Vande Mataram debate reaches India cricket

Vande Mataram, India's official national song but not its national anthem, has returned to the centre of a debate over patriotism and religion after it was sung before an international cricket match in India for the first time.

Before the September 13 T20 game between India and Afghanistan in New Delhi, players and spectators stood for a six-stanza rendition of the 19th-century song ahead of Jana Gana Mana, India's national anthem. Some India players sang the opening lines, while most stood silent before singing the anthem that followed.

Vande Mataram, meaning “Mother, I Bow to Thee”, was written by Bengali author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and first published in 1875. India adopted it as the National Song in 1950, the same year Jana Gana Mana was adopted as the national anthem.

The dispute centres on the song's later verses, which invoke Hindu deities including Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. In 1937, the Congress party endorsed only the first two stanzas for public use, seeking to accommodate India's religious diversity, including its large Muslim minority. Many Muslims object to the portrayal of the nation as a goddess, arguing that such veneration conflicts with Islamic teachings.

The debate has been revived by government measures elevating the song's official status. In February, the home ministry directed that Vande Mataram be sung or played in its musical version at the start of government functions, before the national anthem. Parliament in July passed legislation imposing fines or jail terms of up to three years for those who intentionally disrupt or obstruct its rendition.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has accused Congress of weakening a symbol of the freedom struggle. Congress says only the first two stanzas should be sung, in keeping with the older compromise. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on a website marking the song's 150th anniversary that Vande Mataram gives “concrete expression” to patriotism and love for India.

Delhi University professor Apoorvanand said the current push marks a departure from the pre-independence consensus limiting public renditions to the first two stanzas. He said the rise of Hindutva was behind efforts to create a new consensus “by the force of numbers”.