"“Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore once said that Bankim Chandra’s ‘Anandmath’ is not just a novel. It is a dream of an independent India. Every word written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, not Bankim Babu, had deep meaning. This song was created during the time of slavery, but it is not limited to that time… The Vande Bharat song is relevant in every era. It has attained immortality. One-fourth share of global GDP was held by India just a few centuries ago,” he said. “In 1875, when Bankim Babu published ‘Vande Mataram’ in ‘Bang Darshan’, some people thought it was just a song. But in no time, ‘Vande Mataram’ became the voice of India’s freedom struggle. A voice that was on the tongue of every revolutionary, a voice that expressed the emotions of every Indian! When freedom fighters like Veer Savarkar, living outside Bharat, met each other, their greeting was always Vande Mataram. Many revolutionaries, even while standing on the gallows, said Vande Mataram,” the PM added. “For those who consider the nation as a geopolitical entity, the idea of viewing the nation as a mother might seem surprising. But India is different; in India, the mother is both the creator and the nurturer. And if a crisis befalls the child, the mother becomes the “destroyer” as well. Our Vedas have taught us that the nation is our mother and we are her children… We have worshipped our nation in this form since the Vedic period… The notion that a nation can be a mother can be surprising for those who view nations as geopolitical entities. But India is different. Here, a nation is also the one that gives birth and nurtures… She is also a destroyer if a child is in danger… Because of this emotion of considering the nation as mother and a form of Shakti, mahila shakti was forefront in building the nation…” the PM stated."