In Obeisance

 We are multi-lingual. We are multi-ethnic. We are multi-religious. We are multi-regional. As a country, a continent  of variations we are. Our geographies may be different. Same, however, are our histories, our cultures, our civilizational identities. 

If there is any one ditty that captures our unity in diversity, it is "Vande Mataram". 2025 happens to be its sesquicentennial year. Ah, not to worry about that pedantic touch! Used it at all, Dear Reader, because the context would amplify its meaning. Yes, today, on November 7, this fervent tribute to our nation celebrates its hundred and fiftieth year.

The song is written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in his novel entitled "Anandmath" which glorified the Bairagi Rebellion, a glorious but lesser known chapter in the Freedom Movement. The eponymous film has an ardent rendering of this song by Lata Mangeshkar. In my opinion, if Pandit Nehru were to hear it, he would have shed tears a decade earlier. That passionate is its rendering set to music by Hemant Kumar, one of my favourite most singers and music directors.

The song is unique for two reasons. To begin with, it celebrates the abundance that is India, and, that, too, in a multi-lingual mode, Sanskrit, and Bangla in the original Bengali version, not to forget the echoes of Sanskritised Hindi or for that matter, Marathi.

The second reason why this song is simply great is because of its central image. It would not be very far-fetched to maintain that it is this song which constituted the iconic image of India as Bharat Mata. This image, much debated later, during  the heydays of the Subaltern Studies, however, was instrumental in uniting the masses and the elites during the Independence  Movement.

In the making of a nation comes a moment when its soul in captured in reverent words that charge and enlarge the hearts of many and of everybody. Suffice it may to assert that 'Vande Mataram' marks one such moment in our cultural imaginary!

Pratima@Do listen to the Lata-Hemant version of 'Vande Mataram'. Passionately it captures the gravitas of the song.

The quote of the day:                                               "I want all people to be Indians first, Indians last, and nothing else but Indians," asserted Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. 

The word of the day:                                             'ardent,' means very enthusiastic and passionate. In the olden days, the word also meant glowing, burning. Everybody sings the national song ardently, for example.