Nehru, Bengal Government Neglected Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Great-Grandson Sajal Tells News18

Even as Parliament held a special discussion to mark 150 years of Vande Mataram, the family of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the composer of the national song, rued the apathy of the Congress, West Bengal government and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Speaking to News18, Sajal, the Bengal icon’s great-grandson, said the Congress and Bengal government did not handle Chattopadhyay’s legacy well. “I am proud of what is happening today. Bankim Babu never received the respect he deserved. Children today do not know about him, and we are responsible for that. People do not even know what Vande Mataram truly is.”

Centre taking positive steps: Sajal

During his speech in the House, PM Narendra Modi said, “Vande Mataram became the voice of our freedom movement. During the British era, it became a fashion

to show India as weak, useless, lazy, and demeaned in all possible ways. The same language was spoken by people in our country as well. Bankim da composed the song to shake the conscience of the country and bring an awakening. It was in such a time that Bankim Chandra wrote these lines to shake the nation out of feelings of inferiority and to reveal the powerful form of Bharat. This song was to revive our history and legacy of a thousand years.”

ALSO READ | When British Split Bengal In 1905, Vande Mataram Became A Unity Mantra: PM Modi In Lok Sabha

According to the family, the neglect started with Nehru. “The Central government is now taking several positive steps, but what about the Bengal government? They have done nothing. There is no special recognition for Chattopadhyay anywhere. This song originated in Bengal, yet Bengal has never given him his due. I am happy with what is happening now, but we live in Bengal, and nothing has been done here.”
Sajal elaborated further. “Bankim Babu’s house in Naihati is not listed as a tourism site. Is it included anywhere officially? There is no dedicated university in his name. Everywhere there is a university in the name of Rabindranath Tagore or Vidyasagar or there is Rabindra Bhawan, but there is no university in the name of Chattopadhyay. Why? He has been neglected. I am thankful to the PM for what he said in Parliament today. The Central government always keeps in touch with us, but the state government has never approached our family.”

#WATCH | PM Narendra Modi says, “Vande mataram became the voice of our freedom movement. It integrated everyone in the country and became the resolve of every Indian… ‘Swaarth ka balidaan hai ye shabd Vande Mataram’… ‘Veer ka abhimaan hai ye shabd Vande Mataram’… During the… pic.twitter.com/n1R5BlP3Xk

— ANI (@ANI) December 8, 2025

Six stanzas of Vande Mataram

Sajal wants all six stanzas of Vande Mataram to be used. “The Congress is responsible for limiting it. Mohammad Ali Jinnah told Nehru, and Nehru accepted it. The full song should be sung. Anyone who denies Vande Mataram is not a Hindu.”
PM Modi, too, raised the issue, saying “some forces” had carried out “vishwas ghaat” (betrayal) of the national song in the last century. “It is our duty to tell our next generations who did it…The Muslim League (pre-Independence) led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, in 1937, carried out a drive against Vande Mataram. But the Congress and Nehru, rather than opposing them, started probing Vande Mataram instead.”

ALSO READ | ‘Not Bankim Da, Say Babu’: TMC MP Interrupts PM Modi, He Responds

He added: “Within five days of Jinnah’s protest of 1937, Nehru ji wrote to Subhas Chandra Bose that the Anand Math context of the song can irritate Muslims. The entire country was shocked. Yet, on October 26 that year, the Congress made a compromise and divided Vande Mataram into parts. And the excuse was that ‘this is for communal harmony’.”
PM Modi said it led eventually to a “compromise of the partition of India”.