What is it about Gandhi — born 156 years ago in a world altogether different from ours, killed 78 years ago in a newly-independent India — that still resonates with the Urdu poet/writer of today?

First, a sampling from some recent works, and then a search for answers.

In a long, lyrical ghazal, Nushhur Wahidi speaks of Gandhi as a light that cannot be snuffed out, as a life force that will always show the way, as a treasure that can never be pillaged: Woh hamesha ke liye chup hue magar ik jahan ko zabaan dii/ Woh hamesha ke liye so gaye magar ik jahan ko jaga diya (He was silenced forever but he gave voice to a world/ He went to sleep forever but he awakened a world).

Writing especially on the occasion of Gandhi’s birth, Kanval Dibaivi speaks with the pride of ownership, that a man such as Gandhi was “ours”: Watan ke aasman par ek rakhshanda sitara thhe/ Hamein ye fakhr hai ahl-e-jahaan mein Gandhi hamare thhe (He was a resplendent star in the country’s firmament/ We are proud that among all the people in the world, Gandhi was ours).

Nazish Pratapgarhi seizes upon the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti to exhort his country to remember all that Gandhi stood for: love for fellow beings, peace for all mankind, and, above all, the creed of ahimsa (non-violence). And forsaking all the bloodshed, hatred, violence, enmity, and ill-will of past years,........

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