story of Vande Mataram...

Vande Mataram - literally - "I praise thee, Mother" - is a poem from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1882 novel Anandamath. It was written in Bengali and Sanskrit.

It is a hymn to the Mother Land. It played a vital role in the Indian independence movement, first sung in a political context by Rabindranath Tagore at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress

In 1950 (after India's independence), the song's first two verses were given the official status of the "national song" of the Republic of India, distinct from the national anthem of India, Jana Gana Mana.

Tagore's Jana Gana Mana was chosen as the National Anthem of the 1947 Republic of India. Vande Mataram was rejected on the grounds that Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs and others who opposed idol worship felt offended by its depiction of the nation as "Mother Durga", a Hindu goddess. Muslims also felt that its origin was part of Anandamatha, a novel they felt had an anti-Muslim message.

The designation as "national song" predates independence, dating to 1937. At this date, 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 references where the motherland is likened to the Hindu goddess Durga. Therefore, INC decided to adopt only the first two stanzas as the national song.

On 7 September 2006, the nation celebrated the national song. Television channels showed school children singing the song at the notified time. Some Muslim groups had discouraged parents from sending their wards to school because of the issue, after the BJP had repeatedly insisted that the national song must be sung. However, many Muslims did participate in the celebrations

The poem has been set to a large number of tunes. The oldest surviving audio recordings date to 1907, and there have been more than a hundred different versions recorded throughout the 20th century. Many of these versions have employed traditional South Asian classical ragas. Versions of the song have been visualised on celluloid in a number of films,

In 1997, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Independence of India, a musical album composed by A. R. Rahman, titled Vande Mataram, was released. The version of the song played in it has become its most popular interpretation in recent years. In 2002, BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose ten most famous songs of all time. Around 7000 songs were selected from all over the world. Vande Mataram, from the movie Anand Math, was ranked second. All India Radio's version, as well as A.R. Rahman's version, are in Desh raga.

                      INDIA celebrates 68th Independence Day. Aug 15,2014

                                   
                           Play "Vanthe Matharam" ;   Thanks: A R Rehman