UP Teacher’s Suspension for not Singing “Vande Mataram” is Symptomatic of the Maddening Pace Towards Hindu Rashtra!
On 10 November 2025, Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of UP, through an extra-ordinary announcement, has made singing Vande Mataram compulsory in schools and educational institutions in UP. In continuation of this, yesterday, Shamsul Hasan, an Assistant Teacher at a government school in Aligarh who refused to sing the Song was suspended and booked under various sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), based on a complaint by another teacher, Chandrapal Singh. Hasan allegedly objected to the singing of Vante Mataram and chanting of Bharat Mata Ki Jai.
However, though concerted efforts on the part of the Hindutva fascist regime to alter the very structure and character of Indian Constitution are in full swing, it has not yet succeeded to insert a Constitutional provision that makes the singing of Vande Mataram mandatory for Indian citizens. In fact, there is no mention of Vande Mataram or even a reference to it as a “national song” in the Indian Constitution. The Constitution mentions only the National Anthem (Jana Gana Mana) along with National Flag in Article 51A(a) as matters of fundamental duty for citizens to respect. Though the Constituent Assembly adopted “Vande Mataram” as the national song on 24 January 1950 along with Jana Gana Mana as National Anthem, there is no specific Article in the Constitution making Vante Mataram legally enforceable or a constitutionally mandated obligation. Later, the Supreme Court had also dismissed pleas to grant Vande Mataram the same statutory protection as the National Anthem. Even regarding the National Anthem, the Supreme Court, in its rulings, has clarified that there is no legal provision that obliges anyone to sing it, provided they stand respectfully and do not cause a disturbance. Courts have also clarified that forcing someone to sing it could be seen as a violation of their personal freedom and rights.
In fact, when Vande Mataram was upheld as the national song in 1950, it was only a modified, “non-idolatrous” version of Vande Mataram taking only the first two stanzas of the song, thereby avoiding the “Hindu nationalist” religious imagery of the orginal poem. It was in tune with the secularist perceptions and recognition of India as a multi-religious country that the overtly Hindu religious tone was removed from the Song. Of course, as part of the RSS-BJP’s Hindutva offensive, Government had filed an affidavit at the Delhi High Court in November 2022 stating that Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram would “stand on the same level”, and that citizens should show equal respect to both. However, no further proceedings on this issue has been reported from the side of judiciary.
It is in this background that, both the Modi regime and the “double engine” state governments have resolved to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the song “Vande Mataram”, as part of speeding up the fascist policy of majoritarian polarisation. Modi himself initiated this campaign on 7 November accusing the Congress, among other things, of dropping four of the original six stanzas of Vande Mataram and for adopting a truncated version of it in 1937. Yogi’s announceent making it mandatory to sing Vande Mataram in all schools and educational institutions across UP has come in this over all context. As usual, this vicious move is also going to push the targeting and stigmatisation of Muslims to a higher level. And Shamsul Hasan, a Muslim teacher in UP, who exercised his right to personal freedom not to sing Vande Mataram, has become the first casuality of this new fascist offensive.
P J James
