Vande Mataram controversy: What Nehru really wrote to Subhas? Did he mention Jinnah, Muslim League? Read the full letter here

Too much hullabaloo has been created over a letter written by Jawaharlal Nehru to Subhash Chandra Bose on October 20, 1937, over the issue of Vande Mataram. Participating in the debate on the national song as it completed 150 years of its composition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed Nehru. He accused him of beginning the politics of minority appeasement by accepting the dictates of the Muslim League and its leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Modi said in parliament, "Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a letter to Subhash Chandra Bose after Jinnah’s opposition to Vande Mataram, stating that he had read the background of Vande Mataram and thought it might provoke and irritate Muslims. He added that they would examine the use of Vande Mataram, and that too in Bankim Chandra’s Bengal." PM Modi also said, "The Muslim League (pre-Independence), led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, in 1937, carried out a drive against Vande Mataram. But the Congress and Jawaharlal Nehru, rather than opposing them, started probing Vande Mataram instead."

Vande Mataram Controversy

However, a thorough study of the letter shows that the prime minister chose to be selective in his approach and picked up only those paragraphs that could prove what he wanted to prove. The fact remains that Nehru defended the song composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Nehru wrote in the letter that "the present outcry against Bande Mataram is to a large extent a manufactured one by the communalists." He also said, "Whatever we do cannot be to pander to communalists’ feelings but to meet real grievances where they exist."

Jawaharlal Nehru writes to Subhas Chandra Bose

However, the Congress leader also wrote, "I have read the background of the Vande Mataram song. I feel that this background may provoke Muslims." Nowhere in the letter did Nehru write about Jinnah or the Muslim League or their demands. But this line is often cited to show that he acknowledged, after objections were raised by Jinnah, that the poem’s origins (being part of the novel Anandamath) might be a source of communal sensitivity.

Nehru on Anandamath

Nehru also wrote in the letter that he had received an English translation of Anandamath, and he was reading it to understand the "background of the song". He wrote, "It does seem that this background is likely to irritate the Muslims."

Here is the letter:

To,
Subhas Chandra Bose
Allahabad
20.10.1937

My dear Subhas,

Your letter of the 17th. Certainly, as suggested by you, I shall discuss the Bande Mataram song with Dr. Tagore. I do not know that any formal statement is necessary by the Working Committee, but we should be clear in our own minds. I have managed to get an English translation of Ananda Math, and I am reading it at present to get the background of the song. It does seem that this background is likely to irritate the Muslims. Further, there is the difficulty of the language, which is not understood by most people. I do not understand it without the help of a dictionary.

There is no doubt that the present outcry against Bande Mataram is to a large extent a manufactured one by the communalists. At the same time, there does seem some substance in it, and people who are communalistically inclined have been affected by it. Whatever we do cannot be to pander to communalists’ feelings but to meet real grievances where they exist.

I have decided now to reach Calcutta on the 25th morning. This will give me time to see Dr. Tagore as well as other friends.

As for disciplinary action, it is difficult for me to talk vaguely about strictness or leniency. Ultimately, this has to be considered in relation to the general situation and to the particular facts of the case. Generally speaking, our policy was a strict one during the elections and immediately after. But later, a certain leniency came in, and a number of previous orders were revised on the party concerned apologising. In particular, we felt that the denial of the four‑anna membership to any person was not to be indulged in except in very special cases. Generally, the punishment was in regard to the holding of offices or membership of an elected committee.

If the past record of a person was good and he had erred merely at election time because of local factions and passions, we tried to take a lenient view, and on his apologising, no further action was taken. But, as I have said above, each individual case has to be considered on its merits, and even more important consideration is the result of such action on Congress work in future. If such action is good to help Congress work, it must be taken. If it is likely to hinder, then it is to be avoided. Many of our people are insufficiently developed in the political sense not to be affected by personal rivalries, and so they err occasionally without really wishing to go against the Congress. If it is possible to win them over and yet keep the prestige and discipline of the Congress, then it is worthwhile doing so. If a disciplinary action creates fairly widespread resentment among certain groups of Congressmen, then it has failed in its purpose.

These are various considerations that are to be borne in mind. But ultimately, the matter should be decided by the provincial committee or relevant authorities.

(Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Leader, Muslim League)

No mention of Jinnah, Muslim League

Jawaharlal Nehru wrote the above letter just five days after Jinnah's public opposition to the song on October 15, 1937. He accepted that the "Anandamath background" might "provoke Muslims". It is assumed that this triggered a sequence of events that led the Indian National Congress (INC) to review the use of the song. The Congress ultimately adopted only a truncated version of Vande Mataram, only the first two stanzas, in 1937.