The country is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its national song, Vande Mataram. A song that has inspired generations of Indians to unite, rise and celebrate the spirit of the nation. Today, our correspondent brings a report on the man behind the immortal words of Vande Matram.

 

 

The national song Vande Mataram was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, one of India’s foremost literary figures and a pioneer of modern Indian literature. Born in 1838 in the Bengal region, Bankim Chandra combined the vision of a reformer with the power of his pen and imagination. Marking the beginning of a new era in Indian fiction, he wrote his first Bengali novel, Durgeshanandini, in 1865. It was in his celebrated novel Anandamath that the patriotic hymn Vande Mataram first appeared.

 

 

The poem was first published in his literary journal Bangadarshan, in a serialised form, and later included in the complete edition of Anandamath in 1882. The song celebrates the motherland as the embodiment of strength, prosperity and divinity, and gives poetic voice to India’s awakening spirit of unity and self-respect. With Vande Mataram, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s legacy continues to echo through the corridors of India’s freedom story.