Why do Muslims oppose “Vande Mataram”? Is it against Islam?
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_21-11-2004_pg3_3
WORD FOR WORD: What does ‘Bande Matram’ mean? —Khaled Ahmed
‘Bande Matram’ means ‘praise of the mother’. It is also written as ‘Vande Matram’. There are Hindu names that express the same sense of praise or worship. The name ‘Vandana’ is quite popular in India. It means the praising one. In Persian, ‘bandagi’ definitely means worship; it also means slavery but that is secondary
When I read the verse of the song Bande Matram today, I can’t understand why the Muslims felt so enraged about it in the beginning of the 20th century. It was written by Bankim Chandra Chatterji in 1875 but became popular in Bengal after Tagore wrote music to it in 1882.
Bande Matram was raised to the level of Hindu communal song (it still is India’s national song, together with Allama Iqbal’s tarana) in 1905 during the Hindu protest against the partition of Bengal. Apart from that, Muslims thought it was insulting to them.
The British banned it, only to have Congress begin all its sessions with its singing. In 1937, Congress decided that only the first two stanzas would be sung. So there must be something insulting in the song. After independence, the party chose Tagore’s song as the national anthem of India and left Bande Matram as a national song.
In the 1990s Bande Matram once again became controversial in India when the BJP recommended that it replace Tagore’s secular anthem. One can understand why a purely Hindu hymn as the national song of a pluralist state should be unacceptable.
Bande Matram means praise of the mother. It is also written as Vande Matram. There are Hindu names that express the same sense of praise or worship. The name Vandana is quite popular in India. It means the praising or worshipping one. India’s well known environmentalist is called Vandana Shiva.
In Persian, the same word has been explained in a way that I find quite faulty. Bandagi definitely means worship; it also means slavery but that is secondary. It has been linked to bastan or bandidan which means to imprison.
In Hindi too there is a word that implies imprisonment, but that is bandh. We use it in Urdu in the form of baandhna. But that is different from bandana which is pure worship. The argument here is which sense came first?
Sanskrit gives two different roots. Bandh is for binding which has obviously spread out to all Indo-European languages. English bond is quite close to it. The other root is band or vand and that means worship or praise.
I am inclined to think that Persian bandah and bandagi comes from a root different from bastan. Bandah in Persian and Urdu also means man. This is a good label because man is someone who praises God.
Hence, Bande Matram will not mean getting bound to the mother but in praise of mother. Where does matram come from? This of course is a universal word perhaps from the first labial sound produced by a baby.
In Hindi, mata means mother. Matar-bhasha means mother tongue. Matar-bhumi means motherland. There are variations on the word. Matari also means mother. English mother and German mutter are directly related.
In English the word matter or matrix (basic material) also means mother. It has come from Latin materium which in turn comes from mater meaning mother. The Latin phrase alma mater is used in English for old seats of learning and means mother who nourishes.
In alma we have the English word aliment meaning food. Your alma mater could be a seat of learning that gave you food for intellectual growth. The Latin verb is alere.
English matrimony means marriage but it is related to mater and implies the conversion of a virgin to mother. The first-labial theory is based on ma. From this comes mammal, animals that suckle their offspring. And we have mammary glands in female animals.