The Arjun Singh Letter

1. A National Committee under the Chairmanship of Hon'ble Prime Minister of India has been constituted for commemoration of events which, amongst others, include the centenary of adoption of 'Vande Mataram' as a National Song. 

2. Vande Mataram was composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1876 and Rabindranath Tagore recited it for the first time during the Congress session at Bombay in 1896. It was during the movement against the Partition of Bengal, Bang Bhang Andolan, in the year 1905 that Vande Mataram became the battle song in the fight against imperialism. It was adopted as a National Song at the Varanasi session of the AICC on September 7, 1905.

3. The year long commemoration of 100 years of adoption of Vande Mataram as a National Song started on September 7, 2005 and will be coming to a close on September 7, 2006. As a befitting finale to the commemoration year, it has been decided that the first two stanzas of the National Song, Vande Mataram should be sung simultaneously at 11.00 AM on 7th September, 2006 in all schools, colleges and other educational institutions throughout the country. This nationwide simultaneous singing should be widely covered in the print and electronic media appropriately. 

4. I shall be grateful if you could kindly issue necessary instructions to all concerned in your State in this regard."

5. A line of confirmation of the action taken would be highly appreciated.

Arjun Singh