MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 99 of 100

Correct — C, Sipahi Bhavananda. In Anandamath the song is first heard from Bhavananda, one of the santans — the band of ascetic-soldiers at the centre of the novel. He has rescued the famine-struck zamindar Mahendra Singh, and as the two walk through the night Bhavananda sings 'Vande Mataram'. Mahendra objects that he can see only a piece of land, no mother; Bhavananda explains that the Mother in the song is the motherland herself. That exchange is the reason the scene is famous — it is where Bankim converts a hymn to a goddess into a hymn to the country, and it is put in the mouth of the fighting monk, not the hero.

• (a)Mahendra Singh — Mahendra is the listener in that scene, not the singer. He is the wealthy man of Padachinha ruined by the famine of 1770, who hears the song, questions it, and only later joins the santans.
• (b)Kalyani — Kalyani is Mahendra's wife, whose flight through the famine-struck countryside with her infant daughter opens the novel. Her role is the human cost of the famine; the song is not hers.
• (d)Shanti — Shanti is the striking woman character of the novel — Jivananda's wife, who disguises herself to join the santans as a fighter — but she enters later and is not the character who sings the song in this scene.

Anandamath (1882) is set in Bengal after the catastrophic famine of 1770 and builds its plot around the Sanyasi rebellion, with the santans — monk-soldiers who call the land their Mother — as its rebels. Bankim had composed 'Vande Mataram' in the mid-1870s, before the novel existed, and then wove it into the story, where Bhavananda sings it to Mahendra. The song's later career is the political fact worth knowing: it was sung at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1896 by Rabindranath Tagore, became the rallying cry of the Swadeshi movement after the partition of Bengal in 1905, and on 24 January 1950 the Constituent Assembly gave it the status of National Song, to be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana.

Questions on Anandamath usually test one of three things: who wrote it, which uprising it dramatises, or a detail from inside the text. This one is the third kind, which means guessing by prominence fails — the obvious names, the hero Mahendra and the heroine-warrior Shanti, are exactly the wrong answers. The way to remember it is by the argument that follows the song: the singer has to be the one who already believes the country is a mother, so it has to be a santan, and Bhavananda is the santan on stage at that point.

• Anandamath, by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, published 1882; set against the famine of 1770 and the Sanyasi rebellion in Bengal
• 'Vande Mataram' was composed by Bankim in the mid-1870s and later incorporated into the novel
• In the novel the song is sung by Bhavananda to Mahendra Singh, who is then told that the Mother is the motherland
• First sung at the 1896 Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress by Rabindranath Tagore; became the slogan of the Swadeshi movement from 1905
• Adopted as India's National Song on 24 January 1950, with equal status and honour to the national anthem

• Assuming the song must be sung by the novel's hero or heroine — it is sung by Bhavananda, a santan
• Confusing the National Song with the National Anthem: Jana Gana Mana was first sung at the 1911 Calcutta session, Vande Mataram at the 1896 session
• Thinking Bankim wrote 'Vande Mataram' for Anandamath — the song came first and was later placed in the novel

MPPSC asks Bankim as author-identification or as an in-text detail like this one; UPSC asks the historical wrapper — which revolt Anandamath made famous, or where and when Vande Mataram was first sung. Prepare the novel with both layers: plot detail and freedom-movement context.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The novel Anandamath is built around which uprising?

  • (a)Sanyasi rebellion
  • (b)Santhal rebellion
  • (c)Indigo revolt
  • (d)Pabna agrarian unrest

  Answer(a) Sanyasi rebellion — the ascetic uprising in Bengal in the decades after the 1770 famine.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  'Vande Mataram' was first sung at a session of the Indian National Congress held in:

  • (a)Calcutta, 1896
  • (b)Bombay, 1885
  • (c)Banaras, 1905
  • (d)Calcutta, 1911

  Answer(a) Calcutta, 1896 — sung by Rabindranath Tagore; the 1911 Calcutta session is where Jana Gana Mana was first sung.