It was the year 1995, the last year we would be in “schoolâ€, the 12th standard. Thanks to schooling system in Gujarat, unlike many other states, 11th and 12th were not pre-university colleges, but still schools, which meant we were not really college material, yet, but school kids, who needed to be taught and guided. I studied in a catholic school those years, which had a healthy mix of Christian, Hindu and Muslim students. The school also housed in what must be one of the most peaceful places around the campus – the church.
It was patriotic singing competition time during that year, near August 15th. After endless debates about which song to be sung, ultimately my class, class XII A decided we would do a rendition of Vande Mataram from an old Hindi film, and add a bit of our vocals. We practiced day in and out – several fellows provided the background with the tabla, the keyboard and the guitars, while one girl who had a good voice would hold high pitch that Lata Mangeshar does in the original. After the trials before the event with other competitors, it was pretty evident that we would be amongst the top contenders.
On 15th of August, when we sang the song in the patriotic day celebrations, the school and the judges were enthralled. As expected, we won that competition, making it a memorable 15th of August for us.
2006.
Nearly 11 years later when I learnt about the events surrounding the controversy of singing Vande Mataram, I was deported back to those days of my school. In that bunch of school kids who sang Vande Mataram that day were Muslim kids, Hindu kids, and Christian kids. The lead vocalist was a Christian without whom we would have not clinched it. Hindu kids rubbed shoulders with Muslim kids singing “sujalam suphalam malayaja sheetalamâ€, in chorus, while our background musicians gave great fillers with their instruments. It was a team effort, truly, by the “class†of 12th standard students. Who could have cared if the song addressed a man, a woman, a god or someone else – what mattered back then was we wanted the prize.
And we got the prize because we worked as one, towards a common goal, without letting our backgrounds and places we come from bother us.
Sadly, where is that spirit in my country today?
Why is Vande Mataram a debate of such proportion? It’s a sad issue to see that the fanatic Mullahs, who don’t really represent anybody but themselves have successfully created a furor about how the song addresses a god other than Allah, and hence it is sacrilegious to sing the song. An unnecessary controversy created both by the political parties and religious heads serving no purpose, because the fundamental logic behind each party’s logic is flawed.
When you put religion before state, anybody’s argument is a good as another – either for or against. Political parties can use Muslim religion’s hesitation to sing as a sign of disloyalty to the nation, while the Mullahs can use the same excuse as being “alienated†and “threatened†in the country.
Frankly, I am pretty sure that to an ordinary Muslim on the road, it would have hardly made any difference singing Vande Mataram tomorrow. But the fact the mullahs chose to highlight the issue to such an extent means that every single citizen tomorrow will first think – “Am I Hindu or Muslim?†“I am Muslim, so I must not sing†“He’s Indian, but he didn’t sing the song because he’s Muslim – what a loser†and such.
So on a day, when Vande Mataram needs to be remembered because it was the cry of a generation in our independence struggle, thanks to our local fanatics, we will successfully achieve exactly the opposite.
In a lighter vein, I believe Hindu leaders and Muslim leaders MUST come to a consensus on these important issues:
1. The song “Allah tero naam, Ishwar tero naam, sabko sanmati de bhagwan†must be immediately banned from Muslim religion as with Allah, Ishwar is also addressed in the song and that is absolutely insane. Any Muslim singer on Indian Idol or Sa Re Ga Ma or Fame Gurukul must be strictly forbidden to sing this song. If not obeyed, then the singer shall face fatwa.
2. Likewise, if Hindu singers want to sing the above song, they must put Ishwar before Allah, as Ishwar is addressed second and not first. Hell, Allah should be replaced by Vishnu or Brahma, and song can be sung then.
3. A. R. Rehman must banned from making any more patriotic albums, and his song “Vande Mataram†banned forever. All those Muslims who bought that album must now destroy that CD immediately and send hate mail to A. R. Rehman, and strictly advise him from composing it again.
4. Hindus must reject all filmy songs which address Allah or Ali or has Muslim references. “Ya Ali†must immediately change to “Hey Bhagwanâ€. Likewise, “Maar daala…. Allah… Maar Dalaa†must immediately change to “Maar daala…Shiva… Maar Daalaâ€.
5. All Muslim school kids must immediately tear out the page from their school diary which has “Vande Mataram†listed as national song. Most school diaries do – and this is sacrilegious. Muslim parents must take special notes to see if their children’s school diaries contain references to “Vande Mataramâ€. Additionally if the school diaries have references to Saraswati or Jesus Christ, they must be promptly tore off too.
6. Hindus must reject any movies that have any actors of Muslim religion – that includes SRK, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Aamir Khan and the rest. In future, Hindus should only watch movies that have Hindus like Akshay Kumar, Tusshar Kappoor, or Esha Deol. Likewise, Muslims should not venture to see any movies which don’t feature their religion actors. They shouldn’t complain as they will walk away with 80% of Bollywood anyways.
And last but not the least:
7. From tomorrow Muslim bloggers should stop reading any material by Hindu bloggers…and vice versa!