Vande Mataram

"Vande Mātaram" is a poem that was adopted as the national song of the Republic of India in 1950. It was written in Sanskritised Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in the 1870s, and was first published in 1882 as part of Chatterjee's Bengali novel Anandmath. In May 2026, the cabinet headed by Narendra Modi approved a proposal to grant Vande Mataram legal protection under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act in par with the national anthem of India, making disrespect during its rendition punishable by law . The poem is an ode to the motherland, it was officially adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1905 to serve as a pan-Indian, nationalist salutation to Mother India during the Indian independence movement, culminating in its 1950 designation as the National Song of the Republic of India, sharing equal honour with India's National Anthem. The first two verses of the song make abstract reference to the "mother" and "motherland", without any religious connotation. However, later verses mention Hindu goddesses such as Durga. The references to Hindu gods became a point of contention in 1937, after which the Indian National Congress, on suggestion of Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, adopted the two stanzas of the song. Unlike the national anthem, there are no rules or decorum to be observed when reciting Vande Mataram. In May 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi endorsed the adoption of the full six-stanza version of Vande Mataram for official functions and government events as part of its 150th anniversary commemorations.