Overview
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched the National School of Drama’s 90-minute production 'Anand Math: Maa Ne Phir Bulaya Ha' at Ekta Nagar on Friday as part of Bharat Parv and Rashtriya Ekta Diwas programming.
- The NSD staging used a 100 ft by 100 ft set and about 300 artistes to present a contemporary reading of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1882 novel that includes the song Vande Mataram.
- The performance formed one element of a larger two-week festival that will showcase cultural tableaux, an Ekta Prakash illumination event and a series of tourism and infrastructure inaugurations scheduled to continue through November 15.
- The Union Home Ministry this year prescribed a six-stanza, 3 minute 10 second rendition of Vande Mataram and a 2026 legal amendment extended criminal protection to the 'National Song', prompting TM Krishna’s Supreme Court challenge that asks whether refusal to sing can attract criminal penalties.
- Officials say the programme is part of a sustained use of large-scale state-managed cultural spectacles—including planned NSD shows involving thousands of artistes and a 'Naxal Mukt Bharat' presentation—to fuse unity messaging with tourism promotion and security narratives, and the legal dispute raises constitutional questions about conscience and religious freedom.