Q 01/05

In which Bankim Chandra novel of 1882 do rebel monks sing Vande Mataram as their hymn?

A) Anandamath

B) Kapalkundala

C) Devi Chaudhurani

D) Bishabriksha

Answer · why

A) Anandamath

Anandamath gives the poem to its rebel monks as a salute to the motherland; Bankim had written it years earlier and worked it into the novel.

Q 02/05

Which Bengali poet sang Vande Mataram at the 1896 Congress session, its first political airing?

A) Kazi Nazrul Islam

B) Michael Madhusudan Dutt

C) Sarojini Naidu

D) Rabindranath Tagore

Answer · why

D) Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore sang it to the delegates in 1896; his own Jana Gana Mana later became the national anthem, with Vande Mataram honoured equally bes...

Q 03/05

What does the title Vande Mataram mean in English, the words inscribed on the 1906 Swadeshi tricolour?

A) Victory to Mother India

B) Mother, protect thy children

C) Mother, I bow to thee

D) Long live the Mother

Answer · why

C) Mother, I bow to thee

Mother, I bow to thee was first raised as a political slogan on 7 August 1905, when students marched to a town-hall meeting that launched the boycott ...

Q 04/05

Vande Mataram mixes Bengali with which classical language, the one its two-word title comes from?

A) Old Persian

B) Prakrit

C) Avestan

D) Sanskrit

Answer · why

D) Sanskrit

Sanskrit and Bengali are so blended in the poem that a 2017 court case began when a teaching candidate lost an exam mark for answering 'Bengali'.

Q 05/05

Which goddess, identified with the motherland in Vande Mataram's later stanzas, led the Congress to drop them in 1937?

A) Radha

B) Durga

C) Ganga

D) Sita

Answer · why

B) Durga

Durga is identified with the land in the later verses, which the Congress committee judged not all communities could be asked to sing; only the openin...