124 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
the common economic needs and interests of the Hindu and Muslim
masses. In addition to material factors, including the relative economic
dep ri va tion of Muslims in Bengal, a number of symbolic issues con-
trib uted to tensions between religious communities. One of these was
the singing of “Bande Mataram,” an ode to the motherland, by the
Congress on formal po lit i cal occasions.
The great Bengali writer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay had com-
posed this song in 1875 to fill a blank page in his journal, Bangadar-
shan. It began with a lyrical evocation of Bengal’s scenic beauty and
went on to compare the mother country with the mother goddess
Durga. The song was inserted into Bankim’s 1882 novel Ananda Math,
which was thick with anti- Muslim prejudice. Nehru acquired an Eng-
lish translation of the novel, and needed little time to fig ure out that
this background of the song was “likely to irritate the Muslims.” Bose
could see the element of triumphalism in the singing of “Bande Ma-
taram” in the legislatures, “thereby demonstrating Congress victory.”
Yet this prob lematic cultural icon had been sanctified between the late
nineteenth century and the 1930s through sac ri fice, as Gandhian agita-
tors had withstood baton charges and revolutionaries had gone to the
gallows with “Bande Mataram” on their lips. Bose suggested to Nehru
that it would be a good idea to seek Rabindranath Tagore’s advice on
this fraught question, before trying to resolve it at the meeting of the
Congress.^117
In a private letter to Bose, Tagore wrote that the song containing
adoration of Durga was hardly appropriate for a national party that
aspired to welcome members of all religious communities. “Bengali
Hindus have become restless at this debate,” he wrote, “but the matter
is not con fined to the Hindus. Where there are strong feelings on both
sides, what is needed is impartial judgment. In our national quest we
need peace, unity, good sense—we do not need endless rivalry because
of one side’s obstinate refusal to yield.” Tagore issued a mea sured press
statement explaining his admiration for the feelings of devotion and
tenderness, as well as for the evocation of the beauty of Bharatmata
(“Mother India”), in the first verse of the song. He had no dif fi culty in
detaching this verse from the whole song and the book in which it ap-
peared. He acknowledged that once “Bande Mataram” became a na-