New Delhi, Jan. 4 -- It is customary to consider 'Bande Mataram', written by Bankimchandra Chatterjee (1838 - 1894), as India's national song. While it was in 1937 that it acquired such a status, on the strength of a resolution passed in the Indian National Congress, based on the advice and opinion of Rabindranath Tagore which had been sought, 'Bande Mataram' has had a remarkable history since 1875 when its first two stanzas were published in Banga Darshan, a Bengali monthly which Bankimchandra himself edited since 1872. Later, he added more stanzas to the song which thereafter formed a part of his famous novel 'Anandamath', published in 1882.

It is fascinating to examine, on the one hand, 'Bande Mataram's tremendous impact in the Indian...