First, let us take the argument that Vande Mataram goes against the core of Islamic faith. If one reads the standard translation of the song by Sri Aurobindo, it goes like this: “I bow to thee, Mother/ cool with winds of south/dark with the crops of the harvests/ The Mother! /Her night rejoicing in the glory of the moonlight/ her lands clothed beautifully with her trees in flowering bloom/ Sweet of laughter, sweet of speech/ The Mother, giver of boons, giver of bliss”. Where does it undermine the cardinal principle of the Muslim faith that God alone is to be worshipped? The whole song is a salute to the country. The problem, if any, is rather rooted in the semantics of the song, for it is written in Sanskrit. After all Iqbal, when he wrote ‘Sare jahan se accha hindostan hamara’, was echoing the same sentiment.

A careful reading of the song shows that nowhere does it put Muslims in a dilemma. Those lines that did mention goddesses Durga and Kali are not part of the national song. Only the first two stanzas of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s masterpiece has been sanctified as the national song.

Some argue that the origin of the song lies in Chatterjee’s historic work, Ananda Math (1882), which was virulently anti-Muslim. The origin of the Vande Mataram is a historical fact and nobody can dispute that. But the context and meaning of a cultural work is not fixed; it is always in a state of flux. We attribute meaning to a thing and, in due course, change its meaning too. That is why a song that may have its origin in a work which purveyed hatred against the Muslim rulers turned out in course of time to become the rallying cry of those who died for India’s freedom.

It is of course natural that the Vande Mataram controversy may make some Muslims feel beleaguered. Why should the singing of the Vande Mataram become a touchstone of their patriotism, they ask. There may be merit in their argument. But they should also stand up against the distorted views of people like Bukhari, who claim to speak for them. They would also remember what the Congress Working Committee said about this song when it met Calcutta in 1937: “The song was never sung as challenge to any group or community in India and was never considered as such or as offending the sentiments of any community.”