The Congress government did not ban the “Jannat Ki Hai Ae Tasveer” sung by Mohammed Rafi
A video (here, here and here) of a song titled “Jannat ki hai tasvir… ye tasvir na denge” where the protagonist praises Kashmir’s beauty and vows not to part with it, is going viral on social media. The claim suggests that Mohammed Rafi sang it and that Pakistan pressured India to ban the song, leading the Congress government to do so. Let’s verify the truth behind this claim.
Claim: The song ‘Jannat Ki Hai Ae Tasveer’ sung by Mohammed Rafi, was banned by the Congress government due to pressure from the Pakistani government.
Fact: The song “Jannat Ki Hai Ae Tasveer” from the 1966 film ‘Johar in Kashmir’ was not banned by the Congress. The Gazette of India (17 December 1966) shows that the Censor Board ordered the removal of the words “Haji Pir” from the song, but it wasn’t entirely banned. Hence the claim is MISLEADING.
To verify the claim, we conducted a Google search and found several uploads of the old version of this song. A YouTube channel named “Sadabahar HD Songs” uploaded the full version titled Kashmir Hai Bharat Ka, Kashmir Na Denge from the movie Johar in Kashmir (1966). Further research revealed that the film was set in the tense post-Partition Kashmir, featuring two rivals, Ahmed and Aslam. The music of the movie was composed by Kalyanji Anandji.
In our further research, we examined The Gazette of India edition from 17 December 1966, which included the Censor Board report for the week ending 23 July 1966. The report detailed edits and cuts for various films. We found a note indicating that in the fifth reel of the movie Johar in Kashmir, the words “Haji Pir” were to be removed from the song in question. Interestingly, some lines mentioned in the official document do not appear in the lyrics available online, suggesting that the lyrics could have been modified following the Censor Board’s order.
We played the song on the music streaming platform Gaana and noticed that the specific words highlighted in The Gazette of India notification were not present in the song, confirming that they were likely removed as per the Censor Board’s order.
To sum up, the old song “Jannat Ki Hai Ae Tasveer” sung by Mohammed Rafi was not banned by the Congress government.