The Pack
Hashir
Boopalan Jayaraman
Ronak R.
abhipathak
shafling
enidhi
Nafees
savita
KK
Vatsal Rathod
madhavareddydonapati
sanketrajawat
smrutz
simplyafs
weirdpatch
Anne
Pankaj Patro
Divenita
Lakshmi
Bana
rahul aggarwal
Anu Menon
kumarsankar
smallcapdreamer
A few weeks ago the papers were filled (again) with the VandeMatram controversy, with the various madarsas claiming that it is against Islam, and the Sangh pariwar (again) questioning the “Indianness” and patriotism of Indian muslims.
I find this to be stupid and irrelevant on both parts. On one side, I can’t think how can singing or not singing a song determine your patriotism? And, on the other hand, I find the reaction of the Maulvi’s to be a bit too orthodox and bookish. I am no expert in Bengali or Sanskrit, but from what I know and have read, the literal translation of Vande Matram is “I bow to thee, mother!!”. Now, bowing in itself can refer to a lot of actions. For example, it can refer to anything from the action one does in front of the audience when he “takes a bow”, to the “rukuh” or “sajdah” of Muslims, to the bowing and touching of the feet of elders in Hinduism. I believe it is this diversity of actions and meanings that is the base of the controversy.
For the Muslims, Sajdah is something that is reserved only for God Almighty. We do not perform the sajdah to anyone else, not even to Prophet Mohammed (may peace be upon him). So, to ask us to so Sajdah to the motherland amounts to shirk. (Mind you, in the words of Moulana Mufti Syed Shah Badruddin Qadri Aljeelani, the then president of All India Sunni Ulema Board, “If you bow at the feet of your mother with respect, it is not shirk but only respect.“). Thus, the main bone of contention is the actual meaning of the word “Vande” and how a person takes it.
Another reason for the hooplah is the actual poem written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, which depicts the country as Maa Durga, which obviously does not go well with religions like Islam, Christianity, Sikhs, and others who do not believe in idol worship. However, this is not of much importance as the text taken for the National Song is from the first two stanzas of the whole song – which is an unexceptional evocation of the beauty of motherland.
For most people, Vande Matram just means “Praise to thee, O’ Motherland”. If you ask me, I have no problem in bowing before my country, but my bow will be similar to how I bow before my Parents, my elders, and those I respect. For me, it is similar to how I refer to Allah when I say Bhagwan or Ishwar, and I know that God Almighty does not go looking into the words or the language in which he was referred to or called. It is for this reason that I do not find myself agreeing to the fatwa against Vande Matram, as long as one refers to the National Song and not the whole text.
Another angle to this nonsense bawaal was added by those who want us Muslims to pay reverence to the idols of the motherland. This is against what I believe. If one wants to depict the motherland in some way, I am fine by it. If someone wants to pray to her – go ahead. But, please, for the sake of God! do not force others to do what you are doing, do not question the patriotism of others who fail to toe the line. Do not throw us out. Do not shun us. And, above all, do not try to tell us how to love our country.
This land belongs as much to us as to you. We both have lived here for centuries, have shared the same sorrow, the same happiness, the same turbulent times, the same low and highs. Please do not forget this. Do not Nazify this country in the name of religion, appearence, states, status, languages, or cultures.
We have enough trouble with our neighbours, one of whom is hellbent on destroying itself in the fire it started to burn us down, and the other who speaks one thing and does the other, to have time to fight within.
Please give it a thought.
This is Hashir, signing off
Over and out
Filed under: Appeal, Controversy, Vande Matram Tagged: | Vande Matram, Vande Matram Controversy
I respect your thoughts on this and i second every penny of it. I believe religionising India is an act of stupitidy. Bang on….
@Vaithee,
thanks a lot mate.
Very Valid and understandable. Such nonsense issues make me so angry. I mean, see the condition today…..almost at every place today, someone or other is fighting with someone else on issues of religion or region. There are absolutely no fights for poverty, corruption, employment, floods, irrigation, but every now and then some fight for a useless issue.
yeps Abhi, we all are so keen to fight on issues that do not matter at all, and skirt around issues that actually do.
I was actually in two minds on whether to write about this or not – considering the sensitivity of the issue. But I decided to go ahead nontheless as it is high time we face such issues face on instead of skirting around them just because they are sensitive.
I have tried my best to present a neutral point of view, but I know it did not come out as well as I wanted to. Please suggest improvements
First break in the paras….give a single line space!
It enhances readability and such topics require it!!!
I tried doing that…. but it is not showing when I publish the post
You have left certain thoughts or rather omitted them….and I guess including them will connect the paras….!!
The paras are no stand alone counter points….it need linkage!
The connectivity of the topic is very religiously missing or rather avoided to raise alarms…but when we have already made a wince, why worry now?!
Seriously speaking, it is after a long time that I wrote something. May be the connectivity is missing because of that (Not that I wrote better before
)
will try to improve… pakka
As long as this song does not amount to ‘Shrik’ (Assigning partners to Allah) I am fine with singing it. Infact I love A R Rahman’s composition of this song. I listen to it as anyother song without going into deep analysis of meaning.
I agree with ur views that there should be no compulsions, if some people think it amounts to ‘Shirk’ why do you force them to sing?
I read in a recent editorial that there was a similar controversy in 30′s and there was a case for the same also. The paras which were of conflict were decided for not to be recited and the matter was settled. Again waking up the same ghost can mean only to create more tension in an already terrified Junta. And both the religious heads were bent upon taking full advantage of the issue. But I guess the cold response from us have given them the signal that we are no more puppets which will fight with each other whenever they pull the religious threads. And you are absolutely right. India belongs to each of her citizens equally, without the consent of his/her religeous believes!
Happy Blogging!!!
thanks mate.
The problem is that a lot of people do not know the actual reason behind the fued….. they just pass judgement without going into the facts. That is what saddens me
Reflects my opinion
This issue is not worth your post
Boo Sire,
first of all, how are you?
Wrote about this because of a comment I heard from a team mate – to whom I explained the whole history of the issue