Written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1875, ‘Vande Mataram’ became the heartbeat of India’s freedom movement. A century and a half later, its spirit of devotion to the motherland still resonates across generations.
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As India marks 150 years of ‘Vande Mataram’, the air once again fills with the same emotion that stirred millions during the freedom struggle and love for the motherland. What began as a simple hymn in Bengali literature has grown into a timeless symbol of unity, sacrifice, and pride.
Just a day before the celebrations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to remind the nation of the song’s lasting power. “Tomorrow, 7th November, is a momentous day for every Indian. We celebrate 150 glorious years of Vande Mataram, a stirring call that has inspired generations and ignited an undying spirit of patriotism across our nation,” he wrote.
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Tomorrow, 7th November, is a momentous day for every Indian. We celebrate 150 glorious years of Vande Mataram, a stirring call that has inspired generations and ignited an undying spirit of patriotism across our nation. To mark this occasion, I will join a programme in Delhi at…
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— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 6, 2025
The Prime Minister added that he would attend a special programme in Delhi at 9:30 am where a commemorative stamp and coin would be released.
The 150th anniversary is going to be a yearlong commemoration across India and abroad designed to honour the legacy of ‘Vande Mataram’ as a spirit that binds India’s past, present, and future. The grand inaugural ceremony takes place at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Stadium, where artists from across the country will come together to perform diverse musical renditions of the song. At the same time, celebrations will unfold down to the village and tehsil level.
Throughout the coming year, a wide range of activities will bring ‘Vande Mataram’ to life across various mediums and communities. India’s missions and embassies worldwide will host cultural evenings dedicated to the song’s spirit carrying its message of devotion and unity to global audiences.A global music festival, themed around ‘Vande Mataram’, will invite artists from around the world to reinterpret the song through their own musical traditions.
The campaign also ties ‘Vande Mataram’ to environmental consciousness under the theme ‘Vande Mataram: Salute to Mother Earth’ featuring tree plantation drives across the country. Highways will be decorated with patriotic murals, airports and railway stations will feature LED displays sharing facts about the song, and audio messages will play across public spaces.
Twenty-five short films each just one minute long will explore different facets of ‘Vande Mataram’, Bankim Chandra’s life, and the song’s role in the freedom struggle.The initiative will also align with the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign.
To understand why ‘Vande Mataram’ continues to resonate after 150 years, one must revisit the time it was born.
The hymn was first published on 7 November 1875 in the literary journal Bangadarshan, founded and edited by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Later, it found its immortal place in his novel Anandamath (1882), a work that envisioned a nation struggling to break the chains of colonial rule.
Rabindranath Tagore, who later set the song to music, first sang ‘Vande Mataram’ at the 1896 Indian National Congress session in Calcutta.In Anandamath, Bankim Chandra imagined a band of monks, the Santanas, or “children”, who dedicated their lives to freeing their motherland. For them, the mother was not an abstract idea but a living goddess, the spirit of India herself.
As Sri Aurobindo later wrote, “The Mother of his vision held trenchant steel in her twice seventy million hands and not the bowl of the mendicant.”
By the early 1900s, ‘Vande Mataram’ had become more than literature. It was a movement.
In October 1905, the Bande Mataram Sampradaya was founded in North Calcutta. Its members, including students and intellectuals, went out in Prabhat Pheris singing ‘Vande Mataram’ as they collected donations for the cause of the motherland. Even Rabindranath Tagore joined these early morning processions.
Around the same time, Bipin Chandra Pal launched an English daily called Bande Mataram, later edited by Sri Aurobindo. Alarmed, the British authorities banned the public chanting of ‘Vande Mataram’ in schools and colleges. Students who defied the ban faced a fine and punishment.
By the time India’s freedom struggle gained momentum in the early 20th century, ‘Vande Mataram’ had become the anthem of resistance.
During the anti-partition movement of 1905, the slogan echoed through Bengal’s streets. Varanasi session of the Indian National Congress sang it.
In 1907, protesters in Lahore chanted it in defiance of British repression. In 1908, mill workers in Tuticorin took to the streets shouting ‘Vande Mataram’ in support of the Swadeshi movement. Even when leaders like Lokmanya Tilak were in jail, the slogan rang out in solidarity.
When India finally achieved independence, the question arose. Which song would become the national anthem of the new nation?
In January 1950, as the Constituent Assembly prepared to adopt the Constitution, President Dr. Rajendra Prasad made a special statement. There was no debate, no disagreement. Both “Jana Gana Mana” and “Vande Mataram,” he said, would receive equal honour. He declared: “The composition consisting of the words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India… and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it.”
Today, 150 years later, the words ‘Vande Mataram’ still carry the same heartbeat they did when they were first written. They remind every Indian whether in a school assembly, a parade, or a quiet moment of reflection, of a shared inheritance.
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