Vande Mataram

Composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, ‘Vande Mataram’ was first published in the literary journal Bangadarshan in 1875.
Later, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee incorporated the hymn in his novel ‘Anandamath’ which was published in 1882.

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894) was one of the most prominent figures of 19th-century Bengal.
As a distinguished novelist, poet, essayist and civil servant his contributions significantly influenced the development of modern Bengali prose and the articulation of an emerging Indian nationalism.
His notable works include Anandamath, Durgeshnandini, Kapalkundala, and Devi Chaudhurani.

Ananda Math is set in the backdrop of the 1769-73 Bengal famine, which killed 10 million people, and the late-18th century Sanyasi Rebellion, a series of armed uprisings against the rule of Mir Jafar and his East India Company overlords.
The central plot of ‘Ananda Math’ revolves around a group of Sanyasins known as Santanas, who dedicate their lives to the cause of their motherland. They venerate the motherland personified as the mother goddess; their devotion is solely to their land of birth.
“Vande Mataram” is the song sung by the Santanas of Ananda Math.

It was set to music by Rabindranath Tagore and was first sung by him at the 1896 Indian National Congress session in Calcutta.
Its political significance emerged during the Swadeshi and anti-partition movements in Bengal, with the slogan Vande Mataram first raised publicly on August 7 1905 by thousands of students in Calcutta.
- At the Varanasi session of the Indian National Congress that same year, Vande Mataram was adopted for all-India occasions.
Over time, Vande Mataram became a rallying cry of freedom fighters, a slogan of resistance against the foreign power.

In 1907, Madam Bhikaji Cama raised the tricolour flag for the first-time outside India in Stuttgart, Berlin. The words Vande Mataram were written on the flag.
Two years later, revolutionary Madan Lal Dhingra’s final words before his execution in London were the same.
In 1909, Indian patriots in Paris undertook the publication of a magazine called Bande Mataram from Geneva.

Being officially adopted as the national song by the Constituent Assembly of India on 24th January 1950, the then President of the Constituent Assembly, Dr Rajendra Prasad, declared that Vande Mataram should be honoured equally with the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana.
Note: The Constitution never referred to any national song as part of the constitutional framework. It was only in 1976, by the 42nd amendment, that a provision was introduced for a fundamental duty under Article 51A (which also had a clause obligating every citizen to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideas and institutions, the National Flag, and the National Anthem).

The Union Cabinet has approved an amendment to the Prevention of Insults To National Honour Act, 1971 to make any insult or obstruction to the singing of National Song Vande Mataram a punishable offence.
At present, insults to the National Anthem Jana Gana Mana, the National Flag and the Constitution of India is mentioned in the 1971 Act and is punishable by an imprisonment of up to three years or a fine or both.

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