The song and dance over Vande Mataram

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."

Controversies

March 2004: Fifty-four Muslims were excommunicated by a Mufti in Agra after they sang the song at a meeting organised by the BJP's minority cell and reportedly said that singing Vande Mataram was against the tenets of Islam. The Mufti also annulled the marriages of the 54 and declared that singing the national song "would lead them to hell".

August 2006: There was an uproar in Parliament over a proposal that Vande Mataram be sung in schools at 11 am on September 7 that year, to mark the national song's centenary year. HRD minister Arjun Singh then "clarified" that the government never said that it would be "compulsory" to sing the song - leading to protests from the BJP and Shiv Sena that he was trying to pander to the minority community. This charge was met with equally vociferous protests from the Congress and UPA allies.

September 2007: The song was sung in many schools at the specified time, although some Muslim groups had advised parents to keep their children home on the day. Even some Sikh and Christian bodies opposed the move to make singing the song mandatory.

November 2007: Muslim religious leaders in Kashmir took strong exception to the singing of Vande Mataram at a Children's Day function in Srinagar, with several separatist leaders also joining in the protest. That the function was attended by then J-K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad only made matters worse, with the Grand Mufti declaring that 'innocent children' were being 'used' to further political interests. Azad had allegedly issued instructions to the Education Ministry to assemble a large crowd of students for the function.