Almost since the time it was adopted as the national song, Vande Mataram has been associated as much with politics as with patriotism, striking uncomfortable communal chords. The controversy generated by the fatwa issued against the singing of the national song by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e- Hind on the grounds that its lyrics are un-Islamic and promote idol worship is just the latest in the string of objections that have been raised against the song from time to time:

The beginning

Written by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and first published in Anand Math in 1882, only the first two stanzas of Vande Mataram finally made the cut as the national song in the 1930s, with the composition coming under criticism for comparing the motherland to Goddess Durga. In 1937, the Congress Working Committee formed a committee comprising among others Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Abul Kalam Azad to look into these objections. It was then decided by the committee that the first two stanzas of the song were beyond reproach. However, the committee noted that “the other stanzas... contain certain allusions and a religious ideology which may not be in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups. The committee while recognising the validity of objections raised by Muslim friends to certain parts of the song (recommends that) wherever Vande Matraram is sung at national gatherings only the first two stanzas should be sung”. Incidentally, Rabindranath Tagore also questioned the suitability of Vande Mataram as a national song, stating in a letter to Subhas Chandra Bose in 1937 that “no Mussulman can be expected patriotically to worship the ten-handed deity as ‘Swadesh’... Parliament is a place of union for all religious groups, and there the song cannot be appropriate.”

... contd.