Through the mouth of Bhagwan Sri Rama, the sage-poet Valmiki has said, ‘जननी जन्मभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी’, meaning, the motherland is better than heaven. The sage of the present era, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, adorned the motherland with greater glory and made us collectively witness the ‘Vande Mataram’ mantra. With the blessings of this, the wave of unity flowed throughout the nation.
The mother is the homeland! A wonderful vision of the pursuit of motherhood, the eternal form of the mother. If we serve the country, it is she who is served! She is the one who accepts the offering of patriotism! Therefore, meditation in the form of ‘Mother India’ should be the pursuit of life. Let all actions be the daily worship of the motherland. ‘Vande Mataram’ is a great mantra born with that feeling. Her beloved children are busy decorating the country. The devotees easily accept the gallows with utmost enthusiasm.
Bankim Chandra’s three historically-based novels are of immense importance in the renaissance of the nineteenth century. They are Anandamath (1882), Devichoudhurani (1885) and Sitaram (1887). The mantra ‘Vande Mataram’ in Anandamath is the highest earthly philosophy of mother worship. The mother who gave me shelter, food, clothes and spirituality; the land where I grew up, with its deep roots of folklore; the mother who helped me awaken my inner self and realize God — ‘Vande Mataram’ is her worship.
The words later became the battle cry of India’s non-violent and violent revolutionaries. Patriots who uttered this great sound lost their lives in direct struggle against the British, in distant exile and on the gallows. However, this song was written in 1875 even before the novel. It graced the novel ‘Anandamath’ and became a text of unprecedented emotion.
Meanwhile, in December 1873, Bankim was unjustly harassed by Colonel Duffin while working in Berhampore as the Deputy Magistrate of Murshidabad District. Bankim took revenge within the bounds of the law and the colonel was ultimately forced to apologize in court. However, Bankim, who had witnessed with his own eyes the intense anger, irritation, pain, humiliation that had built up among the countrymen in the socio-political environment as a result of the exploitation of British power and the personal humiliation, made him even more angry. It was against this context that he composed ‘Vande Mataram’.
In 1874, we find the composition of work ‘Lokrahasya’, in which Bankim, through sharp satire, irony and ridicule, accumulates ‘British hatred’ and anger and presents it to the world through literature.
Bankim’s mindset began in the month of Kartik in 1281 B.E., when he wrote the ‘Kamalakantha’. Many say that Bankim Chandra wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ while sitting in the Lalgarh palace in Murshidabad district.
‘Anandamath’ was published in the book form on December 15, 1882. Before that, it was published continuously in the periodical ‘Bangadarshan’ edited by the elder brother Sanjiv Chandra Chattopadhyay from Chaitra month of 1287 (March-April 1881) to Jaishthyama month of 1289 Bengal. After the Ashwin issue of the Bengali year 1288, the ‘Bangadarshan’ magazine was closed for six months. When ‘Bangadarshan’ was published again from the month of Baishakh in 1289 B.E., it ended thereafter. That is, the novel was first published in a total of nine issues. During Bankim Chandra’s lifetime, a total of five editions were published in 1882, 1883, 1886 (two) and 1892.
The story of ‘Anandamath’ is set in the backdrop of the seventy-sixth Manvantara (1176 Bengali year), about a century before the time of this discussion. It is not a historical novel. The setting is faithful to history, accurately reflecting the political and social conditions of the era. There are some traces of the Bengali Sannyasi rebellion. However, Bankim’s Sannyasis are Vaishnavites, yet their worship is Shakti. Bankim used historical elements, but did not follow history. History was not the subject of this novel. But every room of the novel was illuminated by the bright flame of patriotism.
After its publication, it gradually became a source of explosive patriotic sentiment. The novel became a trumpet call in the Swadeshi movement. Because the mantra and symbol of the novel is hymn of the god of the homeland. The countrywoman is its deity. The patriot is its possible endeavor. Anandamath became a symbol of a nation’s self-awakening, the resurrection of a nation and the mantra for self-defense and self-establishment from foreign rule. The mantra inspired the people to use their strength and morale against foreign rule. And the novel became the thunderous book. The Indian Association was established in 1876 and its inspiration may have been the ‘Vande Mataram’. Meanwhile, Bankim also continued to express himself.
Sister Nivedita took this mantra from the novel and made it her own. She planned the national flag at the National Congress session held in Kolkata in 1906. Inspired by her enthusiasm, the girls of her school created a thunderbolt of golden thread on a wide red field of cloth and wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ in Bengali on both sides. ‘Vajra’, the symbol of great power and self-sacrifice, was now integrated into a bright address to the motherland. Regarding Nivedita’s role in the secret organization of the revolutionary movement, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose told her, “The thunderbolt will always be hidden behind black clouds and the ruling nation will not be able to know from which end of the sky that weapon was hurled.”
Later, ‘mantra’ became a promise. Dinesh Roy alias Prafulla Chaki was expelled from a government school for singing ‘Vande Mataram’ on the streets of Rangpur. When Khudiram was arrested and put into a police car, he shouted ‘Vande Mataram’ loudly, without any hesitation. A folk song was composed,
“tōrā prāṇa khulē bala’bandēmātarama’. Tōdēra ghumēra nēśā bhāṅgiẏē dilē kṣudirāmēra ēkaṭi bam”.
Sing ‘Vande Mataram’ with all your heart. If your sleep is broken, a song of Khudiram will break it.”
Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was expelled from school for raising the slogan ‘Vande Mataram’ during his student days. In 1900, he was studying in a school in Nagpur. Then, during the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, he refused to pledge allegiance to the British. After this incident, he became more and more involved in revolutionary and nationalist life. Later, he went to Kolkata to study medicine and became involved in the revolutionary movement there.
Revolutionary Kanailal Dutta declared before his execution, “After my death, do not mention the name of any god, if possible, chant ‘Vande Mataram’.” Lieutenant Colonel Simpson was killed by revolver shots fired by revolutionaries during the Writers’ Building Campaign in 1930. In the silence of the atrium, ‘Vande Mataram’ was heard in the voice of Vinay Badal Dinesh that day. In 1931, the road from revolutionary Dinesh’s jail cell to the gallows rang with ‘Vande Mataram’. In 1942, during the ‘Quit India’ movement, 73-year-old freedom fighter Matangini Hazra died while chanting ‘Vande Mataram’.
Madam Bhikaji Rustam Kama, who comes from the Parsi community, designed the first ‘national flag’ in Stuttgart, Germany, with ‘Vande Mataram’ written in Devanagari script. The patriotic mouthpiece ‘Vande Mataram’ was published from Paris. In it, Madame Cama called out that our enemies were forcing us to be violent. Why should the brave freedom fighters of India be condemned by the British as evildoers? The revolutionary efforts of the people of India are very sacred.
Therefore, ‘Vande Mataram’ is the Indian age-old sense of life. ‘It is a song written in Sanskrit-Bengali mixed language. A national image is revealed in the text of the song and the hymn. Sri Aurobindo referred to the song ‘Vande Mataram’ as the “national anthem of Bengal”. According to revolutionary Hemchandra Ghosh, the mantra ‘Vande Mataram’ is not ethnic, but personal, and not for any particular individual. All other mantras are individual, while the Vande Mataram mantra is national. Sage Sri Aurobindo said- ‘Earlier Bankim was a novelist only, later he is a Rishi. Bankim Chandra is the sage of this era. He is the originator of the mantra ‘Vande Mataram’.
Sister Nivedita, Rishi Aurobindo, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay, Lokmanya Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Roy, Surendranath Banerjee, Veer Savarkar, Rash Behari Bose, Jatindranath Mukherjee, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee and other personalities have accepted ‘Vande Mataram’ as the life mantra of the nation. In 1901, Swami Vivekananda said- ‘Read Bankim Chandra- Bankim Chandra- and Bankim Chandra only’.
