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watch One-Minute World News Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 August
2006, 14:19 GMT 15:19 UK India's national song in discord Bankim
Chandra Chattopadhyay Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Vande
Mataram India's national song Vande Mataram has found itself in
the thick of a political controversy.  The Hindu-nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party wants the song to be sung in all schools
on 7 September, the centenary of its adoption.  Muslim groups
say the Sanskrit-language song is a hymn to the Hindu goddess
Durga and it is against the tenets of Islam to sing it.  The
song was written by the Bengali Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in
1876.  It was first sung at the Congress Party session in
Varanasi in 1905.  Muslim opposition  Vande Mataram which
translates as "Mother, I bow to thee" or as "Hail to the mother"
became the rallying cry for Indians fighting British colonial
rule.  After the country's independence in 1947, the song was
the front-runner in the race fo