Spiritual mothers of South Asia

One of the remarkable aspects of South Asian nationalist ideologies is their emphasis on maternal figures. For instance, India’s national song, Vande Mataram, is an ode to a mother, while the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, refers to Bharata Bhagya Bidhata as “the affectionate mother” in its full lyrics. Moreover, Bharat Mata serves as a prominent symbol in the ideology of RSS. This is not limited to India, similar maternal figures are also celebrated in the national anthems of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. So, who are these mysterious mothers, and where do they originate from?

A lesser-known fact is that all these mothers have a connection to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novel, Anandamath, published in 1882. At that time, Bengal encompassed a large region, including present-day West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bangladesh, and Assam. The novel takes place in a fictional Bengal, where the inhabitants are acutely aware of their civilizational identity and are ready to take up arms to defend it. It revolves around three fundamental elements:

1. Civilizational ideology : It’s an ancient and highly inclusive form of Non-dualism that we first see in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The choice of Non-duality was not unusual, as Bankimchandra, like most of his contemporary Bengali scholars, had a Vedanta centric view of Dharma. In one of his essays, he even described western non-dualists like Spinoza and Herbert Spencer as European Hindus.

2. The Mother: She embodies the essence of this civilizational ideology and represents the land where it thrives. She is seen through three distinct forms, known as “what mother was,” “what mother has become,” and “what mother will be.”

3. Santan Dal (Children of the mother): It is a large paramilitary organization consisting of dedicated volunteers, led by celibate monks. Their singular purpose is to reclaim the past glory of the mother. They are not ritualistic and have just one anthem, Vande Mataram, dedicated to the mother.

The novel as well as the song Vande Mataram had a huge impact on the freedom struggle and soon the mother gained a pan-Indian fan following. Within a generation Bengali Mata became Bharat Mata and after independence the song Vande Mataram was declared to be the national song of India.

After Bankim Chandra’s death in 1894 this ideology was further popularized by Tagore. The mother featured in many of his songs, including Jana Gana Mana. SriLankan composer Ananda Samarakoon, who studied under Tagore at Vishwa Bharati University for a brief period, was deeply influenced by Tagore’s work. In 1940, he created the SriLankan Mata in a song titled “Namo Namo Matha,” which ultimately became the national anthem of Sri Lanka.

The story behind “Amar Sonar Bangla”, the national anthem of Bangladesh, is quite interesting. Tagore wrote this song before the partition of Bengal, so the word Bangla refers to the entire Eastern India and the “Ma” in this anthem is the same as the one from the original version of Vande Mataram. Because it doesn’t mention Bangladesh or Islam at all, a lot of Muslim organizations in Bangladesh weren’t too thrilled about it. But then in 1971, the leaders of Bangladesh wanted to step away from a religious identity, so they finally embraced it as the national anthem.

The link between RSS and Bharat Mata ideology was Anushilan Samiti, The first real organization motivated by Santan Dal. Although it was treated as a terrorist organization by the British rulers, it had supporters from all over India. One of them was K. B. Hedgewar, who went to Calcutta to study medicine and became a part of the inner circle of Anushilan Samiti. He returned to Maharashtra after his studies, but a few years later created a pan-Indian version of Santan Dal, known as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.