How ‘Vaishnava Jana To’ changed from Gandhi’s time to ours

It was a haunting voice, raw and full-throated, as if someone were singing into a vast emptiness. In it, Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite hymn, Narsinh Mehta’s Vaishnava Jana To, acquired the depth and sweep of a folk ballad, rich with humanity and everyday wisdom: Vaishnavajana to tene kahiye, je pira parayi jaane re / par dukhe upkaar kare, to ye man abhiman na aane re. The true Vaishnava, it says, is one who feels the pain of another, who helps those suffering and does so without pride.

In the days when a 1968 Films Division of India documentary series on Gandhi by Vithalbhai Jhaveri was a staple on Doordarshan, Mohanlal Rayani’s voice singing the hymn would often soar across our drawing rooms, stripped of embellishments, accompanied only by an ektara and cymbals. That version of Vaishnava Jana To is rarely heard now. What we get today is a sweet, pious bhajan set to raga Khamaj, popularised by polished voices of Lata Mangeshkar, rendered by classical musicians such as Amjad Ali Khan, Bismillah Khan and Hariprasad Chaurasia, and favoured by bhajan singers such as Anup Jalota.

“This has now become the standard rendition of the hymn, one that is associated with ashramic congregational singing,” said music scholar Partho Datta. “But the folk...

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