As a national anthem, it isn't a morale booster. "For a long time, the oppressed Peruvian dragged the ominous chain," it begins. "Condemned to cruel servitude … he quietly whimpered."

The dirge continues with laments about indolence, humiliation, slavery and horror until the oppressed Peruvian, if he or she is still listening, may want to reach for an antidepressant.

It is a sharp contrast to the likes of Britain's God Save the Queen – which in the first verse invokes nobility, victory, glory and happiness – or the rousing call to arms of France's La Marseillaise.

But now, almost two centuries after Peru's original was penned, the country may get a more upbeat anthem designed to instil pride and reflect its growing economic clout.

A campaign headed by Julio César Rivera, a retired government auditor, is lobbying to replace the lyric with three new verses. "Our existing hymn is too negative," he said. "It damages the self-esteem of the population and breeds an inferiority complex. It encourages conformism, indifference and apathy - and we're already too submissive."

Rivera, 69, has published two books on the subject and released a CD featuring Peruvian tenor Antonio Maldonado singing the proposed new lyric. The opening line depicts a South American idyll: "We live in happiness, with peace, equal rights and freedom."

Rivera is due to make his case to scholars and members of congress next month at Lima's venerable College of Lawyers.

Peru is not alone in having anthem issues: last year in Costa Rica a woman vainly lobbied the supreme court to declare the country's anthem sexist and discriminatory on the grounds that it refers only to boys and men and their "valiant and virile" ways.

Peru's state implicitly acknowledged a problem with its anthem in 2009, when the defence ministry told the armed forces to sing the less downbeat sixth verse in place of the first.

Rivera welcomed that move but said it was not enough to clear the cloud over the nation's psyche. "It's a very sensitive issue but we need to go all the way," he said.

Not everyone agrees. The anthem, supporters say, becomes stirring in later verses as it recounts Peru's bloody and ultimately successful struggle for independence from Spain in the 19th century.

Irina Avila, a researcher and tutor at the Catholic University in Lima, told El Comercio newspaper that young Peruvians had a patriotic sentiment inherited from their parents and that they would have difficulty accepting a changed anthem.

Historian Ivan Millones said the grim opening set the scene for subsequent triumph. "I don't think the first verse is offensive," he said. "It frames the era and the path to liberty."

The fifth verse, for instance, imagines bringing the war of independence to Spain: "Be they always readying the cannon, that some day the beaches of Iberia will feel the horror of its roar."

The song, composed by José Bernardo Alcedo, was selected as the newly independent state's anthem by General José de San Martín in 1821. By 1901, relations with Spain had improved and authorities commissioned a new lyric to tone down the Spanish-bashing – but the public stuck with the original.

In 1959, the songwriter Chabuca Granda came up with a replacement first verse glorifying Peru but that too was ignored. Other attempts to tweak the words and shift the order of verses in ensuing decades all failed.

That may change. A recent economic boom has made Peru a Latin American success story. The two candidates in June's presidential elections are nationalists from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum who promise to shake up the country.

Rivera does not expect the anthem to feature in the election ("It's too sensitive an issue for candidates") but hopes a serious debate will begin soon after. "It's not easy but I think we'll get there."