Whats wrong with Vandemataram?

Question

Vandemataram is the national song of India. All of a sudden why muslim brothers condemning the great patriotic song.

Answer 1

I read a couple of answers. Even the one whichs says that Vande Matram was created by Javed Akhtar!! How rediculous.

Now, it is right that Vande Matram was created by Bankim Chandra in Anand Math. It may be right that it was in the praise of some Hindu Goddess. But tell me the lines in which any God is prayed. Those lines are not sung. Only the first stanza is sung, which purely talks about the land. Following is the translation by Aurobindo Ghosh:

Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.

It is song that extols mother. Who doesn't love his/her mother!! Why are we talking about Hindu mothers over here?? Anyone who says that Muslims don't love their parents, Muslims don't love their country, is speaking all rubbish. Muslims also love this country, and they should have no problems in singing this stanza. I've heard, I have not read though, that the Holy Quran extols the Shahadat in the name of one's Fatherland. Correct me if I am wrong. If this is true, then one should not have problems in singing praises to your motherland. This stanza is very very secular, and does not mention any Hindu Goddesses.

And the ground reality is that Muslim brothers do not have any problems in singing the song. The news has just been blown up by the "sabse tez" media, which makes a mole into a hill. One should come to Mumbai and see. How enthusiastically Muslim brothers participate in Ganesh Utsav. How enthusiastically Hindus celebrate Eid and Ramzan!! The Iftar parties are organized by the local Ganpati Mandals!!! This, my friend, is the ground reality. Everything else is just blown up, and intellectual diarrhoea.

One more point for perusal. No Hindu has any problem in singing "Saare Jahaan se achchha". The author was (Allamma Iqbal saahab) was a radical Muslim. He was instrumental in creating Pakistan. He mentions "Rashk-e-jinaa hamaaraa" in the song. This is a typical Islamic concept. But no Hindu has any problem singing it. Because all of us know that this song enthuses national pride, which is much above then the petty considerations for the religion of the author, the reason why the song was written, etc. We need to get over these small issues.

"Vande Matram" simply means "Salutation to mother". Let's not call her the mother of Hindus only. Let her be the mother of all. Let not the children of mother be divided in the name of religion. Let's stand strong. Foreign powers have long tried to break us in the name of religion. Let's not let it happen again.

Quoting Iqbal again :
मजहब नहीं िसखाता, आपस में बैर रखना, िहन्दी हैं हम वतन हैं, िहन्दोस्तां हमारा,
कुछ बात है की हस्ती, िमटती नहीं हमारी, सिदयों रहा है दुश्मन, दौर\-ए\-जहाँ हमारा
'इक़बाल' कोई मरहूम, अपना नहीं जहाँ में मालूम क्या िकसी को, दर्द\-ए\-िनहां हमारा

Faith does not teach us to harbour grudges between us
We are all Indians and India is our homeland. Something is in us, that preserves us, that keeps us ever-smiling. Though the fates and chances of the world have ever tried to break us. Iqbal! Is there no soul that could Understand the pain in thy heart?

Answer 2

Hi,
Well I read some of the answers that u got and I feel that none of us has any inkling about patriotism and religion.
First and foremost, we need to realise that the song VandeMataram was composed by Javed Akhtar, who himself is a muslim. So how could he bring himself to do it if it is considered Taboo by Islam? The answer is that there is a clean line between nationalism and religional concerns. To quote Mr Akhtar himself... "Its my decision whether I want to sing the song or not. If some maulvi tells me not to sing it, I will sing it ten times over. If the BJP and the RSS tells me to sing it, I wont recite a single verse."
The politicians have made this an issue. Some muslims have a problem with the song as it personifies India as a goddess and in Islam, only Allah can be praised and worshipped. But I think this is just a farce. Will singing the song in a patriotic fervour rob them of Allah's favour? When will we realise that religion is only man-made and of little use, unless one learns to incorporate its teachings properly in real life.
But the main issue is whether singing of a song denotes our patriotism? The government spokesperson said that good citizens would sing the song to show their patriotism. Ergo, not singing means u are a bad citizen.
We need to realise that saying "mera Bharat mahan" wont make it so... We need to work at it...

P.S. Oh, I dont support the name of Hindustan at all... I believe this is a country for all who wish to become a part of it. I think Bharat or India will be a better alternative.

Answer 3

well dont worry ill explain you in detail where the problem starts.vande mataram was a part of a book written by a bengali author in the 1880s i guess.in this novel which was set in india in the 1770s the author had used muslims as villians in the story instead of british as he was a government servant and he also wanted to get the book published through the censor board of the british ,so he could not use their names.the other problem is the whole song of vande mataram when seen in this original is ultimately sung in the praise of a hindu deity.but only the first two stanzas have been incorportated as the national song.so you see my freind the problem lies in many places. ultimately this all is much ado about nothing because singing the national song should be a sentiment of patriotism.and everyone in a democracy should be given a right to choose, it should not be complusory.how are we any different from dictatorship then?

Answer 4

Its not about Muslim Brothers, The christian brothers, The buddhist brothers, The Parsi or Sikh brothers, Vandemataram only focuses on one group of religion, whereas during independence, the Muslims, the christians, the buddhists and Sikhs also took part, they also feel tht India belongs to them, it belongs to every Indian. Why did they ever created the theme Vandemataram i m not sure, they should have created some other theme which respected and acknowledge other religions aswell.
Great Patriotic song only focuses on one type of Patriot which is not fair to others.....

They already took Hindustan-Hinduland (no one commented)
What about The Sikhs who fought wars for hindus since the Moguls Era, what aknowledgement they ever got, as a reward in 1989-92 they were slaughtered just because a sikh put stop to the Evil Indra Gandhi who killed her own son just for the sake of politics.
Politics is a dirty game mate.....

Answer 5

reminds me of Gullivers travels, where Gulliver encounters the land of lilliputs where the lilliputs have divided themselves into two groups, over which side the egg should be broken from!

but to answer your question ...there's nothing wrong with the words of the song, the controversy is over the context in which the song was born, which was anti muslim.

and the whole purpose of imposing this song on the masses reflects the sentiment to divide the society rather than to unite it.

patriotism...nationalism... is a measles to mankind...

unites a few and divides millions.

if we just got rid of the borders we did have a much better world. but for that, we need to look beyond our narrowmindedness of "patriotic" bullshit...

if you are talkin about love for a nation...that isnt patriotism... love doesnt have any ego...and it doesnt confine itself to any boundaries....

vandematarm seems like a secular song, but the intentions behind the song are very negative...vandemataram was not written with the intention to unite people of different religions , but rather to unite the hindus against muslims...and the current political spectrum reflects the same behaviour...

the song shouldn't be encouraged...

Answer 6

My Dear Hari,
This contraversy has not errupted all of a sudden.
You dont seems to know much about the history of Vande Mataram song. Let me tell you few Things,
1st, this is an extract from a Novel published in 1876 called Anand Matt. ( and ya, its been said it has completed 100 year, which is false). This novel had a more "Hindutva" agenda rather then a nationalist agenda. The writer, Mr.Bankim Chandra was an advocate of the theory that its not the British but muslims who are the real enemy of our (yours and mine) motherland india & Hindus must joint hands with the british to fight indian muslims.
2nd, Vande Mataram, no doubt is beautiful national song praising our motherland india. But, in some santaz's, it praises India through the means on Hindu Goddess Durga.....This goes against the Muslims Belive on Allah.
3rd, I ask you dear brother, will i be less patriotic if i said " Thanks Allah for making me an india and giving me this beautiful motherland" insted of " Thanking Godes Durga" ?
Also Brother, Consider These Things....

How many of us has read the pledge "India is my country, All Indians are my brothers and sisters......." after leaving our schools?
How many of us know it by heart?
How many of us really sing the national anthem (Jana Gana Mana) from their heart - not as a mere ritual?
How many of us know the meaning of national anthem?
How many of us participate in the Independence day or Republic day celebrations with a real spirit of nationalism and not as a mere ritual?
How many of us treat these national days as special and how many of us treat these days just as any other holiday?
The count of these "How many" is very less indeed, in fact NEGLIGIBLE.
So why such a hue and cry on singing or not singing of Vante Matram???????

Answer 7

Nationalism is not a song. There is a solid ground for Muslims refusal to a particular song ...They are refuting to song not to nationalism.

A muslim cannot worship Prophet Muhammad not to say of Durga Mata.

I quote none else than Rabindar Nath Tagore on this matter.

"The controversy becomes more complex in the light of Rabindranath Tagore's rejection of the song as one that would unite all communities in India.

In his letter to Subhas Chandra Bose (1937) Rabindranath wrote,

"The core of 'Vande Mataram' is a hymn to goddess Durga: this is so plain that there can be no debate about it.

Of course Bankim does show Durga to be inseparably united with Bengal in the end, but no Mussulman [Muslim] can be expected patriotically to worship the ten-handed deity as 'Swadesh' [the nation].

This year many of the special [Durga] Puja numbers of our magazines have quoted verses from 'Vanda Mataram' - proof that the editors take the song to be a hymn to Durga.

The novel Anandamath 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 can not be appropriate.

When Bengali Mussulmans show signs of stubborn fanaticism, we regard these as intolerable. When we too copy them and make unreasonable demands, it will be self-defeating."

In a postscript to this same letter Rabindranath says:

"Bengali Hindus have become agitated over this matter, but it does not concern only Hindus. Since there are strong feelings on both sides, a balanced judgement is essential. In pursuit of our political aims we want peace, unity and good will - we do not want the endless tug of war that comes from supporting the demands of one faction over the other.

" (Letter 314, Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore, edited by K. Datta and A. Robinson, Cambridge University Press.

This amply shows that the radical anti muslim faction is trying to bully muslims in the name of nationalism.

Answer 8

firstly find out who rote the vande mataram and then discuss why the muslims r condemning the patriotic song...a bunch of students were asked who had ritten it and they thot tht it was A R Rehman!!! Honestly...and javed akhtar...no really...ive seen people in r country who dont even knw the words of jana gana mana and watch cricket with utmost patriotism...not even the political party who enforced the rule of singing vande mataram in skools,etc know who sang it...then y r they forcin it...to provoke the opposite community or what really????

Answer 9

Politicians are deliberately inciting it and media is fanning it. Actually it is no issue. Doing Vandanam (POOJA) to ones Matatram ( Mother),. In this case Motherland, should not be problem for any true Indian.

Answer 10

Nothing wrong with 'Vandemataram'. Something wrong with we people, who love our own religions, our motherland and also our own God heads. Perhaps we are very much fear full for our existence on earth with our own identities. Different people, with different concept of God; always make noises to disturb the one who sings the song of God as "ISWARA ALLAH TERE NAM, SABKU SADMATI DU BHAGAWAN". It is not a problem for the devotee of God , who finds entire world in One God. Because; he knows that there is only one God , who is in dweller of every hearts.