Vande Mataram is a song for unity, not division

EARLIER this week, when I spoke in the Rajya Sabha during the discussion marking 150 years of Vande Mataram, I did so with a deep sense of both reverence and worry. Vande Mataram, undoubtedly, is a composition that stirred the soul of a nation struggling for freedom. But speaker after speaker were also worried about what is being done to the magnificent and powerful song today.When we celebrate anniversaries, whether it is 50 years of Independence, 50 years of becoming a republic or the anniversary of any song associated with our freedom movement, it must be done with a sense of reflexivity, with a spirit of introspection. We must ask ourselves: are we really living up to the ideals that these moments represent? These must not be meaningless celebrations. These should be occasions where we hold ourselves accountable for the promises and objectives we have achieved.As we are aware, something extraordinary happened when Vande Mataram spread across India during the Independence struggle. The spirit of this song crossed all kinds of borders. It crossed regional borders. It crossed linguistic borders. It reached from Bengal to Punjab, touching hearts everywhere it went.Many people who sang this song did not know the Bengali language. They did not understand Sanskrit. They could not tell you the exact meaning of each word. The shabdarth (literal meaning), so to speak. But they understood something deeper. They grasped the emotional meaning, its bhavarth (the spirit) and they felt what the song meant even when they could not translate it. This tells us something profound about India.Our pluralistic culture has always been part of who we are. It is not something we invented after Independence. It is not something politicians gave us. It existed despite our diversities.When Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote this song 150 years ago, he gave poetic expression to India's awakening spirit. But that spirit belonged to everyone. Rabindranath Tagore sang it at the Congress session in 1896. Sri Aurobindo referred to it as the mantra of India's rebirth.Freedom fighters whispered it before the gallows. They did not ask each other's religion before singing together. Let me reiterate something I stressed in my speech. The freedom struggle was not fought by one community alone. Hindus were there. Muslims were there. Sikhs were there. Christians were there. And yes, even atheists were there. They all contributed. They all sacrificed. They all sang Vande Mataram in their own way, with their own understanding.I believe in a simple but powerful idea: I can love every God simultaneously. This is not confusion. This is the essence of Indian civilisation. We do not need to hate one faith to love another. We do not need to diminish someone else's devotion to prove our own. This is what our founding mothers and fathers understood. This is what they built our republic upon.What as a nation community we must understand and acknowledge that Vande Mataram should never be put to use as a political tool, an instrument for narrow political purposes.The song was meant to unite. When we use it to divide, when we use it to question someone's patriotism, when we use it as a test rather than an expression of love, we betray everything it stands for. Today, we have leaders who are wounding the nation rather than healing it. The polarisation we see around us is not happening by accident. The fault lines are being widened into chasms. The ambers are being stoked into flames. It is being used for political gain. Is this the true Vande Mataram?When our country fragments into pieces, when hatred fills our streets, when communities that lived together for generations suddenly become enemies. Is this what the song meant? Is this what the freedom fighters died for?There is a troubling tendency today to use national heroes and their creations for narrow political gain. Some politicians invoke Nehru only to criticise him. Others claim Mahatma Gandhi, while ignoring everything he stood for. Still others wrap themselves in the flag while promoting the very divisions that our founders fought against.The Parliament witnessed that our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has become a kind of 'political lifejacket' for some; useful to cling to when convenient, easy to discard when not. But you cannot claim the legacy of our founders while undermining everything they built. You cannot celebrate Vande Mataram while destroying the pluralistic culture that gave it meaning.The song speaks of a motherland rich with rivers, blessed with harvests, cooled by southern winds. It speaks of her beauty, her abundance, her grace. It does not speak of her children hating each other. It does not speak of some children being more legitimate than others.It does not divide. It embraces. The anniversary of Vande Mataram should be a moment to recommit ourselves to its true spirit. That spirit is not about proving who is more patriotic. It is not about using the song as a weapon against fellow citizens. It is about the simple, profound act of loving the motherland - all of her, with all her children, in all their diversity.The discussion around the 150th anniversary of this great patriotic song also exhibited that the balkanisation of hearts and minds in contemporary India has emerged as the nation's gravest challenge. This fragmentation is not merely about political polarisation or religious divides; it is the splintering of a shared emotional universe that once held India together despite its staggering diversity.When citizens begin to view one another not as fellow travellers but as adversaries, when mistrust replaces dialogue and when identities become the basis of suspicion rather than coexistence, the moral spine of the republic weakens.No amount of economic growth or technological advancement can compensate for a society that is emotionally fractured. What India urgently needs today is not just policy reform or institutional repair, but a deep, deliberate rebuilding of social trust - because without healed hearts, no nation, however ambitious, can truly move forward. This is what Bankim Chandra Chatterjee would have cautioned against.Vande Mataram underlines that India's pluralistic culture is not a problem to be solved. It is our greatest inheritance. We must keep on believing in an India where we can love every God simultaneously while seeking peace, prosperity and justice. We must never lose faith in an India where national songs unite rather than divide. I believe in an India where leaders heal wounds rather than inflict them.The question I posed in the Rajya Sabha remains: What kind of India do we want? The answer lies not in grand speeches or ceremonies. It lies in how we treat each other. It lies in whether we honour Vande Mataram in word alone or in spirit. That is the true celebration of Vande Mataram. That is the only celebration worthy of those who gave their lives singing Vande Mataram.

Vande Mataram is a song for unity, not division

Vande Mataram should never be put to use as a political tool; the song was meant to unite.

Manoj Jha

Vande Mataram is a song for unity, not division

Vande Mataram should never be put to use as a political tool; the song was meant to unite.

Manoj Jha

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