Vande Mataram Vande Mataram Bande Mataram (IAST: ) (English Translation: "Mother, I bow to thee") is a Bengali poem written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1870s, which he included in his 1881 novel "Anandamath". The poem was composed into song by Rabindranath Tagore. The first two verses of the song were adopted as the National Song of India in October 1937 by the Congress Working Committee prior to the end of colonial rule in August 1947. An ode to the Mother goddess, it was written in Bengali script in the novel "Anandmath". The title 'Bande Mataram' means "I praise thee, Mother" or
Vande Mataram recommended the adoption. The entire song was not selected by Hindu leaders in order to respect the sentiments of non-Hindus, and the gathering agreed that anyone should be free to sing an alternate "unobjectionable song" at a national gathering if they do not want to sing Vande Mataram because they find it "objectionable" for a personal reason. According to the gathered leaders, including the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, though the first two stanzas began with an unexceptionable evocation of the beauty of the motherland, in later stanzas there are references to the Hindu goddess Durga. The Muslim League and Muhammad