150 Years of Vande Mataram

Syllabus: GS1/ Modern History 

Context

• India is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its national song, Vande Mataram.

Birth of Vande Mataram

• Vande Mataram was composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in Sanskrit and first appeared in the novel Anandamath  in 1882.
  • Anandamath is set against the backdrop of the 1769–73 Bengal famine and the Sanyasi Rebellion.
• First sung by Rabindranath Tagore at the 1896 Indian National Congress session gave it national exposure.
• The song celebrates the motherland as an embodiment of strength, prosperity, and divinity and provided a poetic voice to India’s awakening national consciousness.

Rise of National Consciousness

• During the Swadeshi Movement of 1905, Vande Mataram emerged as the anthem of civil resistance.
  • Vande Mataram, as a political slogan, was first used on 7 August 1905.
• For many young revolutionaries facing execution, Vande Mataram became the last chant before martyrdom, turning the song into a symbol of sacrifice.
• 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.
• In October 1905, a Bande Mataram Sampradaya was founded in North Calcutta to promote the idea of the Motherland as a mission and a religious passion.
• In 1906, an English daily titled Bande Mataram was launched under the editorship of Bipin Chandra Pal, with Aurobindo later joining as joint editor.

National Song

• After independence, the Constituent Assembly deliberated on the status of Vande Mataram.
• On 24 January 1950, the first two stanzas were adopted as India’s National Song.

About Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

• Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was one of the architects of modern Indian literature.
• As a distinguished novelist, poet, and essayist, his contributions significantly influenced the development of modern Bengali prose and the articulation of an emerging Indian nationalism.
• Other works: Durgeshanandini (1865), Kapalkundala (1866), and Devi Chaudhurani (1884).

Source: IE