Vande Mataram (album) "It was the hit of the conference." Amid great hype, the album was released on 12 August 1997, three days before the 50th anniversary of Indian independence. The Indian release had only 7 songs while the international release had two additional songs "Masoom" and "Musafir". Later "Masoom" was released in India in the album "Gurus of Peace" and "Musafir" in the album "MTV Total Mix". The album was met with overwhelming responses. Rahman became the first Indian artist of popular music to go international when "Vande Mataram" was released simultaneously in 28 countries across the world. Rahman himself performed live
Vande Mataram established Calcutta University. After his BA, he joined the British Indian government as a civil servant, becoming a District Magistrate and later a District Collector. Chattopadhyay was very interested in recent events in Indian and Bengali history, particularly the Revolt of 1857 and the previous century's Sanyasi Rebellion. Around the same time, the administration was trying to promote "God Save the Queen" as the anthem for Indian subjects, which Indian nationalists disliked. It is generally believed that the concept of "Vande Mataram" came to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay when he was still a government official, around 1876. He wrote "Vande Mataram"