Sare Jahan se Accha

Saare Jahan Se Achchha (Urdu:سارے جہاں سے اچھا), formal name: Tarānā-e-Hindī (Urdu: ترانۂ ہندی "Anthem of the People of Hindustan"), is one of the enduring patriotic poems of the Urdu language. Written for children in the ghazal style of Urdu poetry by poet Muhammad Iqbal, the poem was published in the weekly journal Ittehad on 16 August 1904. Recited by Iqbal the following year at Government College, Lahore, now in Pakistan, it quickly became an anthem of opposition to the British rule in India. The song, an ode to Hindustan—the land comprising present-day Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan—both celebrated and cherished the land even as it lamented its age-old anguish. As Tarana-e-Hindi, it was later published in 1924 in the Urdu book Bang-i-Dara.

Iqbal was a lecturer at the Government College, Lahore at that time, and was invited by student Lala Har Dayal to preside over a function. Instead of delivering a speech, Iqbal sang Saare Jahan Se Achcha. The song, in addition to embodying yearning and attachment to the land of Hindustan, expressed "cultural memory" and had an elegiac quality. In 1905, the 27-year old Iqbal was still in his idealistic phase and viewed the future society of the subcontinent as both a pluralistic and composite Hindu-Muslim culture. Later that year he left for Europe for a three-year sojourn that was to transform him into an Islamic philosopher and a visionary of a future Islamic society.

Iqbal's transformation and Tarana-e-Milli

In 1910, Iqbal wrote another song for children, Tarana-e-Milli (Anthem of the Religious Community), which was composed in the same metre and rhyme scheme as Saare Jahan Se Achcha, but which renounced much of the sentiment of the earlier song. The sixth stanza of Saare Jahan Se Achcha (1904), which is often quoted as proof of Iqbal's secular outlook:

Maźhab nahīⁿ sikḣātā āpas mēⁿ bẹ̄r rakḣnā
Hindī hẹ̄ⁿ ham, wațan hẹ̄ Hindūstāⁿ hamārā

or,

Religion does not teach us to bear ill-will among ourselves
We are of Hind, our homeland is Hindoostan.

contrasted significantly with the first stanza of Tarana-e-Milli (1910) reads:

Čīn o-ʿArab hamārā, Hindūstāⁿ hamārā
Muslim hẹ̄ⁿ ham, waṭan hẹ̄ sārā jahāⁿ hamārā

or,

Central Asia and Arabia are ours, Hindoostan is ours
We are Muslims, the whole world is our homeland.

Iqbal's world view had now changed; it had become both global and Islamic. Instead of singing of India, "our homeland," the new song proclaimed that "our homeland is the whole world." Two decades later, in his presidential address to the Muslim League annual conference in Allahabad in 1930, he was to propose a separate nation-state in the Muslim majority areas of the sub-continent, an idea that inspired the creation of Pakistan.

Popularity in India

In spite of its creator's disavowal of it, Saare Jahan Se Achcha has remained popular in India for over a century. Mahatma Gandhi is said to have sung it over a hundred times when he was imprisoned at Yerawada Jail in Pune in the 1930s. The poem was set to music in the 1950s by sitarist Ravi Shankar and recorded by singer Lata Mangeshkar. Stanzas (1), (3), (4), and (6) of the song became an unofficial national anthem in India, and were also turned into the official quick march of the Indian Armed Forces. Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian cosmonaut, employed the first line of the song in 1984 to describe to then prime minister Indira Gandhi how India appeared from outer space. Current prime minister, Manmohan Singh, quoted the poem at his first press conference.

Text

Urdu	Hindi	Transliteration	English translation
سارے جہاں سے اچھا ہندوستاں ہمارا ہم بلبلےں ہیں اس کی، یہ گلستاں ہمارا غربت میں ہوں اگر ہم، رہتا ہے دل وطن میں سمجھو وہیں ہمیں بھی دل ہو جہاں ہمارا پربت وہ سب سے اونچا، ہمسایہ آسماں کا وہ سنتری ہمارا، وہ پاسباں ہمارا گودی میں کھیلتیں ہیں اس کی ہزاروں ندیاں گلشن ہے جن کے دم سے رشکِ جناں ہمارا اے آبِ رودِ گنگا! وہ دن ہیں یاد تجھ کو؟ اترا ترے کنارے جب کارواں ہمارا مذہب نہیں سکھاتا آپس میں بیر رکھنا ہندی ہیں ہم، وطن ہے ہندوستاں ہمارا یونان و مصر و روما سب مٹ گۓ جہاں سے اب تک مگر ہے باقی نام و نشاں ہمارا کچھ بات ہے کہ ہستی مٹتی نہیں ہماری صدیوں رہا ہے دشمن دورِ زماں ہمارا اقبال! کوئی محرم اپنا نہيں جہاں میں معلوم کیا کسی کو دردِ نہاں ہمارا	सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्ताँ हमारा हम बुलबुलें हैं इसकी ये गुलसिताँ हमारा ग़ुरबत में हों अगर हम, रहता है दिल वतन में समझो वहीं हमें भी दिल हो जहाँ हमारा परबत वो सबसे ऊँचा, हमसाया आसमाँ का वो संतरी हमारा, वो पासबाँ हमारा गोदी में खेलतीं हैं इसकी हज़ारों नदियाँ गुलशन है जिनके दम से रश्क-ए-जनाँ हमारा ऐ आब-ए-रूद-ए-गंगा! वो दिन हैं याद तुझको? उतरा तिरे किनारे जब कारवाँ हमारा मज़हब नहीं सिखाता आपस में बैर रखना हिन्दी हैं हम; वतन है हिन्दोस्ताँ हमारा यूनान-ओ-मिस्र-ओ-रूमा सब मिट गए जहाँ से अब तक मगर है बाक़ी नाम-ओ-निशाँ हमारा कुछ बात है कि हस्ती मिटती नहीं हमारी सदियों रहा है दुश्मन दौर-ए-ज़माँ हमारा इक़्बाल! कोई मेहरम अपना नहीं जहाँ में मालूम क्या किसी को दर्द-ए-निहाँ हमारा!	Sārē jahāⁿ sē aččḣā Hindūstāⁿ hamārā Ham bulbulē hẹ̄ⁿ is kē woh gulistāⁿ hamārā Ġurbat mēⁿ hōⁿ agar ham, rẹhtā hẹ̄ dil wațan mēⁿ Samjḣō wahīⁿ hamēⁿ bḣī dil hō jahāⁿ hamārā Parbat woh sab sē ūⁿčā, hamsāyah āsmāⁿ kā Woh santrī hamārā, woh pāsbāⁿ hamārā Gōdī mēⁿ kḣēltī hẹ̄ⁿ us kī hazārōⁿ nadiyāⁿ Gulšan hai jin ke dam se rashk-e janāñ hamārā e āb-rūd-e gangā! vuh din haiñ yād tujh ko? utarā tire kināre jab kāravāñ hamārā mażhab nahīñ sikhātā āpas meñ bair rakhnā hindī haiñ ham, vat̤an hai hindostāñ hamārā yūnān-o-miṣr-o-rūmā sab miṭ gaʾe jahāñ se ab tak magar hai bāqī nām-o-nishāñ hamārā kuch bāt hai kih hastī miṭtī nahīñ hamārī sadiyoñ rahā hai dushman daur-e zamāñ hamārā iqbāl! koʾī maḥram apnā nahīñ jahāñ meñ maʿlūm kyā kisī ko dard-e nihāñ hamārā!	Better than the entire world, is our Hindustan, We are its nightingales, and it (is) our garden abode If we are in an alien place, the heart remains in the homeland, Know us to be only there where our heart is. That tallest mountain, that shade-sharer of the sky, It (is) our sentry, it (is) our watchman In its lap frolic those thousands of rivers, Whose vitality makes our garden the envy of Paradise. O the flowing waters of the Ganges, do you remember that day When our caravan first disembarked on your waterfront? Religion does not teach us to bear ill-will among ourselves We are of Hind, our homeland is Hindustan. In a world in which ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome have all vanished without trace Our own attributes (name and sign) live on today. Such is our existence that it cannot be erased Even though, for centuries, the cycle of time has been our enemy. Iqbal! We have no confidence in this world What does any one know of our hidden pain?

See also

• Iqbal bibliography
• Amar Shonar Bangla
• Jana Gana Mana
• Vande Mataram
• Qaumi Tarana

External links

• Geet Ganga: Audio Version of Sare Jahan Se Acha - Available for Download
• Music India Online: Saare Jahan Se Achcha
• Raaga: Patriotic Songs Vol. 6 (2003) - Sare Jahan Se Achcha (Instrumental)