Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Dec 8: Marking 150 years of Vande Mataram in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a pointed critique of the Congress, claiming the party once yielded to pressure from the Muslim League and “split” the national song.

Reflecting on history, PM Modi said the British Empire used Bengal as the first testing ground for its divide-and-rule strategy. He noted that in 1905, when Bengal was partitioned, Vande Mataram emerged as a rallying cry, uniting people “street to street” across the region.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi’s 1905 writings in Indian Opinion, the Prime Minister reminded Parliament that Gandhi had described Vande Mataram as the nation’s true anthem — “more melodious than the songs of other nations.” He questioned how such a revered hymn later faced “injustice” and was pushed to the background.

As the House commemorated the song’s 150-year legacy, PM Modi urged younger generations to learn what he described as the “real history” — that Congress, he alleged, diluted the hymn under the influence of the Muslim League, driven by what he called a long-standing policy of appeasement.

He highlighted the defiant power of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s composition, which became a symbol of resistance despite colonial bans on speaking, printing, or singing it. He recalled stories of women in Sindh and Barisal, including Sarojini Bose, who vowed not to wear bangles until the ban was revoked, and children who endured beatings for chanting Vande Mataram.

Paying homage to revolutionaries like Khudiram Bose, Madanlal Dhingra, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, Roshan Singh, and Rajendra Nath Lahiri, PM Modi said many embraced martyrdom with Vande Mataram on their lips. He also invoked Master Surya Sen’s poem written before his execution in 1934, noting how the spirit of sacrifice it evoked reverberated from Chattogram to Nagpur.

He traced the song’s influence worldwide — from Veer Savarkar singing it at India House in London, to Bipin Chandra Pal naming his newspaper after it, to Madam Bhikaji Cama publishing it abroad despite colonial restrictions. He added that the song became the heartbeat of the Swadeshi movement, appearing even on ships built by P.O. Chidambaram Pillai, and inspiring works by poet Subramania Bharati.

Turning to political developments in the late 1930s, PM Modi questioned why Congress restricted the hymn. He recalled that after Mohammed Ali Jinnah objected to the song in 1937, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to Subhas Chandra Bose cautioning that its background might offend Muslim communities. Congress later reviewed the song at a meeting in Kolkata and, despite public protests, decided in October 1937 to limit its official use to the first two stanzas in the name of communal harmony.

PM Modi argued that this decision showed Congress “bowing to the Muslim League,” calling it an early example of appeasement politics. “Because Congress accepted the division of Vande Mataram, it later accepted the division of India,” he said, asserting that the party continues similar politics to this day.