Rajya Sabha–nominated MP Sudha Murty on Tuesday, 9 December, urged the Union government to make the national song Vande Mataram compulsory in the primary and high school curriculum, saying it is essential to instil patriotism and preserve the nation’s cultural memory.
Participating in a discussion in the Upper House marking 150 years of the song, Murty said she was speaking “not as an MP, philanthropist or author, but as a daughter of Mother India”.
Calling India a “quilt” made of many colours, she said, “The thread and needle binding them together is Vande Mataram.” The idea of the motherland, she added, goes beyond maps and flags: “It is not just a piece of land; it is the motherland.”
Murty said that while children are taught the national anthem Jana Gana Mana, they are not taught Vande Mataram. “It takes three more minutes to teach Vande Mataram,” she said.
Recalling the song’s significance during the freedom struggle, Murty said it served as a rallying cry at a time when people had “lost confidence” under colonial rule. “Vande Mataram came up like a volcano exploding lava… It was a magic touch that made even cowards stand up,” she said, recounting stories from her hometown of Hubli about resistance to British rule.
She said the song symbolised sacrifice and the hard-fought nature of India’s freedom. “We did not get our freedom on a silver plate. People sacrificed. That struggle is associated with Vande Mataram,” she said.
Urging the education ministry to act, she said the song must be taught during formative years. “Patriotism always accompanies compassion, sacrifice and conserving the land. Vande Mataram describes all of this,” Murty said.
Vande Mataram, the invocation of India as the motherland, has for generations served as an emotional and ideological anchor for the freedom movement. Written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and later included in his novel Anandamath in the early 1880s, the song ignited patriotic fervour and unified diverse groups against British colonial rule. This year marks 150 years since its composition.
By 1937, the Indian National Congress (INC), then at the forefront of the independence struggle, decided to adopt only the first two stanzas for use in its gatherings, acknowledging both its inspirational value and concerns raised by sections of the Muslim community about the later verses. After Independence, the Constitution recognised Vande Mataram as the national song.
However, the parliamentary sessions convened to commemorate the song’s anniversary this week veered sharply away from consensus-building. Instead of celebrating its legacy, the debate turned combative. Senior BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha and Home Minister Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha, argued that the INC’s 1937 decision to limit the song’s use contributed to the communal fissures that eventually led to Partition. They suggested that appeasement politics around the song emboldened the Muslim League and its demand for Pakistan.
The Opposition pushed back strongly. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, speaking in the Lok Sabha, and party president Mallikarjun Kharge, addressing the Rajya Sabha, contextualised the historical choices made by national leaders at the time and questioned the rationale for reopening long-settled debates. Vadra argued that Parliament would better serve citizens by addressing present-day concerns rather than litigating the past. Kharge similarly criticised what he characterised as attempts to weaponise history for political gain.