By Matters India Reporter
Chennai: The Madras High Court on July 25 ruled that all schools and colleges in Tamil Nadu should sing India’s national song at least once a week.
Justice MV Murlidharan also said that no one should be forced to sing “Vande Mataram” (I bow to thee, Mother) if someone has a “difficulty,” but “valid reasons” must be provided for not doing so.
Vande Mataram is a poem Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote in 1870s as part of his novel Anandamath. The song had inspired independence movement for five decades and India adopted its first two verses as the national song when it became free in 1947.
Justice Murlidharan has directed the Tamil Nadu government to make available on government websites and social media, English and Tamil translations of ‘Vande Mataram.'”If people feel it is difficult to sing the song in Bengali or in Sanskrit, steps can be taken to translate the song in Tamil,” the judge added.
The court wants factories and offices in the state to sing the song at least once a month, report agencies.
The judge observed that “patriotism is an essential requirement for every citizen of this country. The fact that this country is our Motherland should always be remembered by every citizen of this country.
Several people have sacrificed their lives and families to the independent struggle that prolonged for several decades. In these tough times, it was songs like our national song “Vande Mataram” which created a sense of belief and confidence in the people.”
“It would be desirable that the National Song ‘Vande Mataram’ is sung by citizens from different walks of life as frequently as possible in their educational institutions/offices/ workplace/stadiums,” he added.
The judge expressed the hope that his “order shall be taken in the right spirit and also implemented in letter and spirit,’ noting that the “youth of this country are the future of tomorrow.”
The court order applies to schools, colleges and offices managed by the government and private sectors.
The order is part of the court’s verdict on a petition by a man who had lost marks in a test for a teacher’s job because his answer that ‘Vande Mataram’ was first written in Bengali was marked wrong. The teacher recruitment board said the right answer was Sanskrit.
The court has ordered that the board to give the petitioner the marks and consider him for a teacher’s job at the next vacancy.
The song was written in Sanskrit but printed in Bengali script.
Certain groups object to its saying it is an ode to goddess Durga. The “mother goddess” in later verses of the song has been interpreted as the motherland of the people – Bangamata (Mother Bengal) and Bharat Mata (Mother India), although the text does not mention this explicitly.
The song was first sung in a political context by Rabindranath Tagore at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress. Lala Lajpat Rai started a journal called Vande Mataram from Lahore. Hiralal Sen made India’s first political film in 1905 which ended with the chant.
Mahatma Gandhi supported the first two verses of Vande Mataram as a national song.
Indian nationalist and philosopher Sri Aurobindo referred it as “National Anthem of Bengal.” The British had banned the song and the novel containing it, but people defied the ban and many went to colonial prisons repeatedly for singing it.
In 1950, the song’s first two verses were declared the “national song” of the Republic of India, distinct from the national anthem of India, Jana Gana Mana.
Chattopadhyay, one of the earliest graduates of the newly established Calcutta University, was a district collector. He wrote the song around the time when the British tried to promote “God Save the Queen” as the anthem for Indian subjects. The concept of Vande Mataram came to him around 1876.
In 1937, the Indian National Congress chose parts of the Vande Mataram as the national song, recommended by a committee comprising Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subbash Bose, Acharya Deva and Rabrindanath Tagore.
The leaders saw the first two stanzas as an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, whereas later stanzas referred to the Hindu goddess Durga.
The Muslim League and Muhammad Ali Jinnah opposed the song. Thereafter, with the support of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian National Congress decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song to be sung at public gatherings.
Rajendra Prasad, who was presiding the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950, made the following statement which was also adopted as the final decision on the issue:
The composition consisting of words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations as the Government may authorize as occasion arises, and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honored equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it. I hope this will satisfy members. (Constituent Assembly of India, Vol. XII, 24-1-1950)
The poem has been set to more than a hundred tunes, the oldest dating back to 1907. Many versions have employed traditional South Asian classical ragas. In 1997, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Independence of India, a musical album composed by A R Rahman, titled Vande Mataram, was released.nd