This blog post is tangentially inspired by the Vande Mataram song being restored to its full version. We will not go into the rights or wrongs of this one. We would merely like to remind people of the writer and context of the song, the famed novelist and poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Ananda Math which was one of his most popular novels.
The p0pularity of the novel was such that it got translated into many Indian languages. This clearly preserved the context and ambience better than the modern practice, where the number of translations has greatly reduced, and the translations are mostly to English.
The novel tells the story of a group of sanyasis who opposed the practices of the long standing villain, who else but the East India Company. After a series of trials and tribulations, and a few frightening stretches involving the tantrics and aghories, the good guys triumph, aided by an appealing and beautiful heroine. Of course, some rousing patriotic songs are thrown in, with Vande Mataram, which Bankim Chandra had written separately earlier, being the center piece.
A number of movie versions of the novel came up, one of the most famous featuring Prithvi Raj Kapoor as the leader of the sadhus. A notable feature of this version was the debut of Hemant Kumar as a music composer. His version is again one of the best known versions of this song.
To return to the controversy, it's a bit pointless, as are many things these days. However, if it persuades modern day readers to the novel, it's a rattling good read.
This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.
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