"Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo" (ऐ मेरे वतन के लोगों; "O! the people of my country!") is a Hindi patriotic song written by Kavi Pradeep and composed by C. Ramchandra commemorating Indian soldiers who died during the Sino-Indian War. Kavi Pradeep was reportedly moved to compose the song by accounts of casualties of the war.

The song was famously performed live on January 27, 1963 by Lata Mangeshkar at the National Stadium in the presence of Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on account of Republic Day (26 January) 1963, just two months after the end of the war.^[1] A copy of the soundtrack spool was also later gifted to Nehru on the occasion. The song is said to have moved Nehru to tears.^[2]

"Those who don't feel inspired by 'Aye mere watan ke logo' doesn't deserve to be called a Hindustani", said Nehru, who was visibly moved by the song. The song received rave appreciation from across the country.

In 2013, Lata Mangeshkar told a TV channel that initially she had declined to sing the song as she had not got enough time to rehearse the song. "It was Pradeepji, (Kavi Pradeep) the poet, who wrote the immortal lyrics, who came to me and asked me to sing the song. I declined, because there was no time to rehearse. You see, at that time I was working round-the-clock. To give special attention to one song seemed impossible. But Pradeepji insisted," Lata said, admitting that she was very nervous before the performance. Kavi Pradeep, the man who penned lyrics of the song, couldn't witness the event. "My regret is that Pradeepji had not been called for the Republic Day function where I sang the song. If he was there, he would have seen with his own eyes what impact 'Ae mere watan ke logo' had," Lata told. ^[3]

All of the artists and technicians involved with the song — including singers, musicians, music director, lyricist, recording studio, sound recordist — and later, lyricist Kavi Pradeep pledged the royalty of the song in perpetuity to the War Widows Fund.^{[4][dead link]} In 2005, theBombay High Court asked the music company HMV to indicate a lump sum payable to the Army Welfare Fund from the song's royalty proceeds.^[5]