Vande Mataram, India’s National song, was written by the Bengali poet, novelist and journalist Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1875. Over 150 years later, the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act, has granted our national song the same statutory legal protection as the national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, penalising those who prevent its singing, or cause disturbance to assemblies engaged in singing it. Additionally, the home ministry guidelines state all six stanzas of the song must be sung at official events.
Because they knew the terrain, travelled through forests and pilgrimage routes, could divide into smaller groups and reunite elsewhere, and sometimes crossed political boundaries, they were difficult for the Company to control. Siraj ud Daulah’s defeat in 1757 at the Battle of Plassey in Bengal and Mir Jafar’s ascension to the throne as a puppet ruler marked the beginning of British expansion within the country, which was to last nearly 200 years. Crop failures and the devastating 1770 famine intensified this social and economic breakdown, displacing communities, disrupting livelihoods, and contributing to growing resistance against Company rule.
The dismissed soldiers, disgruntled as they were, contributed “one element for the growth of a militant organisation which was required for sustained armed struggle”. They gradually dismantled the village-based economy and introduced individual cash-based revenue collection. As a commercial venture, the East India Company increasingly reshaped agriculture, trade and revenue collection, and, with the acquisition of the Diwani, gained control over revenue collection across Bengal and Bihar. Peasants were forced to sell their grain to pay taxes, often at low prices to British traders, who later resold it at much higher prices. The economic changes brought about by the British had significant social ramifications. The Company’s revenue demands disrupted established relationships between local communities, zamindars, and religious groups. Hindu sannyasis, who traditionally travelled through Bengal and collected customary taxes from local headmen and zamindars, increasingly found these arrangements disrupted as the Company’s demands left local elites unable to meet both obligations. Historian Atis Dasgupta posits yet another reason for the rebellion lay in the Company’s decision to gradually dismantle the Mughal armed forces and instead set up a new militia under the control of the East India Company. The fakirs and sannyasis formed networks and settled in parts of north and east Bengal, integrating with discontented peasants and others. They, however, continued to go on pilgrimage to auspicious places, being subjected to pilgrimage taxes and other perceived forms of exploitation. The proclamation came after years of encounters between the Company and armed ascetic bands. From the 1760s onwards, sannyasis and fakirs moved in large, highly mobile groups across Bengal and Bihar, often demanding money or provisions from local authorities and zamindars.
