Vande Mataram
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The Long Dark Night for India’s Muslims
X.T.M reads a Bengal order on Vande Mataram in madrasas as a symptom of India’s Muslims being absorbed into a Hindu-Persianate mainstream. It argues Pakistan and upper-caste liberalism accelerated this,…
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Spiritual mothers of South Asia
The author traces the maternal figures in the national songs and anthems of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka back to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s 1882 novel Anandamath, arguing that Bharat Mata,…
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Pakistanis must give up “tit for tat”
Zach argues that Pakistanis must drop ‘tit for tat’ over the Cambridge Majlis logo carrying Vande Mataram, a hymn to a mother goddess, and says Islamicate culture arrived with conquest.…
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1971, Majlis & Vande Mataram
Zach recounts arguing ‘Team Pak’ in a Cambridge debate on 1971, saying the case turned on Indian interference rather than Bangladeshi independence. He then weighs in on the Majlis logo…
