Vande Mataram the novel containing it was banned by the British government, but workers and general public defied the ban, many went to colonial prisons repeatedly for singing it, and the ban was overturned by the Indians after they gained independence from the colonial rule. In 1950 (after India's independence), the first two verses of the song were declared the "national song" of the Republic of India, distinct from the national anthem of India, "Jana Gana Mana". The first two verses of the song are an abstract reference to one's mother and motherland, they do not mention any Hindu deity by name,
Jana Gana Mana Fifth as the Eternal Charioteer leading the pilgrims on their journey through countless ages of the timeless history of mankind." "(Purvasa, Phalgun, 1354, p. 738.)" Moreover, Tagore was hailed as a patriot who wrote other songs too apart from "Jana Gana Mana" lionising the Indian independence movement. He renounced his knighthood in protest against the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. The Knighthood (i.e. the title of 'Sir') was conferred on him by the same King George V after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature for "Gitanjali" from the government of Sweden. Two of Tagore's more politically charged compositions, "Chitto Jetha Bhayshunyo"