INDIANNESS & Patriotic Songs Part IV - Assorted ones

I hope you all get to catch up on Patriotic songs from my previous blogs (Part I, II & III)and other bloggers like my utterances. There are still lot more songs which we can cover up under this topic. I have put forth some assorted songs in this blog which seems to be part of the patriotic campaign during freedom fight by various leaders.

Some might argue that few of this songs are not actually patriotic songs rather devotional ones. May be true, but I feel these songs also played important part in pulling the people together during the struggle. So I feel they earned its place to be celebrated as well.

1. Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram is a Hindi devotional song sung in praise of the Hindu God, Lord Rama. It was a favorite song of Mahatma Gandhi and is often sung in his memory.

In Hindi

Raghupati Raghav Rajaram

Patit Paavana Sitaram

Ishwar Allah Tere Naam

Sabko sanmati de Bhagwan

Translation into English

Rama, Lord of heavens

Blessed is thy name

Some of us call you as Ishwar

and some others as Allah

But we beg you Lord that you bless us all

2. Another versions of Vande Mataram fully worded in Tamil, sang by MS.Subulakshmi and other singer. They are really nice one's and won't find it anywhere in the net except one. I converted them mp3 just for this blog.

Vande Mataram - MS Subhulakshmi

Vande Mataram Enbom - Bharathiar version

3. Hari Tuma Haro is an Indian bhajan or devotional song. I never heard this one until it was referred to me by one of my blogger friend(rajini). It is reported that it is also Mahatma Gandhi favorite song next to Raghupathi Raghava.

Gandhi once expressed the wish to hear M S Subbulakshmi sing the song. Subbulakshmi answered that she had not practiced the song. Gandhi replied that he would rather hear her speak the Hari Tuma Haro than hear someone else sing it. Feeling obliged, Subbulaksmi recorded the song and had the record delivered to Gandhi on his 78th birthday. Check it out..

4. This one came from Indu reminding the old, golden days of doordhasan relating to one of Independence days campaign. Its is a really nice deplicting our traditions tailor made to fit in all most major languages together bringing us all together.

5. This number is one of my plenty favorite patriotic Tamil songs. It's written by freedom fighter and Tamil poet Mahakavi Bharathi visioning the future of India. His words energized and fired people to fight for their mother land giving up everything by showing them great india in his words.

In this song, he dreams of us walking in moon, sending ships all over the world, schools, factories filling the country and a free will do anything, great country Bharatham is waiting for us. His dreams have come true to large extent. Enjoy the song.

I have some more songs to share with you all. That will be my end part of this series. I hope you are enjoying this journey with me relishing and remembering your golden days celebrating the 60th of our Independence.

Share you thoughts and comments and any of you favorite songs as well. Its the time to relish and cherish those golden words to celebrate our Independence.

INDIANNESS & Patriotic Songs Part - III: Saare Jahan Se Achchha

Apart from Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram, this song also rhyms very well in our heart and we hear it all most of every time during our Republic and Independence day parades. Atleast that's my vivid recollection of listening to the music when I grew up.

Saare Jahan Se Achchha (Urdu: سارے جہاں سے اچھا) 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 (Urdu: ترانۂ ہندی "Anthem of the People of Hindustan"), it was later published in 1924 in the Urdu book Bang-i-Dara.

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 sitar maestro 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. The song is, however, little known in Pakistan or Bangladesh.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिन्दोस्तां हमारा हम बुलबुले हैं इसकी, वो गुलसितां हमारा पर्वत वो सबसे ऊँचा, हमसाया आसमाँ का वो संतरी हमारा, वो पासवां हमारा, सारे... गोदी में खेलती हैं, जिसकी हज़ारों नदियां गुलशन है जिसके दम से, रश्क-ए-जिनां हमारा सारे.... मजहब नहीं सिखाता, आपस में बैर रखना हिन्दी हैं हम वतन हैं, हिन्दोस्तां हमारा, सारे...

saare jahaan se achcha hindostaan hamaraa hum bul bulain hai is kee, ye gulsitan hamaraa parbat vo sabse unchaa hum saaya aasma kaa vo santaree hamaraa, vo paasbaan hamaraa godee mein khel tee hain is kee hazaaron nadiya gulshan hai jinke dum se, rashke janna hamaraa mazhab nahee sikhataa apas mein bayr rakhnaa hindee hai hum, vatan hai hindostaan hamaraa

Translation of the poem in English :

Better than all the world, is our India
We are its nightingales and this is our garden

That mountain most high; neighbor to the skies
It is our sentinel; it is our protector

A thousand rivers play in its lap,
Gardens they sustain, the envy of the heavens is ours

Faith does not teach us to harbor grudges between us
We are all Indians and India is our homeland

The poem is sung by Indians on occasions of national importance and in schools as part of morning prayer. After the Indian National Song "Jana Gana Mana" and the Indian National Song "Vande Mataram", Sare Jahan Se Achcha enjoys the reputation as the most popular patriotic song in India. The poem epitomises love for the nation and patriotism.

Here is different version of this song in audio format after a vigor research. I couldn't able to find the video for this song. If you find one, let me know.

A nice video which found on Jana Gana Mana that I want to share too.

Every patriotic songs has its unique texture to invoke synergy and vibe in different ways inside us to enthrilling the patriotic feeling. Each has its own taste with a same common goal to relish the Indianness sense in all of us.

Mehra Bharat Mahan!! Jai Hind!!

Indianness & Patriotic Songs - Part I

Being Indian is not just a namesake act. It's the feel. It's the pride we carry forward in lot of ways that makes us more and more Indianness.

What makes us proud thinking about our great country?!

It's not just the rich heritage and tradition we all immersed when we grew up. It's our Anthem and patriotic songs that pulls the chord deep down inside anytime you sing pumping fresh flow of blood to our heart creating goose bumps giving us the essence of Indian Pride.

We have few number of songs, we all love to be remembered at the time of celebrating 60th year of Independence. I am planning to share my feel and interesting information about them. First and foremost, No Indian can never say No and will ever say I forgot it to this one song. Its our one and only National Anthem Song, "JANA GANA MANA".

Sometimes we feel that it faded away from busy memory store. Don't you worry, when joined chorus with others it just pops right back up rhyming from the heart. Because its stored deep inside you, inside your heart knowingly or unknowingly as we sang every day in our schools. You might have hated at that time but it automatically takes its reserved spot as soon as you became a true Indian.

I never researched deep enough until few days back to learn more about the very words written by our great Tagorji. Like every kid, I just sang it as a burden to finish my morning prayer. After my research, it was really enlightening to sing with the

Here is the very National Anthem song for you to sing,

JANA-GANA-MANA-ADHINAYAKA, JAYA HE

BHARATA-BHAGYA-VIDHATA

PUNJABA-SINDHU-GUJARATA-MARATHA-

DRAVIDA-UTKALA-BANGA

VINDHYA-HIMACHALA-YAMUNA-GANGA

UCCHHALA-JALADHI TARANGA

TAVA SUBHA NAME JAGE

TAVA SUBHA ASHISHA MAGE

GAHE TAVA JAYA GATHA.

JANA-GANA-MANGALA DAYAKA,

JAYA HEBHARATA-BHAGYA-VIDHATA,

JAYA HE, JAYA HE, JAYA HE,

JAYA JAYA JAYA, JAYA HE

The following is a translation of Rabindranath Tagore's rendering of the stanza:

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India's destiny. The name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha, of the Dravid and Orissa and Bengal; it echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of the Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea. They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise. The salvation of all people is in thy hand, thou dispenser of India's destiny.

Victory, victory, victory to thee.

English translation of the stanza rendered by Sri Aurobindo in prose is:

I bow to thee, mother, richly-watered, richly-fruited, cool with the winds of the south, dark with the crops of the harvests, the Mother! Her nights rejoicing in the glory of the moonlight, her lands clothed beautifully with her trees in flowering bloom, sweet of laughter, sweet of speech, the Mother, giver of boons, giver of bliss.

I also found a lovely video of great musician orchestrating our Anthem song. I am not sure how many got to see it already. So I am just adding it case you want to check it out.

Anthem Controversy

Controversy exists regarding the appropriateness of Jana Gana Mana as the national anthem of an independent India. The poem was composed in December 1911, precisely at the time of the Coronation Durbar of George V, and is a paean in praise of "the overlord of India's destiny". The composition was first sung during a convention of the then loyalist Indian National Congress in Calcutta on Dec. 27, 1911.[6] It was sung on the second day of the convention, and the agenda of that day devoted itself to a loyal welcome of George V on his visit to India.

In 2005, there were calls to delete the word "Sindh" and substitute it with the word Kashmir. The argument was that Sindh was no longer a part of India, having become part of Pakistan as a result of the Partition of 1947. Opponents of this proposal hold that the word "Sindh" refers to the Indus and to Sindhi culture and people which are an integral part of India's cultural fabric. The Supreme Court of India refused to tamper with the national anthem and the wording remains unchanged.

All these controversies popup in all aspects. Except Tagore nobody can tell the truth. Whatever it may be, its one of important songs in our Indian history to make deserved to be National Anthem. We Indians has to take pride in singing it loud and clear whenever we get a chance.

मेरा भारत महान!

Mera Bharat Mahaan!

My India is Great!

Sources - Wikipedia and other websites.