''Vande Mataram'' (Sanskrit: वन्दे मातरम्

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: , also spelt ''Bande Mataram''; বন্দে মাতরম্, ''Bônde Mātôrôm''; ) is a poem written in sanskritised Bengali by

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (also Chattopadhayay) CIE (26 or 27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was an Indian novelist, poet, Essayist and journalist. Staff writer"Bankim Chandra: The First Prominent Bengali Novelist" ''The Daily Star'', 30 June 201 ...

in the 1870s. The first two verses of the poem were adopted as the National Song of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in October 1937 by the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

. The poem was first published in 1882 as part of Chatterjee's

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

novel '' Anandmath''. It is an ode to the motherland, personified as the "mother goddess" is later verses, of the people. This initially referred to

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, with the "mother" figure therefore being Banga Mata (Mother Bengal), though the text does not mention this explicitly. Indian nationalist and philosopher

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...

referred ''Vande Mataram'' as the "national Anthem of Bengal". Nonetheless, the poem played a vital role in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

. It first gained political significance when it was recited by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

at Congress in 1896. By 1905, it had become a popular amongst political activists and freedom fighters as a marching song. The song, as well as ''Anandmath'', were banned under

British colonial rule The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts est ...

under threat of imprisonment, making its use revolutionary. The ban was ultimately overturned by the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the Government, national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy lo ...

upon

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

in 1947. On 24 January 1950, the

Constituent Assembly of India The Constituent Assembly of India was elected to frame the Constitution of India. It was elected by the 'Provincial Assembly'. Following India's independence from the British rule in 1947, its members served as the nation's first Parliament as ...

adopted ''Vande Mataram'' as the Republic's national song.

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

stated that the song should be honoured equally with the national anthem of India, ''

Jana Gana Mana "" (Sanskrit: जन गण मन) is the national anthem of the Republic of India. It was originally composed as '' Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata'' in Bengali by polymath Rabindranath Tagore. The first stanza of the song ''Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata' ...

''. While the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...

does not make reference to a "national song", the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

filed an ''

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...

'' at the

Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...

in November 2022 stating that ''Jana Gana Mana'' and ''Vande Mataram'' would “stand on the same level”, and that citizens should show equal respect to both. The first two verses of the song make abstract reference to the "mother" and "motherland", without any religious connotation. However, later verses mention

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

goddesses such as

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around co ...

. Unlike the national anthem, there are no rules or decorum to be observed when reciting ''Vande Mataram''.

Etymology

The root of the Sanskrit word Vande is ''Vand'', which appears in ''

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...

'' and other Vedic texts. According to

Monier Monier-Williams Sir Monier Monier-Williams (; né Williams; 12 November 1819 – 11 April 1899) was a British scholar who was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at University of Oxford, Oxford University, England. He studied, documented and taught Languag ...

, depending on the context, ''vand'' means "to praise, celebrate, laud, extol, to show honour, do homage, salute respectfully", or "deferentially, venerate, worship, adore", or "to offer anything respectfully to".Monier Monier-Williams
English Sanskrit Dictionary with Etymology
, Oxford University Press, page 919 The word ''Mātaram'' has Indo-European roots in ''mātár-'' (Sanskrit), ''méter'' (Greek), ''mâter'' (Latin) which mean "mother".

Lyrics of the song

The first two verses of ''Vande Mataram'' adopted as the "National Song" read as follows:

Lyric

The complete original lyrics of the ''Vande Mataram'' are available at . A rare painting of our national song, Vande Mataram, published in 1923

Translation

The first translation of

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (also Chattopadhayay) CIE (26 or 27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was an Indian novelist, poet, Essayist and journalist.Staff writer"Bankim Chandra: The First Prominent Bengali Novelist" ''The Daily Star'', 30 June 2011 ...

's novel ''

Anandamath ''Anandamath'' ( bn, আনন্দমঠ ''Anondomôţh'') ( The Abbey of Bliss) is a Bengali fiction, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and published in 1882. It is inspired by and set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in ...

'', including the poem ''Vande Mataram'', into English was by

Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta Naresh Chandra Sen-Gupta (17 May 1882 – 19 September 1964) was an Indian legal scholar and a novelist of Bengali literature based in Calcutta. Early life and career Sen-Gupta was born into a Baidya Brahmin family on 17 May 1882 at his patern ...

, with the fifth edition published in 1906 titled "The Abbey of Bliss". Here is the translation in

prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...

of the above two stanzas rendered by Sri Aurobindo Ghosh. This has also been adopted by the Government of India's national portal. The original ''Vande Mataram'' consists of six stanzas and the translation in

for the complete poem by

Shri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...

appeared in ''Karmayogin'', 20 November 1909.

Mother, I bow to thee! Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleams, Cool with the 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.
erse 1 Erse or Earse may refer to: *An alternative name for any Goidelic language, especially the Irish language, from ''Erische'' *A 16th–19th-century Scots language name for Scottish Gaelic * Aue and Erse, tributaries of the Fuhse See also * Erase ( ...
Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands, When the swords flash out in seventy million hands, And seventy million voices roar Thy dreadful name from shore to shore? With many strengths who art mighty and strong, To thee I call, Mother and Lord! Thou who savest, arise and save! To her I cry who ever her foemen drove Back from plain and Sea And shook herself free. erse 2 Thou art wisdom, thou art
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
, Thou art heart, our soul, our breath Thou art love divine, the awe In our hearts that conquers death. Thine the strength that nerves the arm, Thine the beauty, thine the charm. Every image divine. In our temples is but thine.
erse 3 Erse or Earse may refer to: *An alternative name for any Goidelic language, especially the Irish language, from ''Erische'' *A 16th–19th-century Scots language name for Scottish Gaelic#From the Middle Ages to the end of Classical Gaelic educatio ...
Thou art Goddess
Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around co ...
, Lady and Queen, With her hands that strike and her swords of sheen, Thou art Goddess Kamala (
Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...
), lotus-throned, And Goddess Vani (
Saraswati Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati. The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a go ...
), bestower of wisdom known Pure and perfect without peer, Mother lend thine ear, Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleams, Dark of hue O candid-fair
erse 4 Erse or Earse may refer to: *An alternative name for any Goidelic language, especially the Irish language, from ''Erische'' *A 16th–19th-century Scots language name for Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scot ...
In thy soul, with jewelled hair And thy glorious smile divine, Loveliest of all earthly lands, Showering wealth from well-stored hands! Mother, mother mine! Mother sweet, I bow to thee, Mother great and free! erse 5

Apart from the above

translation,

also translated ''Vande Mataram'' into a verse form known as ''Mother, I praise thee!''.

commented on his English translation of the poem that "It is difficult to translate the National Song of India into verse in another language owing to its unique union of sweetness, simple directness and high poetic force."

Translation into other languages

Vande Mataram has inspired many Indian poets and has been translated into numerous Indian languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Malayalam, Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi Urdu and others.

Arif Mohammad Khan Arif Mohammad Khan (born 18 November 1951) is an Indian politician representing the BJP. He currently serving as the Governor of Kerala & the Chancellor of all State Universities in Kerala. He is a former Union Minister. He has held several po ...

translated Vande Mataram in Urdu. It can be read in Urdu (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

script) as: तस्लीमात, माँ तस्लीमात तू भरी है मीठे पानी से फल फूलों की शादाबी से दक्खिन की ठंडी हवाओं से फसलों की सुहानी फ़िज़ाओं से तस्लीमात, माँ तस्लीमात तेरी रातें रौशन चांद से तेरी रौनक सब्ज़-ए-फ़ाम से तेरी प्यार भरी मुस्कान है तेरी मीठी बहुत ज़ुबां है तेरी बांहों में मेरी राहत है तेरे क़दमों में मेरी जन्नत है तस्लीमात, माँ तस्लीमात

History and significance

Composition

was one of the earliest graduates of the newly established

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

. After his BA, he joined the colonial government as a civil servant, becoming a Deputy Collector and later a Deputy Magistrate. Chattopadhyay was very intereste in recent events in Indian and Bengali history, particularly the

Revolt of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

and the previous century's

Sanyasi Rebellion The Sannyasi rebellion or monk rebellion 1770-77 ( bn, সন্ন্যাসী/ সাধু বিদ্রোহ, The monks' rebellion) was a revolt by the ''sannyasis'' and sadhus (Hindu ascetics, respectively) in Bengal, India in the late ...

. Around the same time, the administration was trying to promote "

God Save the Queen "God Save the King" is the national and/or royal anthem of the United Kingdom, most of the Commonwealth realms, their territories, and the British Crown Dependencies. The author of the tune is unknown and it may originate in plainchant, bu ...

" as the anthem for Indian subjects, which Indian nationalists disliked. It is generally believed that the concept of ''Vande Mataram'' came to

when he was still a government official, around 1876.Suresh Chandvankar
Vande Mataram
(2003) at ''Musical Traditions'' (mustrad.org.uk) He wrote ''Vande Mataram'' at Chinsura (Chuchura), there is a white colour house of Adhya Family near river Hooghly (near Mallik Ghat). Chattopadhyay wrote the poem in a spontaneous session using words from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and

. The poem was published in Chattopadhyay's book ''

'' (pronounced ''Anondomôţh'' in Bengali) in 1882, which is set in the events of the Sannyasi Rebellion. Jadunath Bhattacharya was asked to set a tune for this poem just after it was written.

Indian independence movement

"''Vande Mataram'' was one of the most popular songs of protest during the

. The colonial government in response banned the book and made the recital of the song in public a crime. The colonial government imprisoned many independence activists for disobeying the order, but workers and general public repeatedly violated the ban many times by gathering together in the presence of colonial officials and singing it. Rabindranath Tagore sang ''Vande Mataram'' in 1896 at the

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

Congress Session held at Beadon Square. Dakhina Charan Sen sang it five years later in 1901 at another session of the Congress at

. Poet Sarala Devi Chaudurani sang the song in the

Benares Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic tr ...

Congress Session in 1905.

Lala Lajpat Rai Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 - 17 November 1928) was an Indian author, freedom fighter, and politician. He played a vital role in the Indian Independence movement. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari. He was one of the three members of ...

started a journal called ''Vande Mataram'' from

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

Hiralal Sen Hiralal Sen ( bn, হীরালাল সেন, ''Hiralal Shen''; 2 August 1868 – 26 October 1917) is generally considered one of India's first filmmakers. In 1903, he filmed the popular Alibaba and Forty Thieves, the first full-length In ...

made India's first political film in 1905 which ended with the chant.

Matangini Hazra Matangini Hazra (19 October 1870 – 29 September 1942) was an Indian revolutionary who participated in the Indian independence movement until she was shot dead by the British Indian police in front of the Tamluk Police Station (of erstwhile Mi ...

's last words as she was shot to death by the Crown police were ''Vande Mataram''. MKGandhi

In 1907,

Bhikaiji Cama Bhikaiji Rustom CamaBhi''ai''- (with aspirated ''-kh-'') is the name as it appears in the biographies. Another common form is Bhi''ai''- (with unaspirated ''-k-''), as it appears on the postage stamp. The name is also frequently misspelled 'Bhi ...

(1861–1936) created the first version of India's national flag (the

Tiranga The national flag of India, colloquially called the tricolour, is a horizontal rectangular tricolour flag of India saffron, white and India green; with the ', a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It was adopted in its present form ...

) in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, Germany, in 1907. It had ''Vande Mataram'' written on it in the middle band. A book titled ''Kranti Geetanjali'' published by Arya Printing Press (

) and Bharatiya Press (

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

) in 1929 contains first two stanzas of this lyric on page 11 as ''Matra Vandana'' and a ghazal (Vande Mataram) composed by Bismil was also given on its back, i.e. page 12. The book written by the famous

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

Kakori Kakori is a town and a nagar panchayat in Lucknow district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, 14 km north of Lucknow. Kakori was a centre Urdu poetry, literature and the Qadiriya Qalandari Sufi order. On 9 August 1925 Indian revolution ...

Pandit

Ram Prasad Bismil Ram Prasad Bismil ( Hindi: राम प्रसाद "बिस्मिल") (11 June 1897 — 19 December 1927) was an Indian poet, writer, revolutionary and an Indian freedom fighter who participated in the Mainpuri Conspiracy of 1918, a ...

was proscribed by the colonial government. Mahatama Gandhi supported adoption and the singing of the Vande Mataram song. In January 1946, in a speech in

Guwahati Guwahati (, ; formerly rendered Gauhati, ) is the biggest city of the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the ...

(

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

), he urged that "Jai Hind should not replace Vande-mataram". He reminded everyone present that Vande-mataram was being sung since the inception of the Congress. He supported the "Jai Hind" greeting, but remanded that this greeting should not be to the exclusion of Vande Mataram. Gandhi was concerned that those who discarded Vande Mataram given the tradition of sacrifice behind it, one day would discard "Jai Hind" also.

Debate on adoption as national song of India

Parts of the Vande Mataram was chosen as the national song in 1937 by the Indian National Congress as it pursued the independence of India from colonial rule, after a committee consisting of Maulana Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Bose, Acharya Deva and Rabrindanath Tagore recommended the adoption.A. G. Noorani (1973)
Vande Mataram: A Historical Lesson
, EPW, Vol. 8, No. 23 (9 Jun. 1973), pages 1039–1043 The entire song was not selected by Hindu leaders in order to respect the sentiments of non-Hindus, and the gathering agreed that anyone should be free to sing an alternate "unobjectionable song" at a national gathering if they do not want to sing Vande Mataram because they find it "objectionable" for a personal reason. According to the gathered leaders, including the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, though the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are references to the Hindu goddess

. The Muslim League and

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

opposed the song. Thereafter, with the support of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

and

Jawahar Lal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

, the Indian National Congress decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song to be sung at public gatherings, and other verses that included references to Durga and Lakshmi were expunged.

, who was presiding the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

on 24 January 1950, made the following statement which was also adopted as the final decision on the issue:

...The composition consisting of the words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it. (Applause). I hope this will satisfy the Members. :—''Constituent Assembly of India'', Vol. XII, 24-1-1950

Performances and interpretations

The poem has been set to a large number of tunes. The oldest surviving audio recordings date to 1907, and there have been more than a hundred different versions recorded throughout the 20th century. Many of these versions have employed traditional

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

classical

raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...

s. Versions of the song have been visualised on celluloid in a number of films, including ''

Leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...

'', ''

Amar Asha ''Amar Asha'' () () is a Gujarati poem by Manilal Dwivedi. It was his last poetic work published posthumously in the 1898 issue of his own magazine, '' Sudarshan''. Described as Manilal's most important work and cited as one of the most popular ...

'', and ''

Anand Math ''Anand Math'' is a 1952 Indian Hindi-language historical drama film directed by Hemen Gupta, based on the famous Bengali novel ''Anandamath'', written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1882. The novel and film are set in the events of the Sannyas ...

''. It is widely believed that the tune set for

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

station version was composed by

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North Ind ...

Hemant Kumar Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian ...

composed music for the song in the movie

in 1952. Many singers like

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her cont ...

K.S.Chithra Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra (born 27 July 1963), always credited as K. S. Chithra or Chithra, is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic music, Carnatic musician. In a career spanning over four decades, she has recorded over 25,000 songs ...

sung made it cult classic.Pradeep Kumar
''

Rediff.com Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

''. In 2002,

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

conducted an international poll to choose ten most famous songs of all time. Around 7000 songs were selected from all over the world. ''Vande Mataram'', from the movie ''

'', was ranked second. All India Radio's version and some other versions are in Desh

. In July 2017, the Madras High Court ruled that the Vande Mataram shall be sung or played at least once a week in all schools, universities and other educational institutions of Tamil Nadu. The Court also ruled that the song should be played or sung in government offices and industrial facilities at least once a month.Madras High Court makes Vande Mataram mandatory in schools and colleges
, India Today (25 July 2017)

Notes

References

* Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, ''Vande Mataram: The Biography of a Song'', Penguin Books, 2003, .

External links

Vocals
Vande Mataram
Lata Mangeshkar in Anand Math (4:57 minutes)
Vande Mataram
Amruta Suresh and Abhirami Suresh (4:36 minutes)
Vande Mataram
Group song (1:09 minutes) Debate
"National Song" section
Official Portal of the Indian Government

AG Noorani, Frontline
Boycott threat over Indian song
BBC
1937 Congress Resolution on validity of Muslim objection to this song
Outlook India {{Novels by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Indian literature Indian patriotic songs National symbols of India Sanskrit texts Bengali-language songs Indian political slogans