Sunday, August 27, 2006

Vande Mataram under assault

aug 26th, 2006

mohammedans in india should follow indian norms. after all, they expect indians in saudi arabia to follow saudi norms.

but they dont.

in kerala, a mohammedan minister refused to light a lamp saying it was un-mohammedan. but he had no problem with sexual assault on young women (oh, i forgot, that is acceptable to mohammedans).


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kanchan

The Sunday Pioneer / Agenda Cover Story / August 27, 2006.

 

Idea of INDIA Under Assault

 

Kanchan Gupta

 

The two of them walked into the moonlit night. Mahendra was grieving, but also strangely curious.

 

Suddenly Bhabananda became a different person. He was no longer a calm and patient sanyasi; nor did he look like a bloodthirsty warrior. In the stillness of this full moon night, amid the verdant forest and its rippling brooks, he became joyous. Bhabananda repeatedly tried to draw Mahendra into a conversation, but finding no response he burst into song:

 

Vande maataram

Sujalaam suphalaam

Malayajashiitalaam

Sasyashyaamalaam

Maataram

 

Mahendra was surprised by the lyrics, partly because he could not follow the words. Sujalaam... Suphalaam... Malayajashiitalaam... Sasyashyaamalaam...   "Who's maata?" he asked Bhabananda. Without answering the question, Bhabananda continued the song:

 

Shubhrajyotsnaa pulakitayaaminiim

Pullakusumita drumadalashobhiniim

Suhaasiniim Sumadhurabhaashhiniim

Sukhadaam varadaam maataram

 

Mahendra said, "This is desh (my country), this is not maata!"

 

Bhabananda replied, "We recognise no other mother - our mother is our motherland... We have no mothers, fathers, brothers, friends... we don't have wives, children, homes. All that we have is this sujalaa suphalaa, malayajashiitalaa, sasyashyaamalaa..."

 

With realisation dawning, Mahendra said, "Do continue with your song."

 

Bhabananda began to sing again:

 

Vande maataram

Sujalaam suphalaam malayaja shiitalaam

Sasyashyaamalaam maataram

Shubhrajyotsnaa pulakitayaaminiim

Pullakusumita drumadala shobhiniim

Suhaasiniim sumadhura bhaashhiniim

Sukhadaam varadaam maataram

Koti koti kantha kalakalaninaada karaale

Dwisapta koti bhujaidhrat kharakaravaale

Abalaa keno maa eto bale

Bahubaladhaariniim namaami taariniim

Ripudalavaariniim Maataram

Tumi vidyaa tumi dharma

Tumi hridi tumi marma

Tvam hi praanaah shariire

Baahute tumi maa shakti

Hridaye tumi maa bhakti

Tomaara i pratimaa gadi

Mandire mandire

Tvam hi Durgaa dashapraharanadhaarinii

Kamalaa kamaladala vihaarinii

Vaanii vidyaadaayinii namaami tvaam

Namaami kamalaam amalaam atulaam

Sujalaam suphalaam

Maataram

Vande Mataram

Shyaamalaam saralaam susmitaam bhuushhitaam

Dharaniim bharaniim Maataram

 

Mahendra saw tears streaking down an emotional Bhabananda's face. Amazed, Mahendra asked, "Who are you?" Bhabananda said, "We are santaan (children of the motherland)."

 

Free translation from Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's Anandamath)

 

Contrary to popular belief, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote the lyrics of Vande Mataram, or at least the first two stanzas of the song, much before he penned Anandamath, his novel celebrating the sanyasi uprising against the tyrannical rule of Bengal's Muslim subedars. The original version was written sometime in the early 1870s - probably 1875 - and was later expanded into its full version and incorporated in Anandamath in 1881.

 

Much later, when Vande Mataram became the rallying cry of India's freedom movement, after it was set to music by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and adopted as the National Song at the Varanasi session of the Congress on September 7, 1905 (it was accorded this status, bringing it at par with the National Anthem, officially by the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950), leaders of what was then incipient Muslim separatism began to raise the bogey that Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's creation was "idolatrous" and, therefore, unIslamic. In time, this became, and continues to remain, the chant of those sections of the clergy and community who remain hopeful of setting the clock back by 150 years, if not more, when much if not all of India was ruled through firmans issued from the masnad of Delhi, more specifically Lal Qila.

 

There is little reason for either surprise or anguish over the ulema's whiplash response to Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh's letter to Chief Ministers, in which he said, "The year-long commemoration of 100 years of adoption of Vande Mataram as the National Song started on September 7, 2005 and will be coming to a close on September 7, 2006. As a befitting finale to the commemoration year, it has been decided that the first two stanzas of the National Song Vande Mataram should be sung simultaneously in all schools, colleges and other educational institutions throughout the country..."

 

In Hyderabad, Maulana Syed Shah Badruddin Qadri, president of the Sunni Ulema Board, issued a fatwa, instructing Muslims not to sing the National Song and added that Muslims should not send their children to schools where Vande Mataram is sung. In Allahabad, India's all-weather Islamist and Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari turned apoplectic with rage and described any attempt to make Muslims sing the National Song as "oppression of Muslims".

 

Such resistance and refusal has been registered by the ulema earlier too. Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, aka Ali Mian, who, while he was alive, came to represent theological fanaticism and practised it with unabashed gusto as chairman of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, often raved and ranted against Vande Mataram while rubbishing all suggestions that the National Song defines the idea of Indian nationhood as something sacred and divine.

 

Nor is it surprising that the same Ali Mian, in his stirring address to a gathering of Indian and Pakistani Muslims in Jeddah on April 3, 1986, should have exulted, "Cow slaughter in India is a great Islamic practice, (said) Mujadid Alaf Saani II. This was his farsightedness that he described cow slaughter in India as a great Islamic practice. It may not be so in other places. But it is definitely a great Islamic act in India because the cow is worshipped in India."

 

Hence the renewed rage against Vande Mataram because it symbolises the motherland India worships; it must be profaned because we associate with the "ode to the motherland", to quote Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, "the purest national spirit"; it must be denigrated because, as Bipin Chandra Pal (a "terrorist" in the present UPA regime's jaundiced eyes) put it, "The new nationalism which Vande Mataram reveals is not a mere civic or economic or political ideal. It is a religion." It is this religion of nationalism and patriotism, and not merely India's National Song, which is once again under attack from those who hawk Islamic revanchism and preach bigotry and separatism in the guise of protecting the identity of India's Muslims.

 

The fresh fatwa against Vande Mataram is not without history and can be traced to the Congress's capitulation in the face of Islamic opposition. In 1923, the Congress met at Kakinada and Maulana Mohamed Ali was brought to the venue in a procession led by a raucous band. As was the practice, the session was scheduled to begin with a rendition of Vande Mataram by Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. When Pandit Paluskar rose to sing what had by then become the anthem of India's freedom movement, Maulana Mohamed Ali protested, saying that music was taboo to Islam and, therefore, singing Vande Mataram would hurt his religious sensitiveness. Pandit Paluskar snubbed the maulana, pointing out that the Congress session was an open gathering and not a religious congregation of any one faith. For good measure, he added that since the maulana had not found the band that led his procession a taboo to Islam, he could not object to the singing of Vande Mataram.

 

Maulana Mohammed Ali may have been stumped on that occasion, but by the time India became independent from foreign rule, the Congress had conceded ground to those who today have the temerity to scoff at the National Song or refuse to sing the National Anthem as activists of the Students Islamic Movement of India or members of the Jehovah's Witness sect do. By 1937, Vande Mataram had become a "Muslim grievance" and Ali Sardar Jafri convinced fellow-traveller Jawaharlal Nehru that the song which had inspired the freedom movement and sent martyrs like Khudiram Bose to the gallows without any trace of regret, was actually "idolatrous in spirit". Nehru went a step further and described the mantra of Indian nationalism and patriotism as "out of keeping with modern notions of nationalism and progress."

 

The Muslim League was quick to take its cue from Nehru and a month later, on October 17, 1937, passed a resolution at its Lucknow session, condemning the Congress for "foisting Vande Mataram as the national song upon the country in callous disregard of the feelings of Muslims." When the Congress Working Committee met in Calcutta later that year with Nehru as president, it officially recognised "the validity of the objections raised by the Muslims to certain parts of the Vande Mataram song" and "recommended that at national gatherings only the first two stanzas of the song should be sung."

 

But appeasement does not have any limit - the Muslim League was not reassured either by Nehru's action or his promise that Vande Mataram in "future (will) become less important." The Pirpur Committee, which was set up by the Muslim League to compile a list of "atrocities against Muslims", submitted its report on November 15, 1938. Among the "atrocities against Muslims" was listed Vande Mataram.

 

As September 7, 2006 approaches, we hear a similar refrain from the League's legatees: "Asking us to sing Vande Mataram is oppression of Muslims." The Pirpur report is being written all over again.

 

Before independence, the Congress sacrificed the cultural and civilisational content of Vande Mataram, which even in its truncated form is nothing but a hymnal tribute to an idyllic Mother India, on the altar of the Muslim League's separatist politics. We see a similar capitulation today with the Congress declaring, in response to the ulema's rant against Vande Mataram, that it is not compulsory to sing the National Song.

 

Soon, it will be the turn of the National Anthem, and then the idea of India as a nation and a nation-state. No price, it would seem, is too high to pay in order to keep the ulema in good humour.

 

--
Kanchan Gupta

7 comments:

iamfordemocracy said...

Vande Mataram is a National anthem. Period.

Everytime anyone says he won't sing it, you are not going to start the debate about why it is the national song. That is the foolish BJP way of doing politics. That is a sure loser. That is what anti-nationals would like. Pakistan loves to see that kind of approach.

iamfordemocracy said...

If you have the patience to read the long article by Kanchan Gupta, you would realise that a single person Paluskar checkmated the Maulavi by a simple argument.

The need of the hour is to find simple arguments and simple traps. There must be thousands of places where those who object to Vande Mataram can be made to submit. For example, here is a simple idea. When the government is giving away something (a subsidy, a load-waiver), the person who gets it must sing Vande Mataram..and then he will be handed over the money. Instead of shouting in Parliament, BJP can propose such ideas..and start implementing them where they rule. Make the other party protest. How long can you spend your energy and time in protesting a mischief?

iamfordemocracy said...

Incidentally, do Muslims in India sing Jana gana mana? Do they approve of it? Are there any reports about any Muslim gathering ever singing Jana gana mana?

EkSh00nyaSh00nya said...

Tavleen Singh's searing analysis of the Muslim mindset in India:

Treading nether lands
Tavleen Singh

Posted online: Sunday, August 27, 2006 at 0000 hrs IST

Indian reactions to the detention by Dutch authorities of 12 Muslims from Mumbai last week would be amusing if they did not provide evidence that we continue to be in denial about the transformation of ordinary, supposedly moderate Indian Muslims. Instead of being upset that Indian garment exporters should have disobeyed flight attendants, the media spoke almost in one voice to condemn ‘‘racial profiling’’.

Television channels competed to show us family members who complained that the detained men were good, god-fearing businessmen. ‘‘Nek, namazi’’ were the words used. Alas, so is Osama bin Laden. He fights us infidels only because he believes that Allah has sent him to Earth to either turn us into believers or finish us off. If you watched Christiane Amanpour’s documentary on CNN last Thursday you would have seen that both Osama and his lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, repeatedly warn the West that it can save itself only by converting voluntarily to Islam. This is what the jehad is about, and its warriors are all ‘‘nek, namazi’’ in the eyes of believing Muslims.

Europe has just begun to wake up to the reality that it is already almost Eurabia. European countries have allowed Muslim immigration in such large numbers that, according to some estimates, in a few years every fifth or sixth person in Western Europe will be Muslim. It is hard to find a European city that does not have several mosques. It is to these mosques that many ‘‘nek, namazi’’ Muslims flock daily to hear their Imams tell them to resist the corrupt, decadent culture of the West and instead remain true to the values and lifestyle given to them by the Quran. It is from these mosques that they hear that there is only one true religion, Islam, and only one true Prophet, Mohammed.

No room for discussion or compromise. It is in these mosques that London’s suicide bombers (manque) found the inspiration to blow up transatlantic airliners. And, what were they going to use? Liquid explosives and mobile phones and iPods as detonators. Is it surprising that airline marshals on the Northwest flight to Mumbai should have panicked when they saw a group of Muslims refusing to turn off their mobile phones?

By the time you read this the garment exporters will be reunited with their families, but our Islamist problem will continue and grow unless we confront the truth that Indian Muslims have changed in recent years. Our political leaders and we of the ultra-liberal media refused to accept that we have an Islamist problem till the train bombers in Mumbai turned out to be Indian and not Pakistani. We have still not registered how serious the problem is or we would not have allowed the recent controversy over Vande Mataram. Muslim preachers like the rabid Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid have used nationwide television to stir Muslims up against a song that is patriotic and not religious. The word ‘vande’ does not necessarily mean to pray, it can also mean to pay tribute, which is what the song does. After A R Rahman turned it into a wonderful, modern song, you would have thought that Muslim objections to singing it would have died, but they have not. So the Minister of Human Resource Development had to declare that Muslim schoolchildren did not have to sing it when we celebrate its centenary next month.

This is not the only thing that Muslims are encouraged by myopic leaders to use as a point of difference between us and them. They are also encouraged these days to veil their women and send their children to madarsas whose mindset and curriculum has not changed in 1400 years. They are being encouraged to think of themselves as part of the larger brotherhood of Islam which, they are told, is in grave danger from ‘‘crusaders’’, Jews and us idol-worshippers. So from Kashmir to Kanyakumari these days you meet ordinary, ‘‘nek, namazi’’ Muslims who have started looking towards Arabia for their cultural roots. This is not just silly but sad because in doing this they are gradually forgetting the richness of our own culture and their immense contribution to it.

They forget that it was possible more than a hundred years ago for Ghalib to write, ‘‘Khuda key vaastey purdah na Kaabey sey utha, zahid, kaheen aisa na ho yaan (yahaan) bhi yahi kaafir sanam nikley’’. (For Khuda’s sake, priest, do not lift the veil that hides the Kaaba, be careful that you do not find there this same Heathen God). Would any Indian Muslim poet dare write this today?
----

When is the myopic Indian leadership wake up from its slumber and stop being in denial about the hydra-headed monster lurking in its own backyard..well when the Italian Bar-Dancer would have fled to her Fatherland and all her boot-lickers would either have been butchered or converted to the religion of 'piss'...when?

iamfordemocracy said...

Perhaps, it is not only the leaders, but the aam janata too. Media propaganda is one thing, and leaders' selfishness is other, but the janata apathy is also a main reason for the decline of Indian resolve. If you aren't bothered about the small things, the roads, the water, the goondagardi around you, you are condemned to accept a goonda-raj. Before independence, there was a general awareness about the oppression of the Indians, and everyone did something, if only a small shout about Swaraj. Post independence, people have lost interest.

Fortunately, the internet has led to a churning of Indian minds. Congress senses this, so do some small parties. For a change, Pranob Mukherjee had to chant a few Shlokas in the parliament the other day. Faroukh Abdulla is talking against terrosits. There is a small shifting of stance of media. Coupled with the international events and their effects, the right kind of thinking is likely to gather force in coming months. Whether our society will decline all strengthen is anybody's guess, but the common man will definitely participate a little more for a few years from now on. The rule of the media is set to crumble.

EkSh00nyaSh00nya said...

>>....the internet has led to a churning of Indian minds...

This rate @ which the mind is churning...it will take another millenia before we get to see any transformation (in case we are not driven to extinction by the hydra-headed Islamic monster) or is it like that we can just afford to wait till eternity or till hell freezes over or pig starts flying to get some sense into the now-numbed brains of Indian masses while the monster grows exponentially in size day-in day-out. We can't afford to wait any longer..this problem should have been crushed the moment it raised its ugly head, rather nipped in the bud, but thanx to the vote gathering machinations of the scum-bag Indian politicians, this will now take tremendous effort & will-power to eradicate and given the present poltical scenario, I don't see how this will be achieved.

R@hul said...

@Cacoethes,
The words Malayaj,Drumadal and Sumadhur are right not Malayaja,Drumdala and Sumadhura..If u know Sanskrit then u should be aware of all this..there are no words like malyaja drumadala ok...why all this is done with Hindu mythology and Hindu names??why do we pronounce Ram as Rama,Ramayan as Ramayana??Ashok as Ashoka...Why don't we call Alexender as Alexendera??Bible as Bibla?Kuran as Kurana?Akabar as Akabara???Tht is right pronunciation of those words and if u r edicted with English then it doesn't mean tht everyone will pronounce it in a wrong way..And whts wrong with "Jan Gan Man".its right..If u r writing the things in English then it doesnt mean tht u'llchange the words and their meanings..