VANDE MATARAM: An indeppendence day speech

[sandesh]

Independence Day-August 15

 

VANDE MATARAM

 

SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN

 

Founder & Spiritual Head, Sri Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram &

 

Yogi Ramsuratkumar Indological Research Centre,

 

Sister Nivedita Academy, Sri Bharatamata Mandir

 

Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram, BANGALORE 560 036

 

email: sadhurangarajan@...;

 

Phone: 080-25610935 /25613716, Cell: 09448275935

 

Fifteenth of August dawns again, awakening in our minds the hallowed memories of
the countless heroes and martyrs who sacrificed their precious lives at
the altar of Mother Bharat and shed their sacred blood in the struggle for Her
emancipation from foreign shackles. It is also the auspicious day on which
Sri Aurobindo, the great seer of patriotism, the exponent of 'Vande Mataram'--
the holy Mantra of Indian Nationalism -- was born into this world. Perhaps
it was not sheer accident that the day of deliverance of the country
synchronized with the birthday of this Mahayogi, for everything that happens has
the
sanction of the Divine Will.

 

What was the motive that impelled these angelic souls to come under the spell of
the captivating slogan of Swaraj and offer everything they had for the
one sole aim of achieving freedom? It was not hatred towards the British or the
system of their government or all the so-called modernisms that they brought
into this country under the cover of their government. Nothing would be farther
from truth than to say that a race that has, since time immemorial, proclaimed
to the world the oneness of humanity and has welcomed all noble thoughts from
all quarters of the world could hate any other class of people or the noble
things that the class can give to humanity. On the other hand, Nationalism meant
to these people, as Bepin Chandra Pal had put it in unambiguous terms,
"the inviolable right of the composite Indian people, to fully and freely live
its own special life in its own way, following its own peculiar genius,
and developing its specific culture to its highest perfection, and thus to
contribute what is highest and best in it, to the general stock of human
knowledge
and human culture."

 

It was this Divine Destiny of the Nation that threw hundreds of patriotic young
men into the cauldron of freedom struggle. It was for the fulfillment of
this Heavenly Ordination that India survived the onslaughts of two thousand
years of alien aggression, ravages and oppressions. "Understand that India
is still living because she has her own quota yet to give to the general store
of the world's civilization," says Swami Vivekananda.

 

And what is the message that India has to deliver to the world? During his
incarceration in the Alipore Jail, Sri Aurobindo received the message right from
Lord Vasudeva : "When you go forth, speak to your nation always this word, that
it is for the Sanatan Dharma that they arise, it is for the world and
not for themselves that they arise. I am giving them freedom for the service of
the world. When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatan
Dharma that shall rise. When it is said that India shall be great, it is the
Sanatan Dharma that shall be great. When it is said that India shall expand
and extend herself, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall expand and extend itself
over the world. It is for the Dharma and by the Dharma that India exists."

 

How is it that Free India going to convey this message to humanity? And when is
it going to do? Have we forgotten the word -- Dharma -- that our ancestors
cherished so piously and handed over to us to be passed on to humanity? Have we
also forgotten the immense sacrifices that they made to preserve and protect
this ambrosial ideal for the sake of universal happiness? No, we shall not and
will not. As a first requisite for accomplishing our end, we shall once
again arouse the spirit of patriotism in our masses.

 

When the country was languishing in the darkness of slavery and dependence,
under the alien rulers, the path to awaken our people to the consciousness of
their duty to the world was the struggle against foreign domination. But today
the task before us is to rekindle the spirit of patriotism by awakening
in our hearts an intense passion and love for our Motherland. As Aurobindo has
pointed out, "Love has a place in politics, but it is the love of one's
country, for one's countrymen, for the glory, greatness and happiness of the
race, the divine ananda of self-immolation for one's fellows, the ecstasy
of relieving their sufferings, the joy of seeing one's blood flow for the
country and freedom, the bliss of union in death with the fathers of the race.
The feeling of almost physical delight in the touch of the mother-soil, of the
winds that blow from Indian seas, of the rivers that stream from Indian
hills, in the hearing of Indian speech, music, poetry, in the familiar sights,
sounds, habits, dress, manners of our Indian life, this is the physical
root of that love. The pride in our past, the pain of our present, the passion
for the future are its trunk and branches. Self-sacrifice and
self-forgetfulness,
great service, high endurance for the country are its fruit. And the sap which
keeps it alive is the realization of the Motherhood of God in the country,
the vision of the Mother, the knowledge of the Mother, the perpetual
contemplation, adoration and service of the Mother."

 

Inculcation of this intense love for the Motherland and establishment of
ineffable fraternity among the people are possible only when each and every
citizen
lives for others, and when there is absolute freedom from strife and squabbles
inside the country. And the golden way to achieve this atmosphere of peace
and harmony among countrymen is pointed out by the great patriot-monk Swami
Vivekananda: "Be patient with everybody. Why should you mix in controversies?
Bear with the various opinions of everybody. Patience, purity and perseverance
will prevail. Please everybody without becoming a hypocrite and without
being a coward. Hold on to your own ideas with strength and purity, and whatever
obstructions may now be in your way, the world is bound to listen to you
in the long run. Be positive. Do not criticize others. Give your message, teach
what you have to teach, and there stop. The Lord knows the rest."

 

Let us live true to the call of the great Swami and rededicate ourselves to the
task of conveying the message of Bharat to the whole world. Let us all join
together and chant from the bottom of our hearts the immortal mantra, Vande
Mataram!

 

[From VANDE MATARAM by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan; Foreward by Acharya J.B.
Kripalanai; A Sister Nivedita Publication]

 

VANDE MATARAM

 

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan

 

"Sri V. Rangarajan has done some original work in giving the history of our
National Anthem, Vande Mataram. It was necessary because thousands of our
pre-independence
patriots had to suffer grievously in uttering and singing this song which before
independence was considered the National Anthem. Some of them lost their
lives for singing this song. Every patriot from Khudiram Bose to Bhagat Singh
and Rajguru died with the mantram of Vande Mataram on their lips. It had
become spontaneously the National Anthem adopted by the mass of our people.

 

"It is therefore strange that after independence instead of this anthem, the
present one, Janaganamana by our great poet Rabindranath Tagore, suddenly came
to be recognized as our National Anthem. The adoption of a national song was
never considered as it ought to have been by the Constituent Assembly. It
was only announced by Rajendra Babu, the first President of our Republic.
National Anthems are not adopted by the nation like that. They are to be
recognized
by the people. Even as it is, only the first two paragraphs of Vande Mataram are
sung. The rest of it is omitted, the reason obviously being that the Muslims
objected to the mention of the Indian Goddesses in the song though every goddess
is the personification of some divine virtues and all this is explained
in the song itself. Even now it will be desirable to have Vande Mataram as the
National Anthem along with Janaganamana. Also the whole song must be sung,
because the portions that are left out express the most beautiful and poetic
sentiments about the Motherland."

 

-Acharya J.B. Kripalani's 'Foreword' to "Vande Mataram" by Sadhu
Prof.V.Rangarajan.

 

Born in a prosperous family in Kantalapada, 24 Parganas, on June 27, 1838,
Bankim Chandra was a young student at the time of the First War of Indian
Independence.
Destiny had willed him to become the uncrowned king of Bengali literature. What
enshrined him in the hearts of millions of people as a Maker of Modern
India -- a seer and nation-builder -- is his unique contribution, Ananda Math,
in which is incorporated his inspiring and soul-stirring national song,
Bande Mataram. Bankim was not an idle utopian or a practical cynic. He had "a
positive vision of what was needed for the salvation of the country." As
Aurobindo has put it, "The Mother of his vision held trenchant steel in her
twice seventy million hands and not the bowl of the mendicant. It was the gospel
of fearless strength and force which he preached under a veil and in images in
Ananda Math and Devi Chaudhurani." It was given to Bankim Chandra to have
that supreme vision of the Mother in the form of dashapraharana dhaarini durga
and reveal it to a nation which was groping in darkness, to give them a
new light, to awaken them from deep slumber and arouse them to perform supreme
acts of self-sacrifice.

 

Bande Mataram was composed even before the Ananda Math was born. It happened in
1875 when, on a holiday, Bankim boarded a train to his native place,
Kantalapada.
The train passed into the outskirts of the city and glided through vast tracts
of land, wrapped in enchanting green foliage, decked with multifarious flowers,
nourished and nurtured by hurrying streams and beautiful lakes and unveiling the
bewitching charm of nature in all its splendour. The poet's heart was
thrilled with the vision of his exquisite Mother-the Bharata Mata-and he burst
into song:

 

"Vande Maataram!

 

Sujalaam suphalaam Malayaja sheetalaam,

 

Sasya shyaamalaam Maataram! . . . . . "

 

"Mother I bow to thee!

 

Rich with thy hurrying streams,

 

Bright with thy orchard gleams,

 

Cool with thy winds of delight,

 

Dark fields waving,

 

Mother of might,

 

Mother free . . . . ."

 

The song was born. But it had to reach the masses. It took about seven years for
Bankim to present it to the people in the ideal setting. In no other setting
it would have been more appropriate than in the historic novel, Ananda Math.
Bankim had drawn inspiration from the Sannyasi Rebellion (1763-1800).

 

The power-packed mantra -- Bande Mataram -- intoned by Rishi Bankim Chandra got
revealed first in Barisal which was the nerve-centre of freedom struggle
in East Bengal. . The Bengal provincial conference of the Indian National
Congress at Barisal was scheduled to take place on April 14, 1906, and the
pledge
to undo the partition was to be taken. On the eve of the conference there was a
mammoth meeting in the small town of Barisal in which an effigy of Lord
Curzon was burnt and a thousand voices cried Bande Mataram with a firm
determination to root out the alien rule from the soil of the Motherland. At
once
the District Magistrate issued a proclamation prohibiting the shouting of the
slogan Bande Mataram and singing the enchanting song at meetings or processions.
Bande Mataram slogan went up in the colourful procession that the delegates led
by prominent leaders like Surendranath Bannerjee, Sri Bipin Chandra Pal
and Sri Aurobindo took out through the streets of Barisal to the venue of the
conference. Hundreds of policemen armed with regulation lathis (fairly thick,
six feet long) fell upon the unarmed patriots. But the brave and daring patriots
answered each lathi blow with shouts of Bande Mataram at the top of their
voice. News of the police repression at Barisal and the dramatic end of the
conference spread like a conflagration in the entire Bengal.

 

Vande Mataram, the sacred mantra of patriotism, of which Rishi Bankim Chandra is
the seer, brought under its spell many young men and women whom it converted
into prophets of nationalism and fierce patriots who offered everything at the
altar of the Mother. "If Bankim was the seer of the national mantra, Sri
Aurobindo was the God-appointed high-priest and prophet," says Sisir Kumar
Mitra. In the words of Sister Nivedita, "Aurobindo came out with a new
interpretation
of Bankim Chandra's song, 'Bande Mataram', which now leaped out of its
comparative obscurity within the covers of a Bengali novel and in one sweep
found
itself on the lips of every Indian man, woman or child." His superb contribution
is his masterly rendering of Vande Mataram into English verse. Sister
Nivedita, the embodiment of the ideal of spiritual-nationalism propounded by
Swami Vivekananda, dedicated herself body and soul, for the cause of Motherland
and she even resigned from the Ramakrishna Order to enable herself to plunge
completely into the national movement. It was Sister Nivedita who requested
Sri Aurobindo to shift the centre of his activities from Baroda to Bengal in
order to carry out his Bhavani Mandir scheme. Another fierce patriot and prophet
who came under the spell of 'Vande Mataram' was Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya who
remained a sannyasi throughout his life. He insisted that a man from every
house should dedicate himself to the nation's work, like the sannyasins of
Ananda Math, and that every father should offer a son for the service of the
Motherland.

 

As early as 1902, Satish Chandra Bose founded a secret society called 'Anuseelan
Samity', the code of conduct prescribed for whose members was strongly
reminiscent of the Ananda Math. Soon such secret organizations started
proliferating in different parts of Bengal and gradually spread to Maharashtra,
Punjab and many other provinces of the country including the southern most
province of Madras. Pulin Bihari Das, P. Mitra, Babarao Savarkar, Veer Savarkar,
Madan Lal Dhingra, Dr. Hedgewar, Jatindranath Mukherjee, M.N. Roy, Rash Bihari
Bose, Bhagat Singh, Chandra Sekhar Azad and V.V.S. Iyer are all only a few
gems in the precious necklace of revolutionaries worn by Bharata Mata on Her
neck. Countless are the young men and women who offered their lives at the
bidding of the Mother's call and immortalized themselves by becoming flowers
offered at Her holy feet. Veer Savarkar, who with the help of Lokamanya Tilak
obtained a scholarship to study in London reached there and joined Lala Har
Dayal in the India House of Shyamji Krishna Varma. These twin angels of
revolution
created a spirited atmosphere in London and with their arrival in the India
House, the tunes of 'Vande Mataram' started resounding in the heart of England.
Inspired by 'Vande Mataram', Madan Lal Dhingra shot dead Curzon Wyllie and
ascended the gallows. Veer Savarkar was arrested, brought to India, sentenced
to two life imprisonments and transported to Andamans.

 

Madame Cama had prepared a tricolour flag in Paris and hoisted it at Berlin in
the year 1905. The flag, with three strips in green, saffron and red colours
arranged horizontally, had eight lotuses in the green strip, 'Vande Mataram' in
Devanagari script in the saffron strip in the middle, and the sun and the
crescent in the red strip. Lala Har Dayal carried the message of 'Vande Mataram'
to America where he was instrumental in founding the Gadar Party for the
cause of Indian Independence. 'Vande Mataram' became a novel form of greeting
when Indians in Canada, particularly members of the Gadar movement, met each
other. Indian patriots in San Francisco founded an association called Bharata
Mata Sangh and brought out a secret publication called Bande Mataram Khalsa.
The slogan even penetrated into Africa where in 1912, Gokhale was received by
Indians shouting the slogan 'Vande Mataram'. Anandan, Satyendra Bardan, Abdul
Quadir and Faiza, four revolutionaries belonging to the Indian Independence
League founded in Malaya in 1942, were among those caught while attempting
to penetrate into India from Singapore. These four were sentenced to death and
hanged on September 10, 1943, and they died with 'Vande Mataram' on their
lips.

 

The National Anthem of the Azad Hind Fauz led by Netaji Subhas was a
soul-stirring adoration of the Motherland which inspired thousands of soldiers
belonging
to the Fauz to offer their lives at the altar of the Mother. Referring to 'Vande
Mataram' song in his autobiography, Subhas says, " ' Bande Mataram' literally
means 'I salute the mother'(i.e. motherland). It is the nearest approach to
India's national anthem." At the Congress Session in 1896, Rabindranath Tagore
sang 'Bande Mataram'. Later in 1905, Poet Sarala Devi Chaudurani sang 'Vande
Mataram' in the Benares Congress Session. Lala Lajpatrai started a journal
called Vande Mataram from Lahore. Mahakavi Subramania Bharati of Tamilnadu, who
had attended the Congress Sessions in 1905 and 1906, while returning from
Benares, met Sister Nivedita at Dum Dum and recognized in her his spiritual
mother. Inspired by her, whom he adopted as his guru, he dedicated himself
at the altar of the Motherland. He had fully realized the vision of the
Motherland, and his songs, including the two marvelous Tamil verse translations
of Bande Mataram are revelations of his vision. V.O. Chidambaram Pillai,
Subramania Siva, V.V.S. Iyer, Tirumalachari and Neelakanta Brahmachari were all
early recruits to the revolutionary movement from Tamilnadu. 'Vande Mataram'
even seeped into the ranks of the army. Vande Mataram inspired the Indian
soldiers of the British army stationed in Tamilnadu. Twenty-four daring young
men belonging to the Fourth Madras Coastal Defence Battery were tried on
charges of attempting to create mutiny and sentenced to death. They were hanged
in Madras gaol and they all died with Vande Mataram on their lips.

 

Even as early as 1908, Muslim League was opposed to Bande Mataram and at the
League's session in that year, presided over by Sayyed Imam, the song was
condemned
as sectarian, for it advocated the worship of the Motherland as a Goddess. But,
in the surging floods of the revolutionary and the Swadeshi movements given
rise to by the mantra, Vande Mataram, the objection was completely deluged.
Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar had set the tradition of singing Vande Mataram
in all Congress Sessions since 1915. In 1923, at the Kakinada Session of the
Congress, when he rose to sing the song, Maulana Mohamed Ali, who was the
President, objected to it. During the non-cooperation movement, when the
Congress leadership adopted a policy of appeasing the Muslims, the objection to
the song raised its head again. In 1922, to appease the Muslims, the singing of
Mohammad Iqbal's 'Hindustan Hamaara' along with Vande Mataram was introduced.
The Muslim leaders wanted the song Vande Mataram completely replaced by Iqbal's
song. The All India Muslim League passed resolutions condemning Vande Mataram.
To appease the League leaders, the Congress Working Committee in 1937 decided to
maim the national song by allowing only the first two stanzas to be sung.
The League still persisted in its objection and in 1938, Jinnah placed before
Nehru his demand for completely abandoning Vande Mataram. To please the League
further, the Congress decided to allow the singing of a song by Basheer Ahmad,
reciting Quoran and also a prayer in English in the Assembly.

 

Even the partition of the country could not undo the demoralization in the
Congress ranks created by the League's opposition to Vande Mataram. When Nehru
expressed the view that the song Bande Mataram did not lend itself to orchestral
music, a patriot-musician of Poona, Master Krishna Rao Ramachandra Phulumbikar
disproved it by setting it to instrumental music. When he came to know that the
Government would not approve Vande Mataram as national anthem unless it
got clearance from the British band experts, he went to Bombay and with the help
of the British band Commander, C.R. Gordon, got a record of Vande Mataram
rendered to British Band music. In spite of all these efforts, the Congress
leaders did not like Vande Mataram becoming the national anthem for obvious
reasons. Even before an official decision was taken by the Constituent Assembly
on this issue, Janaganamana was played as India's national anthem in the
UN General Assembly in 1947. There was a possibility of the Constituent Assembly
adopting Vande Mataram as the national anthem. But things took place behind
the scene. The question did not come up before the Assembly. Instead of passing
a resolution on the vital subject in the Constituent Assembly, the President,
Dr. Rajendra Prasad came up with a statement in the Assembly on January 24,
1950, saying that Janaganamana will be the national anthem and Vande Mataram
will have equal status with it.

 

Of course, Vande Mataram needs no official stamp of recognition as the national
anthem. As early as 1905, Satish Chandra Mukherjee of the Dawn and the Dawn
Society observed: "'Bande Mataram', Hail, Mother!-What Bengali heart is not set
beating faster at the sound of the two magic words? When the late Bankim
Chandra Chatterjee in his immortal work-Ananda Math, the 'Abode of Joy'-first
sang the heart-stirring and soul-lifting song, the opening words of which
have furnished Modern Bengal with a battle-cry and a divine inspiration, so to
say-could he have dreamt of the transformation-the miraculous and wonderful
transformation which the two mellifluent words were destined to work in the
hopes and aspirations of his degenerate countrymen? The welkin now rings with
Bande Mataram. The streets and lanes of Calcutta and the rest of the province
resound with the solemn watchword. Bande Mataram has stirred the hearts of
the people to their depths." It is a song enshrined in the hearts of millions
and millions of Indians and sanctified by the sacrifice of countless martyrs
who were inspired by the song to offer their lives at the altar of the
Motherland. And, as Sri Aurobindo has put it in his striking words: "And when
posterity
comes to crown with her praises the Makers of India, she will place her most
splendid laurel not on the sweating temples of a place-hunting politician,
nor on the narrow forehead of a noisy social reformer but on the serene brow of
that gracious Bengali who never clamoured for place or power, but did
his work in silence for love of his work, even as nature does, and, just because
he had no aim but to give out the best that was in him, was able to create
a language, a literature and a nation."

 

Let the immortal song of Rishi Bankim, provide us inspiration to live and rise
up to the expectations of those countless patriots and martyrs who sacrificed
their lives with Vande Mataram on their lips so that we should live as free
citizens of a glorious and sovereign nation.

 

[Summary of extracts from VANDE MATARAM by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan with
Foreword by Acharya J.B. Kripalani, published by Sister Nivedita Academy,
Bharatamata
Gurukula Ashram & Yogi Ramsuratkumar Indological Research Centre, 'Sri Bharati
Mandir', Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore 560 036.