A fb message to me from a young Muslim from Hyderabad, and my reply. I have deleted the name of the sender
Jun 10th, 4:10am
Hello sir,
My name is---. I am from Hyderabad, Telangana. What are your views regrding people who do not sing Vande Mataram? Are such people really anti-Indians?
I always sing our national anthem but I just wanted to know about Vande Mataram. If possible also please brief me about the history of our national anthem and Vande Mataram.
Thank you
My reply
There should be no compulsion in singing Vande Mataram. The song occurs in Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya's novel ' Anand Math '. Many orthodox Muslims believe that it calls for worshipping our country or a goddess, though Islam permits worship of Allah alone. So why should they be compelled to sing it ? There should be freedom in this connection, as provided for in Article 25 of our Constitution.
Bankim Chandra was communal. He disliked Muslims, and called them ' yavans ' . I dislike communal people. Communalism is anti-national, because India has so much diversity ( because it is a country of immigrants, like North America, as explained by me in my article ' What is India ?' which can be seen on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in ). So only secularism and equal respect for all communities and sects can keep us united and enable us to prosper.
As regards ' Jana gana mana ' it was composed by that British stooge Tagore in honour of the British King George the Fifth when the latter was visiting India ( see my blog ' The British stooge Tagore and the National Anthem ' )
