Vande Mataram Guidelines Roll Out: National Song To Be Sung Before National Anthem Now

In addition to the National Anthem, people will now be required to stand for the National Song, Vande Mataram. As per the notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), whenever the National Song and the National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana, are performed together, Vande Mataram must be sung or played first. Here’s everything you need to know about the new guidelines.

New Vande Mataram Guidelines Issued By MHA

According to a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, all six stanzas of Vande Mataram are to be played or sung before the National Anthem. As per a report by The Economic Times, there were no official protocols governing the National Song until now. The new notification outlines the song’s official version, the occasions on which it should be performed, and specifies that it must precede the National Anthem when both are played together.

The move, reportedly, aims at ensuring uniform respect for national symbols. Vande Mataram is to be played at the following occasions, under the new notification –

1. Civil investiture ceremonies
2. On the arrival and departure of the President at formal State functions and other government-organised events.
3. Immediately before and after the President addresses the nation on All India Radio or television.
4. On the arrival and departure of Governors or Lieutenant Governors at formal State functions within their respective States or Union Territories.
5. Unfurling of the National Flag at cultural or ceremonial functions, other than parades.

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More About The New Protocol

Hindustan Times reported that all six-stanzas–about 3 minutes and 10 seconds long–of Vande Mataram will be sung ahead of the National Anthem. While the song is played or sung, people will have to stand in attention. “However, when in the course of a newsreel or documentary the national song is played as a part of the film, it is not expected of the audience to stand as standing is bound to interrupt the exhibition of the film and would create disorder and confusion rather than add to the dignity of the national song,” the official notification stated.

In 1950, the first two stanzas of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s poem were officially adopted as India’s National Song. He composed it in Sanskritised Bengali in the 1870s and it was embraced by the freedom movement as a tribute to the motherland.

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Let us know your thoughts about this move in the comments.

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