15 GANDHI IN MODERN ARABIC LITERATURE Omar-El-Haqqaq When Gandhi crossed the Suez canal in 1931, the British rulers of Egypt prevented the Egyptians, who were afire with revolutionary zeal, from meeting him on Egyptian soil. Nevertheless, this visit of Gandhi was a historical event, which proved once again the deep understanding between Indians and Arabs and their strong feeling of having a common destiny. Gandhi was a hero of the East and the Egyptian people found in him a stubborn opponent to the colonialist, the common enemy. The then Prime Minister of Egypt Mustafa Al Nahhas had expressed this feeling, which was heard among the masses of his nation, in his speech on Gandhi. He said: “In the name of Egypt that is struggling for her freedom and independence, | welcome, in your person, the great leader of India, a country which also is fighting to achieve the same goal.” Mrs. Sofia Zughlool, the leader of the first woman demonstration in the Arab homeland during the Egyptian revolu- tion of 1919, had, also expressed this sentiment and respect towards the great leader of the East Perhaps the most distinguished person who gave an expres- sion of the Arab sentiment and the extent of the admiration for the steadfast India and for her unique leader was the great poet Ahmad Showquie who composed a poem when Gandhi passed by Egypt on his way to the Round Table Conference in London for negotiation with the British Government on the quest of his78 Omar-El-Haqgaq country’s independence. Showquie was the best person to express what was troubling the mind of the people of his nation, because of his interaction with the sufferings and objectives of his country and because of his deep knowledge of his nation. He found the arrival of the greatest man of India to Egypt as a historic event. Showquie wrote a poem of forty verses. He began the poem saying: The sons of Egypt raise the (branches of) laurel tree and greet the hero of India discharge your duty by acknowledging the demands for the rights of the unique flag. The Egyptian poet hailed the Indian leader as a man inspired by nationalism and right politics different from the men and politicians of the age, so he raised him to the highest status. Gandhi to Showquie was like the awaited “Mahdi” or as one of the prophets and messengers. He said: A prophet like Confucius or like one of that age. Similar in (his) sayings and deeds to the much awaited “Mahdi” To Showquie, the spiritual and the creative power, with which Gandhi was born was not to be found in an ordinary way, but as to be gained by great fortune. It is a gift from the beneficent God to his good servants. It is not to be derived by force of material possession, wealth and power of arms, but is a gift from God to his servant Showgquie’s poem referred to the communal problem, the chronic disease had spread in India and the Arab countries equally like a cancer. So what about Gandhi's great message of tolerance which the Arabs were longing for? On this Showquie says: He fought with rightness, patience and endeavour. The sick souls came (to him for treatment) and he cured them of hatred. He called the Hindus and Muslims for love and harmony. With magic spiritual power. He put two swords in one sheath. Perhaps the most important factor in the theme of the poem of Showquie is that it had brought together the sorrows of the two nations which resulted from the occupation of India and the Arab lands. The poet mentioned Saad Zaghlool (1927), the leader of Egypt, and Gandhi, the leader of India, who bore severe suffering and bitter hardship. The Egyptian leader suffered throughout his persistent struggle and unjust exile. They tried to unite the cause of the two nations which suffered during their struggles.Gandhi in Modern Arabic Literature a Your brother in sufferings and in experience of painful situation, in endeavour, and aim, in injury, tear and exile. Then what a salute! Showquie saluted Gandhi in the follow- ing verses: The thin great man, dressed in coarse cloth, owner of spindle and milcher of goat. Salam to the milcher of goat. Salam to the spinner of garments. Gandhi became in the hearts of millions of people the symbol of the leadership of the East in its challenge to the West. This spirit of the East, began to grow with force in the Arab generation in the beginning of this century. This spirit began to appear clearly among the Arabs in the form of an innermost feeling of affection between them and the other people, subjugated by the West in the great East. Arabs generally trust their leaders but they gained immediate gains and then were shattered. Therefore they were eager for a genuine leadership like that of Gandhi to take the sinking ship of the Arab lands to the shore of safety. The Palestinian poet Ibrahim Tawgan was, always, warning of the gloomy end of his country and was looking, hopelessly and despairingly for a skillful leader like Gandhi: How nice it would be if one from among our leaders would fast, like Gandhi, then his fasting might be useful Tawqan, then describes, with bitterness and irony the malady of the leadership of his country: In love and affections with the home-land but only in words and not in deeds. A hero when he speaks from the dais, but he loses no time to retreat from the battle-field. In the verses of Ilyas Qunsul we find him considering the struggles of a number of the eastern nations as one. He speaks about the Syrian revolution and the French oppression as well as the Palestinian struggle and the Zionist terrorism. Then he mentions in the same poem the struggle of India and her great leader. All these because of his feeling for the concept of the common cause. He considers Gandhi as one of the prophets. The frail Gandhi is a prophet, one among those prophets and messengers sent by God. This is because Gandhi was the focus of attention for the Arabs who lived in the land they had80 Omar-El-Haqqaq migrated to that is America. They had for Gandhi love, respect and admiration, no less than what the Indians felt for him. Hence, the rural poct Rasheed Salim Al-Khuri made him look as god. He, also, considered him as an example of the leadership, the East gave birth to. Therefore he was proud of him as a force against the West. Rasheed says: A lion roared on the shores of the Ganges to our ears it was sweeter than the coo of dove. A voice that the Christ of India repeats in Delhi must be listened to by the Christ of Syria The poet, whenever he revolted against abjectness of his people and disunity of their leaders exhorted them to struggle like Gandhi of India. So when Id was celebrated after fasting of Ramadhan he said pointing out to the difference between the fasting of the Muslims and that of Gandhi. Fasting until the sword breaks it with his blood Silent be my mouth, until truth comes out Mikhail Noema, who was another leader of the men of letters of Mahjar (place of emigration) had a deep knowledge of the objectives of the East and of the contents of the Gandhian message. He found in Gandhi another picture of Christ which contains many of his characteristics and presents many of the qualities in his message which are embodied in non-violence. According to Mikhail Noema, Gandhi did repeat Christ's exhortation from the mountain. This had changed his behaviour and teachings later on. Noema’s admiration for Gandhi was such that he called him the conscience of the awakening East. Likewise, he in several of his articles, described Gandhi, with great enthusiasm, as the symbol of spirituality of the East. He said: “The East is endowed and the West is rational. The West is the ruler and the East is the ruled. The West is going to set and the East is going to rise.” If Noema found in Gandhi a unique spiritual human being, he found in him, also a unique nationalist hero. Gandhi had achieved an obvious victory for his nation, but at the same time, it was also a clear victory for his message. On this point he says: The spindle in the hand of Gandhi became sharper than the sword; the simple white sheet in which Gandhi’s thin body was wrapped became an armour-plate which could not be affected by the guns from the flects of the master of the seas and the goat of Gandhi became stronger than the British LionGandhi in Modern Arabic Literature 81 The voice of Arabic literature in both in prose and verse with reference to the loss of Gandhi, was a truthful, sorrowful and sincere voice. And in the far-away lands of Brazil and in the Arabian osis of the foreign and strange desert, the poet Farhat had expressed the incident of killing of Gandhi in elegiac prose which is much more poetical than poetry itself. This is under the title “The death of Gandhi” Gandhi is dead. -Gandhi is killed Certainly the hand that poured poison in the cup of Socrates is the hand that nailed Christ on the cross. It is the hand of blind fanaticism and senseless hatred — Gandhi, who lived his life as an angel within the mad con- glomeration of the satans among Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and the untouchables, is killed — The spiritual Brahim leader who did not carry any arm and did not bless anyone who carries it had died — He loved his enemies and blessed those who cursed him....so what a great shame as in the death of Christ — The leader, who fought with the weapons of truth and had won, has died, so what a shame for tyrannical and fierce people. — Gandhi died—the unique man of humanity died. He is killed— a son of humanity is killed. — Certainly, humanity, that crowned the thieves and the killers as kings and emperors, has killed Socrates, Christ and Gandhi. — So woe unto this humanity which keeps the thieves alive, and kills the reformers. — Woe unto this humanity for her fanatic sons and woe unto her for the problems created by the hypocritical and shameless politicians, who nominate their selves and their partners for Nobel prize for peace and forget Gandhi. — And no wonder that peace that Gandhi wanted was genuine and based on love, truth and justice, while the others want peace, based on hypocrisy, conspiracy, robbery and force — Gandhi's peace is that of doves that twitter in the branches, and their peace is of that of the wolves which how! around the corpses. — This poisoned humanity does not know that it has lost the best of her sons, the finest among all people and the nearest to God.82 Omar-El-Haqqaq Gandhi was thus a symbol of intellectual interaction between the Indians and the Arabs. His love for the Arabs, and his full knowledge of their history and then the Arab admiration for him and his leadership were reiterated again and again by the common Arabs in their talks, by prose writers in their writings and by the poets in their verses. All this shows that this unique man was not for India alone but also for the Arabs and all the people of the world longing for freedom. He was the spirit of the great East, which still reveals itself to humanity, its deep sensitivity for the unity of the fate of humankind and endeavouring fora rich human life of truth, justice, freedom, brotherhood and peace. a