The photograph featured in this blog post is of a street in Shahjahanabad (Chandni Chowk), the walled city of Delhi. It truly represents the unity in diversity of India, which is the story behind the song ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’. This street has a Jain Temple, a Hindu Temple, a Gurudwara, and a Mosque, all of which have coexisted peacefully for multiple centuries. There is a church not too far from here.

About Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, the year was 1988, and the day was August 15, our Independence Day. After the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi finished his address to the nation from the Red Fort, this beautiful song was telecast on Doordarshan. Originally telecast over three decades ago, it remains my favourite. I watch it on loop on every Independence Day and Republic Day. Sometimes, in between these two National festivals. Whenever I feel frustrated about the negativity around me, I watch the video of this song on YouTube.

Mile sur mera tumhara, to sur bane hamara,
Sur ki nadhiyan har disha se behkey sagar mein milein…
Badalon ka roop lekar barsein halke halke…
(When your tune matches my tune, it becomes our music.
The rivers of music flow into the ocean, from every direction …
Taking the form of clouds, the rain of music falls slowly.)

The song is not jingoistic; it gently evokes pride in the inclusive culture and heritage of our country. Patriotism is not forced through the song; it strengthens our love for the diversity of India. The song was the result of a conversation between then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his friend Jaideep Samarth. Suresh Mullick and Kailash Surendranath conceived it, and Piyush Pandey wrote ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’. Louis Banks arranged the music. It was developed by Lok Seva Sanchar Nigam. It was a blend of Indian classical, folk and modern sounds. The song brought together three musical geniuses from three different regions of India– Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Lata Mangeshkar and M. Balamuralikrishna. The six-minute song features 13 languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. It took almost six months to incorporate the flavours of the diverse cultures of our land into the music.

The song took almost six months to make. Kailash Surendranath travelled all over India, filming famous personalities and ordinary people. The video begins with Hindustani classical music maestro Pandit Bhimsen Joshi singing in his distinctive, soothing voice near Pambar Falls in Kodaikanal. The elephants in the video were shot in Periyar National Park. The mahout in the film was the actual singer who sang the Malayalam part of the song. An IAF helicopter was used to take the aerial shot of the Taj Mahal. According to protocol, no plane is allowed in the close vicinity of the monument of love. The video features India’s first newly inaugurated metro rail service, the Calcutta Metro, and the iconic train, the Deccan Queen, chugging along a river.

The song featured celebrities and achievers from all walks of life. Some of the ones that I can recognise are actors Kamal Haasan, Revathi, Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jeetendra, Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini, Tanuja, Sharmila Tagore, Shabana Azmi, Deepa Sahi, Om Puri, Dina Pathak, and Meenakshi Seshadri. Indian classical dancer Mallika Sarabhai, cartoonist Mario Miranda, filmmaker Mrinal Sen, singers Suchitra Mitra, and Kavitha Krishnamurthy. Sportspersons Narendra Hirwani, S Venkataraghavan, Prakash Padukone, Ramanathan Krishnan, and Arun Lal. The exhaustive list represents every region of the country.

In the end, the song gradually merges into the tune of Jana Gana Mana, India’s National Anthem.
Jaya he, jaya he,
jaya jaya jaya he.