"Sare Jahan se Accha" (Urdu:سارے جہاں سے اچھا‬‎,Hindi: सारे जहां से अच्छा;Sāre Jahāṉ se Acchā), formally known as"Tarānah-i-Hindi"(Urdu:ترانۂ ہندی‬‎,Hindi: तराना-ए-हिंदी ; "Anthem of the People ofIndia"), is anUrdulanguage patriotic song written for children by poetMuhammad Iqbalin theghazalstyle ofUrdu poetry.[a]The poem was published in the weekly journalIttehadon 16 August 1904.[1]Publicly recited by Iqbal the following year atGovernment College, Lahore,British India(now inPakistan) it quickly became an anthem of opposition to theBritish Raj. The song, anodetoHindustan—the land comprising present-dayBangladesh,IndiaandPakistan, was later published in 1924 in the Urdu bookBang-i-Dara.


The song has remained popular, especially in India. An abridged version is sung and played frequently as a patriotic song and as a marching song of theIndian Armed Forces. A satirical version of the same from a1958 Hindi moviealso remains popular.

CompositionIqbal was a lecturer at theGovernment College, Lahoreat that time, and was invited by a studentLala Har Dayalto 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 anelegiacquality. In 1905, the 27-year-old Iqbal viewed the future society of thesubcontinentas 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 futureIslamic society.

Iqbal's transformation and Tarana-e-MilliIn 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:Maẕhab nahīṉ sikhātā āpas meṉ bair rakhnāHindī haiṉ ham, wat̤an hai Hindūstāṉ hamārāReligion does not teachus to bear ill-will amongourselvesWe are ofHind, our homeland is Hindustan.contrasted significantly with the first stanza ofTarana-e-Milli(1910) reads:CWe have received your message and would like to thank you for writing to us.īn o-ʿArab hamārā, Hindūstāṉ hamārāMuslim haiṉ ham, wat̤an hai sārā jahāṉ hamārāCentral Asia and Arabiaare ours, Hindustan is oursWe 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 ofHindustan, "our homeland," the new song proclaimed that "our homeland is the whole world."[6]Two decades later, in his presidential address to theMuslim Leagueannual conferenceinAllahabadin 1930, he supported aseparate nation-statein the Muslim majority areas of the sub-continent, an idea that inspired the creation of Pakistan.