A black-and-white music video featuring a song about Kashmir by veteran singer Mohammed Rafi is being shared on social media platforms.
What are users claiming?: Those sharing it have claimed that the song — which is about Kashmir — "was met with unease in Pakistan."
The claim mentions that due to pressure by the Pakistani government, India's then-Congress government "opted to ban the song."
(Archived versions of more claims can be seen here and here.)
Is it true?: No. The song was never banned in India.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had called for edits to the song, which included replacing words.
The song was then released as part of a 1966 Hindi film called Johar in Kashmir.
How did we find out the truth?: A simple reverse image search using Google Lens took us to the same video on YouTube, which helped us identify its name as 'Jannat Ki Hai Tasveer Yeh'
We then searched Google, using the name of the song as keywords, but did not find any credible reports about it being banned at any point in time, but found that it was from film called Johar in Kashmir.
The Quint had previously debunked this claim in 2022, when it had first gone viral.
Using Google Advanced Search, we had added the film's name as keywords and using CBFC as an additional search term.
The search led to a single result, which was a Gazette of India document dated 17 December 1966, which carried a list of edits recommended for Indian and foreign-language films.
It mentioned the song in question, stating that in the fifth reel, the words "Haji Pir" were to be removed from the song.
The current version of the song, as found on Mohammed Rafi's YouTube channel, does not contain "Haji Pir," nor does it mention Lahore.
Conclusion: Mohammed Rafi's song 'Jannat Ki Hai Tasveer Yeh' from the 1966 film Johar in Kashmir was never banned. The CBFC had only recommended one edit in the song.
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