'Sowed the seeds of Partition': PM Modi slams Congress for removing 'important stanzas' from Vande Mataram

Jayanta Bhattacharya

New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reference to a truncated version of 'Vande Mataram' at the November 7 inauguration of a year-long commemoration of the National Song's sesquicentennial invited sharp political repartees without considering the reason. 
 

Similar jibes were witnessed at Parliament on Monday, when Lok Sabha was discussing the commemoration.

The Congress has been accused of steering the removal of "important stanzas" of 'Vande Mataram' during its 1937 Faizabad session.

The Prime Minister had alleged that the decision "sowed the seeds of Partition".

The grand old party, meanwhile, claims that the decision was based on the recommendation of the Congress Working Committee that time.

The panel included Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rajendra Prasad, Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu, among other senior leaders.

It was, the party claimed, in line with the advice of Rabindranath Tagore.

During Monday's Lok Sabha debate, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claimed that the original verse, composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay around 1875, contained the lines as these are in the National Song.

She claimed that when Chattopadhyay wrote the novel Anandamath, published in 1882, he included the song, adding more paragraphs.

The novel revolves around a group of 'Sanyasis' (Hindu ascetics), who called themselves 'Santan' (children) of their Motherland, and dedicated their lives to the cause of that mother.

They venerated the motherland personified as the Mother goddess; their devotion solely to their land of birth.

In Anandamath, the Santans render the song and use Vande Mataram as a salutation, hailing the Motherland.

The Sanyasis had placed three images of the Mother separately, representing one that was -- great and glorious in her majestic grandeur; Mother that was at that moment -- in darkness; and Mother that will be -- in her pristine glory.

The first stanza "Vande Mataram; Sujalaṃ suphalaṃ; Malayajasitalam; Sasyasyamalam; Mataram; Vande Mataram" may be loosely translated as: "I bow before you Mother whose lands are fertile, with enough food and water, where the wind is cool and delightful, with crops waving in fields".

Chattopadhyay explained the song through the words of a 'Santan' in Anandamath.

The character, Bhabananda, is calm and composed like a sanyasi, but when needed, turns into a brave and skilled warrior.

Bhabananda then further sings an ode to the Motherland in all her glory who nourishes life, speaks melodiously, "Subhra-jyotsna-pulakita-yaminim; Phullakusumita-drumadalasobhinim; Suhasiniṃ sumadhurabhasinim; Sukhadaṃ varadaṃ Mataram; Vande Mataram."

Here, Bhabananda is interrupted by the protagonist, Mahendra, rescued by Santans from the clutches of British sepoys, saying that the song is an ode to the country, not mother.

The Sanyasi-warrior explains, "Janani Janmabhumishcha Swargadapi Gariyasi" (My motherland is greater than Heaven) where they have no relatives or abode but only "Sujalaṃ suphalaṃ; Malayajasitalam; Sasyasyamalam" Mother.

He then goes on to describe an image manifested with knowledge, religion, life, power and devotion whose idols are built in temples.

As he comes close to the end, Bhabananda starts to cry, where Mahendra, who saw him as a dacoit earlier, is amazed and seeks his identity.

"We're Santan (children)," he says.

Thus, the part considered "controversial" is about the manifestation of powers in one Mother -- the land of birth, which is above any other relation or personal interest.

However, religion has been raised as a contentious issue in the song since the time that Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the Muslim League raised a protest against it in the 1930s, alleging to references made in the song to Hindu goddesses.

That was said to have led to truncating the song which still remains an issue till today, nearly eight decades since Independence, in a country declared Secular.

--IANS

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