Vande maataram
Posted on: August 15, 2014
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Today (15 august 2014) is our Independence Day. My Greetings to all our readers.
VANDE MATARAM does not need any introduction. Its mere utterance thrills every true Indian. It has earned a special place in every true Indian’s heart.This is not an ordinary poem. It has inspired all the Freedom Fighters over last more than 100 years. Great Revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh welcomed the death by singing Vande Mataram.
This very word and the poem shook the British Empire. Veer Savarkar,while in London and Subhash chandra Bose in Singapore used to sing it. During the Freedom struggle,the mere sound of Vande Mataram used to inspire people to sacrifice for Motherland. Every Morcha and ‘ Prabhat Pheri ‘ used to sing Vande Mataram.
This song is written by novelist Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya. He was in British Government service and used to see the atrocities perpetrated by the British on Indians. He was very sad. One day while resting in a Rest House near river Ganga, he heard some fishermen singing a folklore which equated River Ganga to their Goddess Durga. Bankim chandra got inspired from that and he wrote down the song Vande Mataram, in which he not only equated country with mother, but also made comments on the then current enemies and exhorted the people to resist them. That day was Kartik Shuddha Navami,1797 (Indian calendar-Vikram Sanvat),corresponding to 7th November 1875.
very soon the song caught the imagination of people. This song was included in Bankim’s novel ” Anand Math “. Within a month’s time, after the song was written,Jadunath Bhattacharya, a composer, set it to its present tune,which is the most popular tune even today. It is , of course,sung by many singers in different tunes.
The song became so popular that it was accepted as a symbol of patriotism by all and it began to be sung in the beginning of every convention of Indian national Congress. With Muslim League getting more active and pressing for a separate Pakistan, opposition to Vande Mataram slowly began up. First such opposition was raised in the Congress convention at Kakinada ,in Madras presidency,in 1923. While Vishnu Digambar Paluskar was singing Vande Mataram, Maulana Ahmed Ali tried to object to it. Paluskar however completed the song.
Originally, Vande Mataram was praised and honoured by all including Muslims also. In fact the Khilafat Movement conventions used to begin by singing Vande Mataram. In those days Maulana Ahmed Ali, Shaukat Ali, Jaffer Ali and other Muslim leaders used to respectfully stand up when this song was sung. Barrister Jinnah used to scold those who did not stand up . Later the scenario changed and it was claimed by the same people that Vande Mataram advocated Idol worship and that it was anti Muslim.
In the Muslim league convention on 17-3-1938, Jinnah openly asked Muslims to discard Vande Mataram totally. To appease them, Congress even removed later stanzas, keeping only the first 2 stanzas of the song, but it was to no avail.
After Independence, there was a raging controversy as to which song should become the national Anthem-Vande mataram or Jana Gana mana. Finally, the constitutional committee set for it decided in its meeting on 24-1-1950 against vande mataram and this song was declared ” Equal to national Anthem but only a National Song ”
The site http://www.vande mataram.com describes,in short, how efforts were made till the last minute to convince Nehru,to dispel the allegations against this song-
“… Last in the line but never the least comes the contribution of Master Krishnarao Fulambrikar. History will remember him as the lone warrior, the solo performer in the battle of Vande Mataram to achieve status of National Anthem. It is an unique example how the Indian academic city of Pune can produce determined individuals who could pursue a single aim, single handedly.
As a vocalist actor during 1935 Master Krishnarao had earned considerable popularity. He was one of the trusted team members of Prabhat Studios. Attempts were on for the broadcast of Vande Mataram (composed in raag jhinjhoti) on All India Radio. However, strangely enough, all singing of Vande Mataram was banned from AIR. After enough patient waiting during one of his recitals of Indian Classical Music on AIR, he adjoined certain notes in Mishra Zinzoti and suddenly reverted back to Vande Mataram’s tune. Station director Mr. Z.A. Bukhari immediately cut off the power supply of Krishnarao’s microphone. This event was criticized enough in the next day’s paper and all over India. As a mark of protest Master Krishnarao stopped all his recitals from Radio. It was only in 1947, an auspicious day of Chaitra Padawa that he sang the full version of Vande Mataram in the presence of the same station director Bukhari, on a special request from Vallabhbhai Patel.
He left no stones unturned to have Vande Mataram as the national anthem. Composers and musicians those days beyond a point never involved themselves in controversies or political showdowns. Krishnarao Fulambrikar was an exception. To prove that a large public gathering can sing it together he sang it infront of a large audience of 50,000 people in Pune. On 25th August 1948, Pandit Nehru expressed his reservations about the song in parliament- about the song’s worthiness as a march song and a difficulty, which could be faced by foreign band troops in playing it. Added to it were the praises for Jana Gana Mana.
This irked Mr. Fulambrikar. He telegraphed the Prime Minister about hearing him at least once. Till Nehru’s answer came Master Krishnarao practiced the steps, of the marching at the police grounds along with the policemen, while the composition was being played. This ascertained the fact that it can be best of the ‘march songs.’ Also to counter the argument, that the foreign band troops should easily be able to play it, he consulted the chief of the British Police Band-Mr.C.R.Gardner. He in turn with the help of British Naval Band Chief, Stanely Bills, rehearsed it on the brass instruments on the British Naval Band. Both the foreigners immediately gave their positive opinions that it was possible to be played on the ‘foreign’ instruments and certified this opinion in writing.
All these evidences eventually were presented by Master Krishnarao in front of the members of the constitutional committee, and of course Pandit Nehru. He had, infact, 3 different recordings for this as evidence. One version as a march song, other version as a general welcome for any leader and the third as his composition for it to be the National Anthem. So also, he handed over the letters by the chief of the British Police and Naval Band. Even Pandit Nehru could not help admiring this effort. He affectionately put his hand on Master Krishnarao’s shoulder and declared that here is a composer who will be regarded as the ‘march song’ composer of Independent India. Even then, in his mind, he was fully convinced about Jana Gana Mana.
On 17th January 1950, in a press conference, Master Krishnarao demonstrated his versions. Many of the members of Parliament applauded it. However on 24th January 1950 the committee for constitution, in a totally one sided verdict declared (by Dr. Rajendra Prasad) Jana Gana Mana as the official National Anthem and Vande Mataram to enjoy the status of ‘equal’ to anthem but a ‘National Song’. Well, for Master Krishnarao his entire efforts were not in vain. His persistence at least earned “Vande Mataram” the status of National Song. So his attempts are worthy of the highest praise. ”
On today’s happy occasion,let us not get into the political considerations that have constantly dogged the issue. Let us today enjoy a song recorded, possibly, in 1948 or so. It is composed by composer Gyan Dutt. It is sung by an young Geeta Roy, G.M.Durrani and Promodini Patkar. I thank Dr. Surjit singh ji for making this song available, the site vandemataram.com for information in this article and our own Atul ji for uploading this song on you tube,on my request.
Enjoy this rare song today….
Song-Vande Maataram (Patriotic NFS)(1948) Singers-Geeta Dutt, Pramodini Patkar, G M Durrani, Lyrics-Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, MD-Gyan Dutt
Lyrics
vande maatram
vande maatram
vande maatram
vande maatram
sujalaam suphalaam
malayajashitalaam
shasya shyamalaam
maatram
sujalam suphalam
malayajashitalam
shasya shyamalaam
maatram
vande mataram
vande maatram
shubhra jyotsna
pulakita yaminim
phulla kusumita
drumadalashobhinim
suhaasini
sumadhura bhashini
sukhadaam varadam
sukhadaam varadaam
mataram
vande mataram
vande maatram
trinkshkoteekantha kal-kal ninaadkaraale
trinkshkoteebhujai dhrit kharkarbaale,
trinkshkoteekantha kal-kal ninaadkaraale
trinkshkoteebhujai dhrit kharkarbaale,
namaami
namaami
namaami
kamalam amlamam maatram
vande maatram
vande maatram
vande maatram
vande maatram
6 Responses to "Vande maataram"
August 15, 2014 at 3:18 pm
Arun ji,
Thanks for this great post and the song. I am aware of several versions of “Vande Maatarm”. I do not remember listening to this version.
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August 15, 2014 at 7:06 pm
History brought to the fore!! Every article of yours is worthy enough to be included in scholarly books about HFS. Thanks Arun ji!!
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August 16, 2014 at 4:52 pm
Arun-ji, got to see this post only today. What a great song and a different kind of rendering
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August 18, 2014 at 12:35 pm
Vande Mataram…!!! What a thrilling anthem….!!!
Arun ji…tumhi pan AMAR jhale aahat…!!!
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 15, 2014 at 6:26 am
Vande Maataram…!!!
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