The Muslim Gandhi: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

"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." -Abdul Ghaffar Khan

"I had to go to prison many a time in the days of the Britishers. Although we were at loggerheads with them, yet their treatment was to some extent tolerant and polite. But the treatment which was meted out to me in this Islamic state of ours was such that I would not even like to mention it to you." -Abdul Ghaffar Khan



Born in 1890 Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan would live until January 20, 1988 and be remembered as the man who offered the path not taken by Pakistan and Afghanistan. The path of nonviolence. A disciple of Mohandas Gandhi he was a a practitioner and teacher of nonviolence, a fierce opponent both of British Colonialism and the partition from India spending many years behind bars first under the British and later under the national government of Pakistan. The British feared his nonviolence more than the rifles of the frontiersman.

He was a Pashtun political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India. A lifelong pacifist, a devout Muslim, and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he was also known as Badshah Khan (also Bacha Khan, Urdu, Pashto: lit., "King Khan"), and Sarhaddi Gandhi (Urdu, Hindi lit., "Frontier Gandhi").

He was initially encouraged by his family to join the British Indian Army; however the treatment of a British Raj officer towards a native offended him, and a family decision for him to study in England was put off after his mother's intervention.

Having witnessed the repeated failure of revolts against the British Raj, he decided social activism and reform would be more beneficial for Pashtuns. This ultimately led to the formation of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement (Servants of God). The movement's success triggered a harsh crackdown against him and his supporters and he was sent into exile. It was at this stage in the late 1920's that he formed an alliance with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. This alliance was to last till the 1947 partition of India.

After partition, Ghaffar Khan was frequently arrested by the Pakistani government in part because of his association with India and his opposition to authoritarian moves by the government. He spent much of the 1960's and 1970's either in jail or in exile.

In 1985 he was nominated for the Nobel peace prize. In 1987 he became the first person not holding the citizenship of India to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. In 1988 on his passing, he was buried in Jalalabad, despite the heavy fighting at the time, both sides in the Afghan war declared a ceasefire to allow his burial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Abdul_Ghaffar_Khan

Links

Nonviolence in Islam : The case of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/library/khan.htm

Legacy of the Partition
http://peaceinsouthasia.com/pb/wp_1122df51/wp_1122df51.html

PAKISTAN: The Frontier Gandhi
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819405,00.html