Zaverchand Meghani
In 1922 Zaverchand married
Damayantiben. Damayantiben died in 1932. In 1934 he was married a second time
to Chitradevi of Nepal who had been a child widow. Zaverchand Meghani was very
much interested in literature and folklore. Darbar Vajasurvala of Hadala was a
personal friend of Meghani and helped him a lot in his researches in folk
literature. Among his other friends, Hathibhai Wank was helpful in the
collection of folklores of Kathiawad; Amritbhai Dani was instrumental in his
composing nursery rhymes for children. His letters indicate his personal
friendship with men of letters of the Gujarati world—including Umashankar
Joshi, Dhumaketu Pannalal Patel and Ishvar Petalikar (Meghani Smriti Granth).
Meghani had immense capacity for
making friendship with the high as well as the low. In 1909 he went to England
with Jivanlal, the owner of the Jivanlal & Go., Calcutta. He was interested
in English literature and translated with immense success the poems of some of
the less known English poets into Gujarati.
Meghani held very progressive and
liberal views towards social reforms, such as the uplift of the Harijans, independence
and education for women, widow-marriage, etc. He was deeply religious and his
immense faith in God is evident in the many references to Him in his works. In
religion Meghani was catholic in outlook. Among his close friends were many
Muslims and Parsis. As an admirer of western ‘learning’, he visited the various
centres of education in England. The aim of education, according to him, was to
create consciousness of our country’s heritage. The importance of primary
education was realised by him and he declared emphatically that so long as the
teachers were not paid adequate salaries all talk of high idealism would remain
merely a dream.
Meghani’s ideas about nationalism
were very progressive. His songs of patriotism and characters depicted in
novels like ‘Kalachakra’ show a healthy love for the motherland. He admired and
appreciated the patriotic feelings of the Irish people, the revolutionary
freedom-fighters of Korea and the Hungarians. He was a believer in non-violent,
non-cooperation method of Gandhiji. However, his admiration for the brave
revolutionary nationalists in India and elsewhere, as depicted in his novels or
songs, leads one to believe that if circumstances demanded he would not mind
people taking resort to revolutionary means for freeing their motherland.
Meghani was fully aware of the political movements in Eturope and Asia. He rose
far above regionalism.
In his attitude towards the
British Government, Meghani expressed bis opposition and resentment to the policy
of suppression followed by the rulers of India, especially after 1930. His
poems, written when Gandhiji was leaving the shores of India for the Round
Table Conference, are a complete account of the grievances of the people of
India for the unfair and unjust administration of India by the British. However,
Meghani was obviously an admirer of the democratic system of government and
this is revealed from his articles in the Gujarati weekly Fulchhab, of which he
was an editor for some time.
Meghani took a keen interest in
the economic issues of the time. He took an active part in encouraging the
cottage industries among the farmer families. He established his reputation as
an honest and frank journalist in Gujarat. From 1922 to 1926 he worked on the
editorial staff of the Saurashtra (a Gujarati weekly); in 1934 he joined the
Janmabhoomi, a Gujarati daily from Bombay. He was very much interested in
literary criticism. In 1936, as editor of the Gujarati weekly, the Fulchhab,
Meghani rendered great service to Gujarati literature. He was perfectly at case
on public platforms. His speeches, usually containing references to the
folk-literature of Kathiawad, were punctuated by instances from folk-songs,
which he used to sing in a typical melodious voice which held his audience
spell-bound. It may well be said that whatever he had to say, he preferred to
say it through the medium of poetry. He did not merely speak, but sang as well.
Apart from these he also delivered extremely specialised lectures on Kathiawad
folk-literature, which was the subject of his life’s research.
In a comparatively short span of
25 years (1922-47) Meghani’s contribution to the Gujarati literature is
amazingly wide. He has to his credit 88 published works, out of which not more
than 6 are translations from Bengali or English. His publications were in
various forms-research publications, essays, biographies, reminiscences, travel
accounts, history, novels, short stories, criticism, plays and songs.
Throughout his literary works, there runs an unconscious—conscious only at
times—current; an effort to rouse the people of India from lethargy and the
sleep of inaction. This was largely responsible for the great popularity of
Meghani even during his lifetime.
The Maulvi was a staunch Muslim,
who worked for the uplift of his community all his life. But he was no fanatic.
The travels abroad widened his outlook, and though he joined the Muslim League
and also advocated separate Muslim electorates, he stood for co-operation
between the different communities where needed. He championed the cause of women
and children, and strongly supported the proposals regarding compulsory primary
education.
The Maulvi wanted only Dominion
Status for India through constitutional means. He was never tired of recounting
the benefits of the British rule, yet he often bitterly criticised the
harshness of the Anglo-Indian officials, and condemned the deportation of Lala
Lajpat Rai and the Government enactments such as the Seditious Meetings Act of
1907.
(T. R. Sareen) G. S. Chhabra
VANDE MATARAM
Reference: DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY – Vol 3 edited by
S. P. Sen – Institute of Historical Studies – Calcutta - 1972
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