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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that while Vande Mataram ignited India’s freedom struggle, its 100th anniversary coincided with a period when the Constitution was “throttled” and the Emergency chained the nation.

Initiating a special discussion in the Lok Sabha on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram, the Prime Minister said the national song has been a timeless source of courage, unity and national consciousness.

“When Vande Mataram completed 50 years, India was still under colonial rule. When it completed 100 years, the Constitution was throttled and the nation reeling under Emergency,” Modi said.

Calling the historic composition a “sacred mantra”, he said the chant gave extraordinary strength to millions during the freedom movement. “We are sitting here because lakhs chanted Vande Mataram and fought for Independence. Remembering this sacred mantra is a great privilege for all of us in this House,” he added.

The Prime Minister said Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Vande Mataram at a time when it had become “fashionable to look down upon India”, and when the British were trying to push their anthem God Save the Queen into Indian homes.

“Vande Mataram was not just a call for political freedom—it was a sacred war cry to free Bharat Mata from the last traces of colonialism,” he said.

Modi noted that the song became a rallying point after the 1905 partition of Bengal, inspiring unity across communities despite British attempts to suppress it. “The British were forced to ban Vande Mataram. They even enacted laws to stop its printing and propagation. But Vande Mataram stood like a rock,” he said. As the national song marks 150 years, Modi said it is an opportunity to “restore its glory” and remind the nation of the ideals that guided India to freedom in 1947.