Of Vande mataram and related controversies
Another age old controversy has raised its head, that of the recital of Vande Mataram to be made compulsory in educational institutions from Sept. 7th 2006, which it seems was requested by Oldie Arjun Singh - this man knows how to be in controversies time and again. The political parties have taken their expected sides and Oldie Singh has gone on the backfoot saying it was only a request to celebrate the ceneterary of the song.
As expected many Muslim organisations have criticised the move saying its against their religion to which the strongest comment came from BJP's Naqvi. Now everyone knows how this man has sold himself including his soul for party and power - remember Naqvi justifying the Gujarat riots along the party lines. The other strong comments came from Maulana Bukhari, now I don't know anyone including Muslims outside old Delhi who care a damn about his muttering, except the Sangh parivar and the media as this gives them more arsenal to vilify the "others" in the country.
Being a liberal, that's what I call myself for being not very religious and patriotic, I don't understand this concept of forcing nationalism down the throat of people. Let people to follow what they have faith in, what they believe in. If they have a problem with singing Vande mataram why force them to, no one ever spoke against the National Anthem. It's become a trend to be patriotic these days and the current patriotism and nationalism have a great bent towards one particular religion, its tradition, beliefs and customs which are offensive to the other.
Whenever such scenarios come to light there are two options, one the majority should try to force their customs and beliefs down the throats of the minorities and call them unpatriotic, traitors and many other things which I won't like to mention. The other option can be to let the minorities define their own sense of nationalism and be patriotic in their own way. In the current scenario the general consensus seems to favor the first option and hence many problems.
Coming back to the point of singing Vande Mataram, I have always lived in areas which were predominantly Muslim and since childhood there has been a trend in our localities to hoist the national flag and sing the national anthem on the independence Day and Republic Day. No one ever had problem with it, but when you ask them to play the National song they don't. One of the schools I attended made us to recite Vande Mataram occasionally, My parents being aware of it had some reservations but never really asked me not to sing it. But when the same song is being played on TV they do mind, they find it more of a bhajan and offensive to their religious sentiments. Now I dare Mr. Naqvi to call my parents anti-nationals and Mr. Bukhari to call me anti-religious because its people like them who are the problem and not us.
Another instance of how shedding blood can't win hearts, For hundred years many organisations including the Sangh tried every trick of force and coercion in the book to popularise what became the national song after Independence among all sections of the society but failed. One music maestro, the nightmare of the Sangh - a convert - created a version which was loved by the whole nation and was an instant hit. Need I say more.
As expected many Muslim organisations have criticised the move saying its against their religion to which the strongest comment came from BJP's Naqvi. Now everyone knows how this man has sold himself including his soul for party and power - remember Naqvi justifying the Gujarat riots along the party lines. The other strong comments came from Maulana Bukhari, now I don't know anyone including Muslims outside old Delhi who care a damn about his muttering, except the Sangh parivar and the media as this gives them more arsenal to vilify the "others" in the country.
Being a liberal, that's what I call myself for being not very religious and patriotic, I don't understand this concept of forcing nationalism down the throat of people. Let people to follow what they have faith in, what they believe in. If they have a problem with singing Vande mataram why force them to, no one ever spoke against the National Anthem. It's become a trend to be patriotic these days and the current patriotism and nationalism have a great bent towards one particular religion, its tradition, beliefs and customs which are offensive to the other.
Whenever such scenarios come to light there are two options, one the majority should try to force their customs and beliefs down the throats of the minorities and call them unpatriotic, traitors and many other things which I won't like to mention. The other option can be to let the minorities define their own sense of nationalism and be patriotic in their own way. In the current scenario the general consensus seems to favor the first option and hence many problems.
Coming back to the point of singing Vande Mataram, I have always lived in areas which were predominantly Muslim and since childhood there has been a trend in our localities to hoist the national flag and sing the national anthem on the independence Day and Republic Day. No one ever had problem with it, but when you ask them to play the National song they don't. One of the schools I attended made us to recite Vande Mataram occasionally, My parents being aware of it had some reservations but never really asked me not to sing it. But when the same song is being played on TV they do mind, they find it more of a bhajan and offensive to their religious sentiments. Now I dare Mr. Naqvi to call my parents anti-nationals and Mr. Bukhari to call me anti-religious because its people like them who are the problem and not us.
Another instance of how shedding blood can't win hearts, For hundred years many organisations including the Sangh tried every trick of force and coercion in the book to popularise what became the national song after Independence among all sections of the society but failed. One music maestro, the nightmare of the Sangh - a convert - created a version which was loved by the whole nation and was an instant hit. Need I say more.
posted by As If at
8:49 am
9 Comments:
Moi first again....
By
kurt, at 11:06 am
#As If
Again a delicate topic to write a post. I really like this thing abt ur writing.
Whts in ur mind is on ur post...
Keep it up dude!!!
Abt the topic, i dont have much to say abt it, coz my knowledge about the topic is poor.
But i also believe tht forcing something upon the people is not the way to go.
njoi
Kurt
http://itsmekurt.wordpress.com
By
kurt, at 11:15 am
well put! For a democratic nation we sure have some authoritarian rules, don't you think? When the saffron brigade is in power you cannot expect much else. And what about their justification regd tweaking history books? Singing the national anthem makes sense, but why vande mataram?? Really, given a choice..
By
Mellowdrama, at 10:30 am
****When the saffron brigade is in power you cannot expect much else.
I think you got this wrong, the so called secular brigade is in power as of now.
As for Authoritarian rules, we don't really have too many of them but the problem is with the implementation and the mindset of the people who are responsible for this implementation.
By
As If, at 1:34 pm
Hmm... this I do know, you are very articulate in this post.
By
How do we know, at 2:25 pm
Asif well written and I agree with what you said.
Melloyello - you on the other hand represent the brainwashed stepchild that the rest of india cant stand. Using terms such as saffron brigade and questioning the secular credentials of india are pusing the majority of secular indians further right.
Correcting the history books to more accurately reflect India's history - not some colonial BS is desperately needed.
Get a cule.
By
MsMitty, at 5:32 pm
...will rectify the mistake soon. :)
Adnan
By
editor, at 1:51 pm
hey asif,well said..but do u think these dumb BJP fellas have any future at all?? they didnt win even a single seat in the 2006 elections...m sure they are hated not only by the muslims, but also by the majority of our hindu brothers.
By
Anonymous, at 7:04 am
If you think only of the BJP as such their future is as uncertain as of any fundamentalist political party. The reason being that only thing that ties them together is hatred and greed which they soon develop for each other too.
But if you are talking about the fundamentalist politics as such it is there to stay. Today it is BJP tommorow there might be XYZ and so on.
The fact is that these people have some ground level support for their politics of hatred, simply because in all nations the majority always has the fear that the minority would take over and rule them, Even if the thought is too far fetched and ill logical.
This provides the ground for such parties to villify the minorities, scare the majority and attain power.
By
As If, at 7:28 am
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