How to Define Patriotism

In 2016, RSS Sarsangh Chalak Mohan Bhagwat stated that the time has come to teach our new generation to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai at every occasion. To this, Asaduddin Owaisi said that even if a knife is put to his neck, he will not do so. Recently (June 2025), the issue was revived again in Kerala. The Kerala Governor Arlekar had organised a prize distribution programme for the Scouts in collaboration with the education department of the Kerala Government. In this programme, he put the image of Bharat Mata in the backdrop.

The image was typical of the one projected by RSS–Bharat Mata looking like a Hindu Goddess holding the saffron flag.

The Education Minister of the Kerala Government was there, and he boycotted the programme. He congratulated the winners and walked out. The Governor took it as an offence, while Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, stated that this act of the Governor is anti-constitutional as Bharat Mata is not a part of the Indian Constitution. Mr Sivan Kutty, the education minister who boycotted the programme very aptly said, “It is essential to ensure that Indian nationalism is not founded on a single cultural image, but on the inclusive and democratic vision enshrined in the Constitution. The Governor should clarify whether the SanghParivar’s Bharat Mata concept recognises the borders of the country. India is not a monolithic entity built around any symbol, form or image. This republic was born from a conscious decision to assert a pluralistic, federal and secular political identity. Calling the image of a woman carrying a saffron flag as the sole symbol of Indian patriotism ignores this fundamental reality. To suggest that patriotism should be viewed only through a single cultural perspective is not only simplistic, but also undermines the rich history of India’s freedom struggle.”

Commenting on the display of images linked to the RSS in Raj Bhavan, Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Governor’s office should not be used to promote the ideological agenda of the RSS, referring to the display of images linked to the RSS at Raj Bhavan.
The imagination of presenting the country as a respectable human figure was first conceptualised by Azimullah Khan, the close associate of Nana Saheb Peshwas, in the mid-19th Century. He had gone to England to plead for issues related to the pension for Nana Saheb. The atmosphere he saw there was one of hatred for Indians by the British. Out of self-respect for the country and countrymen, he coined the phrase “mader-e-vatan Bharat ki jai. (Hail the mother Nation) This was used by the people here quite extensively. Later, Avnindranath Chatterjee drew a figure of religion religion-neutral woman as Bharat Mata.

During the freedom movement, many slogans were used to enthuse the people in the struggle against the British. Jawaharlal Nehru presented Bharat Mata in a lovely way. One of the episodes of Bharat Ek Khoj by Shyam Benegal, based on Nehru’s ‘Discovery of India’, deals with the issue.

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, in his novel Anand Math, gives a total Hindu Goddess image of Bharat Mata and composes Vande Matram around that. In this song, the total imagery is that of a Hindu goddess. That was the reason that only its first two stanzas were kept as the National Song, while a more plural and inclusive ‘Jana Man Gan’ by Rabindranath Tagore was chosen as the National Anthem.

[Contributed by Ram Puniyani]

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 8, Aug 17 - 23, 2025