What is Hindustan, the whole world is ours) (Akbar thought the area too small, so he exclaimed, Raqbe ko kam samajh kar Akbar ye bol utthe, With typical wit, of which he was a pioneer in Urdu poetry, he responded to Iqbal in the same metre and rhyme the latter had used in sare jahan se achha:Ĭollege mein ho chuka jab imtehan hamara, (that land is my homeland, that land is my homeland)Īkbar Allahabadi (1846-1921) was already an established poet when Iqbal wrote his ode to Hindustan. Jis ne hijaziyon se dasht e arab chhudaya The land where Nanak sang the song of unity) (The land where Chishti delivered the true message, Nanak ne jis chaman mein wahdat ka geet gaya Iqbal wrote another poem, ‘ Hindustani bachhon ka qaumi geet’ (‘The national song of Hindustani children’), before 1904, which refers to the same idea of India being constituted by continuous migration and diverse cultures:Ĭhishti ne jis zameen par paigham e haq sunaya, We are Hindustanis, Hindustan is our homeland) (Religion does not teach us to hate each other, Hindi hain hum, watan hai hindostan hamara. Mazhab nahi sikhata apas mein bair rakhna, Hence, in the next couplet, Iqbal reminds us that: What Indians share, according to Iqbal, is a common geography, not a common language, culture or religion. The third couplet reminds us that numerous caravans have halted on the banks of Ganges through the ages and that the Indian nation is defined by these continuous migrations, not by ‘original’ inhabitants of any kind or an ‘original’ culture. (Oh the water of Ganges! Do you remember those days, Gulshan hai jinke dam se rashk i jinan hamaraīecause of them, heavens envy our gardens)Īe ab e rood e Ganga, woh din hain yad tujhko, Godi mein khelti hain, uski hazaron nadiyan (That highest mountain, the companion of the skies, Parbat woh sabse uncha, hamsaya asman ka, The iconic nationalist poem, written by Muhammad Iqbal (1877 –1938), better known as “Allama” Iqbal, in 1904, at the age of 27, is rife with geographical references, from the Himalayas to the multiple rivers that flow across the country:
Credit: Wikipediaįor many Indians, an enduring childhood memory is standing in an assembly line at school and singing Sare jahan se achha, Hindustan hamara.īut what was this idea of ‘Hindustan’, really, and did it always imply a sense of superiority to other nations? Iqbal’s iconic ‘Sare jahan se achha’ is rife with geographical references, including to the formidable Himalayas.
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