150 years of Vande Mataram: Tracing the 90-year-old controversy set to shake Parliament

In the 19th century, Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.

Vande Mataram is once again back in focus as Parliament prepares for a 10-hour debate to mark 150 years of India’s national song.

The discussion follows PM Modi’s recent accusation that Congress “removed important stanzas” from the original song during its 1937 Faizabad session. The Prime Minister said that this decision “sowed the seeds of partition”, hitting out at former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

As Parliament gears up for a heated showdown, here's a deep dive into the 150-year-old history of Vande Mataram.

Who wrote the song and when?

In the 19th century, Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. He was serving as Deputy Magistrate under British rule and was deeply disturbed by colonial policies.

On 7 November 1875, he published the poem in his Bengali magazine Bangadarshan. The full version appeared later in his 1882 novel Anandamath. In the novel, it was sung by a monk named Bhavanand. Chattopadhyay reportedly conceived it as an alternative to the British anthem God Save the Queen.

How did the song gain popularity?

During the Swadeshi agitation in Bengal, the poem evolved into a powerful political slogan. After the 1905 partition of Bengal, the song became the rallying cry for boycott movements and protest marches.

In 1906, more than 10,000 Hindus and Muslims together marched shouting Vande Mataram in Barishal.

Even poet Rabindranath Tagore himself led nationalist protest processions in which Vande Mataram was sung.

In 1907, Madam Bhikaji Cama unfurled the first tricolour abroad in Stuttgart. The words Vande Mataram was emblazoned across it.

Why did Congress remove stanzas?

In 1937, the Congress adopted the first two verses of Vande Mataram as the national song. However, debates around the song’s religious imagery had become politically relevant.

In a letter to Tagore in 1937, Jawaharlal Nehru, who read an English translation of Anandamath, said that the background of the novel is “bound to irritate Muslims”.

On March 1, 1938, in an article in The New Times of Lahore, Mohammed Ali Jinnah stated: “Muslims all over [India] have refused to accept Vande Mataram or any expurgated edition of the anti-Muslim song as a binding national anthem.” The original song has six verses in total.

The Congress removed the other four paragraphs. The removed parts of the song included references to Hindu goddesses such as Durga and Lakshmi. This decision aimed to make the song more inclusive for all communities within India.

For example, the fourth stanza of the song addressed motherland India as, "Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen, with her hands that strike and her swords of sheen, Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned…."

According to many Muslims, by signing this verse, he/she would be forced to equate his country with the Hindu goddesses Durga and Lakshmi. Eventually Mahatma Gandhi drafted a resolution in January 1939.

In a Cabinet note on May 21, 1948, Nehru spelled out his reasons for choosing Jana Gana Mana over Vande Mataram as the national anthem. “…Vande Mataram for all its beauty and history is not an easy tune for orchestral or band rendering. It is rather plaintive and mournful and repetitive. It is particularly difficult for foreigners to appreciate it as a piece of music. It has not got those peculiar distinctive features which Jana Gana Mana has. It represents very truthfully the period of our struggle in longing and not so much the fulfilment thereof in the future,” he said.

On 24 January 1950, the Constituent Assembly led by Rajendra Prasad declared Vande Mataram as India’s national song, alongside Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem.

In 2006, the general secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (an important Islamic organisation in India), Maulana Mahmood Madani had said, “No Muslim can sing ‘Vande Mataram’ if he considers himself to be a true believer.”

In 2009, Muslim clerics issued a fatwa against the singing of Vande Mataram in Deoband.

Why is Vande Mataram back in Congress-BJP fight?

According to the BJP, Vande Mataram is a civilizational invocation that predates partisan politics. The party says that the 1937 Congress decision is “overly accommodative and even compromising”. PM Modi launched year-long Vande Mataram celebrations on November 7 to mark the milestone.

For the BJP, celebrating 150 years of the song is part of its project to reaffirm cultural pride and boost national self-confidence.

Ahead of the 2026 West Bengal election, the BJP plans to emphasise Chattopadhyay’s authorship and Subhas Chandra Bose’s endorsement.

On the other hand, the Congress has been questioning the timing of the debate and accused the Centre of using it as a distraction from electoral reforms and the SIR issue.

Citing The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress has been saying that the 1937 decision was not an act of division, but a sensitive accommodation recommended by iconic leaders.