Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna

In 1921 Bismil wrote this poem,[2][3][4][5] following the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and other atrocities by the British colonialists.[6] It was first published in journal "Sabah", published from Delhi.[7][8][9] The ghazal has 11 couplets.[10] Khuda Bakhsh Library has preserved the original copy and page of his diary containing this poem written by him and the corrections done by his mentor Shad Azimabadi.[11]

The poem was immortalised by Ram Prasad Bismil, an Indian freedom fighter, as a war cry during the British Raj period in India.[12][13][14] It has also been associated with the younger generation of inter-war freedom fighters such as Ashfaqullah Khan, Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad.[15][16]

First few lines of the total 11 couplets are,

sarfaroshī kī tamannā ab hamāre dil meñ hai
dekhnā hai zor kitnā bāzū-e-qātil meñ hai

ai shahīd-e-mulk-o-millat maiñ tire uupar nisār
le tirī himmat kā charchā ġhair kī mahfil meñ hai

vaa.e qismat paañv kī ai zo.af kuchh chaltī nahīñ
kārvāñ apnā abhī tak pahlī hī manzil meñ hai

...

The poem has been recently being in use by various mass movements,[6][17] like, Indian Citizenship Amendment Act protests,[18] Pakistani Students Solidarity March,[19] etc.

The poem was used in the 1965 Manoj Kumar movie Shaheed on the life of Bhagat Singh.[20]. It was again used (with altered lines) as the lyrics for songs two films: in the title song of the 1999 film Sarfarosh (Zindagi Maut Na Ban Jaye), and in the 2002 Hindi film, The Legend of Bhagat Singh. The poem has also been used in the 2006 film, Rang de Basanti. The poem is also referenced in abridged form in the 2009 movie, Gulaal by Anurag Kashyap.[6]

Kakori conspiracy

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna

• Roy, Rituparna (2011). South Asian Partition Fiction in English: From Khushwant Singh to Amitav Ghosh. Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-90-8964-245-5.
• Trivedi, Harish (1995). Colonial Transaction: English Literature and India. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-4605-6.
• Sarfaroshi-ki-tamanna