Fatwa against Vande Mataram provokes a fierce debate

An edict against Muslims reciting India's national song Vande Mataram, issued by two Islamic seminaries, has provoked a heated debate with right wing BJP calling such a fatwa anti-national and Muslim clerics asserting that while they love India as much as any other Indian, they can only worship one God and Vande Mataram describes India as Goddess Durga.

On Nov 2, Jamiat-Ulema-eHind in its 30th general session in Deoband in Uttar Pradesh had passed a resolution asking Muslims not to recite Vande Mataram on the ground that some verses of the national song are against the tenets of Islam.

Darul Uloom Deoband, an Islamic seminary which, according to columnist and Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh sympathiser S Gurumurthi, has provided the theological motivation for Taliban, has s Darul Uloom's vice-chancellor Maulana Abdul Khalik Madrasi said in Muzzafarnagar on Monday that the seminary cannot withdraw the fatwa as it considers Vande Mataram Islamic concept of one God.

He said: "Fatwa is not an order but a guiding principle. People may abide by it or ignore it. We issue fatwas only when someone approaches us to seek guidance.

The All India Muslim Tehwar Committee (AIMTC) and the National Secularism Front of India (NSFI) in Madhya Pradesh has declared that the Jamiat Ulema-i- Hind has acted in ignorance.

Speaking about the relevance of the song to the Muslims, AIMTC chairman Osaf Shahmeeri Khurram has said, "Had 'Vande Mataram' been un-Islamic, then Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani, Maulana Hasrat Mohani, Maulana Obeidullah Sindhi or martyr Ashfaqullah would not have laid down their lives singing Vande Mataram'."

Based on the Urdu translation of the song done by the two Muslim groups, Khurram has said there should not be any opposition on reciting or singing 'Vande Mataram' because it is a prayer to the almighty to keep the nation safe.

Echoing Khurram's view, National Students Federation of India president Irshad Ali Khan Afridi has referred to A R Rahman, whose song 'Vande Mataram' is a big hit, and to Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind chief Mehmood Madani's grandfather Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani and his father Asad Madani, both of whom had sung the song on various occasions.

Taking a different view, A Faizur Rahman secretary general of Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought in Islam, has said in an article in The New Indian Express that Vande Matarm is against Islam's monotheist tenets.

He argues that the Muslim viewpoint is that Islam, being a monotheist religion, forbids the apotheosis of any deity, animate or inanimate, except one god. In fact, ascribing divinity to even Prophet Mohammad is considered an act of blasphemy negating the very purpose of Islam, that is, to promote the concept of unity of mankind through the worship of the common Creator. In this context, those opposed to the Muslim point of view should know that Vande Mataram contains verses that are in direct conflict with the universalism of Islam.

For instance, the fourth stanza of the song addresses motherland India as, "Thou art Durga, lady and queen, with her hands that strike and her swords of sheen, Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned...." When a Muslim sings these words he is forced to equate his country with the Hindu goddesses Durga and Lakshmi, thereby deifying the land of India.

This goes against the concept of tawheed (oneness of god) according to which a Muslim cannot supplicate to anyone except the real god.

Therefore, just as one cannot force non-Muslims to recite the Quran in their gatherings, it would be most unfair to expect the Muslims to violate their scriptural injunctions in the name of patriotism, he argues.

The religious predicament of the Muslims was understood in the right spirit by Jawaharlal Nehru.

In October 1937, when the Congress Working Committee met in Kolkata under his presidentship, it adopted a resolution which said: "The committee recognized the validity of the objection raised by Muslim friends to certain parts of the song.

"While the committee has taken note of such objection insofar as it has intrinsic value, the committee wishes to point out that the modern evolution of the use of the song as part of national life is of infinitely greater importance than its setting in a historical novel before the national movement had taken shape.

Taking all things into consideration, therefore, the committee recommended that, wherever Vande Mataram is sung at national gatherings, only the first two stanzas should be sung, with perfect freedom to the organisers to sing any other song of an unobjectionable character, in addition to, or in the place of, the Vande Mataram song."

Based on this resolution, it is argued that Muslims should sing the first two stanzas because there is nothing wrong in bowing before one's motherland.

Mr Faizur Rahman, however, says the two stanzas cannot be detached from the main song, particularly when the `motherland' referred to in those stanzas has been clearly identified as Durga and Lakshmi in the fourth stanza. "In other words, the salutations offered to Mother India by singing the first two stanzas would in fact amount to paying obeisance to Hindu goddesses.

This is what the Muslims are objecting to".

In any case, he continues, Vande Mataram is a national song and not the national anthem of India. Hence refusal to sing it cannot be construed as showing disrespect to the country. "Given the fact that the Muslims have been singing the Jana Gana Mana ever since India attained Independence, and the fact that they have laid down their lives for the country during and after the freedom struggle, their nationalist spirit cannot be doubted even for a minute".

Mr Gurumurthi, however, says Vande Mataram has the same status as the national anthem Jana Gana Mana.

Writing in the same paper, he has said: "The BJP and the media seem more concerned about whether Union Home Minister P Chidambaram -- who spoke at the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind convention where the resolution was passed -- was present at the precise time when the resolution was adopted.

Chidambaram is equally keen to deny that he was present when the resolution was passed. But the real issues behind these trivia are far more serious".

He has pointed out that neither Chidambaram nor the UPA Government has uttered a word on whether they support the resolution.

Mr Gurumurthi has recalled extracts from the Constituent Assembly debate. According to him, the Constituent Assembly, which framed India's Constitution, had unanimously declared Vande Mataram as National Song with the same status as the National Anthem.

According to the Constituent Assembly records, Rajendra Prasad, who was presiding the Assembly on Jan 24, 1950, made the following statement which was also adopted as the unanimous final decision on the issue: The composition consisting of words and music known as Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations as the government may authorise as occasion arises, and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it. I hope this will satisfy members".

Mr Gurumurthi points out that 28 Muslim League members of the Assembly had supported Rajendra Prasad's statement. "It is that decision of the founding fathers of the Constitution that is being defied and defiled. The home minister should first make it clear where the government stands on the fatwa and the resolution".

Eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee has taken the view that Muslims, who have conscientious objection, cannot be forced to sing the song.

He has said many Muslims are opposed to singing Vande Mataram on the ground that its verses are against the tenets of Islam and that compelling them to sing the song would violate their freedom of religion.

"Our Supreme Court had to deal with a similar issue. School-children belonging to the Jehovah's Witnesses faith refused to sing the national anthem because their religion forbade its members to sing it. The students were expelled. The Supreme Court observed that a secular court cannot enquire into the correctness or otherwise of religious beliefs.

The issue on which court has to be satisfied is whether the belief is genuinely and conscientiously held by a sizable section of the community for a period of time and that the belief is not opposed to public order, morality or health".

The Supreme Court struck down the students' expulsion as violative of their freedom of religion guaranteed by Art 25 of the Constitution.

What is the rationale of the Supreme Court judgment? Sorabjee quotes Justice Chinnappa Reddy:

"Our tradition teaches tolerance; our philosophy preaches tolerance; our constitution practises tolerance; let us not dilute it", says Sorabjee.

The controversy has been raging since 2007 when the UPA Government sought to make singing of the song compulsory in schools. It now been revived.

Writing in The Outlook two years ago, cartoonist and columnist Rajender Puri said:"On Aug 15, 1947, at the stroke of midnight, before Nehru announced his tryst with destiny, Omkarnath Thakur sang and immortalised Vande Mataram.There has been fierce debate about its history and about whether or not it should be compulsory for schools. These aspects leave me cold. For me, Vande Mataram conjures one image and one rendering. The song was immortalised by the legendary Pandit Omkarnath Thakur. During the freedom struggle, Congress rallies would often start with his rendering of the song. After Independence, he quickly faded away like a meteor".

-Asian Tribune -