As the nation marked 150 years of the iconic national song Vande Mataram on December 8, 2025, Narendra Modi used his address in the Lok Sabha to deliver a sharp critique of the Indian National Congress and its founding leaders — particularly Jawaharlal Nehru — accusing them of betraying the song’s true legacy by succumbing to “appeasement politics.”
Modi said the song, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the late 19th century and immortalised in his novel Anandamath, was meant to resurrect India’s glorious past and awaken patriotic pride at a time when the British imposed “God Save the Queen” on Indian households.
He reminded the House that by 1905, the song had become a rallying cry against colonial rule.
Over the decades, it had served as a unifying voice for freedom fighters across India.
But, he argued, the Congress — first under Nehru’s leadership — diluted this legacy.
According to him, in 1937, when the Congress Working Committee debated the song’s status, the party acquiesced to objections from the Muslim League and dropped the later stanzas that praise Goddess Durga and evoke religious imagery, thereby “partitioning” Vande Mataram before India itself was partitioned.
Modi asserted that this “appeasement politics” resulted in a grave injustice to the song — one that sidelined India’s cultural and civilisational legacy in favour of compromising with communal dissent.
“Why was injustice meted out to Vande Mataram in the last century? Which force prevailed over the sentiments of our freedom-fighters and Mahatma Gandhi?” he asked.
He recalled that freedom stalwarts, including Indian revolutionaries abroad (those active at India House in London), drew strength from the song.
Its verses inspired the resolve to overthrow foreign rule — and to reclaim India’s dignity.
Modi invoked the history of colonial “divide-and-rule” strategies: how the British first partitioned Bengal to weaken Indian unity — and how Vande Mataram stood as a symbol of resistance against that division.
He appealed to the House and the nation to recognise the song’s pan-Indian, civilisational spirit — beyond religion, caste or region.
He said that over 150 years, while much has changed — the country has become free, the Constitution adopted, and institutions built — the ideals behind Vande Mataram remain relevant.
It should not just be a relic of the past, but a living pledge: that India must become self-reliant, united, and strong by 2047.
Addressing what he called the “injustice” done to the song in the past century, Modi said this anniversary is “an opportunity for us, as a nation, to walk together again — beyond politics, beyond divides.”
Key Historical Context (as referenced in Parliament)
Vande Mataram was composed in the late 1870s by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and published in his 1882 novel Anandamath.
Its first two stanzas, free of religious imagery, were adopted by the Congress in 1937 as the national song — following objections from some sections, particularly the Muslim League, to later stanzas invoking Hindu goddess imagery.
Over decades, the song became a central element of India’s freedom struggle, sung in protests, gatherings, and political rallies — a unifying call across regions and communities.
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