The home ministry order 'suggests' that schools make 'adequate provisions in their programmes' to popularise the song. Nudging, as behavioural economists remind us, is the elixir of modern governance. Critics will mutter about wasted time and digressionary tactics. Yet, what is nation-building if not also taking time to literally sing together, transcending class, caste and, indeed, language, considering that the Sanksritised Bengali in which Vande Mataram is written is unfamiliar to almost every Indian, Bengalis included.
