On Vande Mataram Congress Hasnt Learnt From Its Past

Nine decades ago, in 1937, the Congress leadership committed the blunder of surrendering before the communal forces led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Today, it wants to present that as a virtue in defence of its defiance against singing ‘Vande Mataram’ in full.

Before it was truncated in 1937, the singing of ‘Vande Mataram’ in full, in all Congress sessions, had a four-decade history. Taken from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Anandamath, it was first sung at the Congress session in 1896 by Rabindranath Tagore. The song became the mantra for the movement launched by the Congress against the partition of Bengal – it soon came to be called the Vande Mataram Movement. Renowned Hindustani musician Vishnu Digambar Paluskar used to sing it at the Congress sessions every year until he died in 1931, a tradition continued by Pandit Omkarnath Thakur, another vocalist.

Muslim League leader Maulana Muhammad Ali, who chaired the Congress session at Kakinada in 1923, objected to its singing for the first time. Puluskar ignored the objection and went ahead with the singing. The tradition continued. It was only to pander to Jinnah that Nehru initiated the debate over its future in 1937. It led to a furore in Bengali circles. Ramananda Chatterjee, renowned editor of the Modern Review published from Kolkata, strongly decried the song’s “trial” by Congress. Yet, Nehru, who once said that the outcry against the song was “a manufactured one by the communalists”, began to insist that the Muslims had genuine grievances against it.

Tagore proposed the truncation of the song on the specious claim that the second part of it was against his and his family’s “monotheistic ideals”. That’s how the song itself became a victim of vivisection.

For Jinnah, it was just an alibi. He continued to argue even after its truncation that the song was a “hymn of hatred to Muslims”. Nehru’s argument that it hurt the sentiments of Muslims was facetious because the objection never came from Muslim Congressmen. Even Jinnah, in his earlier avatar as a Congress leader, used to rise in reverence when the song was sung in Congress sessions. Tagore’s “monotheism” is not India’s creed.

As far as the idolatry complaint is concerned, except for references to Durga, Kamala (Lakshmi) and Vani (Saraswati), the song contains the names of no other Hindu gods. The argument of idolatry was irrational because the country itself was worshipped as Bharat Mata by all the freedom fighters. Aurobindo called her the “Shakti”; Gandhi went to Varanasi to inaugurate a Bharat Mata temple in 1936; and Indira Gandhi, as prime minister, inaugurated another Bharat Mata Mandir in Haridwar in 1983. Primarily, what the Congress leadership today is trying to defend was an act of communal appeasement, which resulted in horrible consequences for India.

The Congress never stood by nationalist Muslims during the freedom movement and after. In his book India Wins Freedom, Maulana Azad blames Gandhi for giving undue importance to Jinnah, and by implication, reducing the importance of nationalist Muslims like him. “Jinnah had lost much of his political importance after he left the Congress in the 1920s. It was largely due to Gandhi’s acts of commission and omission that Jinnah regained his importance in Indian political life”, he writes.

Habeebur Rehman wrote to Gandhi in 1944, complaining, “Yesterday, I read your statement. You are again ready to give Pakistan to Jinnah. The fact is that since Jinnah is a Gujarati, you love him and cannot forget him. You want to see him victorious despite his being wrong. This kind of gentle behaviour has strengthened the reactionary forces”.

The biggest repudiation came from ‘Frontier Gandhi’ Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. When Congress surrendered before Jinnah and agreed to Partition, he wept uncontrollably, asking why the sturdy Pathans, who had fought for freedom in a united India, were being subjected to this punishment. “You have thrown us to the wolves. Which Muslims, who joined you, will ever trust you?”, he agonisingly asked the Congress leadership.

By resorting to similar fallacious actions, the Congress is once again committing the same blunder of supporting the communalist elements as it did during the freedom movement.

The writer is president, India Foundation and national vice-president, BJP