‘Bharat Mata’ Controversy Rears Its Head Yet Again!

In 2016, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat had stated that the time had come to teach the new generation to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, at every occasion. To this, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi said that even if a knife is put on his neck, he would not do so.

Recently (June 2025), the issue was revived again in Kerala. The Kerala Governor R V Arlekar had organised a prize distribution programme for the scouts in collaboration with the state education department. In this programme, he put the image of Bharat Mata (Mother India) in the backdrop. The image was typical of the one projected by RSS, wherein Bharat Mata looks like a Hindu goddess holding the saffron flag.

The Kerala education minister V Sivankutty was there and boycotted the programme. He congratulated the winners and walked out. The Governor took this as an offense, while Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stated that this act of the Governor was anti-constitutional as ‘Bharat Mata’ was not a part of the Indian Constitution.

Sivankutty very aptly said, “It is essential to ensure that Indian nationalism is not founded on a single cultural image, but on the inclusive and democratic vision enshrined in our Constitution. The Governor should clarify whether the Sangh Parivar’s Bharat Mata concept recognises the borders of the country. India is not a monolithic entity built around any symbol, form or image. Our republic was born from a conscious decision to assert a pluralistic, federal and secular political identity. Calling the image of a woman carrying a saffron flag as the sole symbol of Indian patriotism ignores this fundamental reality. To suggest that patriotism should be viewed only through a single cultural perspective is not only simplistic, but also undermines the rich history of our freedom struggle.”

Commenting on the display of images linked to the RSS in Raj Bhavan, Vijayan said the Governor’s office should not be used to promote the ideological agenda of RSS.

The imagination of presenting the country as a respectable human figure was first conceptualised by Azimullah Khan, a close associate of Nana Saheb Peshwa in the mid- 19th Century. He had gone to England to plead for issues related to pension for Nana Saheb. The atmosphere he saw there was one of hatred for Indians by the British. Out of self-respect for the country and country men, he coined the phrase “Mader-e-Vatan Bharat ki Jai’. (Hail the mother nation) This was used by the people here quite extensively. Later, painter Abanindranath Tagore drew a figure of a religion-neutral woman as ‘Bharat Mata’.

During the freedom movement, many slogans were used to enthuse the people in the struggle against the British. Jawaharlal Nehru presented ‘Bharat Mata’ in a lovely way. One of the episodes of the serial Bharat Ek Khoj by late film director Shyam Benegal, based on Nehru’s book, Discovery of India, deals with the issue. Nehru is addressing a public meeting in a village. The audience is shouting ‘Bharat mata ki jai’. Nehru asks the people who are ‘Bharat Mata’. They respond variously that Bharat Mata is the mountains, rivers, jungles and the land of the country. Adding to this, Nehru says that “Yes, they are Bharat Mata, but above all Bharat Mata is the collectivity of people of India.” 

Author Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, in his novel Anand Math, gives a total Hindu Goddess image of ‘Bharat Mata’ and composes the song Vande Matram around that. In this song, the total imagery after the first two stanzas is that of a Hindu goddess. That was the reason that only its first two stanzas were kept as the National Song while a more plural and inclusive Jana Gana Mana by poet Rabindra Nath Tagore was chosen as the National Anthem.

As RSS has a different version of nationalism -- Hindu Nationalism -- they tried to defame Jana Gana Mana as being written in praise of George V. As per them, the word ‘adhinayak’ stands for George V, while Tagore himself clarified thar adhinayak here stands for the power which has been shaping the destiny of our nation from centuries.

In 2020, as pointed out above, Bhagwat wanted all the youth to make it a habit to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ at every suitable time. While releasing the book, Kaun Hai Bharat Mata’ by eminent academic Purushottam Agarwal, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a very important observation.

We know the slogan of Bharat Mata ki jai is raised by a section of people. There are also people who want to impose this on everybody, he said, adding that nationalism and the Bharat Mata Ki Jai slogan were “being misused to construct a militant and purely emotional idea of India that excludes millions of residents and citizens.” One can add to this that the Kerala Governor is using his constitutional post to propagate the symbolism of RSS ideology.

As our country is very diverse and plural, our symbolism best comes in the one’s selected by the Constituent Assembly. The RSS-inspired ‘Bharat Mata’ carries a saffron flag which is contrary to the tricolour, adopted by our Constitution. As RSS is opposed to the Indian Constitution, it also criticises the tricolour, our flag. For RSS, the number three is not a good omen. Its ideologues have regularly argued that the saffron flag is our national flag. Incidentally, in RSS shakhas, it is the tricolour that is hoisted. The saffron flag is also regarded as the ‘Guru of RSS’.

As far as the Kerala Governor Arlekar following the practice which is not in tune with the Constitution, we should know that for RSS-trained swayamsevaks (volunteers) and pracharaks (propagandists), RSS and its ideology come first and foremost.

Let’s recall the Janata government formed in the elections which were held in the aftermath of the lifting of the Emergency. The RSS’s political offspring, Bhartiya Jansangh (BJS), had merged into the Janata Party. So, some members of Janata Party called for the BJS component to cut off their relations with RSS. Instead of that they preferred to walk out of Janata Party and form the BJP. So, can we expect those with RSS background to follow the norms of the Constitution rather than following the norms that suit their Hindu nationalist ideology?

The writer is a human rights defender and a former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. The views are personal.