No, This Mohammed Rafi Song About Kashmir Wasn’t Banned by Congress

The CBFC issued directions to edit, not ban the song 'Jannat Ki Hai Tasveer Yeh' by Mohammed Rafi.

A video of a song, titled 'Jannat Ki Hai Tasveer Yeh', sung by late singer Mohammed Rafi is being shared on social media platforms.

The video is being shared to insinuate that since the song discusses the issue of Pakistan staking a claim over Kashmir, the Pakistani government in 1966 had asked its Indian counterpart to ban the song, and the Indian government obliged.

However, the claim is false. The song, which was part of a 1966 film called Johar in Kashmir, was not banned. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had called for various cuts and edits in the film, one of which included replacing the words 'Haji Pir' in one line of the song in question.

CLAIM

The music video is being shared with the following claim in Hindi –

"कहते हैं मोहम्मद रफी के गाए इस गाने पर पाकिस्तान को आपत्ति हुई और उसने भारत सरकार से इस गाने पर प्रतिबंध लगाने के लिए कहा गया था और हमारी सरकार ने उस समय इस गाने पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया था, यह एक दुर्लभ गीत है, शायद आपने कभी सुना नहीं होगा, एक बार पूरा सुने"

[Translation: It is said that this song, sung by Mohammed Rafi, trouble the Pakistan government so much that it asked the Indian government to ban it, and our government obliged. This is a rare song, you might have not heard it, so listen to the full song.]

This post by user 'Step up J sir' was viewed more than one crore times at the time of writing this article.

More archived posts with the same claim on social media can be seen here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We looked up the first few words – 'Jannat ki hai tasveer' song – and came across a video on YouTube, whose description mentioned that the song titled 'Jannat Ki Hai Tasveer Yeh' was from the film Johar in Kashmir, which was released in 1966.

Taking a cue from this, we looked for reports on the song being banned in India but did not come across any such reports.

Next, we used Google Advanced Search to specifically look for documents that mentioned the words 'Johar in Kashmir', adding 'Central Board of Film Certification' as a search term.

The search threw up one result – a Gazette of India document dated 17 December 1966. This document contained a detailed list of edits and cuts recommended for various Indian and international films.

Here, we found that the document noted that in the fifth reel, the words "Haji Pir" were to be removed from the song in question.

We played the song on music streaming platform Gaana, and observed that the words highlighted in the Gazette notification were not present in the song.

Additionally, Hindi and English versions of the song's lyrics available online neither contain the words 'Haji Pir' nor a line in the song starting with the word 'Lahore.'

Evidently, the song 'Jannat Ki Hai Tasveer Yeh' from the 1966 film Johar in Kashmir was not banned in India.

The Central Board of Film Certification had directed multiple deletions in the film, which included removing two words from the song in question.

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