A national anthem is a powerful work, intended to embody the spirit of a nation. Unlike other musical works, it is not judged on its artistic merit, but rather on how well it represents a nation's core values. Consequently, as a force of patriotism, a national anthem is difficult to rival in power and intensity unless there is a second national song. While in most countries there is only one national anthem, in the Republic of India secularism and the influence of vocal minorities have brokered a compromise by creating a national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana,” and a second national song, “Vande Mataram ” which means “Health to the Homeland”. Although the latter was the original rallying point of independence and the concept of “Swadesh” (self-determination) in India, his references to India as a manifestation of the Hindu goddess Durga were offensive to Muslims and Sikhs, the two largest minorities Indian. As a result, Vande Mataram became the national song, in order to appease the needs of the large Hindu population, and Rabindranath Tagore's "Jana Gana Mana" became the national anthem instead. The artistic and political manifestation of nationalism and its pre-eminence over other descriptors is the core of Bernard Anderson's book, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Controversies such as the one surrounding "Vande Mataram" however show the complexities surrounding identity, particularly in secular nations where citizens are encouraged to embrace all aspects of their cultural history. "Vande Mataram" was composed by Bankimchandra Chatterjee in 1882, a British deputy magistrate authority, who composed the piece as part of his novel Anandamarth, calling on Hindus to once again stage a rebellion based on religion...... means of paper ......and ideals of that period that inspired both the music of Chatterjee and Tagore, and led millions of protesters to peacefully but tenaciously resist entrenched and sometimes violent British authority. The ideals themselves, however, were forced by compromise into a weaker but more tolerant version of their ideal. In a country with two national anthems, in the name of secularism, a single identity and a single principle cannot motivate the population. The fervor that fueled Swadeshi is not as visible in modern India. Instead politics remains a conflict between various ideologies and minority groups, tribal, Muslims, Sikhs, communists, Hindu nationalists and linguistic separatists. These are the new nationalisms that are becoming visible in a country whose old nationalistic image has faded. Works Cited Benedict Anderson. “Imagined Communities” Vande Mataram.