Plea in SC terms six-stanza Vande Mataram a ‘divisive religious war song’, a step towards ‘theocracy’

A view of the Ministry of Culture tableau showing the verses of Vande Mataram during the Republic Day Parade, at Kartavya Path, in New Delhi on January 26, 2026. | Photo Credit: ANI

A petition in the Supreme Court has termed the six-stanza Vande Mataram a “divisive religious war song”, and said government orders imposing a “sectarian prayer to particular goddesses of one particular religion as the National Song” violate fundamental rights of religion, attracts the criminal law and, basically, converts the Indian polity from a “secular republic” to a “theocracy”.

The plea filed by B.D. Borkar, a Phule-Ambedkarite and a member of the Scheduled Caste Buddhist community of Maharashtra represented by jurist and advocate Mohan Gopal, said a State compulsion expressed through two successive government orders on January 28 and July 9 would lead to the “unstated but undeniable consequence of irreversibly deepening communal division and conflict in India by outraging the religious and spiritual feelings of minority religions”.

Harmony mutilated

Mr. Borkar argued that the six-stanza version introduced by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in his novel Anandamath would promote enmity and conflict between different communities by advancing the supremacy of a dominant community. The fabric of unity and harmony would be mutilated forever, he said.