India, Oct. 2 -- I have never heard any Pakistani say anything offensive - critical, maybe, but never disparaging - about two Indians: Lata Mangeshkar and Mahatma Gandhi. And this is regardless of whether the two countries are at war or at peace. Gandhi - India's revered Father of the Nation, still fondly called Bapu in parts of South Asia - occupies a complex place in Pakistan's historical, political, and literary memory.

Gandhi's name is part of Pakistan's landscape, especially in the Sind province, as it is - expectedly - in India. For instance, Karachi's zoo was famously known as "Gandhi Garden" before Partition, and continues to be called so despite an official change of name. The plaque may now say National Zoological and Botanical...