Here is Subramania Bharati’s Tamil adaptation of Vande Mataram, which is commonly sung in Tamil Nadu without anyone objecting to it. Is there any Hindu idolatry in the following inspirational lines?

Vande Mataram enbom

Engal manila thayai Vanangudum enbom

Jaathi mathangalai parom

Uyar Janmamiththesathil eithinarayin...

(We chant Vande Mataram, and/ Pay obeisance to Mother Land/ We see no caste or communal barriers/ All born in this sacred land are high-born.)

The minority Muslim opinion that deems Vande Mataram un-Islamic is raising pre-Partition objections because it is still guided by the pre-Partition separatist mindset. The Muslim concerns were accommodated by the Indian National Congress, which was the leading force in India’s freedom movement, way back in 1937 by abridging the song only to its first two stanzas, thus leaving out subsequent ones that liken Mother India to Durga. And even after the Muslim League, which had objected to Vande Mataram, succeeded in its communal agenda of carving out Pakistan as a separate homeland for Muslims, our Constituent Assembly reaffirmed its faith in India’s secular character and accorded the national song status only to the abridged version of Bankim Chandra’s immortal composition.

To those sectarian Muslims, and their supporters in the pseudo-secular camp, who even today question why Vande Mataram was gien any kind of national status at all in independent India, it is enough to let Pandit Nehru answer them. Participating in the Constituent Assembly debate, he said: ‘‘Vande Mataram is obviously and indisputably the premier national song of India, with a great historical tradition, and intimately connected with our struggle for freedom. That position it is bound to retain and no other song can displace it. It represents the position and poignancy of that struggle...’’

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