Bankim's novel simultaneously glorified the colonial British rule

By Shamsul Islam The Milli Gazette Online

The song Vande Mataram is in news once again, though for wrong reasons...A thorough scanning (undertaken by this author) of the pre-Independence literature/documents published by the RSS shows that there is absolutely no reference there to Vande Mataram, what to talk of singing it. Startlingly, Vande Mataram as a term does not appear in the writings of KB Hedgewar and MS Golwalkar either...A section of the so-called Muslim leadership, devoid of common sense and ignorant of nationalist heritage, reacted to the Hindutva game plan along expected lines. Playing into the hands of Hindutva brigade 'Muslim leaders' like the Agra Mufti simply provided legitimacy to its strategy of Muslim-bashing.

Unfortunately, even a section of secular Muslims have shown panic reaction by declaring that Muslims should not object to the singing of this song. They innocently believe that Muslims by not singing this song are inviting wrath of Hindutva. They overlook the fact that even Dalits, Christians, Buddhists and other minorities, who have not raised objections against Vande Mataram, have not been spared by the Hindutva gang. The need of the hour is that we should not run away from a serious debate on the issue of the Vande Mataram under one pretext or the other. In order to know the truth and understand the whole controversy over Vande Mataram it is important to be familiar with the following facts which have been gathered from wide pre-Independence sources.

Vande Mataram was dogged by one controversy or another from the day it was first printed in Banga Darshan (edited by Bankimchandra Chatterjee) in 1875. It was a strange composition in the sense that it was written in two languages. The song consisted of 4 stanzas, the first two in Sanskrit and the rest in Bengali. Poet Navin Chandra Sen, a close friend, told Bankim after reading the song: "You see, it is all good, but the whole thing is spoilt by your potpourri of half Bengali and half Sanskrit. It reminds me of Govind Adhikari's Jatra songs. People do not like it."1 In fact, this song was not known by many despite the fact that Jadu Bhatt, a renowned singer of those days and a contemporary of Bankim, liked the song and set it to an attractive tune. The situation did not change even in 1882 when Bankim included this song in his controversial novel Anandmath. Rabindranath Tagore composed a new tune for this song in 1885 but despite its rendering by a very popular Bengali poet it did not attract much attention.

Interestingly, Vande Mataram which came to be known as the “national song” was composed by Bankim as a “Bengal anthem”, nothing more. The imagery of the countryside and references to Durga were certainly confined to Bengal. In this song he is seen concerned about Bengal only aloof from any emotional attachment to India. Even Sri Aurobindo (Aurobindo Ghose), propounder of Hindu nationalism in India, translated it as the "National Anthem of Bengal". Bankim, as we will see in the translation done by Aurobindo, referred to “seven crores” [70 million] of people worshipping motherland. This was the population of the then Bengal Province (which, besides what is now Bangladesh, included Bihar and Orissa too). So the crucial fact should not be missed that Vande Mataram touted as symbolizing “Mother India” was in fact meant to glorify Bengal only, a rather narrow and regional perspective.

Many are not aware that this song was scantly known during the lifetime of Bankim himself. In his lifetime it did not capture popular imagination though it was sung at all Congress sessions by people who identified Indian nationalism with Hindu ethos. It remained confined to a fringe group. In 1905 came Curzon's announcement of the partition of Bengal, and suddenly Vande Mataram turned into a national mantra, renting the skies with the protest against the partition of Bengal. Reacting quickly, the British government banned the song or even raising it as a slogan. People of Barisal in Bengal bore the brunt of police brutality for singing this song. Peasant leader Abdul Rasul, was presiding over the Bengal Congress provincial conference session of 1906 when hundreds were struck down and grievously injured for singing Vande Mataram. This brutality at Barisal popularized the song overnight. According to Bengalee of May 23, 1906, "an unprecedented procession of Hindus and Muslims singing national songs and crying Vande Mataram and Allah-o-Akbar passed through all the principal streets of the town. Both Hindus and Mussalmans carried Vande Mataram flags." It is interesting to know that while Vande Mataram was banned in Bengal, the British government allowed the Bengali Regiment to attack German trenches during the first world war with Vande Mataram on their lips.

Soon Vande Mataram became the opening note of all the Congress gatherings. And the two, Congress and Vande Mataram, became inseparable, until the early 1930s, when a new controversy about the song broke out within the ranks of the party. Sections of Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, South Indians, secular groups and even Arya Samajis, objected when the Congress decided to finalize it as the “national song”. Vande Mataram glorified idol worship, they argued, as it referred to only Hindu deities (it must be shocking for the present-day Hindutva brigade that the song does not even once refer to Ram), and that it expressed only a regional aspiration (it is partly in Bengali and allegorically talks of “Bengal” as India).

Another objection raised by Muslims and secular Indians said that Vande Mataram was part of the novel Anandmath, which glorified the annihilation of Muslims and not the British rule in India. This objection was very relevant, as even a cursory glance of the novel will prove. The novel was replete with glorification of incidents of “cleansing” of Muslims like the following one: "The rural people ran out to kill the Muslims while coming across them. In the night, some ones were organized in groups and going to the Muslim locality, they torched their houses and looted their everything. Many Muslims were killed; many of them shaved their beards, smeared their bodies with soil and started singing the name of Hari. When asked, they said, we were Hindus. The frightened Muslims rushed towards the town in group after group. The Muslims said, Allah, Allah! Is the Kortn Sareef (sic) (holy Koran) proved entirely wrong after so many days? We pray namaz five times but couldn't finish the sandal-pasted Hindus. All the universe is false."

Bankim's novel simultaneously glorified the colonial British rule. It portrayed the British masters as saviours of Hindus. This love for the British masters and exploiters was clearly visible in the last few lines of Anandmath. When the Hindu army (Santan rebels) was able to defeat Muslim rulers and move on to fight the British too, a mystic leader (Satyananda) appeared and told them: "Your mission has been successful. You have performed the well-being of the Mother. The English reign has been established. You give up the war and enmity-mood. There is no more enemy. The Englishman is our ally King. Moreover, none possesses such power who can win the war with the Englishmen ultimately." Thus the great leader of Hindu rebellion was finally able to convince Santans about the historic utility of the British Raj for the resurrection of the Hindu kingdom and many of them went to Himalayas renouncing this world. Anandmath, which heralded the Hindu nationalist movement, is full of such perceptions. Posted Online on Monday, 11 September 2006 21:45 IST