After the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India made it mandatory to sing all six stanzas of the national song “Vande Mataram” at official ceremonies, an unnecessary debate has erupted across the country over why such a step was considered necessary.
First of all, we should understand that “Vande Mataram” is the song that was sung by people of all ideologies and beliefs during India’s first freedom movement and became a symbol of rebellion against the British. The song venerates the land of India in such a way that people of all religions and communities living here regard it as their sacred motherland. Before 1937, all six stanzas of the song were publicly recited by freedom fighters. In fact, it was especially the revolutionary youth—who pledged to liberate India through radical means—who sang it and embraced the gallows with a smile.
However, the history of India’s independence has many dimensions, the most controversial being the creation of Pakistan. It is well known that until 1920, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was active in and a member of the Congress Party, while also being a member of the Muslim League. The Congress had allowed Muslim citizens to hold dual membership because when the Muslim League was formed in 1906, such dual affiliation was permitted. In order to divide Hindus and Muslims in united India, the British introduced separate electorates in 1909.
Meanwhile, the Congress Party, founded in 1885, had consistently demanded greater Indian participation in governance under British rule—a demand that later evolved into self-rule (Swaraj), and by 1930 into the demand for complete independence (Purna Swaraj). During this period, after Mahatma Gandhi returned to India, Jinnah developed differences with him and resigned from the Congress Party, remaining solely with the Muslim League. After returning again from England around 1930, his politics gradually changed, and he began advocating for a separate nation for Muslims based on religion.
A radical transformation in Jinnah’s politics came after the first provincial elections of 1936. He openly adopted a communal political stance and even informed the then British Viceroy of his intentions. He began declaring that Hindus and Muslims could not live together in India because their cultures were different. Historical figures regarded as heroes by Hindus were villains for Muslims; from language to dress, and from lifestyle to food habits, the two communities were fundamentally different, he argued.
The real reason behind this shift was the Muslim League’s crushing defeat in the 1936 provincial elections. Even in Muslim-majority provinces, the League failed to win a substantial number of seats. On the other hand, the Congress Party achieved a sweeping victory, winning even a significant number of Muslim-reserved constituencies. Jinnah suffered his biggest setback in Punjab, where the League secured only two seats in the assembly, while the Congress and the Punjab Unionist Party won convincingly. In present-day Uttar Pradesh and the then Central Provinces as well, the Muslim League failed to perform well, whereas the Congress won a full majority and formed governments.
In one such province, the Congress laid down a condition that Muslim League representatives could join the cabinet only if they left the League and became members of Congress. This infuriated Jinnah, who then openly declared that he would pursue communal politics from that point onward. This situation suited the British, and they allowed him to proceed. Coincidentally, the Second World War began in October 1939.
The impact of Jinnah’s politics was also seen in 1937, when the Congress Working Committee passed a detailed resolution regarding “Vande Mataram.” It was decided that only the first two stanzas—describing the land of India and its 300 million people—would be sung, and the remaining four stanzas would be omitted because they compared Mother India to Hindu goddesses. Before 1937, no Muslim had objected to the singing of all six stanzas; this opposition began only after Jinnah raised objections.
The song was first sung at a Congress session in 1896 by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore himself. Later, when the British partitioned Bengal in 1905, the song became a source of inspiration for Bengalis who took to the streets in protest. Subsequently, people from other provinces involved in the freedom movement also adopted it.
However, in independent India, only the first two stanzas were officially notified as the national song. Now that singing all six stanzas has been made mandatory, those in India who share Jinnah’s mindset are opposing it, claiming that it hurts the sentiments of Islam.
