Vandç Mâtaram is the national song of India. The song was composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in a highly Sanskritized form of the Bengali language. The song first appeared in his book Anandamatha, published in 1882 amid fears of a ban by British Raj, though the song itself was actually written six years prior in 1876. "Vande Mataram" was the national cry for freedom from British oppression during the freedom movement.
Though a major aspirant for being the national anthem of India, Vande Mataram was eventually overtaken by Jana Gana Mana, which was ultimately chosen. The choice was slightly controversial, since the Vande Mataram was the one song
The song was rejected on the grounds that Muslims felt offended by its depiction of the nation as "Ma Durga"a Hindu goddessthus equating the nation with the Hindu conception of shakti, divine feminine dynamic force; and by its origin as part of Anandamatha, a novel they felt had an anti-Muslim message. However, in recent times, there has been much more of an acceptance of the historically passionate patriotic cry and, for example, famous Muslim popular songwriter A. R. Rahman has openly come out in support of it.
