Reflecting Upon the Nationalism of Two Songs

Gist The Union government has amended the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 , criminalizing the disruption of the National Song and mandating the singing of all six stanzas of Vande Mataram at official functions. This shift from voluntary reverence to penal enforcement has sparked a Supreme Court challenge invoking the right to silent objection under religious freedom. Aspirants must understand this development as a core constitutional debate over compelled speech, religious liberties, and the boundaries of state-enforced nationalism. Background Before these orders, Vande Mataram enjoyed equal historical status with the National Anthem but deliberately remained outside the penal framework of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 . On January 24, 1950 , the Constituent Assembly, through President Rajendra Prasad , adopted Jana Gana Mana as the Anthem and granted Vande Mataram equal honour, formalizing a 1937 Congress Working Committee settlement. That 1937 resolution adopted only the first two stanzas of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s song—omitting the later stanzas from his novel Anandamath that invoked Hindu deities—to respect the religious objections of minorities. Historically, obedience to…