Bharat Desh by Subramania Bharati

Our forefathers had high hopes for our country. We have a long way to go in achieving their dreams because communities of our country are engaged in competition to be declared as backward.

This is the English translation of the Tamil poem 'Bharat Desh' by Subramania Bharati.

Bharat Desh

By Subramania Bharati

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips,

let us shake off our fears and poverty,

and overcome our sorrows and enemies.

We shall stroll on the snow clad silvery heights of the Himalayas.

Our ships shall sail across the high seas. 

We shall set up schools— all sacred temples for us, 

and proudly thump our shoulders and utter 

the name of this land of ours, Bharat. 

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips

let us shake off our fears and poverty. 

We shall span the sea to reach Sri Lanka, 

and raise the level of the ‘Sethu’ and pave a road on it. 

We shall water Central India 

with the bounteous rivers of Bengal. 

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips 

let us shake off our fears and poverty.

We shall go out rowing on the moonlit Sindhu, 

beautiful damsels of Kerala will keep us company, 

singing songs in Telugu, a language so sweet! 

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips 

let us shake off our fears and poverty.

We shall swap the wheat of the Gangetic plains

for the tender betel leaves of the Kaveri basin. 

We shall honour the poets of the valiant Marathas 

with gifts of ivory from Kerala, 

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips 

let us shake off our fears and poverty.

We shall have such devices 

that sitting at Kanchi we will listen to 

the discourses of scholars in Varanasi. 

We shall honour the heroes of Rajasthan 

with gifts of refined gold from Karnataka. 

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips 

let us shake off our fears and poverty. 

We shall make tools and weapons. 

We shall produce paper. 

We shall open factories and schools. 

We shall never be Iazy or weary. 

We shall be ever generous. 

We shall always speak the truth. 

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips 

let us shake off our fears and poverty.

Both scriptures and sciences we shall learn, 

the heavens and oceans we will explore;

the mysteries of moon we shall unravel, 

the art of street-sweeping, too, we shall learn. 

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips 

let us shake off our fears and poverty.

Avvai’s undying message we will live up to for ever. 

Only two castes there are, said she:

those helpful to others are the high born, 

the upright men of virtue. 

All the rest are low born. 

With the name of Bharat Desh on our lips 

let us shake off our fears and poverty. 

Source: https://ia801607.us.archive.org/11/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.231768/2015.231768.Poems-Subramania.pdf