Vande Mataram (album) the country. A critical and commercial hit, the title song from the album is one of India's most popular songs of all time. Sung by Rahman himself, the song has come to represent a feeling of patriotic unity for India and has been performed or played at several national and regional events in the country. The popularity of the song was such that in 2002, when BBC World Service conducted an international poll to choose the ten most famous songs of all time from around 7000 songs selected from all over the world, "Maa Tujhe Salaam" was voted second. The
I Vow to Thee, My Country are peace" (KJV), in the context of which the feminine pronoun refers to Wisdom. The original first verse of Spring-Rice's poem "Urbs Dei/The Two Father Lands" (1908–1912), never set to music, was as follows: <poem style="margin-left: 2em;"> I heard my country calling, away across the sea, Across the waste of waters, she calls and calls to me. Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head, And around her feet are lying the dying and the dead; I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns; I haste to thee, my mother, a son among