CHENNAI: As today marks the 150th anniversary of the National Song of India, 'Vande Mataram', Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs L Murugan on Thursday encouraged every household to sing the patriotic song to celebrate the anniversary.

In his statement, the Minister noted that the iconic song penned by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee on November 7, 1875, became the soul-stirring anthem of India's freedom struggle after Rabindranath Tagore set it to music and performed it at the 1896 Indian National Congress session in Kolkata.

By 1905, during the anti-partition movement in Bengal, Vande Mataram had transformed into a powerful war cry against British imperialism. "When 40,000 people gathered at Kolkata Town Hall and sang Vande Mataram in unison, it

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