The White House’s Marine Band on Monday played “Sare Jahan Se Achha Hindustan Hamara” before scores of Asian Americans as they gathered to celebrate the annual Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month here at a reception with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The patriotic song, written by Mohammad Iqbal during India’s Independence struggle, was played twice by the White House Marine Band at the request of Indian Americans who were invited by the president for the annual event.

“This was an amazing celebration of White House’s AANHPI Heritage Month at the Rose Garden. The best part was that as I walked into the White House, I was greeted by the musicians playing ‘Sare Jahan se Accha Hindustan Hamara’. (Better than the entire world, is our Hindustan),” Indian American community leader Ajay Jain Bhutoria told PTI in an interview after the Rose Garden reception.

This is the second time in less than a year that the popular Indian patriotic song was played at the White House.

The last time it was played was during the historic State Visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 23.

The Marine Band said that it had practised this song ahead of the State Visit.

“I felt so good. It was a moment of pride at the White House… I started singing with them and then I requested them to play it once again. They did and said that they're playing it for the second time. They played it when Prime Minister Modi visited and today, they are playing. It’s lovely that ‘Sare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara’ is being played at the White House today,” California-based Bhutoria said.

The playing of this song during the AANHPI Heritage Month is also reflective of how much President Biden and his team care for the India-US relationship and Indian Americans, he said.

“I think the US-India relationship is one of the strongest relationships. President Biden has said that India is one of the most consequential partners. I was talking to (US Trade Representative) Ambassador (Katherine) Tai. I was talking about how you are looking at India as a trade partner and right now trying to balance with China. They are saying definitely, we are looking at more new partners and trying to balance China of course,” he said.

“The India-US relationship is growing at all stages from people to people. Over 4.4 million Indian Americans are the backbone of this relationship. Then it's also growing business to business and government to government. We saw with Prime Minister Modi coming, signing the new defence agreements and a lot more is growing, the trade is going to grow more,” Bhutoria said.

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