सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्तां हमारा: मुहम्मद इक़बाल की देशप्रेम ग़ज़ल

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्तां हमारा: This great poem was written by Allama Muhammad Iqbal, a great poet-philosopher and active political leader. Iqbal was born at Sialkot, Punjab, in 1877. He descended from a family of Kashmiri brahmins but his grandfather Sahaj Ram Sapru, had to embrace Islam (Reference). In 1904, Iqbal, then a young lecturer at the Government College, Lahore, was invited by his student Lala Hardayal – a patriot who established the Gadar Party in the US, to a meeting. In the gathering Iqbal sang Saare Jahan Se Achchha (सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्तां हमारा). Audience was stunned; no one had heard anything like it before. Simple and alluring, the song became a rallying point for freedom fighters. It remains one of the most popular patriotic songs in India and its music favorite of all marching bands. Unfortunately Iqbal did not live to see free India and died in 1938

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्तां हमारा: मुहम्मद इक़बाल

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्तां हमारा।
हम बुलबुलें हैं इसकी यह गुलसिताँ हमारा॥

ग़ुर्बत में हों अगर हम, रहता है दिल वतन में।
समझो वहीं हमें भी दिल हो जहाँ हमारा॥

परबत वह सबसे ऊँचा, हम्साया आसमाँ का।
वह संतरी हमारा, वह पासबाँ हमारा॥

गोदी में खेलती हैं इसकी हज़ारों नदियाँ।
गुल्शन है जिनके दम से रश्क-ए-जनाँ हमारा॥

ऐ आब-ए-रूद-ए-गंगा! वह दिन हैं याद तुझको।
उतरा तिरे किनारे जब कारवाँ हमारा॥

मज़्हब नहीं सिखाता आपस में बैर रखना।
हिन्दी हैं हम, वतन है हिन्दोसिताँ 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 महरम अपना नहीं जहाँ में।
मालूम क्या किसी को दर्द-ए-निहाँ हमारा॥

∼ मुहम्मद इक़बाल

Saare Jahan Se Accha (सारे जहाँ से अच्छा हिन्दोस्तां हमारा) is one of the enduring patriotic poems of the Urdu language. Written originally 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. Also known as Tarana-e-Hindi (“Anthem of the People of Hindustan”), 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 Accha. 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.