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,
Vande Mataram of Calcutta, would work themselves up into a patriotic fervour by shouting the slogan "Vande Mataram", or "I praise the Mother(land)!" The British, fearful of the potential danger of an incited Indian populace, banned the book and made the recital of the song a crime. The British colonial government imprisoned many independence activists for disobeying the order, but workers and general public repeatedly violated the ban many times by gathering together before British officials and singing it. Rabindranath Tagore sang "Vande Mataram" in 1896 at the Calcutta Congress Session held at Beadon Square. Dakhina Charan Sen sang it five years