Vande Mataram – the melody that aroused the nation

 Dr. Rajendra Prasad while presiding the Constituent Assembly on 24^th January, 1950 stated:

“The composition consisting of words and music known as ‘Jana Gana Mana’ is the National Anthem’ of India, and the song ‘Vande Mataram’, which has played a historic part in struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and shall have equal status with it” (Constituent Assembly of India, Vol. XII).

Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the year 1875 in Sanskrit. Later in 1882, he included the poem in his Bengali novel ‘Anandamath’. He predicted that the poem will spread as wildfire during India’s freedom struggle but did not live to see its popularity. Rabindranath set only the first two lines of the poem to music while the music of the remaining part was composed by Sarala Devi Chaudhurani. She was a musical prodigy, social reformer, nationalist leader and Tagore’s niece. The song comprises of six stanzas of which only the first two stanzas are sang as the National song. The translation in prose for the complete poem by Sri Aurobindo appeared in Karmayogin, 20^th November 1909. In the first stanzas we find the description of the natural beauty of our Mother land. The later stanzas have reference to Hindu deities Durga and Laxmi and were thus excluded from being sung in public gatherings keeping in mind the sentiments of all religions. This memorable song which meant ‘hail our mother, motherland’ initiated the nationalist imagining of the country as ‘motherland’ as opposed to the Western concept of fatherland. The song stirred the nation when it was sung by Rabindranath at the Calcutta session of the Congress in 1896. Abanindranath Tagore’s painting of ‘Bharatmata’ – India a mother goddess – depicted this image. The first two verses of the song were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress Working Committee prior to the end of colonial rule in August 1947. The song and the novel were banned by the British rule, but Indian freedom activists and the general public defied the ban as a consequence of which many were imprisoned. Sri Aurobindo referred to the song as "National Anthem of Bengal". It has been translated into numerous Indian languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Odia, Malayalam, Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi Urdu and others.

Vande Mataram was first recorded when sung by Rabindranath Tagore at the Congress Convention in 1905 to protest against partition. Initially composed in Raag Desh, the song was later sung in several other ragas. In fact notable politician and a person associated with HMV, V. D. Ambaikar had tried to convince Jawaharlal Nehru that the song can be sung in as many as 12 ragas and should be selected as the National Anthem. While the song was being considered to be selected as National anthem, it was necessary that it could be played on the instrumental band as well, for which it was set to tune by Bapurao Dalay in 1948. With a similar intention, Vasant Desai led a chorus accompanied once by purely Indian instruments and once by western instruments such as the trumpet. 

Over the years this song has been recorded by India’s musical stalwarts including Tagore, Lata Mangeshkar, M.S. Subhalaxmi, A. R. Rahaman among others. Renowned classical singers of Maharashtra and Jaipur ‘gharana’ have made gramophone recordings in different ragas. One of the famous renditions was sung by Moghubai Kurdikar in Raag Khambavati. In Bengal, Hamant Kumar Mukherjee voiced Vande Mataram for the film ‘Mahabiplabi Aurobindo’ in the year 1971. The song was sung in a fast tempo as used somewhat as a devotional song. Other noteworthy Bengal artists such as Narayan Chandra Mukherjee and Satya Bhusan Gupta have sung it in their own distinctive semi-classical style. The choir group from Viswa Bharati has their recording as well. Versions of the song have been visualised on celluloid in a number of films, including Leader, Amar Asha, and Anand Math.

We have grown up with the opening song played during the daily broadcast of All India Radio comprising of the signature tune by Walter Kaufman followed by the duet rendition of Vande Mataram by Dinkar Kalkini and Sumati Mutakar. The years 1995-1997 saw a number of recordings of the song when several artists set tune and made orchestra in order to commemorate Indian independence. A wide range of variation was found as Subha Mudgal sang in a motivational way, Kaushiki Chakravarty sang at a slow tempo and A. R. Rahman composed ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’. The song was sung in the Parliament by the classical maestros Pandit Bhimsen Joshi in 1997 and Pandit Jasraj in 1998.

Dr. Suresh Chandvankar, a retired physicist from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research is passionate about collecting and documenting old gramophone records. He has painstakingly compiled about 125 recordings of this song till the year 2000. Interestingly, in 2002, BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose ten most famous songs from around 7000 songs selected worldwide and Vande Mataram, was ranked second. Today we remain much in awe to the historical significance and immense popularity of this patriotic song as we approach its 150^th year in 2025.

References:

Vande Mataram- One melody many voices spanning recordings from R.N. Tagore to A. R. Rahman and beyond: a talk by Dr. Suresh Chandvankar.

Bharati Ray (1995). ‘The Freedom Movement and Feminist Consciousness, in Bengal, 1905-29’, in Bharati Ray, ed. From the Seams of History: Essays on Indian Women, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 182-184.

Bankimcandra Chatterji (2005). Anandamath, or The Sacred Brotherhood. Oxford University Press. pp. 71–78. ISBN 978-0-19-803971-6.

Aurobindo Mazumdar (2007). Bande Mataram and Islam. Mittal Publications. pp. 18–22, 30–31. ISBN 978-81-8324-159-5.

Pictures taken from the internet