(The Hindu
September 6, 2006)
A souvenir, not an emblem
Malini Parthasarathy
Vande Mataram, the `national song,' played a stirring, historic role in mobilising people in the freedom struggle. But it cannot be an emblem of contemporary Indian nationhood.
FEW WOULD dispute the historic significance or the nostalgic value that attaches to the song `Vande Mataram.' It was truly the `national song' as the leaders of the freedom movement and the framers of the Constitution noted during the early days of India's Independence. This was because of its powerful potential for mobilisation, as its stirring words and imagery inspired thousands to join the nationalist struggle against the British imperialists. But equally part of the song's history were its troubling connotations in terms of its religious imagery and its anthropomorphic depiction of the Indian nation, which left many uneasy with the idea of enshrining it as the national anthem. As is well known, the leaders of the new nation, including Jawaharlal Nehru, decided that Rabindranath Tagore's `Jana Gana Mana' would be the national anthem while Vande Mataram would be its `national song.'
The mixed feelings of the Constitution framers vis-à-vis the Vande Mataram song were summed up succinctly by Jawaharlal Nehru to the Constituent Assembly in 1948, as A.G. Noorani has pointed out in a comprehensive analysis in Frontline (January 15, 1999). Nehru is quoted as paying tribute to Vande Mataram as "indisputably the premier national song of India with a great historical tradition and intimately connected with our struggle for freedom ... It represents the position and the poignancy of that struggle, but perhaps not so much the culmination of it." The latter part of Nehru's observation — "perhaps not so much the culmination of it" — holds the key to the puzzle why the idea of celebrating or commemorating this song continues to elicit so much controversy and resistance, even while there is acknowledgment of its historic place in the annals of India's struggle for freedom. If Vande Mataram had its undeniable appeal to large sections of people, clearly Hindus, who were moved by the depiction of Bharat Mata or Mother India and the references to the Goddess Durga, it obviously alienated the non-Hindu minorities who were otherwise eager participants in the struggle for freedom.
Even before Independence, the Congress party recognised the limited sectional appeal of the song and was impelled to point out that it should not be forced on communities that found the sentiments in it repugnant. The Congress Working Committee in 1937 recommended that the stanzas that had "certain allusions and a religious ideology" should be dropped and that only the first two stanzas should be sung at national gatherings. Noorani's analysis quotes the Working Committee as observing that "past associations with their long record of suffering for the cause, as well as popular usage, have made the first two stanzas of this song a living and inseparable part of our national movement and as such they must command our affection and respect ... The other two stanzas of the song are little known and hardly ever sung. They contain certain allusions and a religious ideology which may not be in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups in India." Thus it was acknowledged even before Independence that Vande Mataram had problematic associations despite its unquestionable rousing effect and powerful impact.
Pressure on non-Hindus
The reluctance of the Congress to give official symbolic importance to the Vande Mataram song is clearly a casus belli for Hindu nationalists who have, from time to time, raised this issue as a point in their own campaign for majoritarianism. This latest controversy triggered by Union Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh's recommendation that schools sing the first two stanzas of the song on its centenary has generated fresh momentum for the Hindu majoritarian campaign. BJP-ruled States have quickly jumped on the bandwagon, making it compulsory to sing the song that day. In other words, the occasion is now being used to put fresh pressure on non-Hindu citizens, particularly Muslims, to put aside their reservations and compulsorily defer to majoritarian sentiment. The controversy has centred mainly on the overtones of conflict but there is another issue that has received less attention. Of concern too is the question of the appropriateness of the symbolism contained in the Vande Mataram song in the context of the genre of nationhood that India has adopted and is continuing to adhere to — civic nationalism.
The anthropomorphic depiction of the Indian nation that Vande Mataram evokes — Bharat Mata, with its allusions to Durga — is more suited to a context of cultural nationalism. It is important to recall that the new Indian nation that came into being in 1947 was the product of a mass struggle of people of diverse identities, belonging to different communities and regions. This recognition brought forth an open acknowledgment from the makers of modern India that the national ethos that would power the new nation would be only civic and territorial in nature, with civic identity rather than any affiliation being given primacy in the new structure. It was acknowledged that all communities were equal stakeholders in the new democratic republic. It was therefore clear that symbols such as Vande Mataram that had strong overtones of cultural nationalism could not have a place among the official symbols of India's nationhood.
It is in this spirit that the Vande Mataram song needs to be viewed as the UPA Government strives to banish the unpleasantness of the polarising politics of the past few years in which Hindu cultural nationalism sought to stage a comeback, valiantly resisted and overcome by the mass of Indian citizens committed to a diverse and pluralist view of Indian nationhood. While it would be fair to pay homage to the historic importance of the Vande Mataram song and its role in mobilising people in the nationalist struggle decades ago, it is equally important to remember that at best it is a souvenir of the nationalist awakening. It is not and cannot be an emblem of contemporary Indian nationhood.
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