In his remembrance, Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Academy has now organised a two-day seminar, which kicked off at the Gujarat Vidyapith on Sunday.

While the official invitation lists thirteen speakers, of whom four are from Vadodara and three from Bhiwandi, the Academy could not find a single one from the city.

Though M G Bombaywala, the man behind the event, made an attempt at the last moment to rope in a few local writers to present papers on the second day, but they excused themselves saying the deadline was too short.

An important functionary of the academy said that Haali was born about a hundred years ahead of his time. Other speakers, however, contradicted this saying he was born at the right time.

In his introductory speech, Bombaywala drew parallels between Mahatma Gandhi and Haali, and said the latter had endeavoured to pull his community out of slumber through his writings.

Abu Zafar Hassaan Nadvi from Bhiwandi said Haali was the currency “which is still in circulation”. He said the genius writer was still relevant, whether understood or not.

Former president of the Academy and Urdu critic Varis Alvi narrated his emotional attachment with the poet since the days he was in school and which resulted in his book “Haali Muqaddama Aur Hum”.

“What Ibsen did in Europe, Haali did here,” he said, summing up how the writer lent voice to the muffled cries of the downtrodden, especially women, through his works like Munajat e Bewa (prayers of a widow).

He lamented that Haali was ridiculed by later established critics like Kaleemuddin Ahmed and Mohammed Hasan Askari among others.