Vande Mataram

The tumultuous history of the song and the slogan reflects that of the novel itself. Vande Mataram was initially written by Bankim in the 1870s before he wrote Anandamath and later incorporated into the novel. It soon became popular as a patriotic slogan with no religious overtones. Lipner has cited an instance in 1906 when Congress workers marching towards their meeting venue chanting Vande Mataram were lathi charged by police. Even Gandhiji had stated his objections to treating the song as one meant only for Hindus. The problems with the song, then as well as now, are related to the stanzas that follow after the first two that are sung as our national song today.

Vande mataram is written in a combination of Bengali and Sanskrit. The first two stanzas in Sanskrit draw the picture of land as fertile and gracious Mother bestowing blessings on her children. The next stanza questions the concept of the powerlessness of the Mother. How can she be powerless, asks the poet, when her sons who are seventy million in number, are armed with swords and ready to lay down their lives for her? She is visualized as the many-armed goddess worshipped in every temple in her benign and terrible forms. Aurobindo translates:

“Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.
Thou art Durga, lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned.”

Mother India here is very much like a Hindu goddess who is both Preserver and Destroyer. Lipner too retains the religious terms, while Roy has:

“Thou sole creed and wisdom art,
Thou our very mind and heart,
And the life-breath in our bodies …” (39)

Roy has not only erased all Hindu overtones, but also identified the land as India by adding geographical particulars that Bankim had not even thought of:

“Himalaya-crested one, rivalless,
Radiant in thy spotlessness,
Thou whose fruits and waters bless,
Mother, hail!” (39)

It is very clear that Roy 's translation is meant to overcome the objections raised against the song regarding its idol-worshipping religious bent. He circumvents the necessity to bow before the goddess by translating Vande Mataram as “Mother, hail!”. Aurobindo has “Mother, I bow to thee!” and Lipner has “I revere the Mother!” (145) In this context it is interesting to compare the hugely popular A. R. Rahman version of Vande mataram: Ma tujhe salaam! The choice of the Urdu ‘salaam' with Vande mataram is a beautiful blending of two religious ideologies.