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

At a time of bitter political jousting with the ruling Trinamool Congress and DMK of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively, Prime Ninister Narendra Modi on Monday made rich references to both poll-bound states when recalling the glories of Vande Mataram, the national song.

Bengal today featured repeatedly in PM’s Lok Sabha speech on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, written by the legendary 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 India without dividing it”.

“The song was written at a time of a conspiracy to take the British song — God save the Queen — house to house. At that time when the British spawned all round inferiority among Indians, Bankim Babu dared the British and wrote the song that inspired everyone in the common cause of freedom. The British soon realised they needed to divide India to rule and that is how they Partitioned Bengal,” said Modi.

The PM said the British saw Bengal’s intellectual might. “That is why they chose Bengal for their divide and rule experiment,” Modi said.

The PM referred to Sarojini Ghosh of Barisal, now in Bangladesh, to laud the power of Bengal’s rebellion against the British who had banned both the singing and utterance of Vande Mataram. “In those times women associated bangles with self-pride. But Sarojini Ghosh of Barisal took the pledge that she won’t wear her gold bangles till the British lifted the ban on Vande Mataram,” Modi said.

“Bengal’s streets would reverberate with sounds of prabhat pheris. Children in Bengal would sing Vande Mataram and dare the British. Soon the voice of Vande Mataram that emerged from the corners of Bengal became the voice of India,” said Modi, mentioning Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore setting the song to music.

Modi 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 remembering Bipin Chandra Pal and Arvind Ghosh, both from Bengal, and their newspaper titled Vande Mataram.

Modi also mentioned national poet Subramania Bharati, who translated Vande Mataram into Tamil language and wrote a description of the National Flag titled “Salutation to the Flag”. Modi’s references to Bengal and Tamil Nadu came at a time when the BJP faces its most formidable political challenge from the ruling parties in these two states, the fiercest point of the slugfest being Centre-state ties.