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Republic Day Tableau to Mark 150 Years of ‘Vande Mataram’ With Full Manuscript on Display

The IGNCA-curated presentation follows a recent parliamentary dispute over the song’s verses, placing the commemoration in a political context.

Overview

  • The Culture Ministry confirmed a Kartavya Path tableau that will showcase the complete six-stanza manuscript, not only the two stanzas later adopted as the national song.
  • A Gen Z performer will render a version influenced by Vishnupant Pagnis’s reordered Raag Sarang recording that was used to sidestep colonial censorship.
  • Folk artists from across regions will accompany the float, with 1923 Tejendra Kumar Mitra paintings of the verses installed as view-cutters along the parade route.
  • Armed forces and Central Armed Police Forces will hold themed band performances nationwide through January 26, including at Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s ancestral home in Naihati.
  • The announcement follows December’s debate where Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticized the 1937 Congress decision to limit official use to two stanzas, a move Congress leaders defend as a unity measure.