Vande Mataram "I praise to thee, Mother". The "mother goddess" in later verses of the song has been interpreted as the motherland of the people – Bangamata (Mother Bengal) and "Bharat Mata" (Mother India), though the text does not mention this explicitly. It played a vital role in the Indian independence movement, first sung in a political context by Rabindranath Tagore at the 1896 session of the Indian National Congress. It became a popular marching song for political activism and Indian freedom movement in 1905. Spiritual Indian nationalist and philosopher Sri Aurobindo referred it as "National Anthem of Bengal". The song and
My Jesus I Love Thee My Jesus I Love Thee My Jesus I Love Thee is a poem written by William Ralph Featherston around 1864. He is said to have been either 12 or 16 years old when he wrote the poem. The first two lines of this poem are nearly the same as a hymn written by Caleb J. Taylor, published in 1804; this hymn is used as the basis for the song Imandra by Ananias Davisson in the "Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony" in 1820, reprinted in "Southern Harmony" in 1835. There are other similarities between Featherston's poem and camp-meeting songs published in