem of free India following Independence. The song was rejected on the ground that Muslims felt offended by its depiction of the nation as "Ma Durga"—a Hindu goddess— thus equating the nation with the Hindu conception of Shakti, divine feminine dynamic force. No matter the Constituent Assembly on 24 January 1950 that Vande Mataram would enjoy “equal status” with Jana Gana Mana.

Over the decades Muslim animus towards Vande Mataram has reared its head time and again. In 1998, the NDA had to withdraw a circular by the then UP Government making the recitation of Vande Mataram compulsory. Ditto the case with the UPA in September 2006 when it’s then HRD Minister Arjun Singh had to hurriedly retract his order to all the State Governments making singing of Vande Mataram compulsory in all schools on 7 September to mark completion of the centenary celebrations commemorating adoption of the national song.

Either which way, the Islamic clergy has to realize that in secular India there is no place for fundamentalism, be it Hindu or Muslim. All our patriots. At the same time the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind and its ilk have to realize that a regressive and orthodox social agenda that it propagates (like anti- Women Reservation Bill, homosexuality, no TV et al) will prevent the minority community from making full use of the windows of opportunities, social cohesion and change offered by a democratic State. Instead it will present a fait accomplice and perfect foil to parochial groups with vested agendas to play up the politics of victimhood and feather their own nests. This has to be prevented at all costs.

Remember, India’s multi-pluralistic character, pulsating democracy and civil society is neither rigid nor frozen in time. It is constantly evolving. True, one song cannot make or mar the future of a nation or its people. But Vande Mataram is our national song and symbol of national pride, on par with Jana Gana Mana. It is high time we stopped trivializing and trashing it. All secular minded Indians must collectively thwart our beautiful and melodious national song Vande Mataram being turned behsura, in the hands of our political drumbeaters! ----- INFA

(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)