To
sing or not to sing. In the face of controversy, Indians on Thusrday sung Vande Mataram to mark the centenary of the
national song. Schools were in dilemma over whether they should tune in with Vande Mataram. But almost all schools decided to sing it in the morning assembly but not at 11 am as announced by governement. Specially politicians took part with a great amount of enthusiasum
singing Vande Mataram.
Controversy sparked when an order issued by the Union human resource development Ministry asking all states to organise the singing of Vande Mataram on September seven, with some Muslim leaders saying the song went against Islamic belief.
Though some Muslim personalities have admired and even praised the Vande Mataram as the "National Song of India". Arif Mohammed Khan, who was for a long time Member of Parliament have even written an Urdu translation of Vande Mataram. In a volte face that will help reduce communal tension, the All India Sunni Ulema Board on Wednesday issued a fatwa saying that Muslims can sing Vande Mataram but only its first two
stanzas.
"Singing the entire Vande Mataram is a Shirk (unIslamic) because some of the stanzas make you believe in 'Ghairullah' (other than Allah). But the first two stanzas are just praise and
respect for the land which will make you bow towards it with respect," the fatwa said. "If you bow at the feet of your mother with respect, it is not 'shirk' but only respect," said Board president Moulana Mufti Syed Shah Badruddin Qadri Aljeelani and other muftis Naseem Ahmed Ashrafi, Hasnuddin and Sajid Hussain.
Vande Mataram is the national song of India. The song was composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. It was adopted as a slogan by the Indians fighting the British colonial rule and was also treated as the national anthem of pre independent India. But after India gained independance, Rabindranath Tagore's Jana Gana Mana, was chosen as the national anthem of independent India following opposition from Muslim groups.
In 1937 the Indian National congress discussed at length the status of the song. It was pointed out then that though the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are refences where the motherland is likened to godess Durga. Therefore, the Congress decided to adopt only the first to stanzas as the national song.
The fact that Vande Mataram is still popular today can be attested to by the fact that it was recently declared as the second most requested song by the BBC's World Service radio.
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