The word Yavana was used in the epic Mahabharata to identify the Greeks. But the ancient people of Indian kingdoms used the word for the foreign invaders including Muslims and British who came and conquered Hindu Kingdoms.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, a Bengali writer, and poet, who composed the song Vande Mataram or Hail to the Mother and included it in his fiction-novel Anadamath. The majority of Indians, irrespective of their beliefs, got inspired singing the song against the British rule.
Rahimtullah M Sayani, a Muslim and the second president of Indian National Congress, who presided over the 12th Annual Session of the Congress held in Calcutta in 1896, when Vande Mataram was sung for the first time.
In 1925, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was not an observing Muslim but rather an anglophile, who had a love for eating pork sausage, ham sandwich, and drinking alcohol, said he would not sing it.
In October 1937, at the sitting of Congress working committee in Calcutta said, "If you have any problem with singing the full song you can sing the first two stanzas of the song." The two stanzas were chosen for the Indian national song because, in the other stanzas, the goddess Durga was personified as the mother, and also mandir mentioned in it, which might have offended the Muslims.
In the same year, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad accepted it as the national song of India. In 1946, Nehru said, "Vande Mataram is obviously and undisputedly the premier national song of India with a great historical tradition and connected to the struggle for freedom."
The first two stanzas of the song were adopted as the national song of India in 1947. The song had been sung on 14 and 15 August 1947 at the 5th Assembly of Congress, when there was no constitution. When Maulana Abul Kalam Azad became the first education minister of independent India, he again praised and sung the song. After 1952, the first two stanzas have been played and sung in the House of the People and the Council of States, and schools. The Muslim parliamentarians in both the parliaments also stand up and sing the national song.
Before the partition of India, Muslims were divided over the song. The Muslims who would like Jinnah did not want to sing the song and migrated to Pakistan. The controversy is back again after many decades. The nation is again divided over the song. So the hardline Hindu nationalists tell Muslims to go to Pakistan if they don't want to sing the song. If they want to live in India they must have to sing the song.
Analysts say that the song must be sung by every Indian irrespective of their religious beliefs because it inspires patriotism in them. But others say that you don't need to sing the song to justify your patriotism. In the eyes of some Indian Muslims, the national song is un-Islamic. And, the right to practice religion is guaranteed under the Indian constitution, articles 25, 26, and 27.
So if anyone doesn't want to sing the song, nobody can force them to sing it. Somebody should be given the right to sing it or not, but they can't be forced to sing it. It is not acceptable to force somebody to sing the national song. But unfortunately, some hardline Hindu nationalists have been forcing and assaulting Muslims who don't want to sing the song. They also say that the secularists insult everything including the national song, army, and flag in the name of secularity. They blame that the people who are opposing the national song are guilty of appeasing Muslims.
When the constitution doesn't give you the right to enforce this song on somebody sing, you can't force it or harass anybody sing it. You can't tell somebody to leave the country or go to Pakistan. The constitution doesn't give you the right to do so. No rule enacted in the parliament to make it mandatory to sing the song. There is no instruction in the constitution that tells a citizen to sing the national song.
If the present ruling party thinks Vande Mataram must be sung by every citizen of the country, why doesn't it enact a law in this regard? But the ruling party doesn't want to do that and using the Hindu nationalism and emotion to gain populism. To satisfy the Hindu nationalism and vote purposes, the national anthem issue has been raised over and over again.
There are tons of issues that should be dealt with. But the hardline Hindu nationalists and ruling party members are hell-bent in harassing and assaulting people for not singing the song, which is unacceptable in a secular country like India. It seems both hardline Hindus and Muslims Invoke religion for political relevance.
The issue of Vande Mataram was solved decades ago, why is the dispute again? It seems the song has been politicized for petty gains. There are tons of issues which should be solved immediately. But more new disputes and issues are being brought for political gains.
The writer, a Bangladeshi freethinker, is based in Toronto, Canada
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