History of Vande Mataram

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In 1870s, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay had written a poem for his novel Anandamath. The Novel was published during 1882. It was one of the leading selling Novel during that period in Bengal state.

The poem was completely a religious based song that was penned to praise Mother Durga and it had more than 10 verses (stanza). "Vande Mataram" means "I Bow to Thee Mother"

In 1896, Rabindra Nath Tagore used the first two verses of that poem in the Bengal Independent movement rally. He was treating the Mother Nation as equal to a Goddess. Thus the meaning of "Vande Mataram" was understood as "I Bow to Thee Motherland" instead of "I Bow to Thee Mother".

"Vande Mataram" soon gained an identity among all freedom movements that was taking place in India during that time. It became an important lynchpin in the history of Indian freedom struggle. Most regional language poet's started to translate Vande Mataram to their language and Arabindo Gosh translated it to English.

Post Independence, "Vande Mataram" was considered as the National Anthem. As it is more towards religious and India is a secular Country, the Constituent Assembly decided to make Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana as the Country's National anthem.

Still "Vande Mataram" holds its special place among every Indian.

Vande Mataram

Reference: Vande Mataram

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