NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah termed ‘Vande Mataram’ as “the song of freedom, the spirit of unyielding resolve, and the first mantra of Bharat’s awakening” in a blog commemorating 150 years of India’s National Song written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
In the detailed reflection, Amit Shah wrote that Vande Mataram was not merely a song but the “soul of the freedom struggle and the first proclamation of cultural nationalism.” He observed that songs and art have always been at the core of social and political movements throughout Indian history — from the war anthems of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s army to the patriotic songs of the freedom movement and the voices of resistance during the Emergency.
“Among them stands Vande Mataram,” Shah wrote, “a song that did not emerge from the battlefield but from the calm yet resolute mind of a scholar—Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.” He added that Bankim Chandra composed the immortal anthem on the day of Jagaddhatri Puja in 1875, drawing from India’s ancient spiritual traditions – from the Atharva Veda’s declaration “Mata bhumih putro aham prithivyah” (“The earth is my mother, and I am her son”) to the Devi Mahatmya’s invocation of the Divine Mother.
Describing Bankim Chandra’s words as “both a prayer and a prophecy”, Shah said Vande Mataram reminded Indians that Bharat was not just a geographical entity but a geo-cultural civilisation. Quoting Maharshi Aurobindo, he referred to Bankim Chandra as “a sage of modern Bharat” who reawakened the soul of the nation through his words.
Shah also pointed out that Bankim Chandra’s novel Anandamath acted as a “mantra in prose” that stirred a dormant nation to rediscover its divine strength. Recalling Bankim Chandra’s own words, Shah said that only someone filled with devotion to the motherland could have written it.