Post # 139
A Servant of God...
On Christmas eve, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. For the next 9 years, until it withdrew in 1989, Afghanistan was a daily battlefield between the Afghan mujahideen and the Soviets. The mujahideen cause was supported by a coalition led by the US, UK and other Islamic Gulf countries, which used Pakistan as a military training, espionage and infiltration base for their soldiers. So, the Khyber pass, the de-facto Pakistan-Afghanistan border, was a high activity area for that duration.
However, on 20th January, 1988, both sides decided on a ceasefire for one day, and the border was open for civilians to move between Peshawar in Pakistan and Jalalabad in Afghanistan, to allow them to attend the burial of a 98 year old man. Even visa restrictions were lifted for the day! 200,000 mourners attended his funeral in Jalalabad. His name was Abdul Gaffar Khan. He was also called Badshah Khan or Baccha Khan. And he was revered in Afghanistan as Fakhr-e-Afghan (Pride of Afghans).
Rajiv Gandhi, then Indian prime minister, broke diplomatic protocol and went to Afghanistan to attend to his burial, despite protests from Pakistan's General Zia Ul Haq. Such a privilege was offered to the likes of Heads of State only. And though this 98 year old dead man was not one, he was extremely respected and revered in India too. He was affectionately called the Sarhadi or Frontier Gandhi by Indians. In 1987, he was conferred with the prestigious Bharat Ratna by the Government of India.
And yet, from 1948 till his death in 1988, he was a citizen of Pakistan, and lived his life either in jail or in exile or in house arrest. Infact, he died in Peshawar while under house arrest.
Have you heard of him? If yes, your history is ok. If not, therein lies a tale.
Abdul Gaffar Khan was born as Baccha Khan on 6th February, 1890, in a Pashtun family hailing from Utmanzai, in the Peshawar Valley of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of British India. Right from his early days, he wanted to make a difference and uplift the lot of his fellow Pashtuns. And he had seen enough failed revolts against the British to realise that his path would have to be a path of social activism and reforms, not of armed activism. He focused on education. At the age of 20, he opened a mosque school in his home town of Utmanzai. Five years later, the British banned it. From age 25 to 30, he visited 500 villages in all part of the settled districts of NWFP, propagating education and social reform in Pashtuns. It was in this frenzied activity that he became known as Badshah Khan.
Very soon, Baccha Khan realised that social change was not possible without independence. So he started promoting the idea of a united, independent, secular India. In this, he was deeply influenced by and hence forged a close, spiritual relationship with Gandhiji. Both of them had a deep admiration for each other and worked together for Indian independence.
Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan pioneered the concept of non-violent mass civil disobedience amongst Pashtuns in NWFP. To this end, he founded something called Khudayi Khidmatgar - literally meaning Servants of God. They were commonly also called Red Shirts.
The Khudai Khidmatgar was founded on a belief in the power of Gandhiji's notion of Satyagraha, a form of active non-violence. He used to tell its members:
"I am going to give you such a weapon that the police and the army will not be able to stand against it. It is the weapon of the Prophet, but you are not aware of it. That weapon is patience and righteousness. No power on earth can stand against it."
The organisation recruited over 100,000 members and became legendary in opposing (and dying at the hands of) the British-controlled police and army. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan was hence called Frontier Gandhi.
Khudai Khidmatgar worked closely with the Indian National Congress, the leading national party fighting for independence, and Bacha Khan became a hugely respected member of the INC too. In 1931 the Congress offered him the presidency of the party, but he refused saying, "I am a simple soldier and Khudai Khidmatgar, and I only want to serve."
Bacha Khan soon became a hero in a society dominated by violence. His liberal views, his unswerving faith in non-violence and obvious bravery in leading from the front led to immense respect.
Like his spiritual guru, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan strongly opposed the idea of partition of India. By 1947, it was becoming clear that partition was inevitable and the British were proposing to give the people of NWFP the choice of joining either India or Pakistan, vide a referendum. So, seven weeks before partition, Bacha Khan, the Khudai Khidmatgars, members of the Provincial Assembly and other tribal chiefs demanded that the Pashtuns be given a choice of creating an independent state of Pashtunistan, comprising all Pashtun territories of British India, instead of being made to join either India or Pakistan. However, this demand was rejected.
The Congress party refused last minute compromises to prevent the partition, like Gandhiji's suggestion to offer the position of Prime Minister to Jinnah. As a result, Bacha Khan and his followers felt a sense of betrayal by both Pakistan and India. Bacha Khan's last words to Gandhiji and his erstwhile allies in the Congress party were: "You have thrown us to the wolves."
After independence, inspite of India's invitation to come and settle down in India, Abdul Gaffar Khan took the oath of allegiance to the new nation of Pakistan on 23 February 1948 at the first session of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly. He pledged full support to the government and attempted to reconcile with the founder of the new state Muhammad Ali Jinnah. However, people jealous of his popularity spread rumours that he wanted to assassinate Jinnah. So the reconciliation never really took off and doubts regarding his allegiance persisted.
Following this, Bacha Khan formed Pakistan's first national opposition party, in 1948 - Pakistan Azad Party. He was placed under house arrest without charge from 1948 till 1954.
In 1958, the government attempted to reconcile with him and offered him a ministry in the government. He refused. He was rearrested and remained so till his illness in 1962. That year, he was named an "Amnesty International Prisoner of the Year".
In 1973, he was arrested again by Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government because he described it as "the worst kind of dictatorship".
In 1984, he visited India and participated in the centennial celebrations of the Indian National Congress in 1985.
In 1987, he became the first non-Indian to be awarded Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award.
As P.V. Narasimha Rao noted in an address to mark the centenary of Badshah Khan’s birth, he was of that generation of leaders who did not smile and wave to appease the crowds, but rather scolded them for their lapses, yet was all the more adored and applauded for it.
This post celebrates a Khudai Khidmatgar - a servant of God - the Frontier Gandhi, Badshah Khan, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan.
