Ibn Khaldun Bharati’s core claim—that Muslim resistance to ‘Vande Mataram’ reflects an unwillingness to merge into an “organic whole” with Hindus—ignores both historical context and religious concerns.
Retaining their Muslimness and Indian nationality in full, the notion of equality-as-parity challenged Mohammad Ali Jinnah's supposedly dangerous demand for Pakistan.
Coal-based power generation fell 3% in 2025 while renewable capacity surged to 40% of India’s installed power mix, according to India Power Sector Review 2025 by CREA.
Pakistan military said it has assured Bangladesh of fast-tracked delivery of Super Mushshak trainer aircraft during high level defence meet held Tuesday.
Many of you might think I got something so wrong in National Interest pieces written this year. I might disagree! But some deserve a Mea Culpa. I’d deal with the most recent this week.
Even going by the context described by the author, by 1937 there were Muslims who went by the Jinnah kind of interpretation and others who didn’t. In order to meet any residual misgivings of this second category of Muslims, we can note that no less than Tagore, Bose, Nehru and others suggested a truncated version of the original as our national song. “Maa Tujhe Salaaam ” and ” Vande Mataram ” are absolutely synonymous and therefore it is illogical to object to this truncated version on imaginary religious grounds. It would be good if our minorities ( not just Muslims) placed their faith in the wisdom of titans of modern India such as Nehru, Tagore, Bose and Gandhi.
Ethiopia, a country of Muslims, have a national anthem that describes the country as mother land. Vande Mataram does the same. But the real objection that these Indian extremists have is to the fact that since its earliest inscription Indian civilization has considered the mother as divine. Mother is both mundane and divine. Every ordinary mother is also an aspect of the divine mother. This expansive understanding of the divine is what Islamist apologetics like this writer find difficult to digest. Shameful — and clear reason why Islam will come to be equated with terrorism everywhere in the world. With the Australia shooting Muslims in India who are influenced by the narrow mindset that this author as well as terror groups like IS promotes will misguide youth.
Nation is not a deity or God. Nation deserves respect but that respect is much lower than what is owed to God. Equating the two only leads to disaster and collapse of humanity in long term. Nations change when people migrate, geographies change with natural events like tsunamis, floods, earthquakes etc. God never changes.
Hasnain Naqvi’s argument that “Vande Mataram” is against Muslim faith is incorrect. “Vande Mataram” says to respect your motherland, not consider the motherland as God. The real reason why the Indian Muslims consider it as anti-Muslim is because Indian Muslims are taught by the Muslim party Muslim League to oppose anything that is proposed by Congress which they considered a Hindu party. That is unfortunate.
Let me remind the author of a historical context – an entire nation was carved out based on religious supremacy. This sitting on two stools and fancy wordplay is at best a subtle attempt at avoiding the hard conversations within the community! The author seems to suggest that faith would take precedence over the nation in case coding between the two arises. During NRC protest violent threats of decapitation were raised and people related it to faith ! How absurd to bring faith based context in such matters !
Even going by the context described by the author, by 1937 there were Muslims who went by the Jinnah kind of interpretation and others who didn’t. In order to meet any residual misgivings of this second category of Muslims, we can note that no less than Tagore, Bose, Nehru and others suggested a truncated version of the original as our national song. “Maa Tujhe Salaaam ” and ” Vande Mataram ” are absolutely synonymous and therefore it is illogical to object to this truncated version on imaginary religious grounds. It would be good if our minorities ( not just Muslims) placed their faith in the wisdom of titans of modern India such as Nehru, Tagore, Bose and Gandhi.
Ethiopia, a country of Muslims, have a national anthem that describes the country as mother land. Vande Mataram does the same. But the real objection that these Indian extremists have is to the fact that since its earliest inscription Indian civilization has considered the mother as divine. Mother is both mundane and divine. Every ordinary mother is also an aspect of the divine mother. This expansive understanding of the divine is what Islamist apologetics like this writer find difficult to digest. Shameful — and clear reason why Islam will come to be equated with terrorism everywhere in the world. With the Australia shooting Muslims in India who are influenced by the narrow mindset that this author as well as terror groups like IS promotes will misguide youth.
Nation is not a deity or God. Nation deserves respect but that respect is much lower than what is owed to God. Equating the two only leads to disaster and collapse of humanity in long term. Nations change when people migrate, geographies change with natural events like tsunamis, floods, earthquakes etc. God never changes.
Hasnain Naqvi’s argument that “Vande Mataram” is against Muslim faith is incorrect. “Vande Mataram” says to respect your motherland, not consider the motherland as God. The real reason why the Indian Muslims consider it as anti-Muslim is because Indian Muslims are taught by the Muslim party Muslim League to oppose anything that is proposed by Congress which they considered a Hindu party. That is unfortunate.
Let me remind the author of a historical context – an entire nation was carved out based on religious supremacy. This sitting on two stools and fancy wordplay is at best a subtle attempt at avoiding the hard conversations within the community! The author seems to suggest that faith would take precedence over the nation in case coding between the two arises. During NRC protest violent threats of decapitation were raised and people related it to faith ! How absurd to bring faith based context in such matters !