Weeks after the launch of the collaborative Non Cooperation-Khilafat movement in 1920, MK Gandhi (later called the Mahatma) was touring Madras (now Chennai). The slogans that greeted him left him discomfited. Having led the freedom struggle for a few years by then, Gandhi felt the disconnect. He said that despite talks of Hindu-Muslim unity, cries of "Vande Mataram" and "Allahu Akbar" were hurled by both communities during riots to assert dominance. It only revealed how divided the nation-to-be was, he said.

The Vande Mataram slogan, inspired by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's poem, had long been a rallying cry of the nationalists and an ode to the motherland, faced opposition from Muslims, including some in the Congress and the Muslim League. The opposition stemmed from the community's perce

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