Why Vande Madaram Was Dropped As Indian National Anthem

I wrote an article that Indian National Anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ written by Rabindranath Tagore was originally written in praise of King George IV.

While there were favorable comments,there have been few criticisms.

I shall write on the explanation provided by Tagore in another post.

In the meanwhile there isca lot of heat with a group calling for Indians to hail India as ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’- Victory unto Bharat(India)’ , Mother.

Predictability Muslims refused this saying that they will not as their Religion forbids worshiping any one other than Allah.

The other side calls them unpatriotic.

During the Freedom Struggle the song Vande Madaram was sung to rouse people and it was quite popular.

There was a concerted move to have this song as Indian National  Anthem.

As expected Muslims objected to this.

Now read on,

‘

But as communalism aggravated, its ‘importance’ got pumped up. The Hindu Mahasabha organised a ‘Vande Mataram Day’ in October 1937. In March 1938, Jinnah wrote: “Muslims all over [India] have refused to accept Bande Mataram… as a binding national anthem.” It was clear the freedom fighters would have to stall these ‘divide and rule’ tactics.

Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru approached Tagore for advice. In a remarkable letter to Bose, Tagore wrote: “The core of BM is a hymn to goddess Durga: this is so plain that there can be no debate about it… no Mussulman can be expected patriotically to worship the ten-handed deity as ‘Swadesh’….The novelAnandamath is a work of literature, and so the song is appropriate in it. But, Parliament is a place of union for all religious groups, and there the song cannot be appropriate…” In a post script, he added: “…[S]ince there are strong feelings on both sides, a balanced judgment is essential. In pursuit of our political aims we want peace, unity and good will — we do not want the endless tug of war…”

Not surprisingly, both Tagore and Gandhi came under attack from zealots. However, the national leadership stood firm. By end-October 1937, the Congress Working Committee, which included Nehru, Bose, Vallabhbhai Patel and Abul Kalam Azad, declared that “…[the first two stanzas] described in tender language the beauty of motherland… absolutely nothing in them to which objection could be from the religious or any other point of view…” However, they stated that “[the other stanzas] contain certain allusions and a religious ideology which may not be in keeping with the ideology of other religious groups in India. The Committee recognises the validity of the objection raised by Muslim friends to certain parts of the song… [T]aking all things into consideration therefore, the Committee recommend that wherever the BM is sung at national gatherings only the first two stanzas should be sung with perfect freedom to the organisers to sing any other song of an unobjectionable character…”

A sub-committee was constituted to decide which other songs could be sung at formal gatherings. Thus, while BM remained in use as a slogan, the song per se was sent into ‘retirement’ by the finest of Indians. This was no easy choice, given that many of them had a personal attachment to it. But they were pragmatic enough to banish their ‘musical weapon’ rather than allow the enemy to misuse it.’

This is it.

One should not waste time in trying to tell Muslims what  one should do.

They are beyond Nation.

Beyond country’s Laws.

One cacan not force a guest/ refugee to follow the Nation’s ethos.

For them their ‘Umma’ comes first.

Period.

Citation and reference.

http://m.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/tagore-and-that-song/article7342972.ece