In Modi's Vande Mataram remarks, rich references to Bengal, Tamil Nadu

At a time of constant political jousting with the ruling Trinamool Congress and DMK of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday made rich references to both the states when recalling the glories of Vande Mataram, the National Song.

Bengal featured repeatedly in PM's speech on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, which was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875 and included in his epic ‘Anandmath’ in 1882.

PM Modi spoke of the Song written in the aftermath of the 1857 war of independence which made the British realise that "they could not rule over India without dividing it".

"The song was written at a time of a conspiracy to take the British song ‘God save the queen’ to every house. At that time, Bankim Babu dared the British and wrote the song that united Indians in the common cause of freedom. The British soon realised that they needed to divide India to rule and that is how they partitioned Bengal," said Modi.

The PM said there was a time when the British saw Bengal's intellectual might as the core of India's inspiration for freedom.

"That is why they chose Bengal for the divide and rule experiment," Modi said, adding that even then Vande Mataram stood like a rock.

The PM chose to refer to Sarojini Ghosh of Barisal, now in Bangladesh, to speak of the power of local rebellion against the British who had banned the singing and utterance of Vande Mataram.

"In those times women associated bangles with self-pride. But Sarojini Ghosh of Barisal took a pledge that she won't wear her gold bangles till the British lifted the ban on Vande Mataram," Modi said referring to ‘prabhat pheris’, a tradition of agitations to reclaim Vande Mataram across the streets of Bengal.

"Bengal's streets would reverberate with sounds of ‘prabhat pheris’. Children in Bengal would sing Vande Mataram and they were ready to sacrifice their lives to sing the National Song. Soon the voice of Vande Mataram that emerged from the alleys of Bengal became the voice of India," said Modi.

The PM also referred to how the Indian revolutionary, Master Surya Sen from Bengal, was hanged for singing Vande Mataram.

"In his last letter to friends, Sen wrote Vande Mataram," said the PM, adding that Bipin Chandra Pal and Arvind Ghosh, both from Bengal, printed papers titled Vande Mataram.

In his address, Modi also mentioned national poet Subramania Bharati who translated Vande Mataram into Tamil and also wrote a description of the National Flag titled ‘Salutation to the Flag’.

The PM said Vande Mataram which united Indians from east, west, north and south as one in the urge for freedom, stood as a prime example of ‘One India, glorious India’ (Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat).

The PM's generous references to Bengal and Tamil Nadu come at a time when the ruling BJP faces its most formidable political challenge from the ruling parties of the two states under Mamata Banerjee of the TMC in Bengal and MK Stalin of the DMK in Tamil Nadu.

The fiercest point of the slugfest is -- Centre-state relations.

Against that backdrop, PM Modi deployed Vande Mataram to deliver the message of nation above all else.

Both Bengal and Tamil Nadu go to polls next year.