The premise of this paper is the continued struggle of the nation-state against its own political past, in the boisterous and recently globalized democracy of India. In September 2006, a political frenzy erupted in India surrounding the celebration of 100 years of its national song, "Vande Mataram". The unsavory quandary of Hindu hegemony resurfaced, and the foundation of Indian nationalism, controversial for its originary associations with Hinduism, was called into question. India's resiliently secular nationhood that suffered setbacks in its skirmishes with Hindu fundamentalism in recent years hung in a delicate balance. This paper analyzes the historical context of this "song" in an attempt to understand the precarious relationship between nation and religion in the Indian nationalist context.

Cultural past collided with political present in public discourse in India in the year 2006. It happened with the return of a song that was composed in 1875 and was later included in one of the key foundational texts of Indian nationalism. The ruling majority and the opposition parties—(the secular) Indian Congress and the (Hindu Nationalist) BJP—engaged in a battle over celebrating 100 years of India's national song, `Vande Mataram' (I bow to thee, Mother). Considering the time of its singing in the Benares Session of the Indian National Congress in 1905 as the virtual originary point, the government announced September 7, 2006 as the official date on which the `Vande Mataram' would be sung in all schools of the country. As the content as well as the historical context of the song is steeped in the Hindu symbolism associated with the mother-goddess, this announcement was followed by a frenzy of rallies for and against the celebration, a fatwa against the singing, lodging of official protests and complaints, etc. The day turned out to be uneventful, with sporadic performances in government offices and schools, and the noticeable absence of the Indian Prime Minister from the Parliament at the time of the singing. In this essay, I explore the politics surrounding the song, in the context of pre-colonial nationalism in both its secular and Hindu hegemonic forms.

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