The Republic of India's Two National Anthems

A national anthem is a powerful work, meant to embody the spirit of a nation. Unlike other works of music, it is not judged on its artistic merit, but rather how well it represents a nation’s core values. Consequently, as a force for patriotism, a national anthem is hard to rival in power and poignancy- unless there is a second national song. Whereas in most countries, there is only one national anthem, in the Republic of India, secularism and the influence of vocal minorities brokered a compromise creating a national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana,” and a second national song, “Vande Mataram” meaning “Hail to the Motherland.”

While the latter was the original rallying point of independence, and the concept of “Swadesh” (self-determination) in India, its references to India as the manifestation of the Hindu goddess Durga was offensive to Muslims and Sikhs, India’s two largest minorities. As a result, Vande Mataram was made the national song, in order to placate the needs of the large Hindu population, and Rabindranath Tagore’s “Jana Gana Mana” was instead made the national anthem. The artistic and political manifestation of nationalism and its preeminence over other descriptors is the core of Bernard Anderson’s book, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Controversies like that surrounding “Vande Mataram” however shows the complexities regarding identity, particularly in secular nations where citizens are encouraged to embrace all aspects of their cultural history.

“Vande Mataram” was composed by Bankimchandra Chatterjee in 1882, a Deputy Magistrate for the British authorities, who composed the piece as a part of his novel Anandamarth, calling Hindus to stage a religiously grounded rebellion agai...

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...e ideals of that period that inspired both the music of Chatterjee and Tagore, and led millions of protestors to peacefully but persistently resist the entrenched and sometimes violent, British authority. The same ideals however, were forced by compromise to a weaker but more tolerant version of their ideal. In a country with two national anthems, in the name of secularism, a single identity and a single principle cannot motivate the populace. The fervor that fueled Swadeshi is not quite as visible in the modern India. Instead politics remains a conflict among various ideologies and minority groups, tribals, Muslims, Sikhs, Communists, Hindu nationalists, and linguistic separatists. These are the new nationalisms that are becoming visible in a country whose old nationalistic image has faded.

Works Cited

Benedict Anderson. "Imagined Communities"

Vande Mataram.