Merch
News
Panchangam
Apps
Downloads
For Teachers
Resources
About
PEOPLE
IDEAS
PLACES
CULTURE
CREATE
STORIES
GAMES
The National Song — Vande Mataram
वंदे मातरम
Hail to the Mother — the song that stirred the freedom struggle
Era
Written 1870s; published 1882
Built by
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
Location
From Bengal, beloved across Bhārat
Type
Patriotic Places
“Vande Mataram — a motherland is a mother indeed.”
— The National Song, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
The Story
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote the poem 'Vande Mataram' in the 1870s, publishing it in 1882 in his novel Anandamath — set in the time of a great rebellion in Bengal. In the novel, a band of monks sings it before battle: the motherland is the Mother, and to free her is the highest duty.
The song's opening words — 'Vande Mataram, Sujalam, Sufalam, Malayaja Shitalam' — describe the motherland with all her abundance: fruitful, flowing with rivers, cool with winds. It made the nation itself a goddess to be worshipped, and the freedom struggle adopted it as its anthem of the heart.
The British banned it, and singing it could mean prison — so people of Bhārat sang it louder. When the Constituent Assembly debated national songs in 1950, it gave the anthem and Vande Mataram equal honour. Today it is sung with the anthem at national events, and its first two stanzas hold the title of National Song.
Core Ideas
From Anandamath
Bankim Chandra's 1882 novel gave the struggle its song.
Mother as Motherland
The nation as the Mother — to free her is the highest duty.
The British Ban
Singing it could mean prison — so people of Bhārat sang it louder.
Equal Honour
The Constituent Assembly gave it equal status with the anthem.
The National Song
Its first two stanzas are Bhārat's official National Song.
Why it matters today
Vande Mataram is the cry that launched a hundred years of struggle. From Bankim Chandra's pen to the lips of revolutionaries, it turned the map of Bhārat into a mother's face — and no song did more to win her freedom.