There is an old saying and a wise one too: Do at Rome what the Romans do.

In India we say, Ganga gaye to Ganga Dass, Yamuna gaye to Yamuna Dass (meaning that if you visit the holy Ganges, say eulogies to the Ganges and if you go to the holy Yamuna, be her devotee.

That is the panacea and pucca road to peace, harmony and goodwill in the country. But it looks some people in India do wish to live in India. They do love their country. They enjoy all the rights and privileges available to its citizens. Yet, they do wish not to be one with their brethren. They wish to give the impression that they are not one among the assemblage, but different from them.

That is the crux of the problem. That is the  message given by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind with its endorsement on November 3, 2009 of a fatwa issued by the influential Darul Uloom seminary at Deoband that had called upon Muslims not to sing the national song Vande Mataram as doing so, in its verdict, was violative of Islam's faith in monotheism (belief in a single god).

Although while holding the Darul Uloom fatwa as "correct"  the Jamiat resolution regretted that Muslims were being targeted over the issue, yet it asserted, "We love our country, but cannot elevate it to the status of Allah, the only one worshipped by Muslims... The reference to nation as mother and an ode to motherland was unIslamic and "should not be deliberately raised for causing communal discord and law and order," the Jamiat said.

They themselves are to be blamed for what they say that "Muslims were being targeted on the issue". We have to take a realistic, cogent and pragmatic stand that is in consonance with our duties towards the nation as citizens of the country.

We have to go not only by the text, content and spirit of the song but also in the background in which it was adopted as the National Song.

Last update : 15-11-2009 19:29

Keywords : Is it a Sin to Sing Praises of Your Motherland?, Amba Charan Vashishtha

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