We shall Overcome

The other day when I was watching the movie 'My name is Khan' I realized that in one of the scenes, the background music is actually a rendition of the inspirational song - Hum Honge Kamayab....

This is a song that I like a lot. The most memorable recitation of it, for me, was at the Wankhede stadium in the year 2001 where India had lost 5 or 6 wickets early in the first innings on Day 1 and the whole crowd sang that song in unison.....it didn't work that day as India lost that test match in 3 days. But it did inspire a turnaround for us in the 2nd test match at Kolkata, which was influenced by a record breaking stand between VVS Laxman and our very own Bengaluru huduga - Rahul Dravid. Some of you may wonder how I related the famous win to the recitation of the song - well there is no proof, but my blog - my thoughts!

Coming back to MNiK and that background score got me thinking - who is the writer of this song. This was not written by Rabindranath Tagore, nor was it sung by Lata Mangeshkar, heck it wasn't even thought to us in school or in any history lesson. 

Enter Mr. Google and I was shocked to learn that this is a direct translation of an English song sung during the American Civil war of 1900, that goes by the name - "We shall Overcome"
Apparently, this song was sung before Martin Luther King's famous speech 'I have a Dream'. It was then translated by a poet called Girija Kumar Mathur (not sure in which year) and used during our independence struggle.

I am not sure how many of us know this - I do for sure now!

Below are the lyrics in English and Hindi:

In English:
We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
 
Oh, deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall overcome some day

We’ll walk hand in hand
We’ll walk hand in hand
We’ll walk hand in hand some day

We shall all be free
We shall all be free
We shall all be free some day

We are not afraid
We are not afraid
We are not afraid some day
 
We are not alone
We are not alone
We are not alone some day

The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around
The whole wide world around some day

 We shall overcome
We shall overcome
We shall overcome some day


In Hindi:
hum honge kamyab, hum honge kamyab,
hum honge kamyab, ek din
Oh, man mein hai visvas, pura hai visvas
hum honge kamyab, ek din

hum chalenge sath sath, dale hathon mein hath
hum chalenge sath sath, ek din
Oh, man mein hai visvas, pura hai visvas
hum chalenge sath sath, ek din

nahin dar kisika aaj, nahin-hai bhay kisika aaj
nahin dar kisika aaj, e din
Oh, man mein hai visvas, pura hai visvas
nahin dar kisika aaj, e din

hogi shanti charon or, hogi shanti charon or,
hogi shanti charon or, ek din
Oh, man mein hai visvas, pura hai visvas
hogi shanti charon or, ek din  

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