India: ‘Vande Mataram controversy uncalled for’, say Muslim personalities

Source: http://jamiatulama.org.

New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) — “We are shocked at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind’s unprovoked move to revive the Vande Mataram controversy. It is a well-known fact that the debate on Vande Mataram was settled way back in 1930s with the consent of then leadership of the Jamiat. It was then agreed upon that the controversial parts of the Vande Mataram would not be recited. The practice continues,” a statement said.

The statement was released by scholars and social activists like Zafar Agha, Shabnam Hashmi, Gauhar Raza and Sohail Hashmi. It was also signed by prominent actor Nasiruddin Shah, lyricist Javed Akhtar, actor Shabana Azmi and writer Saeed Akhtar Mirza and over 100 other prominent persons.

“We neither believe that the Vande Mataram is a test case of some one’s patriotism nor do we agree with the Jamiat interpretation that reciting the song would endanger one’s faith. Therefore, we strongly condemn the Jamiat move to unnecessarily provoke a controversy around Vande Mataram at this juncture,” it added.

It said the Jamiat’s move had strengthened Hindutva forces, and condemned the Hindu right wing’s attempt to impose its recitation on citizens to prove one’s patriotism.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, an organisation of Muslim clerics, at its national convention at Deoband recently endorsed an earlier fatwa (decree) of the Deoband seminary against Vande Mataram on the grounds that some of its lines were “against the religious principles of Islam”.

Text of the resolution on Vande Mataram, adopted during the the 30th General Session of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, 1st-3rd November 2009, at Deoband

This grand session of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind while expressing deep concern over communal hatred and violence exploiting the issue of Vande Mataram, and condemns the provocative activities in this connection. For some time, Vande Matram is being exploited for targeting Muslims. On the pretext of an edict of Darul Uloom, Deoband, attempts are being made to fan hatred in Deoband and its outskirts. In a provocative manner, the effigy of Darul Uloom Deoband was set on fire.

This house of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind would like to clarify that patriotism does not require singing Vande Matram. We love our country and have proved this several times, but Vande Mataram violates our faith in monotheism that is the foundation of our faith. We can love and serve our country, but cannot elevate it to the status of Allah, the only one worshipped by Muslims. We love and respect the mother, but do not worship her. The fatwa of Darul Uloom is correct. The judgment of the Supreme Court also clearly states that nobody can be compelled to sing Vande Mataram. This house demands that the issue of Vande Matram not to be deliberately raised for causing communal discord and threat to law and order.

(Source: http://jamiatulama.org/resolutions.html)

Vande Mataram (Translation by Shree Aurobindo)

Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.

Who hath said thou art weak in thy lands
When the sword flesh out in the seventy million hands
And seventy million voices roar
Thy dreadful name from shore to shore?
With many strengths who art mighty and stored,
To thee I call Mother and Lord!
Though who savest, arise and save!
To her I cry who ever her foeman drove
Back from plain and Sea
And shook herself free.

Thou art wisdom, thou art law,
Thou art heart, our soul, our breath
Though art love divine, the awe
In our hearts that conquers death.
Thine the strength that nervs the arm,
Thine the beauty, thine the charm.
Every image made divine
In our temples is but thine.

Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleems,
Dark of hue O candid-fair
In thy soul, with jewelled hair
And thy glorious smile divine,
Lovilest of all earthly lands,
Showering wealth from well-stored hands!
Mother, mother mine!
Mother sweet, I bow to thee,
Mother great and free!