India’s Vande Mataram Directive Sparks Northeast Pushback, Testing Federal-Identity Fault Lines
India’s Home Ministry issued February 11 guidelines mandating the full six-stanza rendition of the national song “Vande Mataram” at government functions and educational assemblies, according to the source. Political and civil-society actors in several northeastern states, especially Christian-majority Nagaland, are resisting the directive on constitutional and religious-identity grounds, raising broader center–state and social-cohesion risks.