ઝવેરચંદ મેઘાણી

Zaverchand Meghani — honoured by Mahatma Gandhi himself with the title Rashtriya Shayar (National Poet) — was the great collector and amplifier of Gujarat’s voice. Born in Chotila, Saurashtra, he spent his life gathering folk songs, ballads, and oral histories from villages across the region, preserving them in landmark compilations like Saurashtra ni Rasdhar. But he was far more than an archivist: his original poetry pulsed with the rhythms he had absorbed from folk tradition, producing lyrics that could make a concert hall feel like a monsoon field. A fearless journalist and freedom fighter, he was imprisoned by the British for his inflammatory verses. He died on the eve of independence in 1947, just hours before Gandhi — the two losses inseparable in Gujarat’s memory.