'Connects 140 crore Indians': PM Modi on Vande Mataram; urges 'historic' 150th anniversary of national song

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi on Sunday called on the nation to mark the 150th year of 'Vande Mataram', describing India's national song as "a surge of emotions in our hearts" and "a mantra that connects 140 crore Indians through the energy of unity". "Vande Mataram - this contains so many emotions, so many energies. It makes us experience the maternal affection of Ma Bharati," he said in his Mann ki Baat broadcast, urging citizens to send suggestions with the hashtag '#VandeMataram150' for year-long celebrations to make the milestone "historic and participatory". Composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in the 1870s and later published in Anandamath (1882), 'Vande Mataram' became a rallying cry during India's freedom struggle, sung at protest rallies and whispered in prison cells as a hymn of defiance. All-India Muslim League and several Muslim leaders objected to later stanzas that personified the motherland as a Hindu goddess, prompting Co-ngress in 1937 to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song - a version seen as inclusive and secular. Even today, Parliament closes each session with an instrumental version rather than a vocal rendition. Modi also recalled how the song's first public rendition was by Rabindranath Tagore at the 1896 session of Congress. "Vande Mataram was composed 150 years ago, and in 1896, Tagore sang it for the first time," he said.

Modi also paid tribute to Komaram Bheem - the tribal leader who spearheaded the Gond rebellion against the British and feudal Nizams of Hyderabad in 1928 - as well as tribal icon and freedom fighter Birsa Munda ahead of his birth anniversary on Nov 15, celebrated as 'Janajateeya Gaurav Diwas'. He appealed to people to participate in the 'Run For Unity' being organised across the country on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's 150th birth anniversary on Oct 31.