FTN: Is it un-Islamic to sing Vande Mataram?

DECODING FAITH: Panelists on the show Face The Nation debated whether it was un-Islamic to sing Vande Mataram.

          

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Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday, travelled to the Deoband seminary in Uttar Pradesh which is regarded as the fountainhead of orthodox Islam to attend the annual convention of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind. Addressing clerics and Ulemas, Chidambaram emphasised the nationalist and modernist legacy of India's Muslim community.

The convention passed a strong resolution against terrorism. Violence is un-Islamic, the gathering decided with a consensus.

P Chidambaram has become the first home minister to attend the convention of arguably India's most influential Islamic seminary - The Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind. Chidambaram said Muslims are not aliens to India and praised the fatwa against terrorism.

But among the 25 resolutions passed at the convention was one reiterating the clerics' opposition to reciting Vande Mataram, the national song, as well as to homosexuality and terrorism.

Supporting the 2006 fatwa, or Islamic decree, against Vande Mataram, the clerics said that some of its lines were "against the religious principles of Islam".

"We cannot bow before anybody other than the Allah. It is un-Islamic," Moulana Muizuddin of the Jamiat said.

Muslim clerics issued the fatwa against the national song in 2006. They contend that Vande Mataram means "Mother (India), I bow to thee!".

CNN-IBN on Face The Nation debated – Ulemas Resolution: Is it un-Islamic to sing Vande Mataram?

At the beginning of the debate, 17 per cent agreed that it was un-Islamic to sing Vande Mataram while 83 per cent disagreed.

The guests on the panel to discuss the issue were historian Charu Gupta; former Member of Parliament (MP) and author Prafull Goradia; Editor, Muslim India and former president of the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat Syed Shahbuddin and Theatre Director, Padmashree Awardee Aamir Raza Hussain.

The Muslim Personal Law board, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq says that Vande Matarm simply means salutation, respect or homage. There is nothing wrong in it.

Syed Shahbuddin took up the discussion by saying that it was a compromise that was made.

“Initially it was the whole song. The Congress formed a committee in the 1930s, including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and they made the compromise of singing only the first two paragraphs, which does not have the names of any devi or devta (goddesses or gods). The Muslim objection can be summed up in one sentence. Watan hamara mehboob hai, watan hamara mabood nahi hai( We love the country as anyone else, but we don’t worship the country),” explained Shahbuddin.