Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan: A Man to Match His Mountains, 2nd Edition [2 ed.] 1888314001, 9781888314007

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is a must for every Muslim. The life of Khan can change and will challenge many readers in the Middle East.*'

“This book

Mubarak

E.

Awad, Director

Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence

Jerusalem

“The work of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the powerful

Muslim nonviolent movement of the Pathans bring new possibilities and great hope to people everywhere. I urge .

.

.

everyone to learn more about this nearly forgotten history."

Gene

Sharp, Director

Program on Nonviolent Sanctions Harvard University It

was

utterly improbable.

pated that such a

No one

could have

phenomenon— a Muslim

St..

antici-

Francis—

would emerge from the seething Pathan badlands. Khan’s backward tribesmen* stirred the whole of India when, at the height of Gandhi’s greatest campaign, they put

down

their

handmade

rifles

and faced, with-

out retreating or retaliating, the worst that the armies of a baffled, panicking empire could deal out.

Even Gandhi was amazed. "That such men,” he wrote, "who would have killed a human being with no more thought than they would have for killing a sheep or a hen, should at the bidding of one man have laid down their arms and accepted nonviolence as the superior weapon sounds almost like a fairy tale.” Gandhi, a truth-loving man, was never nearer the truth. Like many such tales, the story of Badshah

Khan

has hidden within

truth, of

much

which our

in need.

It is

—From

$ 7.95

it

the seeds of a

much

deeper

explosive, tottering world stands

time the

tale

was

told.

the Prologue

ISBN 0 - 915132 - 34-6

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DONATED BY NANCY CLARKE

The North-West Frontier Province Before the Partition of British India

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CEYLON

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2017 with funding from

China-America

Digital

Academic

Library

(CADAL)

https://archive.org/details/mantomatchhismouOOeasw

Ekna

n

i

Easwaran

grew up

in

India

when Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s

at

zenith. Meetings with both

its

Gandhi's

influence was

men, together

with a devoted observation of their

lives,

con-

vinced him that Khan perfectly embodies the transformation behind what

Gandhi

callerl

“the

nonviolence of the brave.”

Easwaran followed a busy career

and professor of English

speaker,

India before

coming

to

as a writer,

literature in

the United States on

the Eulbright exchange program. In 1960 he

founded the Blue Mountain Genter of Meditation in Berkeley, Galifornia.

regularly

He

lectures

on Gandhi, meditation, and the

spiritual traditions of

Besides

A Man

to

the world’s great religions.

Match His Mountains,

Easwaran has written Gandhi the Man, Meditation, u'ith

Formulas

for Transformation,

Dialogue

Death, Love Never Faileth, The Supreme

Ambition, and The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living,

and compiled God Makes the Rivers

to Flow. Articles

The

his weekly talks

on medi-

Lamp, the quarterly the Blue Mountain Genter of

tation appear in

journal of

from

Meditation.

Little

Badshah Khan^ Nonviolent Soldier of Islam

0

/

have one great

I

want

to rescue these gentle, brave, patriotic people

foreigners I

want

desire.

who have

to create for

them

disgraced

from the tyranny of the

and dishonored them.

a world of freedom, where they can live in peace,

where they can laugh and be happy. I

want

to kiss the

ground where

their ruined

homes once

stood, before they

were destroyed by savage strangers. I

want

to take a

broom and sweep the

clean their houses with I

I

want

to

wash away the

my own

stains

alleys

and

the lanes,

and

I

want

to

hands.

of blood from their garments.

want to show the world how beautiful they are, these people from the hills and then I want to proclaim: ''Show me, if you can, any gentler, more courteous,

more cultured people than

these.”

A Man to Match

His Mountains Badshah Khan, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam

By Eknath Easwaian With an Afterword by Timothy Flinders

NILGIRI PRESS

YSy. 0 3

£ oj

Copyright 1984 by the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation All rights reserved. Printed in the

United States of America

Designed, printed, and bound by Nilgiri Press First printing

November, 1984

Random House,

Distributed to the regular book trade by

ISBN:

We

cloth

0-9151 32-33-8; paper 0-9151 32-34-6

are grateful to the

the National Gandhi

London,

The

Nehru Memorial

Museum, New for

Inc.

Library,

New

Delhi, and the National

Delhi,

Army Museum,

supplying photographs used in this book.

Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, founded in

Eknath Easwaran, publishes books life in the home and the community.

Berkeley, California, in 1960 by

on how

to lead the spiritual

For information, please write to Nilgiri Press,

Box 477, Petaluma, California 94953.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Easwaran, Eknath.

A man

to

Bibliography:

match

his

mountains.

p.

Includes index.

Khan, Abdul Ghaffar, 18912. Politicians — Pakistan — Biography. 3. Pushtuns — Biography. I. Title. 954.03'5'0924 [B] DS48LK42E27 84-20728 1984 ISBN 0-915132-33-8 ISBN 0-915132-34-6 (pbk.) 1.

.

7

1

Table of Contents

Preface

9

^

Prologue: August 14, 1947

PART ONE

1

The

2

Ghildren of the Prophet

3

The

4

PART TWO

PART THREE

25

Jubilee

Vale of 1 irah

Phe Guides

35

45

55

63

5

Islam!

6

Badshah Khan

7

O

8

The Pathan Mystique

9

The

77

87

Pathans!

Servants of

95

God

103

10

The Weapon

of the Prophet

11

7’he Frontier

Gandhi

12

Men

13

Phe Pwo Gandhis

14

Phe Pire of Freedom

of the

Book

131

141 1

5

165

Fpilogue: August 15, 1947

PA R

I'

PC)

UR

by Timothy Flinders Afterword: The

Map

of Pathan

Good

Fight

Homelands

Sources and Historical Notes Glossary

2

Ghronology Bibliography

Index

233

1

219 229

193

200 201

The

quotations at the head of each chapter are from

Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Certain passages which appear in this sloped type have

been dramatized to bring out the cultural or historical significance of an event. Sources for these incidents are cited in the Sources

and

Historical Notes, p. 201.

Preface

i

Two

MOTiVHS HAVK prompted me

Khan, d'he

first is

to write this

book on Badshah

personal: a matter of affection, gratitude, and, in a

certain sense, atonement.

The second motive

is

more urgent and con-

cerns the present. Ixt

me

begin

Ouring the

w-ith the first.

early years of the

Second World War,

student at the University of Nagpur. Lying as graphical center of India,

Nagpur is

from every direction: from Madras

it

I

was a graduate

does near the geo-

a major junction for trains in the south,

Bombay

coming

in the west,

Calcutta in the east, and Delhi in the north.

But the a

real

center of India at the time was Se\'agram ashram, near

town called Wardha about ninety miles

where Mahatma Gandhi

to the

south of Nagpur,

The

lived with his closest followers.

leaders

movement visited often to seek guidance, and the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress party met

of India’s independence

there regularly. I

larly

he

result

was that the whole constellation of

passed through

weekends

I

used

to

my

city of

Nagpur on

India’s leaders regu-

their w^ay to

go down to the railway station

Wardha.

On

to see India’s politi-

cal leaders. I

saw^

them

all:

Jawaharlal

Nehru, who became our

minister; Sardar Patel, later our

trusted lieutenant;

first

Maulana Azad, the

home great

first

prime

minister and Gandhi’s

Muslim

leader.

I

remem-

ber the austere Acharya Kripalani eating a bagful of potato chips.

saw Mrs. Sarojini Naidu,

a talented poet

and dedicated

patriot; C. \

I

.

Rajagopalachari, a brilliant lawyer and statesman; Rajcndra Prasad,

^

who became India’s first president— and, on one special occasion, Khan Abdul GhafFar Khan. was especially pleased to see Khan because he had become a real favorite of mine. Stepping down from the third-class carriage, this maI

jestic

Pathan from the North-West Frontier looked something of a

many

giant to me. His

foot-three-inch frame stately grace. Yet

There was

still

had taken their

him

that

made me want

to

six-

with a

it

he was so reserved, so unassuming— even

childlike.

down with

sit

a quiet chat.

did not have the nerve to approach

young and

but his

toll,

looked powerful and he carried

a simplicity about

him and have I

years in prison

reticent myself.

him on

that occasion.

I

was

But that brief encounter confirmed every-

knew of him: that of all the brilliant leaders around Gandhi, Badshah Khan was the one who best understood Gandhi’s meaning and true stature, and the only one who completely practiced Gandhi’s teachings. Formerly a wealthy landowner, Khan had handed his holdthing

I

ings over to his sons

and dedicated

own impoverished

his

carrying only a small religious renunciate,

his life to the service of

God and

homespun bag with him, he looked more like a people. Clothed in simple

cotton, fakir, a

than the renowned leader of one hundred thou-

sand Pathans. Shortly after

I

saw him, Khan showed

his true mettle.

It

was a

period of great anxiety for Indians because the Japanese had ad-

vanced

to

within a thousand miles of our eastern border, seemingly

poised to attack.

The Congress Working Committee met

and, in their

first

open opposition

be prepared

to

He

to

Wardha

Gandhi, declared that India must

defend herself militarily. But Khan would not go along.

resigned immediately, explaining that his nonviolence was not a

policy, to

be used when expedient, but an

Gandhi, nonviolence had become

for

at

a

article of faith.

way of

life.

For him, as

Later,

when

Working Committee recanted, Khan and Gandhi rejoined their I

own

it

the

— on

terms.

confess that at the time,

it

bothered

me

a great deal that

among

who were so eager to follow Gandhi into the independence struggle, only Khan was willing to follow his lead in other matters. Perhaps that is why he came to occupy such a large part of my all

10

those leaders

1

He had

affection.

Gandhi

joined

in

1919,

without conditions; and

since that time nothing had ever changed his resolve to stick by Gan-

dhi and put his teachings into practice. leaders,

but most of them did not understand the spiritual basis of

Gandhi s work — and honestly admitted he

lived

power.

That

is

it.

Khan

How

had been trying

I

had such

me

what drew

to

to

understand the source of Gan-

man become

a small

those disciplines myself at the time, but

Gandhi drew took

me

his

time

to

Not

that

was trying

I

power from. That was

a long, long

such a powerhouse?

Khan; he was obviously following Gandhi’s

spiritual disciplines as well as his politics.

It

not only understood,

it.

For some time, dhi’s

admired the other Indian

1

my main

was following

I

to find out

where

question.

understand that the answer

lay in

Gandhi’s renunciation of every self-centered impulse in his personality— as he put

cept to

made

little

it,

in his

to say,

God. This gave me a

zero.”

For years the con-

But Khan’s words were simpler: what drew him

sense.

Gandhi, he used

“reducing himself to

clue.

was Gandhi’s

ability to

submit his

will to

Khan’s heroic, decades-long efforts to forget

himself in the service of his people were a vivid illustration of how the deepest

so

resources can be released in anyone with the

and courage

pline It

human

to dig for

them.

has been a cause of deep regret for

little for

this heroic

freedom

movement were suppressed

me

that India was able to

do

Badshah Khan and

his

fighter later on.

in Pakistan in the tense years following in-

dependence, and because of his former association with tionalist

movement,

hope that

My

this

it

was impossible

book might

second reason

in

some

and

for India to

small

way atone

is

life

I

for that neglect. is

that

I

way

during the

F.iist

the greatest living exponent of

the world. As a devout Muslim, his

last

nom iolence

in

shows a face of Islam which

non-Islamic countries seldom see. Muslims themselves little

to his aid.

particularly Islamic countries, a

out of the violence that has convulsed the Middle

few decades. Khan

come

India’s na-

book on Badshah Khan

for writing a

believe he offers the world,

disci-

of the potential for nonviolent action inherent in

seem to know the wisdom of

Islam.

Khan’s example proves that within the scope of Islam exists a noble Preface «

1

alternative to violence.

The North-West

Khan carried out most of his life’s

work,

is

Frontier Province, where

ninety-five percent

Muslim.

His nonviolent army of Khudai Khidmatgars, the Servants of God,

was entirely Muslim.

He

based his movement upon the ancient

Islamic principles of universal brotherhood, submission to God’s will,

and the service of “It is

my

God

through

'‘the service

inmost conviction,” he selfless service, faith,

the spiritual laws that underlie

It

their

love.

all life,

implies a profound belief in the

form

said, “that Islam

and

nature — in particular, in mankind’s

of His creatures.”

Yakeen,

and

It

amal, yakeen,

faith,

is

a belief in

in the nobility of

ability to

respond to

power of muhabat,

human affairs, as Gandhi and Khan both lives. And muhabat is not the sentimental

trayed in films.

is

carries a spiritual content

human

spiritual laws. love, to trans-

demonstrated with notion of love por-

and force which, when

practised systematically, can root out exploitation

and transmute

anger into love in action.

Khan based

his life

and

his

work on

this

deep

principle, raising

army of one hundred thousand Muslims who embodied

it.

His “army

of God” played a leading role in ending imperialist rule in India. his

example better known, the Western world,

caught in the web of violence to

Were

Muslims

over the Middle East, might

come

recognize that the highest religious values of Islam are deeply com-

patible with a conflicts.

12

all

as well as

an

nonviolence that has the power to resolve great

To the people of the United whose

vigor, courage,

States

and idealism

joined to nonviolence

can reshape the course of history

rhe two Gandhis {Kami Gandhi)

Prologue [AUGUS'r

Smiling

in spi

i

e

of

14

,

1947]

the stifling heat, Louis P>ancis Albert Victor

Nicholas Mountbatten, great-grandson of Queen Victoria and viceroy of the Indian Empire, sat on a raised dais overlooking the crowded

Karachi assembly six

hall.

He

did not wish to rush matters. For the past

months he had had too

last viceroy,

time to do anything

little

he had been granted the

full

head of state by the Attlee government

New

in

else.

As

India's

plenipotentiary powers of a

London, and had arrived

in

Delhi with fourteen months to disengage the British Raj from

India.

He had

already

managed

it

in less

than

six.

Now, with independence only hours away, Mountbatten would

pro-

claim to the packed hall of the Pakistani assembly His Majesty King

George

mined

Vi's

good wishes

to give the

for

the fledgling republic.

moment its proper polish.

unhurried calm, Mountbatten was

still

He seemed

deter-

Yet despite his apparently

walking a tightwire.

He was

presiding over the tormented birth of not one country but two: Pakistan had

been carved away from the

rest of India in

the two separate

corners of the subcontinent where Muslims predominated over

Hindus. It

had been three and

a half centuries, almost to the year, since the

came to India; it had been two centuries since they established military control. PYom the beginning the Indian people had chafed British

with increasing bitterness under the British yoke, and the parts of the

country that had been longest under colonial rule had histories of rebellion

and

reprisal.

Then,

in the last thirty years,

Mahatma Gan-

dhi had captured the Indian imagination with an unprecedented challenge: to

make the

British ‘quit India,”

[

15

]

and

to see

them depart

as

friends.

It

was the only nonviolent overthrow of an imperial power in

recorded history, and

success had focused the attention of the

its

world on this day. Tall,

turbaned Punjabis

assembly milled with the

in the colorful

khans and chieftains of the wild

tribes of the south. Baluchis, Sindis,

and Pathans checkered the room. In the

were almost

hall

all

the

prominent Muslim leaders — Liaquat Ali Khan, Khwaja Nazimuddin,

Mohammed

Iskander Mirza, and, at the viceroys side,

soon

become

to

governor-general of the worlds

Abdul Ghaffar Khan had

electrified Indians

by raising an army of one

and

baffled the British

hundred thousand nonviolent violent peoples, the Pathans.

Province revered

him

soldiers out of

The

as a saint

fullness of

he, of

all

one of the worlds most

villagers of his

known

Gandhis

followers, best

it

must have seemed

ironic that the

done more than any other Pakistani Muslim struggle should

be absent

at

stances, however, the viceroy

its

man who had freedom

consummation. Under the circum-

would not have been surprised. Khan, to create a separate

state.

Mountbatten nodded tering

mirrored the

to fuel the

Muslim, had opposed partitioning India

a devout

as the Frontier

Gandhis way.

To Mountbatten,

Muslim

North-West Frontier

and called him Badshah Khan, the

“king of khans.” Throughout India he was

Gandhi because

Islamic republic.

absent.

Muslim was

Yet one prominent

first

Ali Jinnah,

crowd

stilled

to

to the stately listen

to

The

Jinnah and stood up.

chat-

the king-emperor’s message of

goodwill.

Only hours on

its

way

to

Mountbatten was aboard

later

New

his Royal Air Force York

Delhi. There, at midnight, the ceremony of inde-

pendence would be repeated. Across the night of a that

conch

shell

had roused

air

the low, thin wail

proclaimed the birth of the Indian Republic. India’s millions to revolution

roar over the city:

Mahatma Gandhi

and freedom

ki jail Victor}' to

The

cry

built to a

Mahatma

Gandhil Yet

Gandhi was

ceremony — India’s

16

five

hundred miles away. Declining

partition

to attend the

had been too high a price

to

pay

for

7

freedom — he had spent the eve of independenee

in

prayer and

fasting.

And

while Gandhi fasted in Calcutta, the “PVontier Gandhi" was

home village in Pakistan. Palms Badshah Khan turned toward Mecca and

finishing his evening prayers near his to the pale sky,

lifted

chanted verses from the sacred Koran,

uncounted millions had

as

chanted them before him. Pheir deep, slow music stirred the Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim

most merciful.

passionate,

Khan

raised himself

.

.

.

“In the

.

name

of

air:

God, most com-

." .

.

from the small prayer carpet. Ix)oking out

across the sprawling Peshawar valley to the scarred hills

and ridges of

the Khyber, he scarcely heard the tumult of celebration building in his village. lot

Freedom

for

him would be measured by how

quickly the

of the desperately backward Pathans in hundreds of villages spot-

and low

ting the valleys

most Pathans in their

still

would improve. Ignorant and provincial,

lived in poverty

rivals, families,

homelands against the

were awash

Badal, revenge, ran deep

fear.

and clans — and

British invaders.

Pathan

in

life,

defending

and

history,

in blood.

lo have to carry destruction,

of

and

blood and almost daily stained the social netting with vio-

lence between brothers, their

hills

some hundreds

of families

homes

if

not destitution, into the

is

the great drawback of border

warfare, but with savage tribes, to

whom

there

is

no

right but

might, the only course open as regards humanity as well as policy, If

as

is

to

make

all suffer.

objection be taken to the nature of punishment inflicted

repugnant to

ci\’iliziition,

be met and checked by their houses

the answer

is

that savages cannot

and that to spare leave them unpunished

civilized warfare,

and crops would be

and therefore, unrestrained. In

to

short, ci\ ilized warfare

is

inapplicable. Sir Neville

force

Chamberlain was commander of the Punjab Frontier

when he

sent this dispatch to lx)ndon during a puniti\’e

Prologue

cam-

«

1

paign against the Pathans in 1859.

most British held ever Pathan was a

distill

the attitude that

than civilized, subhuman, the

since. Less

“savage,” a “brute,” “cruel as a leopard,” a “treacherous

Khans people commanded the

murderer.”

— of the

The words

British

Empire

mountains around the

attention

— and

because they happened

solely

strategic

Khyber

the wrath

to inhabit the

The Khyber was

Pass.

gateway to India, the greatest source of wealth in the Empire. British

whom

were determined

to hold

it

at

the

The

any cost— and the Pathans,

independence was everything and warfare

a

way of

life,

for

were

equally determined to win their freedom.

The Pathans had

the bone-chilling January morning in 1842 vivor of the forty-five-hundred-man Jalalabad.

The

when

the sole English sur-

“Army of the Indus” rode

into Eort

eighty-odd years of guerrilla warfare that followed

hardened these

feelings into

an

article of faith.

of expeditions into the Pathans’

burned (and

and hatred ever since

carried the stamp of fear

bombed)

later

hills,

The

British sent scores

shelled their strongholds,

their villages, beat, flogged,

and

jailed

Pathans by the thousands. In between, in times that passed peaceful, they tried to bribe for long.

British

Empire never

tenure,

it

would be

town or

the lurking

sudden,

village

menace

silent

into submission.

The Pathan homeland remained

worked

tier

them

be

to

fully subjugated.

safe to say,

— or

no Englishman

for

But nothing

the only part of the

Throughout the

Raj’s

slept a night in a Eron-

even within an army cantonment— without

of a bullet crashing from a distant lookout or the

descent of a razor-sharp dagger.

The British counted on only one certitude on the Erontier:

that the

peace would break, and that British columns would once again have to file into the desolate hills.

the earth’s

five

it

No amount will

Grim.”

would not be the Pathans’ sharpshooting or cunning or

violent heroics that

and

would

finally drive

18

the British from the Erontier.

of sniping or suicidal assaults could match the

the Empire had at

its

command. Only

a reversal of the rules themselves, will

British soldiers stationed across

continents, the North-West Erontier Province was

called, simply, “the

But

Among

and send the

British

home.

could

weaponry

a historical mutation,

finally

thwart the imperial

It

was

— and

Gandhi

left to

to

Khan

to supply the innovation

— nonviolent

warfare

to provide the surprise. History played a great trick

upon the empire

when

builders of the Raj

it

brought forth from the

man who combined Pathan fire with the temdove. It was utterly improbable. No one could have

heart of “the Grim" a

pering

spirit

of a

phenomenon — a Muslim

anticipated that such a

St.

emerge from the seething Pathan badlands. That

Francis — would did,

it

and that

it

burst into a broad and mighty force, stands as one of history’s most

extraordinary— and most neglected — moments.

^

Khan’s backward tribesmen turned the tables on the British. These

same maligned Pathans they put

down

whole Indian subcontinent when

stirred the

and handmade

their daggers

rifles

and faced, without

armies of a baffled, panicking empire could

retaliating, the worst the

deal out. It

was severe in the extreme. In 1930,

nonviolence movement, a British report

at

the height of the Indian

less

polished than Sir Neville

Ghamberlain’s but more candid would conclude: “The brutes must be ruled brutally and by

brutes.’’

In British eyes, Khan’s nonviolence was

A

nothing more than a camouflage. tor;

they had seen too

many nameless one thing:

many

of the Empire’s finest cut

a bitter nuisance, perhaps,

a fraud that

but consistent at

A nonviolent

army found themselves the

world, leaving

government

with the

and easygoing opponents

The

thirties

in India

and

his non-

oflF

hand

to

On oc-

from the eyes of the crush the movement

impression that the British were is

fair

based largely upon the ignorance

which the treatment of Khan and

Throughout the

Khan and

target of savage repression.

forces a free

whatever way they could.

his people has

early forties,

been shrouded.

Pathans had to endure mass

shootings, torture, the destruction of their fields ging,

least

Pathan was unthinkable,

struggle, therefore,

casion the entire province was even sealed

in

too

masked something cunning and darkly treacherous.

During the Indian freedom

in

down on

crags to think otherwise. Gandhi’s nonviolence was

image of the peaceable Hindu.

violent

nonviolent Pathan was an impos-

and humiliations. Khan himself spent

and homes,

jail,

flog-

fifteen years in British

prisons, often in solitary confinement: in effect, in

every day that he was free. But the Pathans remained

jail

one day

for

nom iolent and Prologue

«

19

unmoved — suffering and dying

stood

in large

numbers

win

to

their

freedom.

Even

Indians, themselves engaged in the

were astonished. Jawaharlal Nehru, it

brother,

who

avenged the

valued

India’s first

man who loved

incredible that “the

life

same nonviolent

his

gun

prime minister, found

better than his child or

cheaply and cared nothing for death,

slightest insult

who

with the thrust of a dagger, had suddenly

become

the bravest and most enduring of India’s

history’s

more improbable turnabouts,

it

was

soldiers.” In

one of

Khan’s ragged

left to

tribesmen to explode the myth that nonviolence works only

who

struggle,

for

those

are already peaceful.

Gandhi had long claimed

that nonviolence was

more

truly the

province of the daring and the undaunted: and surely no people on the face of the earth was more daring or dauntless than the Pathans.

Even the average tribesman

prefers death to dishonor.

Gandhi would have predicted

that the evidence to back

But not even

up

his claims

would come from these swaggering sharpshooters. He knew the odds against such a miracle: killed a

human

“That such men,” he

said,

“who would have

being with no more thought than they would

sheep or a hen should

at

the bidding of one

man

have

laid

down

kill

a

their

arms and accepted nonviolence as the superior weapon sounds almost like a fairy tale.”

Gandhi, such

tales,

a truth-loving

man, was never nearer the

the story of Abdul Ghaffar

Khan

truth. Like

has hidden within

many it

the

seeds of a deeper truth, of which our explosive, tottering world stands

much

20

in need.

It is

time the

tale

was

told.

m

/

(

t

t

«

i

Part

* V*

i

One

ft

The Khyber

Pass, 1895.

%

Previous pages: British army in Kabul, 1879

{Both photos National

Army Museum, London)

CHAPTER ONE

The

Jubilee

[JUNE, 1897]

O Pathausl Your house has fallen into ruin. Arise and rebuild

it

— and

remember

to

what

race you belong.

AFTER ELEVEN oclock on the moming of June 22, 1897, Queen Victoria touched her fingers to the brass transmitting key in )us

i

the telegraph

message

room

Buckingham Palace and

at

started to click out a

to the 372 million subjects of the British

morning of her Diamond

“PTom my heart

1

thank

Within minutes the offices

westward

to

my

— sixty

people," the

years

was the

British throne.

Queen-Empress tapped with

of British possessions

Ireland,

on the

It

“May God bless them." Queens message was humming toward

a trace of nervousness.

telegraph

Jubilee

Empire.

the

throughout the Empire:

Canada, and Newfoundland, Irinidad and

Tobago, the Virgin Islands, Barbados, the Bahamas, the Ix^eward and

Windward

Islands, Ascension,

and the Ealklands; eastward

Bermuda,

to Gibraltar

British

Guiana, Honduras,

and Malta

in the Mediterra-

nean; then on to Nigeria, F^gypt, Gambia, the Gold Coast, Rhodesia,

Cape Province, Somaliland, Uganda, and Zanzibar, to Aden on the Red Sea, to Mauritius and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, and then to India, Ceylon, Burma, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore; from there

to Australia,

dozen other sorrie

North Borneo, Papua,

form of British rule — as

suzerainties, island fortresses,

Union

Jack

South

island groups in the

Eiji,

Pacific. All

Pitcairn,

and two

these were under

nation-states, colonies, protectorates,

and

isolated coaling stations

and governed by white military

— flying the

officers or civil servants

speaking crisp Queen’s Eaiglish.

Her message

finished, Victoria, dressed in black, stepped into

open landau drawn by

an

eight cream-colored horses. Joined by a proces-

[

25

]

sion of fifty

thousand troops from every corner of the Empire, she

made her way through the Lx)ndon '

s

streets to St. Paul’s

Cathedral

for

a thanksgiving service. Victoria

— and

all

England— had much

to

be thankful

for.

The

world had never before seen anything to match the power, the scope, the pure dazzle of the British Empire. Elung across every continent

and ocean of the world, earth’s land mass.

The

tion of the earth was It

possessions covered one fourth of the

well-being of one quarter of the entire populaits

was a stupendous,

tain’s

its

sworn

if

responsibility.

sprawling, success.

hundred thousand passengers and crew

imaginable port, rock

fortress,

reason: Bri-

moment her ships were carry-

navies ruled the seas. At any given

ing four

One good to

and from every

steaming island settlement, or up-

country trading post in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and the South Seas. Eor every

thousand tons of shipping that passed through the

Suez Canal during the year of the

Jubilee, seven

hundred came on

British ships.

England

itself

cabinet, elected

was securely in conservative hands. Lord Salisbury’s

two years

earlier,

included two marquesses, two

dukes, an earl, a viscount, three barons, and three baronets: a govern-

ment whose

aristocratic credentials

made

it

the perfect mirror for the

'Tew imperialism” which spread over England that smiling summer. The Jubilee morning marked the zenith of the Empire. Eor those

burst of

who

attended, the Jubilee

favored

among

until yesterday

itself

was proof enough that England was

the nations of the world.

upon the embodiment

“The sun never looked down

of so

much

energy and power,”

one paper crowed. Another commentator estimated that the Jubilee would be “the

costliest event in

the world’s history.”

The premiers of eleven colonies rode

in

parade with Victoria, as did

twenty-three princesses, a grand duke, forty Indian maharajas, and a

crown to

prince.

form the

The

fifty

thousand troops who marched were thought

“largest military force ever

lookers caught the

sweep of the Empire

of the regiments: Canadian Hussars,

assembled in London.” Onjust

New

from reading the names

South Wales Lancers,

Trinidad Light Horse, the Zaptichs of Cyprus, the Jamaica Artillery, 26

the Bengal Lancers, the Bikaner camel troops, the Royal Nigerian Constabulary.

The

.

.

shimmering skies— ‘Queen’s weather’— remained

clear,

IVoops

until sunset.

snapped

.

drums

filed past,

in the breeze.

And

at

beat, a thousand

bright

Union

Jacks

the end of the procession, while

millions cheered, Victoria passed, alternately weeping and waving.

“No one ever, the

Queen

I

believe, has

met with such an ovation

as

was given me,”

wrote in her journal after returning to the palace.

was probably

And

she

right. ^

Caught up difficult for

in the

heady

brilliance of the day,

it

w(5uld have

been

any Englishman not to believe that Great Britain was

destined — indeed, called— to rule. In a thousand dark corners of the earth, the rule of law would prevail while ignorant savages were

enlightened and their burdens eased — all through the power and

good

offices of

the British Empire.

A

former

civil

servant in India told

the House of Commons that there was “a cherished conviction shared

by every Englishman in India, from the highest to the lowest, by the planter’s assistant in his lonely light of his

bungalow and by the editor

presidency town, from the Chief Commissioner in charge

of an important province to the Viceroy tion in every to

man

upon his throne — the convic-

that he belongs to a race

which

God

has destined

govern and to subdue.”

And who it

in the full

could argue with the notion?

would have been

disagree.

difficult

for

There had been nothing

Pax Britannica reigned.

to a

green held in the northwest

younger

tip

this halcyon

June day,

even the sourest anglophobe like this since

The Empire was

In one of the remoter corners of the

On

to

the days of Rome.

secure.

Empire

that June

morning— next

of British India — one of Victorias

subjects, the seven-year-old

Abdul Ghaffar Khan, was work-

ing mightily to stop a log floating in the shallows of the river Swat.

The

Behind the

boy,

sun was

bright, the air over the valley morning-cool.

the fields of his fathers farm stretched wide and green toward the ridges of the

Ghaffar

Khyber

Khan had

Pass.

probably never heard of Victoria. Here on the

North-West Frontier the British

political

agent was king, and a remote

The

Jubilee « 27

woman monarch on a

throne thousands of miles away eould not have

meant a great deal even mattered

to the

to

an edueated Pathan. At the moment, what

boy was a log eurling away from the bank into the

current.

The word fell faintly over the river, like a ehime struck far away. The boy swirled his stiek closer to the log. ''Ghaffar!" It hovered again, then vanished. The boy kept swirling. It was not unusual for Ghaffar Khan to have to be called more than onee. He was an intense boy who easily lost himself in the green world of his fathers farm— in the fields of cane and cotton, the orchards of '"Ghaffar!"

plum, peach, orange, and persimmon — and the

slow, dark waters

of

the river Swat.

He

Ghaffar was the youngest ehild in the family of Behram Khan.

had two

sisters

and an

elder brother, five years his senior,

who was

at-

tending the Edwardes Memorial Mission High Sehool in Peshawar, the provineial capital. Ghaffar did not get to see it

him mueh. But now

was June and sehool was out, so he and his brother had been spend-

ing long, languid hours along the

river,

When he

tiny island in the middle.

occasionally rafting over to the

was alone, as now, he would often

He especially liked the and eraftsmen — uneommon for a khans son —

walk into the village where his friends lived.

sons of the laborers

and two of his

best friends were bhangis, sweepers.

This fragrant morning seemed with a

stiek,

made

churning the

river water

so he had left the farmhouse early and settled

down near

for

the shallows, where the ducks and wild swans fed. log,

Then he saw

the

too tantalizing a treasure to pass up.

“GhaflPar!”

This time the eall craeked the air like a ride shot and the

boy snapped around.

It

was his father

calling.

He

j'umped onto the

thread of path that skirted the river and sprinted toward the farm-

house through a cane row.

Behram Khan was standing near

the oak gate, a basket of unleav-

ened nan— flatbread— balanced on his head. ''Ghaffar!'' he boomed when he saw the boy. "Let's go. I need your help." Some travelers had spent the night in their guest house and needed to be fed.

Behram Khan came from 28

a line of

Pathan farmers who had settled

in

the rich Peshawar Valley

many decades

had given up the

before, d’hey

“independence'' of the theoretically free but generally poor tribes of the

hills to

prosper in a “settled" area — under the yoke of British rule.

Vor strategic reasons the British had divided the Frontier into three

geographic groups: the Agencies in the north, the so-called settled districts

between the Indus River and the

and the “free" areas

hills,

along the western border where the Pathans were

themselves under Pakhtunwali, “the d’hat Jubilee

summer

Law

were the

Khyhcr

who

and subgroups!

Among

larger

who were paid by the British to “guard" the their own marauding), and the Mohmands and

lived in the

mountainous provinces north of Pesha-

South of the Khyber, next

war.

of the Pathans."

Afridis,

Pass (from

Yusufzins,

govern

perhaps two million Pathans lived on the

Frontier, di\ ided into dozens of tribes tribes

to

left

to the Afridis, lived the Orakzais. Fur-

ther south were the Waziris and Mahsuds, perhaps the fiercest and

most

volatile of

The I

he

Raj “subsidized" these tribes, paying

British generally left

which was tier,

the Pathan tribes.

often.

tribes.

to

keep the peace.

alone, unless they caused trouble

During the four decades of

the British had sent

punish rebellious

them

them

their rule

—

on the Fron-

expeditions into the “free" territories to

fifty

The

policy never really worked

— but

was

it

better than all-out war.

Bchram Khan's

tribe,

the

Mohammedzais, was

smaller than most

Pathan tribes and was generally prosperous and peaceful. Behram

Khan himself was

wealthy.

He owned

beyond the big farmhouse and along the

all

the

fields that

river Swat.

was the khan — the chief- of Utmanz^i, a

stretched

Furthermore, he

about twenty miles

village

north of Peshawar. Utmanziii was a prosperous

village,

houses made of thick timbers and cal center of

with wide lanes and two-storied

clay.

It

lay

almost

the North-West Frontier Pro\ ince,

at

the geographi-

midway between the

Chinese border on the north and the barren southern deserts of Baluchistan bordering Iran. North of the \illagc were the

moun-

tainous regions of Swat, Dir, Buncr, and Bajaur, thickly forested and laced with tumbling rivers.

w ide

river

Around Peshawar the

hills

bottoms of the Peshawar and Kurram

ga\e way to the

valleys.

l

F’^ist

he Jubilee

of lU«

29

manzai was the broad Indus River and beyond GhaflFar '

^

Khan and

his father

it,

young

India. If the

had stopped and looked west

as they

walked toward their guest house that June morning, they would have seen the tanned, bare

and

central Asia

Travelers

hills

of the

Khyber

Pass, the

gateway between

British India.

from any of these areas might have been found staying

in

Behram Khan’s guest house. Most likely, however, they would be from the North, since Utmanzai lay along one of the main roads between

Peshawar and the northern highlands. Wherever they were from, whatever their intent, the Pathan social code of melmastia, hospitality,

dictated that they be treated as

and lodging. Every Pathan for this

own,

honored

village has at least

purpose. Wealthier Pathans like

for a large,

men

village,

and

sip

of the village to share their hospitality.

on

far into

strong tea and companionship, the

and

together, or simply tease

back on his pillow and

who had gone

tell

bluster.

to the gallows for

his station in

Pathan.

smoke from

a

It

was in the

common

water

And God

life,

men would

tell stories,

sing songs

Sometimes Behram Khan would

Pathan honor.

stirs a

No

Pathan more deeply.

honor has long been the true

help the British, the

Pathan clans— Afridi,

men would

matter

calling of a

agree,

if all

the

Mohmand, Yusufzai, Mahsud, Waziri, Moham-

medzai, Orakzai — ever

set aside their differences

tion to drive the foreign unbelievers firelight, a trace

the night. Exhilarated by the

about his grandfather, Abaidullah Khan,

Honor! Probably no word

what

built their

hot green qahwa tea from a hissing samovar. These even-

ing get-togethers could go

lie

Behram Khan

and khans commonly competed

hujras that villagers gathered to chat, pipe,

one guest house or hujra

comfortable hujra— with good food, amply given — is

the key to status in a Pathan to attract the

guests, entitled to food

from

and rose

as

one

na-

their homelands. In the

of bloodlust would steal across the dark, gleaming

faces as they elaborated the unspeakable fate that awaited the British.

Life without

freedom, It

how

freedom made

sense to a Pathan — for without

could there be honor?

was not unusual on such occasions

out a surnai and

30

little

fill

for

some robed

figure to bring

the evening with haunting, flutelike music.

a

Another might begin

poem

to

chant — slowly, with a measured rhythm —

of the immortal Khushal Khan:

The young men hare dyed red their hands, As the falcon dyes his talons in the blood of his prey! They have reddened their pale swords with blood: They have made the tulip-bed blossom in the middle of the summer.

Behram Khans guest house was long and

low. Ghaffar always ap-

proached the building with suppressed exciternent, forhe never knew what

turbaned strangers might have spent the night.

tall,

down from

find a blue-eyed Afridi

He might

the Khyber, ora Yusufzai in white

pyjamas from one of the terraced farms of the Malakand, or a Swati

on his way

to the big

city— hair scented, eyes darkened with

lyrium, a rose tucked behind his ear shoulder.

Or

it

might be a Hazara from the

with slanted eyes.

They were

Pakhtu that Ghaffar s own loved to

sit

and

in a circle

all

rifle

slung over his

far north, beardless

Pathans: they bantered in the

Mohammedzai

and share

a

clan spoke,

a water pipe

col-

and

same

and they

all

and the news.

Behram Khan had many servants, but he carried food to his guests himself and served it with his own hands. The code of hospitality did not demand this, and no other khan of the district was known to practice it. But the devout khan told his sons: 'An unknown traveler is a guest sent to us by God. I will serve

him

myself!'

That day of June 1897 the hujras of Utmanzai would have been

humming diamond

with news of much greater interest than a remote queens jubilee.

Behram Khan on

Mohmands their

way

to

or Swatis from the north, visiting

Peshawar, would have talked excitedly

who had recently returned from a pilgrimage to Afghanistan and was now touring the mountain areas north of Utmanzai to preach that the time had come to turn out the British. The Prophet himself had told him the hour had come. of Mullah Mastun, a 6 rebrand priest

Mullah Mastun promised that "he would throw stones River,

and they would become

into the

artillery shells to fling

Swat

back at the

infidel!'

The

Jubilee «

31

Behram Khan would not have been

surprised. Pathan mullahs

often urged their followers to take up arms. Chitral,

two years

earlier,

had brought out a

But the

last

uprising in

British force of Bfteen

thousand troops and convinced the British that they needed more forts

and roads up

there. It

would have forgotten have seemed

just

all

didnt seem

likely that the

northerners

of that so soon. To Behram Khan,

one more

call to revolt in

it

must

the long history of

rebellion since the British took control of the Frontier some fifty years before.

32

/

I

/

^'\s

1

The Shahur

Pass, Waziristan

{Holmes)

CHAPTER TWO

Children of the Prophet (JULY, 1897]

The

of my people

of victories and tales of heroism, but there are drawbacks too. Internal history'

is

full

feuds and personal jealousies have always snatched

away the gains achieved through

vast sacrifices.

They

own inherent power— for who could

were dispossessed only because of their defects, never by

any outside

oppose them on the battlefield?

the beginning, at least, the British had no intentions of creating an empire. One thing simply led to another. They had not In

even gone

to India for conquest. “Trade, not property”

Company when

policy of the East India Trading

1599, inaugurating Britain’s long association

it

was the

official

was formed in

with India. Nevertheless,

the Company’s officers eagerly took advantage of the opportunities for

expansion that presented themselves, and by the early part of the nineteenth century the E^st India Company’s board of directors had

become

holders of the greatest imperial possession in the world

“jewel in the It all

— the

crown of the Empire”— India.

began because of

pepper. That was

a five

how much

pounds

sterling

change

the Dutch privateers

in the cost of

who controlled

the

Indian spice trade suddenly raised their price. Eeeling the increase

unwarranted, a group of London merchants formed the East India

Trading

Company

in

September

1599.

Three months

later

Queen

new company “exclusive beyond the Cape of Good Hope for

Elizabeth signed a charter that granted the trading rights with

an

initial

its first

all

countries

period of fifteen years.” In August 1600, the

ship

on the west coast of

India, near

had come — on business. [

35

]

company landed

Bombay. The Redcoats

Quickly gaining

rights to trading depots near

Company soon had

the south, and Calcutta in the east, the

bringing to England great quantities of spices,

and muslin cotton, then

sailing

Bombay, Madras

gum,

sugar,

in

ships

raw

silk,

back with English manufactured

goods. Local rulers, finding their presence profitable,

welcomed the

traders.

Inevitably rivalries formed. into local politics to protect

The Company soon found

its

commercial

army of white mercenaries and Indian tious

Company

governors — in spite of

Thus was

seized control over land. cess of conquest

In 1757 a

which

official

set in

It

hired

motion an

irreversible pro-

colonel, Robert Clive, defeated the

were turning from merchants to

own

the Indian Empire.

of British influence. Almost imperceptibly the

may be

its

Company policy— had

of a local ruler in Bengal, opening northern India to the

greater blessing

forced

and before long ambi-

sepoys,

led, ultimately, to

young Company

interests.

itself

army

dominance

Company’s

officers

imperialists. Believing that ‘'no

conferred on the native inhabitants of India

than the extension of British authority,” ambitious governors ex-

tended their control to include Mysore and Travancore in the south,

Hyderabad and Maratha

in Central India, and finally

By the

can, Bengal, and the great Gangetic plain.

Company sessed

most of the Decearly 1800s the

controlled three quarters of the Indian land mass and pos-

some

seventy-five

army larger than any profits that often

thousand British and Indian employees, an

military force in continental Europe,

exceeded the revenues of Great Britain

and annual itself.

Only

the Royal Navy had more ships.

Along with spectacular success came corruption and mismanage-

ment and,

eventually, restriction. Politicians in

with the somewhat indefensible

fact that

London grew uneasy

one hundred million people

were being ruled by the board of directors of a private company. India

had become the most stupendous commercial enterprise in Gradually the British government curbed rights

and made the governor-general a

The Company became

officially

instrument of British foreign

what

its

government appointee.

had long been

in practice:

an

policy.

Conquest was a heady wine, and by the 36

monopolies and trading

virtual

it

history.

early nineteenth

century

it

had become

a habit

which the empire builders

I/)ndon and on

in

the Indian subcontinent found no reason to shed. I’hey used outright invasion only after they had persuaded themselves

public

— that

British control

was

in

— or

the

at least

the best interests of everyone con-

cerned. Annexation followed a pattern described by a

critic

of British

expansionism: “hdrst an English Resident (often forced upon the country), then advice urgently pressed, then complaint of mis-

government constantly published, then interference, then compulthen open annexation.”

sion,

No one

was fooled. Trading missions

evitably led to takeovers.

“The

Alexander Burnes, the

told

evil

first

to virgin Indian territory in-

already done,” a local chieftain

is

Englishman

He was

Indus River. “You have seen our country.” 1843, the

in

later,

Company

to visit

Sind along the

right.

Ten

years

governor-general. Lord Ellenborough,

ordered General Charles Napier “to pick a quarrel with the amirs [of Sind] and occupy their brigand-infested land.”

Occasionally the ion.

One

Company

overreached

itself in

spectacular fash-

instance of crucial significance to the Pathans was the

at-

tempt of Lord Ellenboroughs predecessor, governor-general Lord Auckland, to remove the amir of Afghanistan — the Pathan homeland

— and

establish a

permanent

British presence in Kabul.

Armed

with

guidelines to “interfere decidedly in the affairs of Afghanistan,”

Auckland created the “Army of the Indus,” fifteen

a staggering assemblage of

thousand troops and an equal number of horses, mules,

camels, and elephants.

On

October

1,

1838,

Auckland declared

in a

manifesto that the Afghan ruler had “avowed schemes of aggrandize-

ment and ambition

injurious to the security

of India”— and invaded the country.

opened with

a particularly

military success of the

But success was

The

and peace of the Eirst

frontier

Afghan War thus

sweet victory for the British, the

young

first

Victoria.

short-lived.

The

Afghans,

many

of

whom

were

Pathans, had not been defeated but had simply withdrawn to the safety of

mountain strongholds.

In the winter of 1841 they stormed

the British Residency, killing the Resident and forcing the troops to evacuate.

On

January

6,

1842, the British force of forty-five

hundred troops

Children of the Prophet

«

37

.

and twelve thousand camp

for

the frozen

Afghan and Pathan tribesmen swept

passes that led back to India.

down on

from Kabul

followers set out

On

the column, routing the entire army.

a freezing day in

mid-January Dr. William Brydon, a medical officer with the army and its

sole survivor,

verified,''

rode into Fort Jalalabad, only half

“Thus

is

who was later rescued, “what we were

wrote a civilian captive

told before leaving Cabul: that

alive.

Mahommed

the whole army except one man,

Akbar would annihilate

who should reach Jalalabad to tell the

tale."

The

next

summer an Army

Kabul long enough

to set

it

on

of Retribution forced fire,

then marched

its

way back

“as swiftly as terrain

and dignity permitted" over the passes of the Safed Koh and back British India.

manner leave

it

as

The

is

to create a

government amidst the

the consequence of their crimes."

the defeat did clip the pride of the Empire momentarily,

did not clip

armies had

governor-general announced, in as imperious a

Afghans themselves

anarchy which

it

into

he could muster under the circumstances, that he “would

to the

Though

into

its

wings. Before the decade was out, the Company's

won two

wars with the Sikhs, annexed Sind, the Punjab,

and Rajputana, and inherited from the Sikhs the nettlesome but strategic strip of land

between the Indus and the Afghan border that

came to be called the North-West Frontier. By the mid-1850s the East India Trading Company had become what amounted to a sovereign power. Only the emperor of China and the czar of Russia ruled over more people than the Company's governor-general In 1857 the Indian

army

rebelled against

British officers,

its

the rising that followed the British very nearly

The Great

Indian Mutiny, as the British called

feeling for the

Company

decree in 1858 and

its

in

London

responsibilities

“John Company," as

empress

herself.

and the

British Raj

that

was born — or

it

it,

at least

in

India altogether.

caused enough bad

was dissolved by royal

handed over

was

For the British there would be more

it

lost

and

to the

queen-

called, passed into history,

made

official.

victories, a

few setbacks, and

nothing but trouble on the North-West Frontier. But the four decades

between the Mutiny and the Diamond 38

Jubilee

saw a steady expansion

of Great Britain’s possessions in India and the consolidation of old ones. In 1897, of the 372 million subjects of the Kmpire, 308 million lived in India.

consumers

With seemingly

for British

raw materials and millions of

manufactured goods, India was unlike any

other part of the Empire. it

limitless

It

had been

in British

was part of the national consciousness.

Many

value the status and material benefits the

hands

for so long that

Indians had

come

to

Empire gave them

as

subjects. India’s future

summer,

The

must have looked supremely bright during the Jubilee

especially

from the windows of the

lessons of the Great

Mutiny had been

dian army had since proven

was

at

its

loyalty

viceroy’s palace in Simla.

well learned,

and the

In-

more than once. The country

peace. Even the Erontier had been quiet for a few years.

July 28, 1897, was hot

on the Frontier and the sun was almost

straight

overhead as Behram Khan and Ghaffar walked down the main street of Utmanzai, past the shops of traders and craftsmen that lay on either side.

A month had passed since the Jubilee. The street was quiet; most

of the

villagers

had gone

They passed the shoemaker, loom made from poplar branches,

to their fields.

then two brothers working a large

then the potter, then the coppersmith. Each of them nodded as the

khan walked

by.

''Kher ali?" they pealed

from behind wide

you?"

smiles. ''How are

"Tre mash," Khan called back with a smile. ‘Tre mash: / hope you are not tired."

Behram Khan would have stopped

to talk

home. These craftsmen were his equals:

all

had he not wanted

to get

Muslims — despite

differ-

ences in wealth and status— are equal according to Islamic law.

He

might easily have spent the evening sitting around a water pipe, smoking with the shoemaker or the coppersmith. But

now he

kept on

walking.

He

was coming from the

village

guest house, where travelers from

Swat and Bajaur had brought portentous news. All month the khan

had been hearing

that trouble was brewing in the north.

Now

it

seemed imminent. Mullah Mastun had succeeded in raising a large army of followers, and no one knew what might happen next. From Children of the Prophet

«

39

what these

travelers

ment. Behram

Khan wanted

The khan and zai.

were saying, violence could break out at any moto talk the

matter over with his family.

approached the old defense wall of Utman-

his son

Children scurried past them across the wide lane, seeking narrow

of shade

strips

Pathan

below the

to rest in

looked

villages often

With their watchtowers,

wall.

like walled

medieval

From

cities.

the

square windows of the lookout towers a flintlock ride could blaze away at

an approaching enemy. In a land where families were often em-

broiled in long-running vendettas with their neighbors, even

some

houses had watchtowers.

Some

older boys

wall beside the gate.

GhaffarF they called as the khans son passed.

''Hey,

smile and watched

cow browsed

milk

had climbed the crumbling

them jump the

into the

summer

The rustle ofpoplar leaves in

murmur of the

son.

river.

Two

"I'll

be

came the

home

a

boys

paused long enough

to

the slight breeze mingled with the

muezzin, calling the faithful

to prayer.

"God is great!'' was time for the midday namaz. "Go on ahead," the khan

"Allahu akharF It

village

them

stubble.

rinsing a water buffalo in knee-deep water

distant

shot

commons, where goats and a

Outside town the khan and his son followed the wave.

He

liquid tone.

shortly." Stretching his prayer

rug next

told his

to a poplar,

he knelt and faced Mecca. GhafFar s father seldom missed the

five daily

when

and spreading

it

meant stopping

in his fields

tween two rows of sugarcane. He belonged

periods of prayer, even his prayer rug be-

to the clan of the

medzais— ‘sons of Mohammed.” To Behram Khan, responsibility to live in the light of the Prophet

He was villagers

ten

as

knew he had to

his

valley, yet his

own ways of living Pakhtunwali, the

Pathan. Badal,

avenge the

brought the

word.

blue-blooded a Pathan as lived in the

Law of the

Pathan

s

this

Moham-

its strict

slightest insult.

unwrit-

code of revenge, obligated the For centuries badal had set

brother against brother, family against family, clan against clan.

The Reverend

T. L. Pennell, a respected physician

ning a missionary hospital in Bannu

about 40

how

at

who was

run-

the time of the Jubilee, wrote

deeply badal had entered into the Pathan mentality. “Re-

venge

is

word sweet

a

Pathan ear” he explains, ‘and even

to the

revenge satisfied by the culminating murder blow, preferably

man

on some dark

has a few minutes of

night,

life in

so

is

which

the sweeter

is

managed

if

that the

the

a

fatal

murdered

he has been

to realize that

outwitted.”

who had

1 he Reverend Pennell describes one Waziri Pathan his sight at the

hospital

hands of

and begged the doctor

“Oh, saheb,

if

you can give

to the mission

one day:

to restore his sight for just

me some

sight only just long

enough

my enemy, then shall be satisfied to be blind my life.” When the doctor tried to talk to him of the

and shoot of

He had come

his enemies.

lost

I

all

to

go

the rest

“Gospel of

goodwill and forgiveness,” the Waziri “would shake his head and sigh: ‘No, that teaching

Once

is

not for us.

had

a bloodletting

set

What

I

want

is

revenge

the wheel of vengeance in motion,

only the annihilation of the other party could bring

from father

obligations of badal passed

to son.

province had claimed more than a hundred

remember how

it

— revenge!’”

One

it

to a stop, for

vendetta in the

lives, yet

no one could

started.

man could not avenge an enemy’s insult with his blood, what kind of a man was he? low could he face his clan There was no escape.

If a

1

or wife?

To

die seeking revenge was

more honorable.

Behram Khan thought otherwise. He made no enemies; he avoided feuds, fie did not like the taste of revenge. He was known throughout

He had

the district for a most un-Pathanlike quality: forgiveness. received his share of insults, and there were those

who had

taken

advantage of his trusting nature. But honor, he believed, could be

gained in ways more enduring and more pleasing in the eyes of God.

He chose

to forgive rather

than seek revenge — a decision that must

have deeply influenced the character and career of his youngest son.

Behram Khan perplexed of a

khan was

to trust.

this?

— but

At the harvest,

the tribesmen of his villages — what kind

they

knew

villagers

instinctively that

handed over

he was

their savings to

a

man

him

for

safekeeping and did not ask for any assurance.

Even the given

them

British liked this service, as

khan who bore no grudges. He had never

had most of the other khans of the

he was honest and he respected them. They sought

area, but

his ad\ ice

Children of the Prophet

«

on *41

delicate matters,

exotic

names

as

and they did not complain when he confused such

O’Malley and Warburton and Short. They assumed —

and they were right— that

His namaz finished, Behram

and youngest son were

khan would not intend an

this

Khan walked to

insult.

the farmhouse. His wife

in the courtyard.

'Here, Ghaffar, today's nan.”

Ghaffars mother handed the boy two Hat chunks of bread.

down

on a small

cross-legged

cooked

split

peas— into

As the boys and asking about the society,

was

mothers

isolation,

he gleaned in the talking.

side

women from male

it

was his father

who did the

His mothers face turned ashen at the news of another rising. costs of war. Every Pathan had.

woman whose

daily namazs, even as

often turned into long periods of silent prayer.

dark beauty alone that had drawn young vein ofpiety was a treasure

pretend

one

a point of remembering bits of news

Today, however,

Ghaffars mother was a pious girl,

sat to

the Pathan gentry. Ghaffar did not like his

and he made

village.

mother

Purdah, the isolation of

She had seen Hrsthand the dreadful a

his right hand.

their father ate, Ghaffars

among

sat

scooping smooth green dal —

mouth with

his

village.

strict

pillow,

He

to

It

was not her

Behram Khan

he wanted his children

to her;

to have.

her

He did not

moods of prayer, but he had come to look Sometimes Ghaffar would rest his hand on her

understand her

upon them with awe. shoulder until

warmth brought her

its

back, eyes wide

and

wet, as

though returning from a long, winged Bight. Perhaps because he was her youngest, Ghaffar and his mother had

formed

a

deep attachment. She knew he had a temper— he was a

Pathan! — but he was a pure, truthful boy. did the solemn

moods

that

would

No one

steal over

him

understood as she

while sitting under

the shishim tree, saying nothing, or peering into the Barnes of the

cooking Bre until

it

cooled to ashes.

Even Behram Khan did not understand abstracted boy

who preferred

much time along

the

river.

42

is

independent,

company of sweepers and spent

But whenever his patience wore

wife always reassured him.

conBdently. "He

the

this

"He

is

a strong boy," she

a badshah, a king."

too

thin, his

would say

'‘I

But

xml, Lx)rd''

Behram Khnn would

if his wife said so,

mutter, tugging nt his hccird.

the hoy would turn out

all right.

Later that afternoon, or perhaps not until evening, word would

have reached Behram Khan that the trouble in the north had already

begun the day ing:

before.

The

first

reports were clouded hut encourag-

an enormous force of Pathans was attacking the

British forts at

Chakdarra and Malakand and slaughtering the armies of the Queen.

The small contingents of soldiers could not possibly hold out. Mullah Mastun had apparently been right: the day of their deliverance had come.

i

Children of the Prophet

«

43

\

S

V'

The

Tirah (Mela

Ram)

CHAPTER THREE

The Vale of Tirah [JUI,'i'-nF,CKMIU*',K, 1897]

Our fault

is

that our province

is

the gateway oflpdia.

\\V were horn in the Frontier Province. This

is

why

we were doomed. “In

i

hk small hours”

of July 27th, a Frontier war correspondent

wrote to his Ix:)ndon readers, the officers of the 11th Bengal Lancers at Nowshera were

who was astounded by out. This man in his shirt

aroused by a frantic telegraph operator the news his machine was clicking sleeves,

with a wild eye, and holding an unloaded revolver by

The whole country

the muzzle, ran round waking everyone.

was up.

he Malakand garrison was being overwhelmed by

I

thousands of tribesmen. All the troops were

Winston Churchill was twenty-three and Fourth Hussars

in India at the

when

it

under General

Sir

was ordered into the

march

at

once.

a First l.ieutcnant of the

time he wrote this account of the

beginning of the ETontier War of Field Force

to

1897.

He had

Bindon Blood

field to

joined the Malakand

as a

war correspondent

exact “massive retaliation” against

the rebellious tribes. “Like most young

fools,”

he wrote,

“I

was looking

for trouble.”

ChurchiHs dispatches

give a stirring,

if

transparent, account of

imperial warfare at the turn of the century. While tattered swarms of

tribesmen flung themselves against the cannon

fire

of the

Queens

armies, the young lieutenant wrote to the Ix)ndon Daily Telegraph

readership of daring and adxenture:

d’he tale

I

have

to

tell is

one of

frontier war.

The

fate of

empires

does not hang on the

result. Yet

the narrative

out interest, or material for reflection.

The rumors

.

till it

single

unimportant

fact

fantastic conclusions are

culated as

facts.

But amid

invention of fertile

it,

a

thousand wild,

illogi-

drawn. These again are

cir-

So the game goes on. this falsehood

all

— the

exaggerated, and distorted,

is

becomes unrecognizable. From

and

cal,

.

coming war grew stronger and stronger. The like the London coffee-houses of the last cen-

tury, are always full of marvellous tales

A

not be with-

of

bazaars of India,

brains.

.

may

and

idle report, there often lies

important information. ... As July [1897] advanced, the bazaar at Malakand became full of tales of the Mad Fakir. His miracles passed from

A

mouth

mouth with

to

suitable additions.

A

great day for Islam was at hand.

man had

arisen

them. The English would be swept away. By the time

to lead

of the

mighty

new moon,

not one would remain.

The Great

Fakir had

mighty armies concealed among the mountains. When the moment came these would sally forth— horse, foot and artillery—

and destroy the

It

infidel.

.

.

.

was understandable, nevertheless, that the young telegraph opera-

tor at the

Nowshera garrison should have been ‘astounded’'

the

at

news. Since the Chitral uprising in 1895, the Pathans had been noticeably quiet.

And

only a

month

ago,

he had read from the same

wire a cordial message from Her Imperial Highness, the Queen, in

whose Diamond

Jubilee ceremonies at Chakdarra, Malakand,

and

Peshawar many Pathans had joined.

A more informed party, however, would not have been surprised at the outburst of Pathan violence that July evening. British policies on

the Frontier had been inviting just such an attack for two decades. Ironically, these

were

policies

whose armies had never Ever since

1807,

on

set foot in the

at

Pathans, but at an

enemy

province — and never would.

when Napoleon met Czar Alexander

a raft in the Tilsit River assault

aimed not

I

of Russia

on

and proposed a combined Russian-Erench

India, the Russians

had been making the

British nervous.

Their steady expansion eastward across the Central Asian plain made

many 46

in the British Eoreign Office fear that Russia’s ultimate destina-

was

tion

India. In

Samarkand, and

1865 the cziirs armies

in 1868

annexed Tashkent, then

they turned Bokhara into a Russian

satellite.

The “Great Game” of imperial intrigue between Russia and Great had begun

Britain

in earnest.

Since the disastrous retreat from Kabul in 1842, the British had

been keeping

a respectful distance

from the Pathan

Afghan empire. The “Close Border School”

tribes of the

in the Foreign Office

had

decades — successfully— that the best way to deal with the

argued

for

Afghan

tribes

was

was

in intrigue,

to leave

them

alone.

I

he high Afghan

plain,

awash

the buffer the British needed between their Indian

all

Empire and the Russian menace.

The “Forward School,” otherwise. They argued

the hawks of the Foreign Office, thought for

an assertive policy that would keep

Afghans under the British thumb and free of Russian of stirring

risk

up

a little violence

among

intrigue.

The

the Pathan tribes of the

Frontier was a small price to pay for the security of India.

When

the Conservatives took office in 1874 under Disraeli, the For-

ward School was made appointed. Lord Lytton,

program

sionist

to

A new

who immediately began an

viceroy was

aggressive expan-

extend the Indian frontier into Afghan territory up

to the slopes of the

Hindu Kush. Lytton ordered

march on Kabul,

troops to

British policy.

official

forcing the

thirty

Afghan amir

to

thousand

cede the

administration of the Khyber Pass and other strategic areas to Britain.

He

also placed a British

envoy in Kabul to direct Afghan foreign

Despite fears of a repetition of the 1842 debacle. Sir Louis

policy.

Cavagnari was stationed in Kabul in July 1879 with a guard of eighty-

one all

troops.

its

On

September

occupants

killed.

A

3

the British Residency w^as stormed and

second British force occupied Kabul

in

October, and this time a pro-British amir was placed on the throne.

Afghanistan became, in

But

The

this

effect,

was not enough

an appendage of the Empire.

to placate the fears of the

borders between Afghanistan and India were

easily

defended.

1885, the

build a

When

ill

Forward School. defined and not

Russian troops clashed with the Afghans in

Conservatives insisted

it

w'as Britain’s

permanent buffer zone between

Russia along a secure border.

The

“bounden dutv”

British India

to

and Imperial

ob\ ions location for the border was

The Vale

of Tirah

«

47

the range of mountains between Afghanistan and British India. High

and rugged,

their

lem was that

narrow passes were

defended.

easily

The

this placed the buffer garrisons squarely

only prob-

within the

homelands of the Pathans. Not even Forward School hawks were eager to arouse Pathan

had no choice: all

ire.

But the protectors of the Empire

India, Britain’s prize possession,

felt

they

must be defended

at

costs.

In the

autumn of

Henry Durand was

sent to Kabul

border between Afghanistan and British India that

to negotiate a

would

1893 Lieutenant

hand over

effectively

to the British

lands, historically part of the

most of the Pathan home-

Afghan empire. The proposed border—

the “Durand Line”— cut through the heart of the Pathan nation, leaving a third of

Pathans in Afghanistan.

all

The Afghan amir warned from the settlement than he

the British that they had more to lose did. “If

you should cut the Pathan

away from my domain,” he wrote the viceroy

tribes

in desperation,

they will not be of any use either to you or to me. You will always

be engaged

in fighting

with them, and they

The

them

or be involved in

will always

British forced the issue.

some other

go on plundering.

On November

12, 1893,

amir’s signature to a treaty that brought under their territory

from the Hindu Kush

stan— and made to the

Empire’s

The

to the

presence was of their

hills

all

the

would

last

final days.

from external

“settled” tribes of the lower valleys built

dominion

westernmost limits of Baluchi-

British set out to forge a buffer

were

they got the

inevitable a conflict with the Pathans that

seal British India off

forts

trouble

zone that would permanently

threats.

Pathans were divided into

and “free”

and additional troops brought

felt.

with

tribes of the hills. in to

make

More

certain their

Eor the independent-spirited Pathans, the girdling forts

and garrisons and the

insufferable imperial rule

that followed simply could not be borne for long. British expeditions

had already been sent against the Akazais

in the

Black Mountains in 1891; in 1894 they went into Waziristan. In

January 1895, Chitral exploded in the north and fifteen thousand troops had to be sent to restore order. Ports were built at Malakand

48

and Chakdarra British in

in

name

Swat

to prevent further outbreaks.

But the area was

Independent tribesmen saw the new

only.

forts as

portents of a permanent occupation.

For two years they simmered. Then, in the early of 1897, Mullah

Mastun began touring the

reminded the tribesmen of

their humiliation

religious hysteria by proclaiming that the

the word: the time had

villages

come

summer months of the north. He

and roused them

to

Prophet himself had given

for jihad, a holy

war that would drive

the British out of the province and reclaim the Delhi throne, after a

He had found the thirteen-year-old heir to the Mogul dynasty and would place him on the throne himself. Within a month. Mullah Mastun — Churchills “Mad Fakir'— had

lapse of three centuries, for Islam.

raised

an army of ten thousand seething Pathans.

The explosion came at

ten o'clock on a moonless July night. Descend-

ing simultaneously on the forts at Malakand and Chakdarra, the

Pathans stormed the outer garrisons with their swords, knives, and ancient

rifles.

Caught

off

— but

guard

only momentarily

—

and Sikh troops fought back with land mines, cannon, and ing

fire

from their breech-loading

rifles.

Throughout the

British

devastat-

night,

wave

wave of tribesmen were repulsed — by massive firepower,

after

cipline,

and sheer pluck.

If

dis-

the Queen's troops could hold out, rein-

forcements could reach the

forts

from Nowshera and Mardan by

noon.

To the Pathans who threw themselves and

rifle fire,

Allah.

setbacks

They knew they

into the teeth of the

cannon

Time was with them — as was outnumbered the British. Hundreds of them meant

little.

died in the avalanche of bullets and the bursts of cannon and land

mines. But what was death? Only a promise of paradise.

Morning came, and the ground around the

forts,

forts

still

held. Bodies littered the rocky

but the Pathans kept up the attack. Their

cause was invincible.

Then an astounding thing happened. From over the bare hills of the pass came a great body of the Raj's soldiers and cavalry, with their breechloaders firing and their lances ready. The tribesmen simply stared, unbelieving.

The Vale of Tirah

«

49

“It is

no exaggeration” Churchill

perhaps half the tribesmen

to say that

kand had thought that the

'

writes,

who

soldiers there

attacked the Mala-

were the only troops

that the Sirkar [the government] possessed. “Kill these,”

What

they had

did they

know

said,

“and

all is

done.”

of the distant regiments which the

graph wires were drawing from

far

had

Little did they realize they

down

set the

tele-

in the south of India?

world

humming;

that

military officers were hurrying seven thousand miles by sea

and

camps among the mountains; that were carrying ammunition, material and supplies

land from England, to the

long trains

from distant depots

to the front.

.

.

.

These ignorant tribesmen had no conception of the sensitiveness of modern civilization, which thrills and quivers in every and complex system at the slightest touch. They saw only the forts and camps on the Malakand Pass and

part of

its

vast

the swinging bridge across the

The

river.

miscalculation was typical of these impulsive tribesmen — and

Churchill continues:

fatal.

Sir

Bindon Blood had with

his staff

ascended the Castle Rock,

to superintend the operations generally.

whole

field

was

visible.

white figures of the

On

From

this position the

every side, and from every rock, the

enemy could be seen

in full flight.

The

way was open. The passage was forced. Chakdarra was saved. A great and brilliant success had been obtained. A thrill of exultation convulsed everyone.

The

.

.

.

11th Bengal Lancers, forming line across the plain,

up the valley. ... All among the rice fields and the rocks, the strong horsemen hunted the flying enemy. No quarter was asked or given, and every tribesman began

a merciless pursuit

caught was speared or cut

down

at

once. Their bodies lay

thickly strewn about the fields, spotting with black

patches the bright green of the rice crop.

It

was

and white

a terrible lesson

and one which the inhabitants of Swat and Bajaur

will

never

forget.

The 50

victory was thorough,

but— as

usually the case

on the Frontier

— inconclusive.

By the time the Malakancl

h'ielcl

way through the higher regions of Swat, the

k’orce

Afridis

had blasted

its

had entered the

Khyher. Further south, Orakzais were sending assault parties into the

Kurram

Valley.

By the end

and the Khyher Pass

revolt,

of August the Frontier was itself— gateway to India

up

— fell

massive

in

from

British

hands.

A a

force of thirty-five thousand

machine gun detachment, and

the

field in

the

Firah,

response.

It

was aimed

men, including thirty at

sixty field

cannon,

thousand pack animals, took

the heart of the Afridi homeland,

whieh no foreign army had ever penetrated. By mid-

October, the Tirah Fxpeditionary Force had fought the protective ring of the

its

way through

Samana range and entered the

Valley of

Firah Maidan.

There, in the midst of barren, blistered peaks, the British found a

The

paradise.

passes

opened onto wide

chards of apricot and plum, apple,

was

in;

fig,

cultivated fans, terraced or-

and orange

trees.

The

harvest

the storage sheds behind the farmhouses were brimful with

corn and barley, beans, potatoes, onions, and walnuts. In the crisp

October

air,

autumn

tints

the valley looked as serene as an English landseape. ''The

upon the

trees are beautiful,” wrote a British correspon-

dent accompanying the expedition, "and carry one back to the

mother-country

at

once.

One

crops are in and the valley

can well imagine that when the spring is

green from end

to end, this

the

is

beautiful spot which has so inspired the Pathan poets.”

But the point of a punitive campaign landscape so incapable of supporting forced to surrender.

And

is

life

the Afridis had

to

that

punish — to render the inhabitants will be

its

made

the iob easier than

anyone expected. They were gone — fled with their families and flocks to the bare ridges silent

and

above the

valley.

From

there the\' watched,

helpless, as the khaki-colored troops spread out across the

valley. I

hey started with the

stocks.

Wagonfuls of beans and potatoes and

nuts were carted out of the storehouses and the orchards were stripped,

and the trees then

felled

with axes or ringed to die

slowly.

Standing crops were burned.

As they reached

a village, soldiers

would hurry

to sack the

houses

The Vale of Tirah

«

SI

^

copperware, furniture, and orna-

of the khans. Carpets and

silks,

ments were piled

wagons and carted back

What was

into long

not worth carrying

camps.

to the

back— utensils, farm equipment, house-

hold items— was heaped into a pile in the center of the village and

burned. Wagonfuls of granite boulders were drawn alongside the wells

and heaved

in to poison the water.

Sometimes

ventured too close to the valley walls and

soldiers

tims to ambush. At night, a lighted cigarette might draw

There were

a nearby crag.

casualties, but

moved about unimpeded. Once tion units laid

rifle fire

by and large the

vic-

from

soldiers

had been cleared, demoli-

a village

dynamite charges along the

November the Tirah

fell

walls

and

towers.

By mid-

Valley was close to being a desert, while high

on

the ridges, the tribal children began succumbing to the cold. Khans trickled into Expeditionary Force headquarters to accept the terms of

peace: three hundred

December, the

In

managed With

little

and a

fine of thirty

thousand rupees.

began a quick withdrawal and

British

just

through the Samanas before a howling winter storm

to get

slammed the and

rifles

passes shut.

shelter

and

The

virtually

Afridi families were less fortunate.

no food

stocks,

many

of the youngest

oldest died.

The

punitive campaign had

met

its

objective.

The

Frontier tribes

had been beaten back and the war ended. But the price was high. The

Empire had collected fines to cover the

In the process for

the next

it

a

few thousand rusting

rifles

expenses of a marching column

for

and enough

perhaps a week.

had guaranteed the enmity of the Frontier Pathans

fifty years.

Before a decade had passed, the British would have to face

If

new

and Orakzais — and once again have

to enter the

Churchill’s plucky prose stirred the British back

home to feel

uprisings of Waziris

Tirah.

in

the glamour and romance of the Frontier wars, other Englishmen

came

to assess the net effect of FTontier policy in

terms.

Some

of

them— like Annie

already agitating for Indian Churchill’s

We 52

more sobering

Besant, an Englishwoman in India

“home

rule”— came close to matching

fire:

loudly proclaimed that

we had no

quarrel with the Pathan

we burnt

nation, yet

their villages, destroyed their crops, stole

their cattle, looted their if

they resisted, while

men as women and

homes, hanged their

we drove out

their

“rebels"

children

to perish in the snow.

F^rom out of the darkness,

we shrink

in horror

moans

of suffering reach us, and

from the work which

is

being done in our

name. These starved babes wail out our condemnation. These frozen women cry aloud against us. These stiffened corpses, these fire-blackened districts, these snow-covered, bloodstained plains appear to

humanity

to curse us.

Englishmen, with wives nestled warm

in

your bosoms,

remember these Pathan husbands, maddened by Englishwomen, with babes smiling on your these sister-women, bereft of their wife and children as you do.

him

also the

from

cries

home

is

He

is

The Pathan

husband and is

and from

sacred.

loves

father.

To

To you he

his ravaged land. In

his cause.

But the British were helpless had overextended them into

to

change course. The Forward Policy

territories

permanent occupation of the Pathan costly

is

happy, the hearth

his desolate fireside

your hands

also

breasts, think of

ones.

little

their wrongs.

they could not fully subjugate; hills

would have been

an enterprise. But neither could they ignore the

far

too

tribes;

the

Pathans themselves would see to that. Thus they were reduced to vindictive

campaigns whose excesses only inflamed the Pathans while

offending liberal sensibilities at home. In a sense, the British had

become

prisoners of their

own

imperial designs.

Thus, within a few months of celebration of the

ning

to

“new

imperialism," at

have second thoughts.

a dark side

which the

Diamond Jubilee and its least some British were begin-

Victoria’s

The glittering image of the Empire had

resolute

Pathan resistance had begun

to un-

mask. Within two years the atrocities of the Boer War in South Africa

would confirm the darker aspects of empire. toria herself

would

die, mercifully

One more

spared the spectacle of her “best

and bravest" dying by the hundreds of thousands on the ders

year and Vic-

fields

of Flan-

and Verdun. The benign face of Pax Britannica, so shimmering

during the Jubilee summer, would never smile as brightly again.

The Vale of Tirah

«

53

A

British fort in Chitral, 1895 (Robertson)

CHAPTER FOUR

The Guides 1907 1909 -

[

I

he Holy Prophet

)

Mohammed came

into this yorld

and taught us: “That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures. Belief in

God

is

to love one's

The reverend

Mr. E.

F.

fellowmen."

E.

Wigram was headmaster

wardes Memorial Mission High School in Peshawar.

of the Ed-

The Reverend

Mr. Wigram and his younger brother, Dr. Wigram, represented a

men and women — not uncommon during the who genuinely accepted the burden of improving Empire s less fortunate subjects. The two brothers

of

and

days of the Raj —

the welfare of the loved the Frontier

people, with their soaring spirits and their stern,

its

class

uncom-

promising codes of honor.

The

mission schools trained young Pathans in English, science,

and mechanics, mainly

to prepare

nations of the Punjab university.

Government Service

Indian

them for the matriculation examiFrom there they could enter the

as clerks, the only

other than the army open to native graduates.

form of occupation

Much

to the dislike of

the Muslim clergy, the mission schools also taught the Bible. Dr.

Wigram oversaw the

mission hospital in Peshawar, while his

brother oversaw the high school. Their family in England supported the work, to the extent of offering scholarships out of their

own

pockets to promising Pathan boys.

Ghaffar

Khan was

as

quick and strong-willed as any other sixteen-

year-old in the mission high school the spring of 1907. His elder

brother,

school,

Khan Saheb, the first boy from Utmanzai to attend was now in Bombay preparing to study medicine [

55

]

a British at

Edin-

burgh. Ghaffar was the second boy from the village to attend the school,

They condemned because they competed with their own maktabsy

and the mullahs of Utmanzai did not like

British schools

which taught only according

to the

it.

words of the Prophet. There boys

learned a doggerel which could be heard spilling out into the road in front of the

mosque: Those who leam

in schools

Are none but money's

tools.

In heaven they will never dwell;

They At

will surely

go

the mullahs of Utmanzai had

first

to hell.

made a sweeping rule:

parents

sending their sons to the mission school would be excommunicated. Before

Behram Khan no

sure, but the

villager

had dared

khan was too broad-minded

The

the education of his boys.

to risk the mullahs’ cen-

to let

them

interfere with

mullahs muttered imprecations

behind the closed doors of the mosque, but publicly they rationalized

The

their loss.

Khan’s boys were pious, and hadn’t young Ghaffar

learned the Koran by heart? There was nothing to

“Let the boys

fear.

read English,” they compromised, “so long as they do not read the Christian scriptures; for the Christians have tampered with these

books and

it is

no longer lawful

for

Muslims

to read them.”

Ghaffar was happy to be part of the same school his elder brother

had attended. He did not mind the mild indoctrination into Christianity

and Western — especially

received. tions

was

British

— culture that all the students

One

of the questions that regularly appeared

to

the benefits bestowed

list

Raj: the roads the British

had

magical telegraph lines that

Delhi and

down

to

built,

upon the people

on examina-

of India by the

with their high iron bridges; the

hummed

messages through the passes to

Madras; the schools, of course, even though they

thought Pakhtu too coarse to teach the boys; the railways that

climbed the high, bare passes soldiers that

ing

from harassing

British that Pathans

its

“settled” farmers.

would rather have had

It

did not occur to

their

telegraphs and iron bridges and the “rule of law.” 56

the hospitals; the

maintained the rule of British law and kept the maraud-

hill tribes

most

like iron serpents;

freedom than

Most Pathans — as

the Frontier

War demonstrated — preferred

j^rivation

and hardship

to

servitude.

Ghaffar never forgot the dark, drained faces of the

who had summer of

villagers

returned from fighting the British during that dreadful the Frontier War.

He had

ing eyes. After that

it

seen the

fire

beaten from their bright, burn-

was not the same when his father took him

men did

the village guest house. For a long time the

was no poetry. They drank tea and spoke

and the hoy heard hatred and

masters,

not sing and there

bitterly of

the Fnglish

fear in their voices.

But since then much had changed. The hoy had 'grown into muscular young man, over

six feet tall,

British friends in Peshawar.

his school,

to

and had made

He had come

a

number

a

of

to respect the teachers in

and he admired the poise and courage of the

British

Ghaffar was a born warrior — every Pathan was — and he

soldiers.

recognized the qualities of a good soldier when he saw them.

He also admired Reverend Wigram — almost as much, in fact, as his own father. The missionary was a strict but generous man, and Ghaffar

saw that although he was a foreigner from across the

seas,

he was

more concerned about the future of these Pathan boys than

own

parents were.

stay

on

An

in the school

idea

began

and work

But the Guides changed 1 he Guides, an stationed at

even given

and

a

man! At

s

mind: why not

good man?

of that.

a long history of distinguished service to the

commissions, which brought further prestige —

for glory.

least this

a lifelong friend,

son was

for this

in Ghaffar

sons of wealthy and influential Pathans and Sikhs were

officers’

chance

form

corps of Pathan and Sikh infantry and cavalry

Mardan, had

The

Empire.

elite

all

to

their

six foot

A

Guides

officer

was the equal of an English-

was what Barani Kaka, one of Ghaffar’s servants and

had been

telling

Ghaffar for the past year.

The khan’s

three and weighed over two hundred pounds, Barani

Kaka reasoned: the

British

would snap him up!

Ghaffar was in his tenth and

final

year at the high school.

He was

halfway through the matriculation examination of the university

when he

learned that he had been granted a commission and should

present himself before the recruiting officer the following day. In his exultation, he walked

away from the examination on the

spot.

The Guides

«

57

Barani Kaka was ecstatic, as was Ghaffars aging father.

Khan wasted no time

in spreading the

news

to the guest

Behram

houses in

every village between Peshawar and Tangi. Ghaffar had joined the

Guides!

After their Kissa

last class,

Khani Bazaar

Ghaffar and Barani Kaka walked

to

meet

down

to the

a former schoolmate.

Peshawar had long been the terminus of the great caravan roads leading from Iran

and Central Asia

ture for passengers

open

seas. Its

and

to India,

and the point of depar-

down

the Indus River to the

freight sailing

bazaar was a sprawl of narrow, curving streets of stalls

spilling over with the wares

of the Central Asian plains:

silks,

carpets,

prayer rugs, precious stones, copper and brass ware, bright colored

shoes with curving toes and

shimmering colors,

silk

brocade, great swaths of cloth in

entire armories of rifles

and curved daggers. Every

street— the Street of the Coppersmiths, the Shoemakers, the Cloththe Storytellers, the Weavers— had

iers,

The two youths turned onto

its

specialty.

the Street of the Silversmiths and

stopped in a small tea shop where they could see the pure white minarets of the Mahabat Khan mosque.

From

these towers the Sikhs,

during their bloody reign, had hung Pathans — two every day— as a

curb

to intrigue.

in front

Crowds of turbaned men with beards were milling

of the mosque or sitting in

tea shops, sipping dark

qahwa

tea

sweetened with sugar and buffalo milk and pufEng contentedly from clay pipes.

From out of the crowd a tall, uniformed Pathan stepped up to their stall, his combed hair glistening over a wide smile. It was their old schoolmate,

now

with the Guides. Ghaffar, taking in the crisp khaki

uniform and the close-cropped Western-style haircut, asked him

down. They ordered cups of tea and started

to talk.

Before long they heard a sharp, nasal voice: AVell,

Two

damn

''Really!''

'Sardar

be damned

f'

one of them snorted contemptuously. "Why,

Sahib— you fake Englishman! So you want

Englishman, do you?" 58

Til

English officers from the Guides were staring at Ghaffars

friends hair.

you

to sit

to

be an

GhafEir's

hand leaped toward

Pathan would

But

let

his friends to

check the

without waiting for a

The

English officers turned away

reply.

Ghaffar looked at his friend. His head was lowered.

No

No

such an insult go unanswered.

his friend did not move.

have said?

attack.

Guides

disrespect— not, that

officer

is,

if

could speak

he valued

to

What could he

an Englishman with

his commission.

Ghaffar turned on Barani Kaka, trembling with anger. ''You told me that a Pathan

Guide

is

the Englishmans equal!''

Barani Kaka tried to calm the young khan, hut Shortly after, GhaflFar refused his commission.

he had

rid

himself of a curse — and

to nfo avail.

He had the feeling that

just in time.

At home, however, Behram Khan fumed. Ghaffar had thrown away

an opportunity denied

to all but the

he decided, the boy would

rejoin.

most capable Pathan boys. Well,

Not even

him that his son had acted from deep Khan would not listen— his son would

his wife could persuade

principle.

This time Behram

rejoin.

The

Pressed, Ghaffar wrote his brother in England. plained,

because

had been obvious. He could not serve the it

turned brave Pathans into

slaves

choice, he ex-

British

— and

government

offered the risk of

getting insulted into the bargain.

Khan Saheb had

always admired the courage of his younger

He would not have done the same thing himself, but they were different. He wrote their father that Ghaffar had done right: no man should be made to suffer dishonor and disrespect. It was reasoning that any Pathan could appreciate. Behram Khan relented. How brother.

could he hold out against the pleadings of his wife, the thickheaded righteousness of his youngest son, and his eldest? Ghaffar could

Khan began

the polished arguments of

go on with his studies.

the next term at an Islamic school in Gampbellpur, on

the other side of the Indus dry, hot climate of the

and enrolled

now

river.

He wanted

Punjab did not

suit

to learn Arabic.

him.

He

left

But the

Gampbellpur

in a mission school at Aligarh, in the center of northern

India.

The Guides

«

59

Near the end of the term, he received

a letter

from

his father.

The

Reverend Wigram had persuaded Behram Khan that Ghaffar should

Khan Saheb to England. He was a good student of geometry; he could live with Khan Saheb and study engineering. The Reverend would make all the arrangements. England! The boy could not believe his eyes. And to live with his brother! His father sent him three thousand rupees to get himself follow

P&O liner that would leave

ready to go. His passage was booked on a in a

few weeks.

Ghaffar hurried home. In the prescribed mianner, he went to his

mother

to ask

her permission

hands clench and her eyes

fill

to go.

with

But

at the

first

tears. '"Not

words he saw her

my last

boyf' she said

in a whisper. No.

Ghaffar argued with her. ''Look at our country, Ma. Innocent people are dragged to the courts

are put to death.

Nobody s life is safe here. In England I can learn ways

to challenge these

No. Not the

goes

No.

it

will

One

bad

laws!'

last son.

to a foreign

"But

and men who have committed no crime

The mullahs had

son, the mullahs said,

'Ala, / won't

Til

to

any good

my brother!'"

had already gone from her

and he would never

come

be living with

to the

return.

if I stay here."

No. They said he would marry an English

and become

her that a person who

land never returns to his native home.

be only two years— and

unbelievers' land,

told

a Ghristian, a stranger to his

girl,

own

as his brother had,

people.

No.

Khan's strong shoulders slumped. The stricken face of this woman,

who was closer to him than any other person on him better than he knew himself— was enough. could not build his future on his mother's sorrow.

60

earth —

who knew

"All right, "All right.

Ma." I'll

He

stay."

$

I

i

i

I

The Malakand

Pass, 1895 {National

Army Museum, London)

CHAPTER

FIVE

Islam! 1909 1913 -

(

It is

my inmost conviction

muhabat

]

that Islam

amal, yak^'en,

and without these the name Muslim is sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. The Koran makes it absolutely clear that faith in One God without a second, and good works, are

[worky faith,

enough

to secure a

long been

It h ad

and

is

love]

man

his salvation.

insinuated by the rugged tribes of the

the settled Pathans of the Peshawar and

They

soft.

loved their land

Kurram

valleys

more than they loved

most of the Mohammedzais — including Behram

hills that

had grown

battle.

Certainly

Khan— would

have

pleaded guilty to the charge.

When

Ghaffars plans

natural for

the rich

him

England collapsed, therefore,

farming his father s lands.

felt restless.

As he talked with the peasants of the

he became painfully aware of the had

fallen.

\'iolence

At

first

all

He began

was

it

to

work

along the Swat with his usual energy.

fields

But he

to take to

for

He

looked

at

state into

he did not understand these

characteristic of the Pathans; at

which most of his people

the poverty, the ignorance, the apathy and

around him, and he wanted

mullahs railed

district,

to

do something about

feelings. Social

it.

reform was not

was a British notion. Although the

it

the sinful, decadent foreigners, they remained

firmly in their grip: the Raj protected the iron rule of the mullahs over

the

villagers,

and

mullahs discouraged any social or

in return the

political reform.

Young Khan knew the

lot

all this.

He knew

that any attempt to impro\e

of his people would be discouraged, even harassed. In the

[

63

]

moral

of the Pathan, the world belonged to those

life

enough

what they could hold: mercy and generosity were

to take

But although he wondered where

to Allah.

who were strong

it

came from, the

left

twenty-

the need to serve.

year-old farmer

felt

One afternoon,

working in the Helds behind the farmhouse, Ghaffar

Khan was ter.

thinking about the Reverend Wigram, his old schoolmas-

In the silence of the

Kharbuza

ra

summer

kharbuza dida rang

another melon,

it

takes

on

its color."

air,

me

an ancient proverb chimed. girad:

Ghaffar had spent years watching

the unassuming brothers at the Mission. generosity color as

must have rubbed Very

it will.

off,

well, then:

'"When a melon sees

The

color of their love

he decided— the melon

he would

and

will take its

serve.

But how? And where? Gertainly no help would come from the

Who

mullahs.

was

he— a

twenty-year-old

Mohammedzai farm

boy,

not even matriculated from high school— to uplift an ancient, noble

people?

himself

knew

“I

Mohammedzai— a child of the Prophet What more did he need? He could read. He could write. He

he was

Well,

just that, a

farming. All right, then, he would start a school.

men” wrote George

know

these

They

are brave as lions, wild as cats, docile as children. ...

Nathaniel Curzon of Kedleston: It is

with a sense of pride that one receives the honest homage of these magnificent Samsons, gigantic, bearded, instinct with loyalty,

Lx)rd

often stained with crime.

Curzon meant every word he wrote about the Pathans. He

mired them, but he had no

illusions

about them. In 1899 he was ap-

pointed viceroy of India precisely because he

Pathans than any other

man

to Pathan-proof the Frontier.

Tirah was devastated, and school,

were due

The 64

Between the

1910,

much had changed on

knew more about

England — and because he had

in

ad-

risings of 1897,

when Ghaffar Khan

the

a plan

when

started his

the first

the Frontier, and most of the changes

to the plans of the energetic

and resolute Curzon.

savage outburst of the Frontier wars of the 1890s

made

it

clear

to the British that they to

explode

at

were

sitting atop a

would be vulnerable

checked external

whim

to Russian intrigue, d’he P^orward Policy

was

security of the Indian to let

at stake.

its

As

Empire was

nothing— not even

sons”— stand in

of any crazed mullah,

threats, but internally the Frontier

able. India’s security

tended

that threatened

the very gateway to the Indian I^mpire. As long as the

Frontier could erupt in violence at the it

powder keg

viceroy,

was

still

Curzon knew

had

vulner-

that the

paramount duty, and he

his

his admiration for “magnificent

in-

Sam-

way.

Curzon’s plan put the Frontier directly under the conttol of the viceroy in Delhi. Crucial decisions could be

of disturbance. tricts; settled

The hill

Pathans

tribes

like

made

remained

Khan could

swiftly at the least sign

isolated

from the

settled dis-

not even enter the tribal areas

without permission. Vivisection of the Pathan nation was complete. Included in Curzon’s plan was a standing army of ten thousand

men

that girded the province along a two-hundred-mile perimeter,

from the Malakand

in the north to the

the Iranian border.

More

down

man

to

move army

forts

were

book, a hunting-ground

Department and the

Crimes Regulation.

a foreign penal

and railways and roads

built

The for

Waziristan on laid

A six-thousand-

province was declared to be the officers of the Political

military.”

Lord Curzon also enacted a Frontier

tip of

units quickly to any trouble spot.

police force maintained peace.

“a sealed

southern

colony— for

series of restrictive laws

A man

life

known

as the

could be “transported”— sent to

without counsel or

trial.

Justice

was in

the hands of the political agent or pro-British landlords called in to

hear cases. jects

The most elementary rights extended to Her Majesty’s sub-

throughout the Empire were denied the Pathans. All

this only

confirmed what the Pathans had long suspected: the imperial powers in

Delhi and London regarded them

On November 9, being.

It

was in

conditions

fact

1901,

as savages.

the North-West Erontier Province

an armed garrison,

a police state.

when Ghaffar Khan opened

came

into

These were the

his school in

Utmanzai.

Neither he nor Curzon could have imagined that someday the small school would help to undermine the viceroy’s plans.

Islam! « 65

For several years the Haji Abdul Wahid Saheb of Tarangzai had been

working

in the villages of

Mardan, near Utmanzai, giving

religious in-

He was the Frontier s first social reformer. Pathans throughout the district knew him as Haji Saheb and regarded him as a saint. He had attracted a dedicated band of young volunteers, and when he heard that a young Mohammedzai had started a school in Utmanzai, he was naturally interested. He guessed that he would find a kindred spirit and invited Khan to come to Mardan. Ghaffars school had been an instant success. The mullahs had struction.

%

always urged villagers to boycott the British schools, but they had

no

offered

The more liberal Pathans began to take Utmanzai. Khan and his co-worker, Abdul

real alternative.

notice of the school in Aziz, started several

more like

it

surrounding

number

they had enrolled a large

tirrte

in

Khans

caught the ever-watchful eye of the British,

him

and

in a short

of students.

Less sympathetic interests took notice too.

awakened peasantry on the

villages,

fledgling schools

who

did not want an

Frontier. In addition, the mullahs

as a competitor. If villagers

saw

became too educated, they might

stop giving alms.

Khan

tried to reason with

with a priest at that “It is

at

Murree

bungalow.

gress,

they walked

What do you

is

then you

the

man

an English mullah!

then the will

priests

have

The mullah was

to

If

tain.

priest

is

who

the main street, “look

it?”

lives

“I like

live well.

But

go begging from door

it.”

there?”

a country prospers

can also

to

if

and

people pro-

we remain

door

for

life

ignorant,

your stipend.”

of the English priest,”

shrugged. His income was meager, but at

Who knew

its

not impressed.

“Compare your life to the gested. “What a difference!”

The

think of

he once pleaded

Saheb,'’

down

very beautiful,” the mullah replied.

“Do you know who “No, who is he?” “He

as

them. “Mullah

what would happen

if

too

much

Khan

least

it

was

sug-

cer-

education were

given out?

“My words were wasted on the mullah,” Khan told Abdul Aziz later. “If God Himself could not make him understand, what could do?” I

66

Wlien the

him

asked

laji

I

Saheb

to start a school for older

Khan accepted at once. Khan liked the village, and he young

Khan

invited

Under

liberals.

boys

Muslim

he began

making, and

in the

to stir Indian

its

were

circle of

more

widely,

Yamindar and renaissance

just

beginning

Muslims.

British

on

the Frontier were feeling the breeze too.

public meetings were

illegal

All this activity

hey Haji

move about the province secretly. was making Behram Khan uneasy. His two daugh-

were well married; his

Khan and the

except in mosques, so

Sahebs co-workers were forced

But

I

anyone who read Al-Uilal. Under the Frontier Crimes Act

blacklisted

land.

laji s

^

The

ters

1

A Muslim

fresh, vigorous breezes

the north.

in

to read

periodicals like

Al-Hilal that were just beginning to appear.

was

Gaddar,

at

he

in Marclan,

liked contact with the

their influence

lie subscribed to progressive

meet him

to

to

his eldest son

was learning medicine in Eng-

youngest son had resigned a commission in the Guides

and was spreading education. 1 he old khan worried. Too many brave

young Pathans had been

jailed for lesser offenses, or

camps on the Andamans

Behram Khans a responsible

ed.

If

in the Indian

deported to prison

Ocean — or

simply hanged.

wife tempered his concern. Ghaffar, she said, was

boy who knew what he was doing. Behram Khan

his pious wife

approved of the boy

s

activities,

yield-

who was he

to

stand in the way? Still,

ried

he decided,

and

Ghaffar

s

life

settled. lie interest,

would look

different to the

arranged a marriage with a

gave

them

a village to

boy

if

he were mar-

who had caught

girl

manage, and hoped

for

the

best.

Ghaffar adored his beautiful wife, and in 1913 a son, Ghani, was born. Fhe young khan began to think that he might enjoy the regular

life

But the

more

of a landlord.

restlessness persisted.

front of the evening

thoughts would province. His to fear these

fire,

drift to

I

he often

lolding his infant son in his felt

something

stir

arms

in

within him. His

the impoverished, ignorant villagers of the

w ife could not understand the long

silences

and grew

moods. But what could she say?

Abruptly, disaster struck

Khan s dreams. Fhe

1

laji

Saheb decided

to

IsUim! « 67

a

fight the British openly.

He tried to rally the villagers of Buner to drive

the foreigners from their in their minds,

the mullahs,

When

who

appeared imminent, the Haji

after,

the

risk

too fresh

one night

fled

Mohmands. He never

to the

returned.

the British would say that their biggest mistake on

the Frontier was letting the Haji Saheb

about to

still

intrigued against him, and the alarmed British.

territories of

For years

But the Frontier War was

and the Haji Saheb found himself caught— between

his arrest

remoter

hills.

another

full-scale

slip

away. But they were not

war with the

Mohmands

to get

him

back.

The

Hajis flight was a catastrophe for twenty-four-year-old Ghaffar

Khan.

Now only brave young men like him were left to carry on. Who

would lead them?

Khan decided progressive a

to look for help. In 1913

Muslims

at Agra,

he attended a conference of

once the center of Mogul India and

symbol of the most enlightened aspect of Islamic

Khan met Muslim

leaders like

civilization.

still

There

Maulana Azad who were engaged

in

the social, educational, and political uplift of backward Muslini populations

all

over the Indian subcontinent.

ference at Deoband, they suggested “free'’ tribes

of the

hills,

A

year

Khan

where the need

later, at

try to

for

another con-

work among the

education was greatest.

The hills? Ghaffar explained to these cultured Muslims from Delhi and Lahore that the Frontier Regulations prohibited like

himself from even talking with the

hill tribes.

agreed, the idea was compelling, and worth a

He decided where

to visit Bajaur, the

Nevertheless, he

try.

mountainous

district to

the north

tribesmen of Mullah Mastun had

fifteen years earlier the

started the Great Frontier War.

settled Pathans

The

British

had not

forgotten.

They

had made the Malakand — like other trouble spots on the Frontier— “Political Agency,”

something of a

under the absolute control of the

political no-man’s-land.

local political agent,

It

came

whose word was

law— and the British in Delhi made sure that his word would be harsh. Only the most hardened administrators were sent out to the Agencies.

The 68

political agent of

the Malakand was a notorious

man named

Cab. By his ordinance, Pathans had to

Englishman. Any Pathan the

commons,

his

who

head and

failed to

how

low before any passing

do so was locked

feet sticking out

in stocks in

through the

holes. 'Phe

entire district was ruled like a feudal fiefdom.

One

winter morning,

Khan

left for

Mohmand

Bajaur with a

col-

They reached the Malakand Pass at dusk. Police were searching anyone who looked suspicious, and Khan knew he would be stopped and perhaps arrested. He lay down in the hack of a horse carleague.

riage

and covered himself with

his long cotton cloth. ^

It

must have been dark, or perhaps the guard was

driver told

him

there was no one in the back.

moment

at

through.

Khans

Once

The

tirfed.

He peered

for

an endless

the pile of cotton on the carriage bottom and

Mohmand, walked

friend, being a

through cedar

it

toward Bajaur.

left

the

They walked

then into pines. Friends of the Haji Saheb gave

forests,

them food and rooms

trails

let

right in.

they were past the Chakdarra checkpoint, the two

main road and climbed steep

tonga

to sleep in

— at Chamarkand a small cottage on

the edge of the forest, with hives of honey bees droning in the morning sun. Following the creeks of the Panjkora for another day, they

reached Bajaur. Itinerant travelers

high-country

up near the

were not unusual

villagers.

village

about the saints and

sights,

even

to these remote,

Wandering mendicants often

mosques seers.

to read the scriptures

But

this

themselves

set

and

was no mendicant.

It

tell

was

stories

difficult

not to notice him.

Ghaffar thought the small village of Zagai would make a good place to start work.

tention,

It

and the

was remote enough, he thought, to escape undue villagers

seemed

plains for other workers to join

to like

and

He sent a message to the

him. Then he waited.

From near the mosque, one could forests

him.

at-

into the valleys of Bajaur.

look out over the pine and cedar

There the

British

watched every-

one and everything that passed through. After a few days of waiting, Ghaffar began to wonder

Had they even

if

something had happened

to his friends.

received his message?

Another day passed. And another. In the seclusion of the woods, the reality of his situation bore

down

Islam! « 69

upon GhafFar Khan. He did not

like

hiding from the authorities.

could he work under such conditions, '

s

A

when even

How

students were paid

by the British to inform on their teachers?

Alone and perplexed, young Khan decided to perform a

he would seek his

Mohmand

it

chilla, a fast. If

fell

back upon his

friend to wait for him. No,

a small

mosque and

At night he sipped creek water.

tired of kneeling,

He

he

And he

sat cross-legged

told

he explained, he did not

know what he was going to do. He hoped to find out. Khan stayed in the small, dim room for several days, ing.

He

he could not find help outside,

He found

within himself.

instincts.

prayed.

eating noth-

When

his knees

on the prayer carpet.

sought answers. Should he stay and

return to the relative safety of Utmanzai?

risk

capture? Should he

What

should he do? Find-

ing no help, he entered into the depths of his consciousness, until the

questions stopped.

Khan

Francis Bernardone of Assisi was a year older than Ghaffar

when, seven hundred years church of San Damiano

mand him:

earlier,

and heard

to pray

''Francis, rebuild

my

he entered the broken, deserted

churchF Obediently he walked out

some

into the countryside to collect

stones

and

the repair.

start

That the impetuous Francis took the command too 'church,” in fact, was

meant

to indicate

four walls of that broken structure

the

call,

that the lifting

an institution

— did

him up

rested

on

literally— that

far

beyond the

not matter. Francis mistook

but he did not mistake his calling.

hand of God had

com-

a bold, clear voice

He knew, however and that

his bare shoulder,

dimly, it

was

to a great task.

Laying those undressed stones along the broken wall of San Da-

miano

started Francis of Assisi

course of his

life.

Ghaffar

on

Khan

is

a mission that utterly

changed the

even more reticent about his inner

life

than Francis was, and in an immediate sense, to judge from

his

own

terse references, his chilla in the

clouded and inconclusive. But

on that

his activities

70

at Zagai

was

can be observed from that point

and words are stamped with

purpose — the service of seven decades.

it

mosque

God — that

does not

alter

a singleness- of

over the course of

It wijs Ccirly

morning when GhnfTnr Khun ended his

He folded his

fast.

pniyernig under his arm and walked out with the vague hut powerful

same man who had entered the mosque He had not reeeived the direct answers he had

sensation that he was not the a few days before.

sought— he still did not know what not

known

before.

to do.

And he understood,

But he

felt

dimly, that

a strength

it

he had

was the strength

of God. Islam! Inside

him, the word began

Submit! Surrender swelling within

to the Ix)rd

him

to

explode with meaning. Islam!

and know His strength! Ghaffar

the desire to serve this great God.

And since He

needed no service, Ghaffar would serve His children instead— the tered villagers

who were

too ignorant

and too steeped

felt

tat-

in violence to

help themselves.

Ghaffar looked

down

their stern tyranny, the

into the valley.

There were the

British with

entrenched khans, the reactionary priests.

saw before him only pain and unending

labor.

But he

felt

He

buoyed.

Like Francis, he did not fully understand the nature of his calling; but

he knew he had been rest in this

called.

He would submit, and he would not seek

life.

He swung his prayer carpet over his shoulder and started down

the

footpath, dodging the broken, peppered granite in his way.

Ghaffar

Khan could

hardly have suspected that his

life

now moved

along a path taken a decade earlier hy another subject of the Indian

Kmpire, Mohandas Gandhi. By the time Khan had returned village

the

and

flight

set

about reopening the schools closed hy the British after

of the Haji Saheb, a steamship was carrying

from South Africa, where the cluded

to his

history’s

first

Gandhi away

forty-five -year-old barrister

successful

non\iolent

struggle

had con-

against

im-

perialism.

In

South Africa Gandhi had undergone

ter that utterly altered his life’s

a transformation of charac-

purpose. For a decade he had been

systematically reforming his life-style to transform himself affluent lawyer into a disciplined seeker of God.

I

le

from an

had thrown

all

the

forces of his powerful personality into the task of reducing every ego-

centered drive in

him

“to zero.”

Walking the dry

hills

of Natal as a Islaml « 71

stretcher bearer during the

Zulu “rebellion’ of 1906 — another

notori-

ous British punitive expedition — he had heard within him the '

s

service

selfless

of the

human

and

the surge of power that follows the surrender

felt

an overriding cause.

will to

Gandhi returned from

new

strength, but

he found himself

Through

the head of a wholly

nonviolent

systematic,

trial

and

in

of fighting,

summer

Gandhi

to

to do.

new kind

a

Within weeks

of campaign

discriminatory

—

legislation.

sometimes supported by thousands of Indian by a handful of friends, Gandhi

winning the basic

ment. In the

The

resistance

error,

laborers, at times only

ceeded

ambulance service acutely aware of

his

unaware of what he was

still

at

call to

rights

finally suc-

denied his people by the govern-

of 1914, confident of the power of his

left

South Africa

forces released in the

Hindu

new way

to return to India. barrister

and the Muslim

re-

former were slowly converging— and they were unlike anything the statesmen and generals of the Raj had ever faced.

The British, masters

of the arts of diplomacy and war, had conquered a quarter of the

earths people. But the forces of history were against

something altogether new: satyagraha, “soul

unleashed from the depths of the India

seemed supremely secure

would have scoffed three decades.

at

human spirit. that summer of

1914.

force,”

power

Most

British

the notion that the Raj would collapse in just

Khan would

Gandhi, he had chosen

72

now moving to pit them

probably have scoffed with them. Like

to serve.

He

did not question the future.

f *

/

I

r

t

t

,(

\

s

'
om Lucknow, Khan went straight on nationalist leaders.

to

Delhi and met with other

Everywhere he encountered

a fierce sense of ur-

gency. Since their near-victory over the Raj in 1922, Indians had

been

warning the British that unless they were granted some form of government, another clash was inevitable. aloof.

Indians were

becoming

they were willing to fight for

Young

leaders like

that the time

restless.

The

British

self-

remained

They wanted freedom, and

it.

Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were arguing

had come

always cautious, asked

for

an

them

all-out battle

to wait

with the Raj. Gandhi,

and give the

British

time to

demonstrate their intentions. Besides, he urged, India was not ready for battle.

Give the British a

year. If

they did not grant concessions by

then, the impatient young Indians could have their fight — and

would be

it

to the finish.

Khan imbibed this new urgency and returned to the Frontier determined to sweep Pathans into the mainstream of Indian affairs. He spent the summer on a grueling tour through hot, dust-choked villages, trying to stir provincial people to see beyond their own fields and families. By the end of the summer he was drained and impatient.

Something more was needed. *

The world, once weak with summer's Grows strong again. For the poet Khushal Khan, as for

all

Pathans,

heat,

autumn

The Sen'ants

of

rather than

God

«

107

Then

spring brings renewal.

the sun dips south toward the Arabian

Sea, the air from the passes cools, wedges of geese float over from the

Central Asian plateau, the poplars and willows turn

Pathan blood

stirs.

September of 1929 brought cooling winds

Khan

Peshawar

to the

valley.

ready to do battle again — not with the British yet, but with

felt

He

his Pathans.

mined

amber— and

a great

felt

moment approaching and he was

would be

that his people

fit

for

deter-

it.

At a boisterous gathering in Utmanzai one afternoon, Khan stood

up and unveiled that

had crippled

his people.

could beat in an open,

“There are two ways one

outlining the petty vices

These hardy Pathans,

fair fight,

And

he declared.

British,

He began by

his feelings.

otism.

.

.

You have

.

no one

were helpless before the clever

they had no one to blame but themselves.

to national progress,”

the path of religion, and the other

is

whom

all

he is

told

them:

the road of patri-

heard of America and Europe.

people in those countries

may

The

not be very religious, but they

have a sense of patriotism, love

for their nation,

and

social

consciousness.

And

look at the progress that has

take a look at ourselves!

own

feet yet.

Look

We

at their

been made

have hardly learned

there.

Then

to stand

on our

standard of living and then take a

look at ours.

Thousands of proud Pathan eyes looked around — at the rags,

the hide-bare burros and thin goats browsing the stubble, the

gaunt faces If

tattered

we

are

.

.

.

on the road

to ruin,

it

is

because we have neither the

true spirit of religion, nor the true spirit of patriotism nor love for

our nation.

.

.

even heard about

.

A

great revolution

is

coming and you

haven’t

it!

During my recent visit to the subcontinent, I noticed that men and women were fully prepared to serve the nation. And here? Leave alone your women, even your men do not show any desire to serve. They hardly. seem to understand the meaning of the word “nation”! 108

Khan looked around,

his dark eyes Idazing.

had brought the milling mass

to silence.

he edge

I

in

Bearded, turhaned heads did

not move. Two goats scuffled behind the raised platform

Khan continued

noticed.

A it

revolution

can perish by

cultivates

through for

nation can prosper by

brotherhood and national

revoiLiiion. If the

the flood.

with

A

as well. y\ nation that

it

When

it

is

if

it,

and

wide awake, that sure to benefit

spirit, is

people are vigilant they

comes the whole nation

it.

But

no one

Init

hammer:

to

like a flood!

is

voice

liis

will

will

he ready

move along '

,

the people arc asleep!

If

they are indifferent to each

other and indifferent to the country, the whole nation will be

when the

swept away by the flood

Khan paused

revolution comes.

again and took a deep breath.

“O

Pathans!” he

thundered:

Take a look

at

the developed countries of the world.

think their prosperity has

just

Do

dropped from the sky?

It

you has

no more than our prosperity will drop from heaven! rhe secret of their prosperity is that they have men and women who sacrifice their luxuries, their pleasures, and their not,

comfort

for

the sake of the prosperity of the nation.

W^e do not have such self-interest tries,

and

let

men among

look only to our

the country go to the devil! In other coun-

people have learnt that no

country everyone

We

us.

lives in a

man

an

is

island.

dream world of

his

But

in

our

own — like

the

Any animal can find a place to live, find a mate, rear young. Can we call ourselves the crown of creation if we do

animals. its

just that

and nothing more?

Rarely had a Pathan spoken to fellow Pathans with words so plainspoken: Please

remember

this. If

everyone. F.very man,

the nation prospers

woman, and

it

will affect

child will benefit.

Do

not

think that by acquiring riches for yourselves your country

become

prosperous.

It

will not. If

will

you want your country and

your people to prosper you must stop living I

for

yoursehes alone.

he Scrwints of

God

«

109

You must

start living for

and

to prosperity

He had Allah and

finished.

men

Pathan vows

spoke with

They knew

is

the only way

progress.

had cut their Pathan pride bitter.

the community. That

filled

the

air,

steel in their voices.

invoking the

of

The badshahs words

like a razor-sharp tulwar,

that the tulwar

name

but they were not

had been hurled from love — to

rescue the honor of their nation.

For one young Pathan, Khans words cut deep enough

to

keep him

awake the whole night. The badshah had spoken nothing but the hard truth.

Much had been promised

had been sworn. But was

The next morning, morning prayer,

this

that

by the gathering; a thousand oaths

enough? The flood was already

before the muezzin had called out the time for

young man was hanging on the gate of Khans

courtyard, rattling a dozen chickens out of their roosts. his heart.

Something had

argued, one whose

near.

to

He poured out

be done. What about an organization, he

members would swear on

Allah's

name

to give

Not the Youth League — that was for organizers and social workers. What the country needed was men ready to die for it. It needed soldiers! their lives for their country?

.

Khan

.

.

liked the Are in this Pathans voice.

‘'Sit

down. Lets

talk."

Tea was brought, salted and hot, with a platter of fresh nan.

sun was

still

Soldiers!

those

who

The

below the horizon.

Khan

liked the idea. Plenty of Pathans were fighters, but

actually went to join

an army fought only

for the Raj.

Perhaps they did need soldiers — but certainly not more violence.

An

idea slipped out, as formless at

first

as the faint

courtyard around them in the early rays of dawn. violent soldiers, drilled

and

As

And pledged

far as

to fight:

Khan knew,

it

drum and

unarmed Pathans? 110

of non-

bagpipe corps like the

not with guns but with their

had never been done.

professional nonviolent soldiers was

The young man looked

An army

disciplined, with officers, cadres, uni-

forms, a flag— perhaps even a

Guides!

shadows of the

An army

lives.

of trained

something new.

at the badshah.

But Pathans?

An army

of

‘'Who reckless

else?''

enough

Khan

in a righteous

treating nor retaliating?

Khan

more

called for

as a disfigurement their blood

from

It

True, he admitted, Pathans would see

tea.

The code of revenge seemed in hadn't Gandhi been talking for a

He had argued

was meant especially for the undaunted, for those

A

it

first.

But then,

whatever the cost.

re-

kind of honor.

loftiest

decade about the “nonviolence of the strong"? to fight

would he

cause without weapons, neither

was the

ofhadal—at

birth.

else hut a I^athan

What could possibly take more bravado than

to try it?

enemy

facing an

Who

shot back.

that

it

who were not afraid

nation that was unfit to 6ght/he had said,

could not prove the virtue of not bghting. Well, Pathans were

far

ahead there! All they needed was the understanding. If he could persuade half a dozen

They

to try

...

it

called themselves the

Khudai Khidmatgars, “the Servants of

God.” Their motto was freedom, their aim, service. Since self

needed no

service, they

would serve

The Khudai Khidmatgars, under Khan, became

him-

his people.

the leadership of Abdul Ghaffar

army— and

history’s first professional nonviolent

most improbable. Any Pathan could

God

its

provided he took the army’s

join,

oath:

I

am

Khudai Khidmatgar, and

a

serving his creation in the I

name

of

is

as

serving him,

God

needs no service, but

promise

I

to serve

humanity

God.

promise to refrain from violence and from taking revenge.

promise

to forgive those

who

me

oppress

or treat

me

I

with

cruelty. I

promise

to refrain

from taking part

in feuds

and quarrels

and from creating enmity. Pathan

I

promise

to treat every

I

promise

to refrain

I

promise

to live a simple

from I

from

as

my

antisocial life,

brother and friend.

customs and

to practice virtue

practices.

and

to refrain

evil.

promise

not to lead a

good manners and good beha\’ior and of idleness. I promise to devote at least two

to practice life

hours a day to social work.

The Sen' ants

of

God

«

111

For a Pathan, an oath a

vow

easily

Fwen **

"

own tion.

to

keep his word

the

at

risk

of his

Nonviolence was the heart of the oath and of the organiza-

life.

was directed not only against the violence of British rule but

It

against the pervasive violence of Pathan their

does not enter into

because once given, a Pathans word cannot be broken.

enemy can count on him

his

He

not a small matter.

is

freedom and much more:

Khan drew

his

first

ated from his schools.

recruits

They

life.

With

they could win

it

prosperity, dignity, self-respect.

men who had

from the young

gradu-

flocked to him. Trained and uniformed,

they snapped in behind their officers and

out into the villages to

filed

seek recruits.

They began by wearing a

A

simple white overshirt, but the white was

men had

soon

dirtied.

nery,

and the brick-red color proved

easily,

couple of

dyed

their shirts a

at

the local tan-

It

did not dirty

breakthrough.

the dye was cheap, and — best of luck— it had

dropped

their plows to see

Recruits did not

come

who

easily,

these glowing figures were.

Khan and

but

Within a few months they had

teers persisted.

style. Villagers

his eager

five

young volun-

hundred

recruits

—

not enough for a Raj-shattering holy war, but a beginning. Volunteers

who

took the oath formed platoons with

commanding

officers

and

learned basic army discipline — everything that did not require the

They had drills, badges, a tricolor of rank— and a bagpipe corps.

use of arms. hierarchy

Khan

set

modeled

up

a

network of committees called

the entire military

jirgahs,

after the traditional tribal councils that

Pathan law

for centuries. Villages

ultimate authority. Since

all

the Provincial Jirga

The

larger groups,

Provincial Jirga was the

the committees were

became

named and

had maintained

were grouped into

responsible to district-wide committees.

officers,

flag,

filled

by elected

a kind of unofficial parliament of

Pathans. Officers in the ranks were not elected, since infighting. in

He

Khan wanted

appointed a salar-e-azam or commander-in-chief,

turn appointed officers to serve under him.

pletely voluntary;

were recruited

come. 112

to avoid

even the

too,

officers

The army was com-

gave their services free.

and played an important

who

Women

role in the struggles to

Volunteers went to the villages and opened schools, helped on work projects,

and maintained order

at public gatherings.

From time

to

time they drilled in work camps and took long military-style marches into the hills.

As they marched, they

We

are the

We

serve

sang.

army of God, By death or wealth unmoved. We march, our leader and we, Ready to die.

Our

love

i /

people and our cause.

Freedom

Our

and we is

our goal.

lives the price

we

Watching the narrow columns threading

one could

easily

pay. a

curving mountain

imagine that some angry mullah was unleashing

another holy war against the foreigners. But these Pathans, years

had carried

pass,

rifles

and tucked small armories of

knives inside their waistbands,

They armed themselves

now

who

revolvers

for

and

carried only a stick for walking.

only with their discipline, their faith, and

their native mettle.

The Sen'ants of God

«

113

W'ith First

Gandhi

at a prayer

meeting (Govt, of

meeting of the Khudai Khidmatgars,

;\pril

India). Pre\ ions pages:

1930 (\e/irii Memorial Library')

1

CHAPTER TEN

The Weapon of the Prophet 1930 193 -

[

I

am

going

]

you such a weapon that the police

to give

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.

When you go that there

back

to

your

an army of

is

God and

Ask your brethren

tience.

Endure

villages, tell

to join

your brethren

weapon is pathe army of God. its

all hardships. If you exercise patience, victory^

will be yours.

On

riiF, S'l

ROKE

of midnight,

December

1929, a

31,

deafening roar

swelled over the ancient city of Lahore and spilled into the dark Indian

countryside.

It

was the cry of freedom. Five thousand Congress

delegates, closely

watched by some twenty-five thousand sympathetic

onlookers, had spent the previous

they

week arguing

India’s future.

demand independence outright— and unleash

go on reasoning and pleading with the British? there was no argument.

The

British

Should

a revolution

— or

On close examination,

had been given

a year to think

the matter over and their purposeful silence was answer enough. India, in their eyes,

would remain

Thus the cry. The selves

and

all

five

British

— indefinitely.

thousand delegates decided

Indians free

men and women,

to declare

them-

henceforth and forever.

Their declaration echoed the small band of American colonials Philadelphia in July of 1776:

We

believe that

as of

it

is

the inalienable right of the Indian people,

any other people, to have freedom and

[

117 ]

to enjoy the fruits

at

of their

have

toil

and have the

necessities of

opportunities of growth.

full

We

life

so that they

believe also that

may if

any

government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them, the people have a further right to alter it or to abolish

The

British

Government

in India has not only deprived the

Indian people of their freedom, but has based exploitation of the masses politically, culturally

and

it.

itself

on the

and has ruined India economically,

spiritually.

We

believe, therefore, that

India must sever the British connection and attain complete

We

independence.

submit any longer to

hold

it

to

be a crime against caused

to a rule that has

man and God

to

this fourfold disaster

our country.

The young accuracy.

loomed

Jefferson could not have phrased the words with cleaner

No

doubt the image of the American colonials must have

in the

minds of many under the sprawling pavilion — as did

images of the American Revolution

itself.

Yet there was a difference. This was the Indian Revolution, not the

American, and the words were Gandhi s. The end was the same, but the means would be

utterly, startlingly different.

The

resolution went

on:

We

recognize, however, that the most effective way of gaining

our freedom

is

not through violence.

by withdrawing, so

far as

we

can,

all

We

will

voluntary association from

the British government, and will prepare for including the nonpayment of taxes.

prepare ourselves

We

civil

disobedience,

are convinced that

can but withdraw our voluntary help, stop payment of the

if

we

taxes,

without doing violence even under provocation, the end of this

inhuman

The

rule

assured.

is

Indian tricolor was raised and the gathering exploded in cele-

bration.

Two hundred

Pathans led the way, locking their arms in a

drums thumped and the

swayed

in

one of

the wild Pathan dances so reminiscent of the Gossacks. Even

Nehru

great circle. Their

circle

put on a Pathan turban and kicked up his patrician heels. India was free! All she

had

to

do now was prove

That was Gandhis 118

job.

it

to the British.

He would choose

the day and the issue on

which India would begin saty agra ha — ncmv‘K)\cn\ told Indians to

for

prepare themselves for the

the inner voice.

When

the

call

final

resistance. Gandlii

plunge while he waited

came he would know

it

— and

give

the signal. India waited

and simmered. Like monsoon clouds boiling on the

horizon, the whole country of three hundred million waited for the

storm to break. January passed, then February.

from Gandhi, hhe

British

murmured

I

here was no word

and clubs about

in their offices

the storm brewing— and waited. I'hey were not about to

thing out of nothing. Ixt Gandhi show himself.

On March

1930,

2,

Gandhi

scribed as “the strangest

*

what has been de-

sent the viceroy

communication the head of

ever received.” After a detailed, reasoned review of British rule as a curse,”

unless he “opened a

tionwide

civil

make some-

a

government

why he “regarded

he informed Lord Irwin respectfully that

way

conference between equals,” na-

for a real

disobedience would begin in nine days.

He

did not say

what would happen or where. Irwin acknowledged receipt of the

On March

letter.

Gandhi left his ashram on the Sabarmati River and began a twenty-four-day march to the seaside village of Dandi. On the morning of April 6, with thousands of cheering Indians surrounding 12,

him, he picked up

a

pinch of sea

salt

from the Dandi beach and broke

the law restricting the making and selling of

monopoly.

A

The

pinch was

sufficient.

Gandhis

salt law,

ploitation in a tropical land

on

it

the government

great Salt Satyagraha had begun.

country to break the

The

salt to

act signaled Indians across the

one of the more onerous forms of

where

salt is as essential as

law not only monopolized the market for

salt

which, until recently, had been the government

water.

but levied a tax s

second

largest

source of revenue. Everyone in India, rich or poor, had to use

Everyone was touched by the

salt law.

everyone was in a position to break bol of colonial tyranny,

it.

Therefore,

The

salt

ex-

salt.

Gandhi reasoned,

law was a perfect sym-

which the simplest Indian peasant could

understand.

A monsoon

of resistance broke over the country. In

open defiance,

Indians by the millions made, sold, and bought millions of pounds of

The Weapon of the Prophet


eagiie to join the

le

1

began

It

between the Congress and the

to call

Khan

a

to

do with

Hindu, d he

between Hindus and

I>eaguc,

Muslims, widened. In June 1940, France

fell

Germans.

to the

would be next,

Britain

rhe Congress Working Committee debated how India should spond

re-

event of an attack. Should their defense be nonviolent

in the

or not?

•

Gandhi and Khan argued

that there was

no

issue.

Nonviolence was

not an expedient that could be dropped once a goal had been

reached;

it

was a way of life, a code of conduct.

aspects of life

was

be effective

in

all

to

win her freedom nonviolently

if

it

to

if,

at

It

had

to

be consistent

could not hope

in any. India

the same time, she prepared to

defend her freedom with arms.

The Committee Nehru,

Patel,

disagreed. For the

time in twenty-five

first

years,

Azad, and Rajagopalachari — all veterans of the move-

ment-broke with Gandhi’s

Nonviolence could bring

leadership.

them freedom, they argued, but from outside aggression. With

could not protect their freedom

it

real grief,

the Working

Committee

resolved that they were “unable to go the full length with Gandhiji.”

Gandhi asked gress.

He would

violence.

It

stiffened.

to

work along

own

his

lines,

support them wherever they adhered

was a gentlemen’s agreement

He

in principle.

strictly to

non-

Khan, however,

to disagree.

moved away He knew too that if

did not want any part of the Congress

from nonviolence and Gandhi, even

Con-

separate from the

if

it

he gave even an inch on the matter, the combustible Frontier — with

Hindu-Muslim tensions simmering— might “It is difficult for

and

I

am

well go

up

in flames.

me to continue in the Committee,” he announced.

resigning from

the nonviolence

I

it.

I

should

have believed

of the Khudai Khidmatgars

.

.

.

in

like to

make

and preached

affects

all

our

clear that

it

to

life,

my

brethren

and only that

has permanent value.

The

Fire of

Freedom

«

167

The Khudai Khidmatgars implies

own

— servants

lives

must, therefore, be what our

God

and humanity— by laying down their and never taking any life. of

In July 1940, the Congress repeated to

throw

its

name

full

its

offer to

weight behind the British war

London.

It

effort, enlist

was ready Indians in

the army, and fight as one of the Allies — if the British granted

self-

government.

He was prime minister now, as imperial and eloHe had “not become the King s First Minister in order

Churchill said no.

quent

as ever.

to preside at the liquidation of the Empire.”

The

backward.

of Britain had

But he was looking

days of imperial glory would never return.

begun on August

and Great Britain was

8,

The

Battle

fighting for

its life.

Churchills dogged defense of imperialism drove an embittered —

and chastened — Congress back

Gandhi. Both he and Khan

to

joined the Working Committee, which

country in another satyagraha. about

it.

Khan,

He

know

did not

if

He

now

asked Gandhi to lead the

replied that

he would have

to

think

Indians were ready.

continued to stay out of

for his part,

re-

politics,

devoting his

energies to the arduous daily challenge of lifting his people out of

poverty and apathy.

From his stay at Wardha and his long conversations with Gandhi, Khan now understood how the Constructive Program, aimed at building a self-sustaining village economy, could eliminate the exploitation

opened

and greed responsible

and war. He

Utmanzai and

built himself

his center for village service near

a small, thatched hut

work

for poverty, violence,

which became

his headquarters.

There he could

quietly, out of the public eye.

He continued to press

for rights

freedom has been won,” he you

will

and involvement of women. “When

told a

group of

women

near Kohat,

have an equal share and place with your brothers in

We

two wheels of a big chariot, and unless our movements have been mutually adjusted, our carthis country.

riage will never

168

are like the

move.

Khan

Khudai Khidmatgar volunteers

to train

Mary

also started holding week-long

Barr,

eamps — his own innovation — in the

an Pmglish missionary teacher

influence, attended a

camp

Constructive Program.

who came under Gandhi s

in the early forties

and has

left a

very per-

sonal description:

After a hot drink— very welcome in the frosty early there was village cleaning for two hours,

teaching about sweeping having told

me

at last

Bapus [Gandhi s]

borne

One

fruit!

with glee that the batch he had been with

laad

cleaned up the police station in the village he went

The

rest of

the day went in spinning,

meetings, and two hefty meals of large dal,

morning—

drills, flag

flat rotis

Pathan even

to.

ceremonies,

[flatbread]

and

with no trimmings.

In addition to the four

about

a

hundred

visitors,

hundred “Red

Shirts" there were

mostly from Baluchistan, Kashmir and

Then Khan came into the big tent where we were gathered. He stood for what seemed a long time, looking

the Punjab. all

round solemnly, even

on the assembled campers. There

sternly,

was a pin-drop silence from the

he began

to

speak in a

But

a

of his entry, and

(|uiet voice, all listened earnestly,

now and then responded by he had

moment

a

unanimous shout

to

when

but

something

said.

Pathan training camp had

its

own

style, in

contrast to the

more sober atmosphere of Gandhi’s ashram:

More dancing

this

evening — great fun!

The band seemed

to

much as the others, swaying about in One drummer in his excitement threw

enter into the dance as

time with the music.

drum his

six feet

up

into the

air,

caught

it

his

again and went on with

rhythm.

After visiting the camp,

Mary

Barr went on to one of the schools

Khan had established in Utmanziii — a girls’ school, “a rare thing in the Muslim North.’’ Then Khan invited her to spend a few days with his family at their

walking the asked

home

fields

in

and

Utmanzai. She stayed in the large farmhouse, hillsides,

and talked with Khan’s son, Wali.

him whether he remembered the

“I

early days,’’ she writes.

The

Tire of

Freedom

«

169

He

said that

he had been too young

to

know anything about

the terrorizing in the early twenties, but

it

was bad enough in

He remembered the way they had been besieged in Utmanzai, when if even a eow wandered out it was shot or bayoneted. No one eould go out into the fields, with eonsequent 1931-32.

harm

He

and

to the crops

told of beatings

cattle,

— one

he became unconscious.

The

next morning,

while dirt piled up in the

village.

of which he experienced himself until .

.

.

Mary Barr

says,

Khan was up and busy

before

the rest of the household,

working with the servants sweeping and clearing up, both out-

and inside the house. Then Khan spent an hour spinning before going

side

.

.

.

to

work

in

He confessed to me that he disliked doing nothing. local men kept coming to hear about the camp, and

the garden. All

day

while chatting helped in whatever work was in progress out of doors.

In the evening the sons took

me

whether their father had always been said,

“No, he used to beat

thrash and

suggestive light

must have taken place

when Ghani was Gandhis

life

terribly

as

born.

in

We

in his twenties

wife, instances of

Khans

I

peaceful as

when

jump on anyone he thought was

The words throw that

me

and

for a walk,

them now. Ghani asked

was young, and

I

a

badmash

.

.

on the kind of transformation early years.

He was

twenty-three

have similar glimpses into

and

.

thirties

— heated

Mahatma

quarrels with his

an imperious temper; nothing more, but enough

to

human side of the man which we can recognize. “As a young boy,” Khan openly admitted, “I had had violent tendencies — the hot blood of the Pathans was in my veins.” Gandhis ideas and influence had made all the difference: “They changed my life forever.” Like Gandhi, Khan was not born nonviolent: he was a Pathan. He had had hint at a

to

remake himself. Lesser transformations must have taken place a thousand times

over during the years of taza

170

Khans work among the

Pathans. Even Mur-

Khan, the outlaw of Utmanzai that Ghani Khan wrote

of, ac-

became a commander in the

tiially

his prison sentence for killing Atta

permanent a

khan

at

like

1

hard to he a saint and

it

killing,

and the

change of heart and action that

a

transformation was not

lis

Nonetheless, this violent Pathan whose

time.''

had known mostly robbing,

left a

Khan.

Badshah Khans — he “found

the same

underwent

Khiidai Khidmatgars after serving

permanent impression on

his

inside of a Frontier

life jail

and

lasted for four years

life.

Ghani asked Murtaza how nonviolence could have become the creed of a former outlaw.

The

plainspoken reply offers an insight into the

dynamics of satyagraha, soul

human

the

Ghani. great, girls

“I

it

spirit. “I

was

up

tried to live

was a miracle.

I

force,

which

taps the hiddei^ potential of

a little saint for those four years,”

to

my dreams

instead of

my

he

desires.

told

was

It

refused fortunes for a hope and spared lovely

because they trusted

me and looked up to me.” In his unintended

way, Murtaza reveals the infectious power of nonviolence

— love in ac-

“You cannot help loving those that love you,” he

Ghani, “and

tion.

you cannot hurt those that ple

thought

I

was.”

trust you.

Thus the

I

tried to live

up

told to

what the peo-

grizzled outlaw went to prison again

—

but this time as a “servant of God” in the cause of his peoples freedom.

Khans period

of peaceful work did not

last long.

In

December

1941

the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and began a swift advance across

Southeast Asia. Malaya

fell,

then Singapore; then, in March 1942,

Rangoon. The Japanese were within reach of

The

British

government

India's border.

Gongress support

tried again to enlist

for

the war, but no agreement could be reached. Gongress, mindful of India's

treatment after the

last

world war, insisted on certain rights im-

mediately; and Ghurchill was not about to give India away. Pressure built for

renewed

campaign

struggle. In July 1942,

to rid India of British rule. Previous civil

movements had been aimed

at a particular

Gandhi decided, would make British:

The rest of

Gandhi proposed an

“Quit

India.”

just

the Gongress Working

On

disobedience

issue.

This one,

one sweeping demand of the

Nothing could be

British got the message.

law or

all-out

clearer.

August

9,

1942,

Gommittee were

Gandhi and the

arrested, along with

hundreds of Gongress leaders across the country. The

Fire of

Freedom

«

171

On ment

the Frontier, Khudai Khidmatgar volunteers entered governoffices

and courts carrying the Congress

— criminal

British slogans

acts

flag

and chanting

anti-

under the Frontier Crimes Regula-

The government cordoned the buildings and beat volunteers who tried to enter. Dr. Khan Saheb, who had relinquished his premiership in 1939 to protest British policies, now put on his red shirt tions.,

and walked his

into the headquarters of the Indian Civil Service

command

— under

only three years before — to deliver a speech denounc-

ing the war effort.

Khan

too courted arrest, but each time he went out to a village the

government simply picked him up to Peshawar. Frustrated,

Charsadda

Khan

in a patrol car

and returned him from

led a group of fifty volunteers

to “raid'" the court at

Mardan.

When

they saw a phalanx

of uniformed police in front of them, they locked arms and kept walk-

The

ing.

with

police beat

to the

breaking two of

steel tips,

arrested

them

and sent

to the

ground with

Khans

Haripur

jail,

lathis, four-foot staffs

ribs in

He was

the process.

usually reserved for hardened

criminals.

By the end

of the year, sixty thousand Indians were in

government, already panicky due

ened now by the Japanese bullets to break tire

in

to

wartime conditions and

Burma, used

The

jail.

threat-

and

tear gas, lathi charges,

up Indian demonstrations. With Gandhi and the

Congress leadership in

jail,

violence erupted

stations, post offices, railway stations

all

en-

over India. Police

— symbols of British authority—

were bombed, and telegraph and telephone wires cut.

The

British

responded with massive

force.

troops in that country,” Churchill admitted,

“The number

“is

of white

now larger than

at

any

time in the British connection.” Miraculously, however, the Frontier remained nonviolent. picketing and “raids” continued, but there was

some lines

no sabotage.

The

When

Khan if they could cut a few communications wouldn’t harm anyone — he told them to go ahead, so long as

volunteers asked

—

it

they turned themselves in to the police afterwards. “This would add to the

moral courage of the worker,” he added

heads

at

172

drily.

They shook

the unrelenting nonviolence of their badshah.

their

Pbr the rest of the war

of India’s political figures were kept in

all

movement

while intense repression kept the freedom

war neared

began

Public sentiment turned in favor of Indian

to soften.

released.

A

1945,

all

political prisoners

Labor government which promised

freedom was elected

in-

had

to grant India

autumn, and Churchill was

in the

prime minister. In March

power

As the

conclusion, however, Britain’s attitude towards India

its

dependence, and by the summer of

been

at hay.

jail,

its

retired as

Khan Saheb again came into Frontier Province when Hie Muslim

1945, Or.

as chief minister of the

L/Cague ministry suffered a vote of no confidence.

Immediately

after the surrender of Japan, the

Lxindon announced

government tion that

in India.”

’^s

intention of “an early realization of

Freedom had

remained was,

new government

whom

to

effectively

been won.

I

/Cague had

lycague

been unable

demanded

that

self-

he ques-

should power be transferred? I'he

question was scarcely academic, since Congress and the I

in

Muslim

form a coalition government. The Muslim

to

be designated the

it

sole representative of

Indian Muslims. But Congress, whose membership was only three

percent Muslim, refused;

Muslims

together.

stood for a united India of Hindus and

it

The League wanted

would have no part of a coalition

would be replaced by Hindu

in

which

16,

1946, Direct Action Day,

Muslim

state

and

British rule, as they argued,

rule.

W’hen an interim government was

Muslim league, the Ix^ague

a wholly

finally

formed without the

called for a boycott.

It

declared August

on which Muslims were

to express their

dissatisfaction.

d’hat day northern India exploded. In Calcutta riots broke out be-

tween Hindus and Muslims. loodlums from both communities took I

over the

city,

burning shops and

helpless. After four days the city

emotions had been

stirred.

killing thousands.

The

police were

was calmed, but only after deeply

Once

felt

released, they proved impossible to

contain. In Noakhali, in blast Bengal, the

were beaten and the

\

Muslims took revenge. Hindus

killed or forced to convert to Islam.

iolence build.

I

le

Gandhi watched

was seventy-six years old and his health was not

good, but he could not stand by

passively.

I

le

announced he was going

The

Fire of

Freedom

«

175

to Noakhali. “All life, “is

that

I

I

know” he

Congress leaders

told

who

won’t be at peace with myself unless

I

feared for his

go there.”

Gandhi had no plan. He entered the ravaged areas of Noakhali with no protection except the love in his heart. “I am not going to leave Bengal until the

last

embers of the trouble are stamped

a prayer meeting. “If necessary,

In the next flare-up

it

I

out,”

he

told

will die there.”

was the Hindus’ turn to take revenge. In Bihar

they descended upon the minority Muslims with a fury that almost destroyed them. Gandhi, “burning the candle at both ends” in Noakhali, asked

Khan

to

go

to

Bihar in his stead.

Armed

with the same

weapons, love and nonviolence, the gentle Pathan entered the storm. “You are right,” he wrote Gandhi.

Where thousands

“Our nonviolence

of police and soldiers had

been unable

the violence, the love of the two Gandhis began to work

Gandhi,

staflF

At each

village

in

hand, walked through some

he stayed

food, and joined

them

in the

home

of a

is

fifty villages in

Muslim

on

to

its

fire

test.”

check magic.

Noakhali.

family, ate their

in prayer. In the evenings, the villagers gath-

ered at his prayer meetings — at

first

only a few Hindus, but gradually

He spoke constantly of the unity underlying all religions. God was the same, he reiterated, whether He was called Rama or Muslims

too.

Rahim.

By March, Noakhali was calm. Hindus who had enough to return to their villages.

fled felt safe

Khan poured out his heart. “India seems an inferno,” he told the villagers. “My heart weeps to see our homes set on fire by ourselves.” The terrorized Muslims had fled in such panic that many had left their family savings buried underneath their homes. They In Bihar,

were too frightened officials

were willing

to return,

and not even Muslim government

to risk entering the areas to help.

“I’ll

go with

Khan promised, and he led them to their ravaged villages. With Noakhali quiet, Khan asked Gandhi to join him in Bihar. They stayed in Patna, driving out into the villages every day in an old car. Between stops the aging Mahatma often napped, his head in the lap of his niece, Manu, and his feet on Khan’s lap. While Gandhi slept, Khan massaged his feet. In each village Gandhi gathered the shamed Hindus and told them to give him their weapons and pledge you,”

174

never to raise hands against their Muslim brothers and

Often he

told

them how the

Muslim

silent

sisters agiiin.

giant next to

him had

transformed the dreaded Pathans of the Frontier with nonviolence — the nonviolence of the fearless and strong that he wanted Hindus to emulate.

And he would being recited

no good

at

pray.

When a hndu extremist objected

the prayer meeting,

Gandhi

retorted:

to see

one

man

of

is

Bad-

God, every inch of^him — if you

Have you no respect even

in the flesh.

Koran

“You are doing

Hinduism by your unreasoning Hnaticism. Here

to

shah Khan, a Muslim and a

want

to the

I

for

him?”

But the two Gandhis could not he everywhere. In the Punjab, aroused and alarmed by extremists of both

Muslims began

to terrorize

When Hindus

Frontier.

each other.

in

Hindus and

religions,

The

violence infected the

Peshawar were threatened. Dr. Khan

Khudai Khidmatgars. Muslims every one,

called in ten thousand

armed with nothing but

their courage

and

faith,

these red-shirted

Pathans protected the Hindu and Sikh minorities and helped restore

peace

to the city.

But communal violence continued proached, India was drifting toward fearful of seeing finally

civil war.

As independence ap-

Under

great pressure,

they had worked for destroyed, Gongress leaders

decided to acquiesce to the demands of the Muslim League

a separate

On March last

all

to spread.

Muslim

for

state.

22 Lord Mountbatten arrived in Delhi, the twentieth and

viceroy of the Indian Umpire. His task was a swift and orderly

transfer of power, d’he year before, after extensive investigation, a British cabinet mission

had recommended against

But the violence was spreading it.

swiftly,

a divided India.

and no one knew how

After long meetings with leaders of both Gongress and the

I>eague,

Mountbatten concluded that the only way

to

states.

He

Hindu and

drafted a plan which worked out the details of the

idea proposed by the a

Muslim

complete his

mission successfully was to partition India into separate

Muslim

to stop

Muslim

I^eague: in principle, those states

Muslim majority would become

part of Pakistan; those

w

ith

where Hin-

dus were numerically superior would remain part of India. I'hc hire of

Frccdotu

o

1~S

For Gandhi the partition of India seemed a grave error, worse even

than

civil war.

as fearful as

The

violence of tearing India apart, he

which invited the Muslim League

native plan

terests to the extent of

virtually

much deeper wounds. He

war and leave

naming an all-Muslim

drafted an

to protect

cabinet.

On

no support, not even from the League.

would be

felt,

alter-

Muslim

in-

But the plan got

March

31,

1947,

the Congress leadership accepted Mountbattens plan in principle. India would be divided.

Only Khan and Gandhi Muslims could work out British

had

violence.

of

It

Hindus

He

left.

in Pakistan

proved to be

communities

followed, over five

the Punjab, torn

that

as

it

and millions of Muslims

right.

When

in India.

August

1947,

in northern India fled

in the largest migration of peoples in the worlds

people

hundred thousand

down

homes, and

left their

were

lives

the middle, partition

in the chaos that

lost.

In Bengal and

legacy of violence

left a

fear that continues to this day.

mean abandonment.

It

Frontier Province under the governance of the

would place the

Muslim League,

which had battled Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars

Khan and

his compatriots

had

cast their lot with

leave

them

resented

in the

Khans

my

mit,"

he

Gandhi and the

Now

hands of Muslim League ministers, many of

whom

influence and opposition. that he

and India would not abandon them.

intention to go to the Frontier as soon as circumstances pertold

Khan.

lieve in division.

be so

decade.

would

Gandhi assured him “It is

for a

partition

Congress, often in opposition to the League.

killed. If

“I shall

And

not take out a passport because

as a result

if

Pakistan

Gandhi confessed

comes

into being,

my

kills

me,

my

if

heart. But,

business

as

he

unmoved. That

I

I

is,

is

to see

gave way to

I

do not be-

shall

my place will be

he could not bear

be cowardly, and stalwart Pathan go about

somebody

later that

“His inner agony wrings

176

once the

would leave millions

partition took place in

and Muslims

in Pakistan

For Khan, partition would

I

Hindus and

he argued, would not resolve communal

would only worsen the problem,

history. Fifteen million

and

Gandhi argued

their differences in a united India

Partition,

Hindus remaining their

objected.

be glad

to

in Pakistan.”

Khans

tears,

it

grief.

would

he would break down. So

no small

thing.”

“We

shall

he

them.

maji

is

do not worry," he

“I

told friends in

Gandhi had promised

to pro-

told his colleagues, “so long as

Mahat-

Delhi. But he did not fear the future; tect

Khan

oiitcastes in the eyes of both,”

here."

May 1947 in Delhi was hot. It would be another month before the summer monsoons began to cool the air. Khan and Gandhi had come to the capital to

meet with the Congress Working Committee about

partition.

Gandhi had

persuade

him

talked several times with,the viccfroy, trying to

to leave India undivided.

Mountbatten

replied that he

too preferred a united India, but he was helpless under the

cumstances.

Mohammed

accept nothing

On May

in

and the Muslim Ixague would

than partition.

to the displeasure of extremist

7,

Jinnahs home.

no giving

less

Ali Jinnah

cir-

The two leaders

Hindus, Gandhi went

to

talked in a friendly way, but there was

on the idea of Pakistan. The two of them would never

agree on India’s future. Personally, Gandhi said in a sad, firm voice,

he could not bear the thought of

Muslims and Hindus. And

partition.

It

was wrong

he was convinced that

as long as

both

for

it

was

wrong, he could not possibly give his assent. At his evening prayer meeting, Gandhi pleaded with those

complained of his going fellow Indians.

ment evil

that the

deeds

in

I

hey had

to Jinnahs.

What was

to live in the

same

the harm? I hey were

land.

He refuted

Koran was bad because some Muslim Bengal and the Punjab. I’he

I

fanatics

a scripture

because hatred

the negation of true religion. flatly,

it

was the

fastest

Gandhi looked

way

grave. 1

adherents

for its

F’ar

Phen

his lips

filled

to read

your heart was

a long

one and

move.

“O God," he

his talk

He

begin every task with the remembrance of Phy name."

the

line of a prayer that

it

he used every day

closed

prayed in a strong

voice, “I first

in

it.

he day had been to

mad

from protecting I linduism, he stated

to destroy

began

had done

Not

with Jinnah, though cordial, had been a disappointment. his eyes.

the argu-

lindus had gone

Bihar, but that did not diminish the greatness of the Gita.

from

who

in his meditation

It

was

— and

was from the Koran:

The

Fire of

Freedom

«

177

Thou

art the

Thou Thou

art the creator

I

art

compassionate and the merciful.

Lord and master.

and

praise thee alone

Show me

of the universe. desire only thy help.

the right path,

the path which thy saints have taken.

Khan was staying with Gandhi and was

sick

.

.

.

with a

fever.

But he did

not want to take any medicine, and he could be as obstinate as Gandhi.

When

his

Hindu

friends told

him not

to overstrain himself,

turned his bearded face towards them. “Before long we Pathans

become

aliens in India,”

away from shall

be

all

he

said,

he

shall

“away from Bapu, away from India,

of you. Twenty-five years — and the end of our long fight

to pass

under the domination of Pakistan.

Who

knows what

the future holds for us?”

The next day Gandhi was leaving for Calcutta. There was no way to know when — or if— Khan would see him again. Every evening during his stay, Khan had massaged Gandhi s legs. This time, however, seeing Khans pale, feverish face, Gandhi tried to persuade him to rest instead. Khan looked into the face of his teacher and kindred spirit, whose word was law is

your

last night.”

Gandhi

to

He added

told his niece,

but the brave Pathan

Badshah

The

is

a

next day

panied him “I

man

have

“He

is

It is

Gandhi you.

well.”

Independence

will

come,

grim prospect,” he added, “but

left for

I

Calcutta on the train.

“Mahatmaji,” he told

him

Khan accom-

as

they parted,

look for no other support.”

warriors stood for a long time

to

on the platform and

mahatma and

the

Muslim

fakir,

be said? Their understanding had long ago passed

beyond words. Their

178

a

make me

“It

union of sacrifice and service.

What needed

know when

the soft voice pleaded.

of God.”

full faith in

in a

it,”

a true fakir.

looked at each other: the Hindu

wedded

do

gently, “It will

will lose his.

to the station.

The two aging

me

him. “Let

spirits

met

far

above language. They did not

they would meet again — they did not need to know. They

were Klnichii Khidmatgurs, servants of God. They would serve— and

God

would decide where and how.

Khan watched the express pull out of the station and clatter. Hundreds of robed and saried past

him toward

in a hurst of steam

figures swirled

around and

the door of the big terminal— and toward freedom.

And his Pathans? They would prevail. If they could find out their true strength,

it

would not matter whether they were part of India or

Pakistan.

Khan was at peace. His surrender lopg ago to the will of God shielded him like armor from these setbacks. He had not As

for himself,

f

looked for rest in this

was work

life,

and he would not

looking now. There

to do.

Khan glanced up

at the large

board near the top of the terminal:

the days arrivals and departures. Frontier in two hours.

He stepped through

It

smiled.

An

express left for the

to his people.

the rush of travelers toward the ticket window.

pink by now, he thought. to

He

was time he got hack

The plum orchard behind was time

start

the farmhouse would have exploded in

Its

splendor would not

last

much

longer. It

go home.

I'he Fire

of Freedom

«

179

With Gandhi

at a

prayer meeting {i^ational

Gandhi Museum)

Epilogue [AUCUIS'I'

consider

/

IS,

1947]

a crime to be a slave. Vhereforey until

it

establish in this countr}' a true people's

under which

every'

freedom, no matter

first

hour of

1

you

will find

me

who dominates

PASSi'.n, the earl

India’s

new

struggling for

the scene.

Mountbatten of Burma spent the

freedom elearing away the

Raj from his office in the viceregal palace in

the

government

community secures equal opportu-

nities for expansion,

As Mii:)MGH

we

leaders to begin with a clean slate,

vestiges of the British

New

and

Delhi, fie wanted

all

articles that

bore

the symbol of British rule were being carried unceremoniously away. “1 here was an air about

him

Alan Campbcll-johnson,

ment was too old

of serenity, almost detachment,” his aide,

recalls. “

1

he

scale of his personal achieve-

great for elation ... at this historic

and the new order were reconciled

As servants shuttled

silently in

moment, when the

in himself.

.” .

.

and out, Rajcndra Prasad, president

of the newly created Constituent .Assembly, and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first

come

to

prime minister, entered Mountbat ten’s

convey the

mal invitation as

its first

“In the

for

first

office.

Phcy had

new government: a forcontinue to serve the new republic

resolution of India’s

Mountbatten

to

governor-general. little

scene that ensued,” Campbell-Johnson

ship completely burst the

bounds of

formality.”

says, “friend-

Mountbatten, of

course, had already been approached privately on the question and

had given willing consent, but

still

he was freshly touched by the mag-

nanimity of the gesture. He accepted serve India “as

had

just

if

gladly,

adding that he would

he were himself an Indian.” Then the new

earl

— he

learned that he had been elevated a rank in the peerage by

[

181

]

George VI and raised Nehru,

for his

conduct in India — poured out port

his glass in a toast.

whom

he had come

gesture, raising his

own

for his guests

‘To India” he offered, turning toward

to

admire deeply. Nehru returned the

glass in a

spontaneous gesture of friendship.

“To King George VI!” Later that day, in the opulent Durbar Hall where twenty British viceroys had held audience. Lord Mountbatten, the great-grandson of

Queen Victoria, took a solemn oath “to become the humble and faithful first servant of an independent India.” Then he swore in the ministers of the new government— Nehru, Patel, Azad, men who, Mountbatten observed, had As

a

all

twenty-one-gun salute

Lady Mountbatten stepped

served time in British prisons.

boomed

in the

background. Lord and

into a gold state carriage

and proceeded

The

carriage passed

out into the streets of Delhi toward the palace.

through a sea of cheering, waving Indians, former subjects and longtime opponents of the riage with affection

their

new

British,

who were now reaching toward the car-

and gratitude

to grasp the outstretched

governor-general. All the

representative of the Raj

way back

hand of

to the palace, the last

which had ruled Indians

for

three cen-

turies— not without harshness — heard with pleasure the cries that burst from the massive crowd: ‘‘Mountbatten ki

jai!

Long

the

live

Mountbattens!” It

was a remarkable, even unprecedented scene, yet

it

marked the

general tenor of the day throughout India as power finally passed from British to Indian hands.

No one

could have expected the outburst of

mutual goodwill that was expressed rulers

and

subjects;

it

in countless

was unique in colonial

tory but Great Britain,” K.

history.

M. Munshi wrote

conceded independence with such

grace,

and

style

“No power in

his-

that day, “would have

and no power but India

would have so gracefully acknowledged the

The Mountbattens

ways between former

debt.”

deserve great credit for the courage, warmth,

with which they carried out their mission, effecting the

transfer with

uniform dignity and respect

for

the citizens of their

former colony. To this day they are remembered in India with deep affection. ish

182

But the overwhelming sense of amity that enveloped

and Indians

alike at the

Brit-

moment of independence came as a direct

and

logical

conse(]uence of the

against their former masters,

iini(|iic

revolution Indians had

hhey had chosen

to resist nonviolently,

to defy the will of the

Kmpire and accept, without

consequent

he goodwill of that decision continues

suffering.

I

waged

retaliation, the

to the

present time.

For

this,

of course, the credit

seeking compromise respect — even love

Gandhi

at

is

Gandhi s. Never hating his enemies,

every turn, insisting that Indians accord

— for their rulers as they doggedly defied their rule,

set the stage for a

remarkable triumph. Indians had fought

against the greatest empire in world history, without weapons,

they had

won

their freedom. At the

admiration and affection.

Britain's

to nation that

and

same time, they had won Great

Of all

the transitions from colony

would take place over the next decades, none would

proach the tenor of fellowship that accompanied the British

as

ap-

they

left India.

For the Indians, the changes were sweeping and abrupt. Indian officers

found themselves suddenly

never before been allowed to

in

charge of an army they had

command. The few

Indian

members

of

the Indian Givil Service found themselves overnight in control of the

heartbeat of a large, teeming nation.

And

for those

who had

led the

freedom movement, independence brought sudden power and

re-

Nehru became prime minister; Sardar Patel, deputy Ghange — sweeping, abrupt, and unpredictable — would

sponsibility.

minister.

characterize the country for

some time

to

come.

For the two Gandhis, however, independence only brought more of the same opportunities to serve and to suffer in the cause of truth.

The two

servants of

enormous

suffering

God would

and

be called upon

it

Unable

engulfed the

when independence came

to reach his

communal

violence that followed parti-

people in any other way, Gandhi

finally

dertook a “fast unto death” in January 1948, to be broken only

could be assured that the slaughter had stopped — and that

it

never be provoked again. In the anguishing days that followed, in India

turned toward

to

did not bring peace, flundreds of thousands

died in the conflagration of tion.

bear witness to

to stand, in the darkness that

country, as lamps of light and truth. For India and Pakistan,

to

this frail, beloved old

un-

if

he

would all

eyes

man. Fear of losing him Epilogue

«

183

finally

brought an end to a seizure of

amount

of police action had

Following his

now

fast,

been

communal madness

able to touch.

Gandhi wanted

go to Pakistan, and Jinnah,

to

governor-general, agreed to his coming. Gandhi,

in riveting the attention of his

no

that

countrymen on

still

masterful

a particular problem,

decided he would walk— directly through the Punjab, which had experienced the worst of the

would do much

to salve the

almost eighty and

still

communal

violence. His

deep wounds

left

by the

mere presence

riots.

Gandhi was

suffering the effects of his last fast, but

feeling buoyant. Indians

and Pakistanis

had responded

alike

he was

to his fast

with an immense outpouring of sincerity and affection, and he

felt

Khan was

the promise of greater things to come. Also, of course,

in

He still had much to say to the Khudai Khidmatgars — and he had made them a promise which he wanted to fulfill, although he did not yet know how. But Gandhi never got his chance. He died shortly after five o'clock on the afternoon of January 30, 1948, blessing with the name of God the man who had just fired three shots into his frail body. The assasPakistan now.

sin, a fanatical

too

Hindu, was angered because Gandhi kept giving away

much to the Muslims — among other things, he had

the Indian government to

make good

its

just

pressured

debt of 550 million rupees

to Pakistan as part of the partition settlement.

He

believed the

Ma-

hatma was pro-Muslim. With Gandhis death,

his

promise of protection

for the

Khudai

Khidmatgars evaporated amidst the animosity that broke out be-

tween India and Pakistan over the disputed it is

territory of

doubtful what even Gandhi could have done.

already

been made. He had accepted

Kashmir. But

Khans

sacrifice

had

Pakistan.

By the logic of the Mountbatten plan, the Frontier would have remained with India. Though almost entirely Muslim, it had chosen Khudai Khidmatgar representatives over the Muslim League. But the League would not have Pakistan without the

Frontier. Finally

Mount-

batten had insisted on another election — a referendum to choose be-

tween Pakistan and

communal

184

India.

It is

difficult to

exaggerate the horror of the

violence that surrounded those times. Badshah Khan, like

Gandhi,

felt

he was watehing the

he pressed

in flames. If

eaiise

he had given

his ease, the f rontier

lenee like the rest of northern India — but

would

lence

tear

and

villages

families

Kvcrything he had helped his people gain

would be undone.

apart

to abstain

go

iij)

in vio-

Pathans, that viofor

generations.

unity and self-respect

an agonizing act of renunciation, Khan

In

urged the Khudai Khidmatgars

dum.

life for

would explode

among in

his

from voting

d he rest of the f rontier, in that climate of

finally

in the referen-

communal

hatred,

voted for Pakistan.

The eonscquenccs followed

swiftly.

One week after ifidependence.

Khan Sahebs government in the fVontier was disbanded and replaced by a Muslim I/Cague ministry. Dr.

Shortly thereafter, a large gathering of Khudai Khidmatgars met at

Sardaryab and resolved that “the Khudai Khidmatgars regard Pakistan as their

own

safeguard

its

country,” pledging to “do their utmost to strengthen and

and make every

interest

same time, Khan asked in

which

all

for a

sacrifice for the cause.”

At the

united Pathan province within Pakistan,

Pathans would be reunited under “rule of the Pathans,

by the Pathans, and for the Pathans.” In this scheme, peoples of Pakistan would have their

all five

ma)or

own semiautonomous prov inces.

Like Bengalis in Kast Bengal, Sindis in Sind, Punjabis in the Punjab,

and Baluchis

in Baluchistan,

Khan argued, Pathans deserved “Pakh-

tunistan,” the “land of the Pathans.”

Khan toured

the Frontier and spoke out boldly for his plan and the

democratic rights of his people. The government,

at

war with India

over Kashmir, claimed he was disloyal and in league with India.

June

15,

1948,

Khan was

sentenced to three

arrested for “fomenting

years’ rigorous

open

to

jail.

and

imprisonment. Phe Khudai Khid-

matgars were banned and their hcad(iuarters razed.

thousand of them went

sedition”

On

Phe Pakhtun, Khan’s

More than

journal,

was

a si-

lenced forever. Phus, within

less

than a year of the night that Mountbatten handed

over the reins of power to India and Pakistan,

been assassinated by shah Khan had been

a

I

Mahatma Gandhi had

who feared he was pro-Muslim and Badby an Islamic government who claimed he

lindu

jailed

Epilogue

«

185

Two name of

was pro-Hindu. The irony could not have been more complete. of India’s foremost

men

of

God

had been sacrificed

in the

religion.

So began Khan’s second long ordeal

in the cause of

freedom. His

sentence was extended twice, so that he actually served seven years before being released — only to be imprisoned again the following year.

During the

spend

first

three decades of Pakistan’s existence, he would

fifteen years in prison

and seven years

in exile. Pakistan itself

would labor much of the same time under military dictatorships and ft

martial law. India, with

Khan’s

sively at

own difficulties, could only look on pasAny attempt to offer him assistance might

its

travails.

have repercussions on his safety or provoke another war.

Whenever he was out

Khan continued

of prison,

to plead for a

united Pathan province and the rudiments of democracy for his people.

In 1956 he and three other leaders founded the National

Awami

(People’s) Party, “the first social-democratic party in Pakistan,”

functioned as the major opposition party through the seventies with Khan’s son Wali as

was

jailed several

be silenced,

to

sixties

Frontier leader. Ghaffar

its

more times “for antistate

activities.”

his life since partition has

been

which and

Khan

Since he refuses

a history of prison

terms broken occasionally by interludes of freedom.

Thus Badshah Khan’s extraordinary saga continues. Gounting from 1910, when he opened his first school in Utmanzai, he has gone on

serving, reforming,

years.

of

It

and

would be unlikely

more unbroken

to find

life

principles of love

tyranny

anywhere

service in the cause of

Despite his thirty years in third day of his

resisting

in prison

jail

— Khan has

Kabul 186

in

in the world’s history a life

freedom and

justice.

never ceased to stand by the

and service with which he began

Through

all

his mission.

As

a

the suffering and

he has remained the dedicated “servant of God,” compas-

sionate, forgiving, resilient— and as

Pyarelal,

more than seventy

— he has spent the equivalent of every

biographer writes, “He will not bend.” setbacks,

for

Gandhi’s 1965,

last

dogged

as ever.

personal secretary, visited Badshah

when Khan was

Khan

in

a state guest of the Afghanistan

government while

Khans

character that will

He

left

roomy and

us a vivid personal description of

stand today.

still

found his friend seated

Pyarelal villa,

in exile.

in front of his residence, “a lovely

modern convenience,” surHe looked much the same as when

well furnished, with every

rounded by

a score of visitors.

Pyarelal last

saw him, before independence: “Bare-headed, with

gray-

ing hair, and in sandals, he was wearing his flowing blue-dyed shirt

and pyjamas

as of yore.”

The two

veteran soldiers of nonviolence

tened to the news on the radio and then ate a simple dinner:

had declined the sumptuous meals the government wanted for

him. After dinner the two went wrote

years,” Pyarelal

for a walk.

ing but the liness

.

all

Khan

to provide

his seventy-five

later,

he seemed, indeed, extraordinarily steady step.

“For

lis-

fit.

He walked

with a firm,

The countenance bore marks of intense suffereyes beamed deep compassion and an air of kind.

.

surrounded him. Even more striking was the complete

absence of rancor or bitterness on his part after his people

had suffered

a result of their

all

that

as a result of India's partition

subsequent neglect.

It

he and

and

as

speaks volumes for his

large-hearted ness that he retains his regard and affection for his

Congress colleagues and the people of India, unaffected

friends.

by

all

As

that I

he has been through.

.

.

.

took leave of Badshah Khan, the feeling uppermost

my mind was one

wonder and amazement at the unconquerable spirit of this man of God, who, hav ing watched from behind the prison bars [as] the things he had given his life to [were] broken, had now, in the evening of his life, set about in

of

undeterred by the overwhelming odds arrayed against him, to build

them up

[again].

Badshah Khan has this

life.

said

many times

Certainly he has found

seem only

to

little.

that he

“One

of suffering,” he once said with

had not had the

spirit

learns a

more than

wonder what would have happened

to

rest in

Yet his long years of suffering

have enlarged his sweeping

strength and capacity to love.

would not seek

me if

I

and magnified

good deal

in the school

a touch of

Gandhi.

had had an easy

privilege of tasting the joys of

jail

and

his

all it

life

“I

and

means.”

Epilogue

«

187

'

Judged by the normal standards of human

women

of

God may

conclusive. This

whom

the

affairs,

look overburdened with suffering, and even

watched

in-

would have seemed true of St. Francis of Assisi, with

have compared Khans beginnings. In his

I

men and

of

lives

helplessly while the institutions

he had

Francis

latter years,

and

built faltered

lan-

guished. But the profound currents he released into the stream of his-

were

tory

And

beginning

just

to stir

humankind

they continue, a thousand years

at

later, to

the time of his death.

be

felt

today.

was the same with Gandhi. Today, almost forty years

It

after his

death and the partition of his country which he so strongly opposed, the impact of his ideas

than

is

being

any time during his

at

felt

life.

more, by a larger part of the world, His influence grows by the year,

spreading and leavening the visions of seekers in world.

As the

and

both East and West

And so with Khan. will

begin

parts of the

intellectual leaders of the world

fail

to shine in

will

It is

be examining

his nonviolent alternative.

only a matter of time before his special light

many

corners of the earth. For his contribution

when

to the legacy of nonviolence has special significance today,

many

nonviolence,

it

of their long-forgotten legacy of truth and

has been given to Badshah Khan,

the same great service for Islam. His

found values of

to all

so

countries of the Islamic world are torn by violence. Just as

Gandhi reminded Indians

since

to grap-

monstrous problem of violence, more and more people

ple with the in

political

many

its

love, faith,

and

believe, to

perform

a perfect mirror of the pro-

embedded in Islam ‘army of God” stands as a beacon

selfless service

inception. His nonviolent

Muslims who seek an

life is

I

alternative to the self-destructive violence

of our times.

Like Gandhi in Hinduism, tianity,

Badshah Khan and

clusively that nonviolence

like

his “Servants of

— love

a vigorous, resurgent Islam.

Martin Luther King,

in action

Khans

But Khan s message

Muslim world than that, 188

it

to

is

— is

its

in Chris-

God” demonstrated

simplicity,

service represent the Islamic tradition at

Jr.,

con-

deeply consonant with

deep

faith,

and

selfless

purest and most enduring.

scarcely limited to Islam.

It

can help the non-

understand the true greatness of Islam, but more

should help

all

nations to understand their

own

potential

for love in action. If Baclshah

Khan could

raise a nonviolent

of a people so steeped in violence as the Pathans, there

on earth where

it

cannot he done.

I

hc message he sent

is

army out

no country

for this

hook

“The present-day world can only survive the mass production of nuclear weapons through nonviolence. Phe world is

simple and urgent:

needs Gandhi before,

if it

from the

The violent

s

message of love and peace more today than

does not want to wipe out

civiliziition

it

ever did

and humanity

itself

earth’s surface.”

world

may

freedom

yet

come

hgiiter

and

to

know

of this simple, courageous, non-

his eloquent

message of loPe

in action.

Epilogue

«

189

Part Four

'The “Muslim IVcv

ioiis

fiikir”

(Yendulkar)

pages: in Bihar, 1947 (J.V. Mehta)

AFTERWORD

The Good Fight BY riMOTHY FLINDERS

f

Nonviolent Muslims. Nonviolent Muslim Pathans in an “army of

God” sworn

to lay

down

their lives in the cause of

freedom, without

fighting back.

One

could be forgiven a

of doubt,

stir

some puzzlement.

when Mahatma Gandhi first heard of the nonviolent resistance of Khans Pathan tribesmen during the Salt Satyagraha of 1930, though he may well have been surprised, even awed, he would not Yet

have been puzzled.

No doubt

But

to

without scru-

Gandhi, who understood better than anyone

else the inner

dynamics of satyagraha, Khans “miracle” was the Pathans — or

someone

like

Gandhis search went back which he had taxes.

The

unmasked turbing.

entirely

consonant with

Gandhi had been looking

his idea of nonviolence. In fact, for

rest of India like

— ruthless, clannish, vengeful,

a kind of eastern Mafiosi ple.

Pathans seemed to the

them — in order

to

for a

make

decade

a point.

to the Kaira struggle of 1918,

during

led Indian peasants in a nonviolent revolt against unfair

Kaira peasants a truth

They had

won

the struggle, but in the process they

about their nonviolence which Gandhi found

dis-

taken to nonviolence, they admitted, only because

they lacked the courage to

fight

with violence. “With

me

alone and a

few other co-workers,” Gandhi reported, “[nonviolence] came out of our strength and was described [of resisters]

it

as Satyagraha, but

with the majority

was purely and simply passive resistance, which they

resorted to because they were too

weak

to

undertake the methods of

violence.”

This was not Gandhis idea of nonviolence. True nonviolence did not issue from weakness but from strength.

[

193 ]

It

was a matter of the

powerful voluntarily withholding their power in a conflict, choosing to suffer for the sake of a principle rather

though they could. Gandhi called

opposed

strong,” as

he

inflict

suffering— even

the “nonviolence of the

this

to the “nonviolence of the

found in his Kaira peasants. active force,”

than

weak” that he had

“My creed of nonviolence no room

insisted. “It has

for

is

an extremely

cowardice or even

weakness.”

much thought about

After sion,

Gandhi stunned

the implications of the peasants' admis-

his colleagues

by starting a recruiting cam-

paign in Kaira to raise an army of Indians to fight for the Empire in the First World War.

then they should fighting. “I

“But

do not

Indians were afraid of violence, he argued,

If

learn to fight so that they could renounce

first

infer

from

this that India

do say that India must know how

I

who thought he had

leagues

nation: “A nation that

is

lost his

way,

unfit to fight

must

fight,”

to fight.”

To perplexed

Gandhi gave

If

if it

jority of

Indians were not prepared

that not

one

not

The unnatural

to die.

When

a colleague.

fear of

fighters,

meant sending them

he

to war.

1918 proved a failure.

yet objected [to recruitment]

Gandhi wrote

kill?”

fighters, fearless,

The mato take up arms. “But do you know

Gandhis recruitment campaign of

man has

a simple expla-

he could not find natural

decided, he would create them, even

col-

cannot from experience prove

the virtue of not fighting.” True satyagraha required

impassioned, and dogged.

he explained.

death

“They is

because he would

object because they fear

ruining the nation.”

the war ended, so did his recruiting campaign. But

never stopped looking for those born fighters

who would

Gandhi

prove to the

world that nonviolence was especially meant for the strong. “There

hope

for a violent

there

is

none

man

to

be some day nonviolent,” he

is

insisted, “but

for a coward.”

Gandhi heard about the heroics of Khans Khudai Khidand he must have known that he had found what he was

In 1930

matgars,

looking

be

sure.

plete:

for.

Pathans knew

to fight.

They were an

unlikely

lot,

to

But the Hindus' image of the menacing Pathans was incom-

they were vengeful and they could be ruthless, but they were

not without scruple. discipline

194

how

Honor was everything. They were capable of self-

and temperate

in their habits.

Raised with a Spartan aban-

don

God and

comfort, they lived with a deep-running faith in

for

“

legendary contempt for fear and cowardice:

So

read, “but his shrieks live on.

The coward

dies,”

we

[the Pathan boy] learns not to shriek.”

Gandhi could not have invented

a people better fitted to his radical

notion.

But he did not have

need

to invent

them. More than

them: Khan had done

to transform

for

it

that,

he did not even

him. Badshah Khan’s

genius, as Easwaran has pointed out, was to sense the underlying nobility

of the Pathan temperament — with

— and

passion plains,

to tap

it

for a

profound and compelling

its

high purpose. “Being

fighters,”

Khan

“they had learnt discipline already.” All that he had to do was

to give

it

“a nonviolent turn.”

Gandhi’s — it worked: Khan’s

and most enduring of F.ven

Khan was

And

amazement— except Pathans became, we read, “the bravest to everyone’s

India’s [nonviolent] soldiers.”

baffled at the extent of his success. “I started teach-

ing the Pathans nonviolence only a short time ago,” he told

once. “Yet, in comparison, the Pathans

son and grasped the idea of nonviolence ter

than the [Hindu] Indians.

Gandhi, almost laconic “Nonviolence

And Hiat

.

.

How

.

seem

to

much

It is

Gandhi

have learned this

quicker and

much

les-

bet-

do you explain that?”

in his self-assurance, told the

not for cowards.

is

for

Pathan leader:

the brave, the courageous.

the Pathans are more brave and courageous than the Hindus.

the reason

is

why the Pathans were

Thus the unique tory of nonviolence.

meant

for the

violence

lence

ex-

is

to fight

is

able to

remain nonviolent.”

place of Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgars in the his-

They proved Gandhi’s claim

strong— no insignificant matter

that nonviolence

in today’s world,

is

where

seen almost as a natural response to conflict and nonvio-

dismissed as a refuge of those

who are

too

weak or too

fearful

with guns.

But Gandhian nonviolence has another sonal than political,

which aims

at

side to

transformation.

“transformative” nonviolence, to distinguish political forms.

generate

Here nonviolence

human

personality.

The

is

it:

used

it

We

as a tool to

can

per-

call this

same

reform and

re-

movement among

nom iolence

negative forces in personality and use those

more

from the more overt

story of Khan’s

the Pathans demonstrates the power of

a side

to harness the

forces to transform

Afterword

«

19S

an individual, a community, or even

a society. Transformative nonvio-

own

lence could find a special place in the regeneration of our industrial democracies,

wherever

political

post-

tyranny has been replaced

by subtler forms of oppression: meaninglessness, alienation, pervasive dissatisfaction, ennui.

Khan was

Like Gandhi,

essentially a reformer.

He

first

seized

upon

nonviolence not as a political weapon — he was forced into politics by British suppression,

he claimed— but

which had long paralyzed

as

an antidote

to the violence

his vigorous but indiscriminate people. His

%

first

concern was not British repression, but the Pathan cult of

vio-

lence and revenge.

Khan found

power

Pathan temperament into a potent, positive force

to recast the

without diminishing

“To

me

evils that

my

all

had the

vigor.

come to represent a panacea for all the surround my people,” Khan said. “Therefore I am devoting nonviolence has

energies toward the establishment of a society that would be

based on

Khan

its

that Gandhi’s nonviolence

its

and peace.” In

principles of truth

his “Servants of

God”

released a powerful, socially benign force equal but opposite to

the destructive forces

embedded

in the

Pathan temperament and

he was following almost

ture. In doing so,

to the letter the

cul-

powerful

dynamics of transformative nonviolence that Gandhi had discovered twenty-five years earlier in

South

Dissatisfied with the hopeless

sistance” to describe the innate his

own term

Africa.

inadequacy of the phrase “passive

power of nonviolence, Gandhi coined

in 1906: satyagraha. Satya

means truth

in Sanskrit,

agraha comes from a Sanskrit root meaning “to hold on

Gandhi used ble

meaning:

as a it

synonym

signifies a

truth; while at the

grappling,

for “force.”

Thus satyagraha

determined holding on

same time

it

what Gandhi called

re-

to,

to,”

and

which

carries a dou-

a grappling with

implies the force that arises from that

“soul-force.”

Satyagraha stands

the means and the ends, the struggle and the force that

is

for

both

generated

in that struggle.

As heat

is

generated by friction, Gandhi contended, power

leased from within the depths of the

ward truth. The raw material through 196

bitter experience,”

for this

human

power

is

is

re-

spirit in its struggle to-

passion. “I have learned

Gandhi explained, “the one supreme

les-

my

son to conserve

anger,

and

as heat

conserved

is

transmuted into

energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power

which can move the world” In or repressed: energy

is

conserved and transmuted. Thus in

formative aspect nonviolence

is

not nonviolence at

We could more

transmuted, harnessed, used. lence,

where the power of passions

shaped into a potent fighting

With

nothing

this “truth-struggling”

all,

its

trans-

but violence

properly call

it

tmnsvio-

hatred, and fear

like anger,

lost

is

is

re-

force.

Khan had an abundance

his truculent, explosive Pathans,

of raw material to work with. Because of their powerful tendencies

toward violence, they had great potential for nonviolence. Their grappling toward nonviolent truths sometimes provoked excruciating

and required a demanding psychical and emotional about-

suffering, face.

A Khudai

Khidmatgar who took Khans oath renounced not

violence but the code of revenge

itself,

badal, the cornerstone of his

value system and the cult of the heroic Pathan. “To bear this [tyranny] without retaliation

is

just

hard indeed,”

we

zulum

read one villager

tell-

ing Verrier Elwin at the height of the British repression in 1932.

“But do you

“With

all

still

our

believe in nonviolence?”

hearts.”

Because of their demanding inner

struggle,

Pathans under Khans

leadership were able to invoke resources of courage and will that far

exceeded

their

known

limits,

and came

into possession of that inner

strength—“soul-force”— which Gandhi claimed we not

know

human

about.

spirit.

When

he

It is

a

Gandhi

all

possess but

do

power released from within the depths of the called

it

the strength of God.

visited the Frontier in 1938,

Gandhi made

clear the pro-

foundly spiritual nature of transformative nonviolence. “To realize

nonviolence means to

feel

within you

know God.” At Utmanzai he Khudai Khidmatgars

told

really felt

its

Khans

strength — soul-force

— to

red-shirted officers, “If the

within themselves an upsurge of soul-

force as a sequel to their renouncing arms, they

would have the

strength of God behind them.” Gall

there

it

what you

ing the display of this power in the lives of both

Khan, or It is

in the collective force of

will,

is

no deny-

Gandhi and Badshah

Khans Khudai Khidmatgars.

a tribute to the Pathans’ capacity for faith, as

much

as to their

Afterword

«

197

bravery, that they eoiild so genuinely accept such a foreign

conduct and use

work the

to

it

code of

and action we

reversals of thinking

read of here. Their transformations were not always complete or per-

manent,

as in the case of the

outlaw Murtaza Khan, but they were

Khans example they left perma-

often profound, and even in Murtaza

nent marks.

The

Khans movement on the progress of his people can never be measured. What remains unmistakable in the story of full effect

of

the Khudai Khidmatgars

is

that nonviolence, properly undertaken, re-

%

and empowers the human

casts

this kind of transformation.

personality. Very

little is

While some attention has been given by

scholars to nonviolence as a political

weapon,

virtually

in the literature regarding the effects of nonviolence

practice faith,

it.

known about

nothing

upon those who

Since we are dealing with such intangibles as

and “conscious suffering"— difficult

exists

“soul-force,"'

qualities to quantify

observe — these dimensions of nonviolence

may

well

lie

and

outside the

scope of traditional scholarship.

And

perhaps this

is

as

it

should be. For in the

nonviolence — this “truth-grappling""— is a private mostly within the

human mind and

sphere of acceptance, what

is

heart.

needed

mitted individuals ready to undertake

The

lack of

work on

this subject

is

its

Badshah Khan

to

throw some

fitting in this regard that

does not

story

is

To move

it

into a wider

much

as

mean after

that

man

personalities to

to enter into detail

pro-

and now there

all,

the path.

It is

especially

being presented to western

their personal transformations

permanent

com-

we must

audiences by Eknath Easwaran, for his primary interest in both

and Gandhi has been

out

disciplines.

light across

Khans

affair carried

not study so

ceed alone or unguided. There was Gandhi, is

such

last analysis,

forces for good. This

Khan

from flawed huis

not the place

about the exact nature of the disciplines that non-

violence requires; Easwaran has done this exhaustively in other

books. But to those

who would

follow in

Khans

footsteps, the extra-

ordinary story of his courage and doggedness in his fight against

tyranny leaves no illusions about what

whether

political, social, or personal,

ment of the 198

will against

is

is

required. Nonviolence,

a battle, an unflagging engage-

tyranny using the weapons of fearlessness.

love,

to

and

be against

nations

tyranny

.

is

As Khan

faith.

.

.

all

tyrants,

you

found

will

to

told his

Khudai Khidmatg^irs, “You have

whoever they may he; whether individuals or

oppose them’— even, we can assume,

if

the

be those turbulent forces of the soul which tyran-

nize from within the recesses of one’s

Those who would

take

up

own

heart.

this call step into the

stream of an an-

Buddha and Jesus, continues through St. Francis, and is passed on today, among others, by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, and Badshah Khan. The fight, as Khan says, “is always noble,” and those Who make the at-

cient tradition of fighters that includes the

tempt

to enter

its

world needs such

“holy edifice” will find their powers on the

men and women. May they

Khan himself might

say to

flourish

rise.

The

— or as Badshah

them, Tre mash: may they never grow

tired.

Afterword

«

199

Sources and Historical Notes BY riMO HY

FI.INDF'.RS

I

/

Full citations to references in these notes will

be found

in the Bibliogra-

phy which follows. (“Tendulkar” and “Desai” without further title reference always signify these authors' biographies of Abdul Ghaffar Khan; their other works are specified.) The numbers at the left refer to page

numbers

in the text.

General Notes

ABDUL GHAFFAR KHAN: NAME AND VARIANTS. in the

we

names of most

in the

West

call

“Abdul”

is

included

Pathan boys, but is not generally what the given name. Abdul Ghaffiir Khan was called aristocratic

name we use throughout the chapters on his youth. As a man he became known formally as Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (the first Khan being a title) or as Badshah Khan (badshah

“Ghaffar” as a boy, and that

meaning

To add

“king”).

is

the

to the

confusion

for Westerners, Indians

and

Pathans often speak or write of him as “Khan Saheb,” the “Saheb” “Sahib”) being customarily added by Pathans to a person’s ter of respect.

brother,

who

We is

to reserve

known by no

THE PAl’HANS.

LANGUAGE

have tried

“Khan Saheb”

In Pakhtu, the

word Pakhtun

come

who

below) simply means “one British

as a mat-

Ghaffar Khan’s

other name.

Pakhtun became Pathan, pronounced

Through the

for

name

(or

to

connection in India,

(or

Pushtun; see note on

speaks Pakhtu.” In India,

rhyme roughly with baton.

it is

this Indian

name

that has

into English usage.

Pathans living in their ancestral homeland refer Afghans. By this they Afghanistan; Afghan

is

mean no

to

themselves also as

special reference to the present state of

name of their people, and was once no

simply the

[

201

]

synonym, originally Persian, for Pakhtun. (Dupree, in Muslim Peoples, 323) To a Pathan (and his neighbors) the word Afghanistan still carries connotations of its literal meaning—“land of the Afghans’— and in fact the original kingdom of Afghanistan took shape as an attempt to establish not so much a territorial entity as a union of all the Pathan

more than

a

Pathans are and have always been the dominant

tribes (Fletcher, 245).

ethnic group in Afghanistan.

By one of the perversities of political boundaries, however, the socalled Durand Line, drawn by the British in 1893 and still preserved (though disputed) as the boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan, arbitrarily divides Pathan tribes and even villages. The result is that today roughly half of the Pathans (some six million) live in Afghanistan and the other half (perhaps Pakistan.

five million) in

Remembering how

the North-West Frontier Province of

arbitrary this division

is

in

Pathan eyes

will

help a Western reader to understand the importance of Afghanistan at certain junctures in Khan’s story.

Their lands were the home of the prophet Zoroaster, the Vedic hymns of the Hindus, and a flourishing Buddhist culture long before Islam came.

Pathan origins are

LANGUAGE. The

lost in antiquity.

language spoken by Pakhtuns

is

called

Pakhtu — or,

Pukhtu, Pushtu, Pashto, or a number of different variants. The main division in dialects is between “hard” and “soft”: roughly, a Pathan from north of the Kabul River would speak of “Pakhtu” and “Pekhawar” when someone from the south might say “Pashto” and

depending on the

dialect,

“Peshawar.” This leads to

which we have English (such as

though keeping spellings established Pathan, Khyber, and Peshawar).

tried to avoid,

Specific 3

15

“I

kinds of confusing variations in spelling

all

have one great

THE BRITISH

Notes and Sources

desire”:

RAJ.

in

The

Ghaffar Khan, 124-125. British reign in India

began

to

be called

the “British Raj” (from the Hindi word for “reign” or “rule”) after 1858,

when Queen

Victoria took over the holdings of the East India

Company

and began to govern India through a viceroy responsible to Parliament in London. In a looser sense, however, the Raj may be said to date from 1757,

when Colonel Robert Bengal by defeating tion of the

Empire. 202

its

Clive established military control of the state of

nawab on the

battlefield of Plassey.

term was that the British were successors

to the

The

implica-

mighty Mogul

«

15-16

I

he

transfer of

power

Karachi and Delhi

in

is

drawn from

Campbell-Johnson and from Collins and Lapierre.

17

“To have

to carry destruction”:

quoted

in

Yunus, 75-76.

Guernica stands out in the minds of most Westerners, but it was the colonies of Western powers — Great Britain, Prance, Italy— that first expe18

rienced aerial bombing of civilians for no military purpose but terrorism.

Kabul and Jalalabad were bombed by the Royal Air Force in the Third Afghan War, 1919 (Dupree, 442); villages in the Frontier were bombed thereafter to destroy the

homes

of Pathans

who

participated in anti-

British raids (Caroe, 408).

/

At the Air Disarmament Conference in Geneva in 1933, it was not Germany but Great Britain that objected to a proposed ban on aerial bomb-

Anthony Eden asked that an exception be made in the inaccessible mountain districts, sparsely inhabited, case of “certain where wild and armed hill tribes had sometimes passionate appetite for ing of civilians. Sir .

.

.

disturbing the tranquility of their neighbors. Unless order was main-

tained in those districts by this

method

bombing], the only alterna-

[i.e.,

was to use land troops, involving in normal times a large number of troops [and] casualties perhaps of a heavy nature. That was bluntly tive

.

.

.

the problem,” he concluded—“the policing of these areas.” (Quoted in

Tendulkar, 154)

19

“The

brutes”: Tendulkar, 73. Wolpert (324) verifies that “the Frontier

had suffered the harshest British repression during the second satyagraha campaign ... as a result of Lord Willingdons no-nonsense policy.”

20

“The man who

loved his gun”: Yunus,

“That such men”: Tendulkar, dust

25

“O

25-27

The

Jubilee

is

drawn from Morris and Tuchman.

Newspaper quotes and “The

27

“No one

ever”:

quoted

in

largest military force”: Morris,

Tuchman,

“A cherished conviction”: quoted

The

(1911)

31.

55.

in Collins

estimated population of the Frontier

given in the eleventh edition

29-32

jacket.

Pathans”: Ghaffar Khan, 226.

26

29

x.

is

and Lapierre, from figures

17.

for 1901

of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Information on Khans childhood and his parents

Ghaffar Khan, Desai, and Tendulkar.

ITe

is

taken from

descriptions of Pathan

life

draw on Spain, Tendulkar, Dupree, Pennell, and the authors acquaintance with Indian Muslim village

life.

Notes

«

203

KHUSHAL KHAN. “The

31

Dupree

Muslim

(in

Peoples, 327),

eloquent in jirgah [council].

who do become Khan Khattak. .

Pushtun

idealized “is

the warrior-poet, brave in battle and

Few men

both requirements, but those as did a special hero, Khushal

fulfill

the heroes of their age, .

male,” writes Louis

The poetry of Khushal Khan

is still

recited with relish

and quoted with respect by outsiders who write about his people. Warrior, poet, philosopher, and historian, he sings of the Pathan spirit, its love of honor and passion for freedom, its longing for the hills and rivers of home, and its acceptance of the transiency of worldly fame and fortune. (See Caroe, 221-246; Spain, 107-116) in the hujras of the Pathans,

31-32 35

Mullah Mastun’s

“The

The

35-38 Miller

37

history of

my

story

is

from

people”: Yunus,

115.

history of the East India Trading

Company

is

drawn from

and from Collins and Lapierre. an English Resident”: Annie Besant,

“First

“To pick a quarrel”: Miller, 90. “To interfere decidedly”: Miller, “Avowed schemes”: Miller, 32.

38

Miller, 265-266.

Strictly speaking,

in

Yunus, 79-80.

30.

the North-West Erontier was not so narned as a

province until 1901. At the time of the Jubilee, the area was simply a back-

ward (and

largely ignored) part of the Punjab,

by the East India

38

“Thus

is

Company

verified”:

Pathan.

just fifty years earlier.

Mahommed Akbar was the of Afghanistan — and, incidentally, a

quoted in Miller,

79.

Mohammed, first amir The East India Company designed

son of Dost

which had been annexed

to

depose the amir and put

on the throne one Shah Shuja, who, though despised by his people, was favored by the British because he promised to resist any Russian advance through his country. 38

“As swiftly as permitted” and “Would leave

38-39

THE GREAT MUTINY. Though

it”:

Miller, 85.

triggered by a revolt of Indian

“Mutiny” was actually a popular rebellion. But it was not a nationalist one, and it was finally suppressed only because the British were still able to secure the help of some Indian regiments (notably the

troops, the

Gurkhas and Sikhs) against

others. Pathans are not

proud

to recall that

when ties with the rest of India were slight, many of them helped to put down what is now known in India as the First War of Independence.

at this

It is

204

time in their

history,

difficult to exaggerate

the shadow the Mutiny cast over the remain-

There is no doubt that every subsecjuent Indian even those in which nonviolence was strictly pledged and

ing years of British rule. “uprising,’’

preserved, evoked the terror of those days in 1857

when

comparative

a

handful of British soldiers and civilians faced an angry nation gone out of their control.

The

British, understandably,

remembered

cruelties they suffered at

the hands of the Indians in the course of the uprising. “But there other side to the picture

also,”

Nehru

writes, “that

impressed

itself

an-

is

on the

my own province especially the memory of persists in town and village. One would like to forget this, for is a ghastly and horrible picture showing man at his worst, even according to the new mind

of India, and in

it

it

r

standards of barbarity set up by nazism and

238-239)

The Mutiny was

which even the

official

scar in Indians’

the Mutiny

One

month

war.

.

.

.”

(Nehru,

of indiscriminate reprisal

report to Parliament admits was directed simply

against Indians in general, left a

followed by a

modern

women and children

minds

at least as

deep

included.

as that left

These

reprisals

on the English by

itself.

from the Mutiny dominated policy thereafter: that they had won only because of India’s lack of unity. Any attempt at organization or unification — of Hindus and Muslims, or caste Hindus and “untouchables,” or the Frontier and the rest of India — posed lesson the British learned

a potential threat to British control.

41

“Revenge

45

“Our

is

fault”:

a word”: Pennell, 71-72.

Tendulkar, 186-189.

“In the small hours”: Churchill, 88.

“Like most young strings to get a leave

quoted in Miller, 269. Churchill had pulled

fools”:

from

his

own

regiment, stationed in India, to cover

the Frontier uprising as a war correspondent.

45-46 47

“The

The

tale

I

have to

tell”:

Churchill, 82-83.

description of Forward School policies follows Miller.

More

in-

Caroe and James. “'The Great Game,’ of which Kipling writes so stirringly, became a frantic scurry for advantage between two expanding empires. Peace and progress on the Frontier was of little concern to the men who ruled India. formation

is

in

Security was the all-important objective. To this end, Afghanistan was

looked upon as a buffer

state.

The settled Pathan districts along the

Indus

were made an integral part of India. Tribal territory in the hills [in between] was a marchland which must be dominated.” (Spain, 34) T he degree to which the Pathan homeland was carved up by Great Game geopolitics

can be seen from the map on page 200. Notes

«

205

48

'‘If

you should cut”: quoted

in

Yunus, 77-78.

49-52

The

50

no exaggeration”: Churchill, 94-95. Bindon Blood”: Churchill, 90.

War

is

from Churchill,

Miller,

and James.

“It is

“Sir

51

Frontier

“The autumn

52-53

“We

tints”:

James,

147.

loudly proclaimed”: quoted in Yunus, 80.

55

“The Holy Prophet Mohammed”: Ghaffar Khan,

56

“Those who learn

The the Raj

58-59

is

in schools”: Ghaffar

from Tandon,

The

13.

dialogue between

Khans

friend

64-65 66

know

officer

is

his

mother

is

from Ghaffar

these men”: quoted in Miller, 284.

The Curzon

The

and the English

20.

60 The conversation between Khan and Khan, 22-23, and Mehta, 241. “I

12.

reference to standard examination questions on the benefits of

from Ghaffar Khan,

64

Khan,

231.

material

with the mullah

talk

is

is

from

Miller, 283-293.

from Ghaffar Khan,

27.

67 Al-Hilal was founded by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a brilliant Muslim scholar and staunch nationalist who was one of Gandhi’s earliest and most loyal co-workers. Azad and Gandhi came together in 1920, when they were co-workers in the three-man committee that launched the first noncooperation movement as a united Hindu-Muslim front. 68

Ghaffar

Khan

whose

(29) describes

the Haji Saheb as essentially a social

where “outdated and useless traditions” could be replaced with newer ideas still consonant with Islam. This was scarcely the contemporary British view; to them he was simply an outlaw. He unified the Mohmands and roused them against the British on several occasions: hence the British complaint that letting him escape was the first big mistake they made on the Frontier. reformer,

struggle was to found Islamic schools

In British military accounts of the time, the “Haji of Turangzai” figures

only as a regrettably long-lived enemy.

68-69 British

“Had

to

bow

low”: Tendulkar, 25. Garoe, the last in the line of

commissioners and governors-general of the Frontier, comments

that justice in the Frontier agencies was mostly a matter of the agents’ character.

206

>

70

Vhc accounts of Khan’s Yunus (105), who knew Khan

77

chilla arc

all

sketchy.

This version follows

intimately.

“Like flowers in the desert”: Ghaffar Khan, 122-124.

78 Ghani’s illness and the death of his mother are drawn from Ghaffar Khan, 39-40. Ghani Khan wrote later (51): “She did not live long to see [her husband's] long silences

and dark moods turn

and

into strength

ac-

She died before she was twenty-five. They covered her with flowers and took her to the burial ground in her wedding robe. She left behind two baby boys with a bewildered, terrified look in their eyes.. He [Ghaffar Khan] left his children in the tender care of his ojd mother and drowned his sorrow in work and service.” tion.

.

80 p. 3.

“Non\ iolence in its dynamic aspect”: Young India, August Quoted in Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, 121. “Truth implies love”: Gandhi, Satyagraha, 102. “Satyagraha is soul force”: Gandhi, Satyagraha, 105.

“There is no time limit”: Young India, Lebruary Quoted in Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, 173.

19,

.

1920,

8,

1925, p. 61.

same year as the Rowlatt Act— 1919 — King George V announced the so-called Montagu-Ghelmsford reforms, which aimed at 81

Ironically, the

placating Indian sentiment with a system of “dyarchy” or parallel govern-

ment. Provinces were to elect Indian ministers to gos'ern provincial (agriculture, health, education, etc.), while the central

affairs

Government of

India would remain wholly British. This scarcely satisfied the Indian de-

mand

for

home

rule,

but

it

was a significant concession.

Montagu-Ghelmsford went

into effect in 1920 in every Indian province

deemed

except the North-West Frontier, which was cratic reforms

— despite

most ancient and

“No

The

for local bodies.”

so hollow.

most Indian

cities,

The

(Garoe, 425)

Rowlatt Act

became law on March

18,

why

it

1919; in

the hartal or day of prayer and fasting to protest the

was observed on April

Dyer,

democracy in the world. no legislature, no ministry— not

egalitarian forms of indigenous

events surrounding Montagu-Ghelmsford help to explain

seemed act

the fact that the Pathan jirgah was one of the

franchise for Pathans, no elections,

even elections

demo-

“unfit” for

who had been

in

6.

One week

charge of the

later

Brigadier-General Reginald

volatile

province of Punjab

for all

of four days, blocked with troops the sole viable exit available to a peace-

meeting of unarmed men, women, and children in Amritsar, the sacred city of the Sikhs, and ordered his men to fire on the crowd until ful

ammunition was exhausted — producing, according

to the official British

inquiry, 1516 casualties with 1650 bullets.

Notes

«

207

The Amritsar massacre,

which followed, offended many

ations of martial law

from y

together with the public floggings and humiliBritish (though far

home and in India; but it aroused Indians universally, and was forgotten. The Montagu-Chelmsford system was announced less

all)

never

at

than eight months

later.

Since

it

the British hands, and since the Rowlatt

drawn,

seemed

it

and military control

left veto, police,

Act— martial law— was

clear that British rule could never

in

not with-

be separated from

'‘Dyerism,” the mentality of the British military in India.

82 The dialogue between Khan and the from Ghaffar Khan, 48.

The Pathan mass

83

British

commissioner

is

taken

pilgrimage to Afghanistan, an Islamic kingdom,

protested another grievance of Indian Muslims. In World

War

I,

the

Brit-

had sent Muslim soldiers in India against Turkey. Since the sultan of Turkey was not only the temporal ruler of the Turkish Empire but the caliph or spiritual leader of all Islam, Muslims in India mounted a strong ish

caliphate or khilafat British rule.

and

movement

Gandhi, by urging

after the

war was

first

by anger

a united protest against the Rowlatt

British treatment of the caliph, brought

gether for the

over, fueled

at

Act

Hindus and Muslims

to-

(and only) time in a joint nonviolent noncooperation

campaign.

The

85 by

Khan bending the bars was reported to the author Gurudayal Mallick, who heard of it from an eyewitness.

Sri

87

incident of

“One

87-90

learns a

Khans

good

deal”: Desai, 23.

prison experiences are from Ghaffar Khan, 58-81.

90

“She was most keen”: Tendulkar,

91

“It is better”:

“O

quoted in Fischer, 203. people”: Ghaffar Khan, 78.

92

“One day

95

“Is

95-101

45.

a lioness”: Ghaffar

Khan, 83-84.

not the Pathan”: Desai, 68. Material in this chapter

103

“My

106

“A deplorable lack of

religion

is

is all

truth”: Ghaffar tact”:

from Ghani Khan.

Khan,

195.

Alan Gampbell-Johnson

is

quoted

in

Fischer, 256.

once weak”: Khushal Khan

107

“The

108

“There are two ways”: Ghaffar Khan, 93-94.

208

world,

is

quoted

in Spain, 110.

1

The

10

scene describing the founding of the Khiidai Khidmatgars

a dramatization of the

not want this

account Khan gives

movement

“We did Khan adds

in his autobiography.

have anything to do with

to

is

politics,”

(Ghaffar Khan, 95-96), “but later on the cruel oppression the British sub-

made

jected us to tics.”

Caroe

(432)

it

impossible for the

movement

to

acknowledges that “the impetus

came originally from

keep away from

[of

poli-

Khans movement]

the British failure to grant to the Pathans the system

of representative institutions set

up elsewhere

subcontinent in

in the

1920 [the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms].”

Khans notion

military models, stands as

nonviolence,

one of the

pivotal

sive resistance.” (See

Gandhi, Satyagraha,

111

The Khudai Khidmatgar

113

“We

117

“1

are the

am

“We

moments

in the history of

much as does Gandhi s spontaneous decisiori on September

1906, to fight discriminatory legislation in

11,

upon

of a professionally trained nonviolent army, based

oath

is

South Africa through

95.)

from Ghaffar Khan,

army of God”: Yunus,

“pas-

97.

114.

going to give you”: Tendulkar,

129.

believe”: Tendulkar, 64.

NONVIOLENCE in the West,

it

may be

IN ISLAM. Since Islam

is

so poorly understood

some explanation

helpful to give

of

how Khan can

speak of nonviolence as the “weapon of the Prophet.” Sabr, often inadequately translated as “patience” or “endurance,” in the a

Meccan

is

counselled repeatedly

makes it clear that if “satyagraha” comes closest to what

suras of the Koran, but the context

one-word translation were

possible,

The reference is to the early years of the Prophet s teaching in Mecca, when he and his few followers had to endure torment ranging is

meant.

from

Their stance was consistently meaning of satyagraha, without either

ridicule to the harshest persecution.

to “hold

on

to truth,” the literal

retaliating or retreating, in perfect submission (islam) to

the consequences of their

Sabr ful

is all

this

and more:

truth and

faith. it

means

tenacity in a righteous cause, cheer-

resignation in misfortune, forgiveness, self-control, renunciation,

refraining from revenge,

complaint.” first

God s

blow.”

One saying is An epigram

ascribed to this virtue in

the best of our

becomes

life

“bowing before the blow without a sound or reminiscent of Gandhi: “Sdfir is revealed at the attributed to

some

circles in

Umar

suggests the high value

medieval Islam:

in sabr.'’ In the mystics, particularly in al-Ghazzali, sabr

a cardinal virtue in the “holy war” (jihad)

that every

human

“We have found

being

is

called

(Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam,

upon

s.v.

to

wage

between good and

in his or her

own

evil

heart.

“Sabr”)

Notes

«

209

Sabr extend

is

Khans nonviolent resistance, of course. It was his genius to meaning to the renunciation of all retaliation by the strong.

not

its

119

“The

121

The

strangest communication”: Fischer 269-271.

had much more on their hands than the Khudai Khidtime. While Khan and his followers were courting arrest

British

matgars at this

with nonviolent

activities,

of the confusion to stage

some of the Pathan hill tribes took advantage some raids, including two major assaults on

Peshawar. (Caroe, 272) British writers like Caroe and Barton (and Miller, an American, following them) associate these violent uprisings with the

Khudai Khidmatgars, and thus impugn the nonviolence of Khan s movement. Barton, a British administrator on the Frontier for twenty years, writes in 1939 that Khan, “a fanatical, bitterly anti-British Pathan,” Red Shirt agents preached war “preached sedition along the Frontier. against the British in Dir, Bajaur and in the protected areas of the Malakand.” (Barton, 164) The British, of course, had never allowed Khan .

.

.

work with the “free” tribes of the hills, and in any case these uprisings occurred while he was in jail. Of particular importance are the raids on Peshawar, which immediately followed Khan’s arrest. When Afridis, the tribe around the Khyber Pass, heard about the treatment of the Khudai Khidmatgars, they to

marched on Peshawar and delivered an ultimatum: “Release Badshah Khan and Malang Baba [the “naked fakir,” i.e., Gandhi], release the Khudai Khidmatgars, and stop the atrocities and repression against the Pathans. If you don’t, we shall declare war on you.” (Tendulkar, 74) The Afridis were stopped by British cavalry and fighter planes; but in the meantime,

in

the south, Waziri tribesmen had besieged a British

garrison. It

is

instructive to note that while the tribal violence

was quickly

repulsed by overwhelming British military power, Khan’s nonviolent

movement

flourished in spite of repression, so that by 1932

the Pathans significant political concessions. (See Interestingly, the British

Government

it

had gained

p. 129.)

of India report

comments

that

during these raids “the tribesmen altogether abstained from looting in their

customary manner the

kar, 74) If

Khan had been

two decades of reform

them with nonviolent 122-124 122

210

able to

they had passed through.” (Tendul-

work among these

prior to 1930,

hill tribes

he might have been able

during his to inspire

ideals.

The Gongress

“When

villages

report

is

quoted

those in front”: Sharp,

p. 110.

in Tendulkar, 67-70.

122-123

When

one event most

Western writers mention the

be inckidecl

likely to

Sinee Khans nonviolenee

1930.

is

Khiiclai Khiclmatgars, the

the Peshawar “disturhanees” of

is

often judged on this event,

some

re-

marks about soiirees are warranted. Writers like Miller and Barton rely solely on British military aeeounts, ignoring the other eyewitness testimony eollected in the Congress Inquiry Committee report on Peshawar. Millers story, like the rest of his book, makes colorful reading.

The “dis-

turbances” amounted to a “full-scale insurrection” in which “regular

in-

and cavalry regiments sometimes came close to being scattered and routed in volleys of bricks that were supported by charges of Red Shirts carrying clubs and knives. (Miller, 349) fantry

.

.

.”

why

Neither Barton nor Miller asks

Pathans,

consider themselves dressed without a

rifle

who would

and

ordinarily not

two apiece, off cavalry, armored

a knife or

would throw their armories away and choose to fight cars, and machine guns with bricks and stones. 123

Sentences of the Garhwal Rifles are from Tendulkar,

124

Dr.

125

In addition to the Pathans’ nonviolence, another very disturbing

Khan

Saheb’s report

factor for the British

was the

is

70.

in Tendulkar, 66.

fact that

Khan had aligned the Khudai Khid-

matgars with the Congress party instead of the Muslim League, which

had cooperated with the British since the twenties. The leaders of the Muslim League “were not prepared to help us,” Khan writes (110-111), “because we were opposing the British.” When the Khudai Khidmatgars then joined hands with the Congress, the government “sent me a mes‘The Frontier Province,’ the message said, ‘will immediately enjoy all the reforms that have been brought about in India, and in future we will do even more for you than we are doing for India. But on the condition that you resign from the Congress.’” True to form, Khan refused sage.

the

.

.

.

offer.

The

Khudai Khidmatgar captain 70-71, and Ghaffar Khan.

126

126-127

story of the

Wali Khan’s rescue

is

from Tendulkar,

127

The

128

“You must prevent”: Desai, 51. “The two years”: Yunus, 118.

129

“The nauseating

incident with Abbas

.

.

.

Khan

is

is

from Tendulkar,

71.

from Tendulkar,

71.

spectacle”: Fischer, 281.

Notes

«

211

129

“Thanks

131

“I

132

largely to”: Miller, 350.

have but one”: Desai,

“Do

not add”: Tendulkar,

The

description of

132-133

179.

Khans touring

is

from Yunus,

133.

Pyarelal (in Tendulkar, 525-526) gives insight into the impor-

when

tance of Khan’s village work: lar

92.

asked

how he had had “such

spectacu-

success in turning the fiercest warriors on earth into matchless soldiers

of nonviolence,”

Khan answered

that

“it

consisted simply of education

through direct, personal touch. Most of the time he lived

in the villages

homes. ‘We taught them elementary things of daily life: how to keep clean and healthy and at peace with one another. Being fighters, [he said,] they had learned discipline already. All that he had to do was to give it a nonviolent turn.” like

and with the people .

.

.’

“My

133

in their

sisters”:

Tendulkar, 101-102.

Devadas Gandhi

is

quoted in Tendulkar,

The newspaper quotes are from “Do not fear death”: Tendulkar,

134

It is

Khan was

107, 109.

Tendulkar, 130-131. 126.

uncertain to what extent the British in India believed that a

communist;

our

in

own

times, lack of evidence has not

prevented similar allegations from being

made and

But in any case the fear of Russian expansion was powerful and genuine, both on the Frontier and at home in England. Much of the British activity and policy regarding the Pathans can only be understood if it is remembered that British foreign policy has been dogged by fear of the “Russian menace” for well over a century. (491),

“once observed that

all

“The Tsar Nicholas he had

to

do

believed.

II,”

comments Morris

to paralyse British policy

was

send a telegram mobilizing his forces in Russian Turkestan.” (See note for page 47 above.)

to

134-135 132-133,

The

conversation with Sir Ralph Griffith

and Ghaffar Khan,

136-138

Verrier Elwin

is

quoted in Tendulkar, 144-150.

“To gain independence”: Tendulkar,

141

“As a young boy”: Mehta, 241. political

from Tendulkar,

141.

138

“The

is

161.

atmosphere”: Tendulkar,

160.

Gandhi’s Gonstructive Program, in contrast with the noncooperation dia’s

212

movement, anticipated independence and attempted ravaged village

economy while forming

to rebuild In-

a just social order.

The

spinning wheel stood

at

the center of the program because

it

offered work

and an inexpensive source of income for the millions of villagers who were normally idle during six months of the year. Other aspects of the program were sanitation, the boycotting of foreign cloth, Hindu-Muslim unity, the emancipation of women, and the removal of untouchability. 143

“I’he

more

“The

greatest thing”: Desai, 90.

“You

will have”:

“The

brothers’ friendship”: Tendulkar,

I

knew”: Desai, Tendulkar,

i-ii.

176.

“To be with them”: Tendulkar, 1

44

145

171.

193. ^

these brothers”: Desai, 86-87.

“It is

/

“You will be surprised”: Desai, 34, and Tendulkar, 172-173. Ahle Kitab is the Prophet’s term, used frequently in the Koran,

who

Jews and Christians: those

for

share with Muslims the earlier books of

revelation (the Torah, the Psalms,

and the Gospels) which Islam regards

completed and perfected by the Koran. The Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam (s.v. “Ahl al-Kitab”) states that in the interests of mutual religious tolerance, “Islam extended very early the circle of the Ahl al-Kitab beyond its original limits,” even in India. as

146

“I

appreciate”: Tendulkar,

“I

would like to”: Tendulkar, 177. have never found”: Desai, 91-92.

“I 1

47

“What

is

our

fault”:

Tendulkar, 186-189.

148

The

151

“Whenever Gandhiji “I

description of Khan’s arrest

am

is

from Desai, 104-106.

takes”: Desai, 91.

a loyal”: Tendulkar, 199.

“And indeed, 152

171.

it

“The province

amazed”: Tendulkar, 205. has”: Tendulkar, 207.

153 The Government of India Act of 1935 made the chief minister of each province an elected official for the first time (previously the position had been filled by British appointment). In 1937 the first elections were held; Dr. Khan Saheb was chosen chief minister as the Khudai Khidmatgars

won

a strong majority in the Frontier legislature.

“At long

154

“I

155

“We can

last”:

Yunus,

126.

noticed wherever”: Tendulkar, 238.

never forget”: Tendulkar, 238.

Notes

«

213

155

“I

congratulate you”: Tendulkar, 239.

155-162

Gandhi's conversations with

Khan and

the Khudai Khidmat-

from verbatim reports recorded by Pyarelal (Pilgrimage, Gandhi s personal secretary, who accompanied him on his Fron-

gars are taken 57-76),

tier tour.

“We want you

158

“Even

159

“If

I

“My from

Tendulkar, 249.

to”:

as the rose”: Pyarelal, 87.

had

my

way”: Pyarelal, 95.

impression”:

The

conversation between

Gandhi and Khan

Pyarelal, 71-76.

162

“Whatever the Khudai Khidmatgars”: Tendulkar, 284-288.

165

“The Prophet

faced”: Yunus, 132.

“A free democratic

166

is

85.

quoted in Tendulkar, 306.

“The Working Committee could not “It is difficult”:

168

India”: Fischer, 354.

“Divide et Impera”: quoted in Yunus,

Jinnah

167

is

Churchill

(“I

Tendulkar,

go”: Fischer, 356.

327.

have not become the King’s

First Minister”)

is

quoted

in Fischer, 357.

The

168-170

descriptions of the

camp and

Khan’s

home

are from

Barr, 228-234.

170

“As a young boy”: Mehta, 241. Transforming and harnessing anger

come easy to Khan and seems to have been a long-fought struggle. He gave some indication of the nature of this struggle when he told some of his workers in 1938, “I know it is difficult to curb one’s anger altogether. did not

But you have pledged yourselves

God

By

to

it

before God.

may

Man

is

by nature weak

be completely nonviolent but God helping, you will succeed. It may not be all at once. The progress will be slow and there will be setbacks. But each effort will take you a step higher on your path. Do not lose heart.” but

all-powerful.

is

yourselves you

fail

in

your

efforts to

(Pyarelal, Pilgrimage, 69)

170-171

Murtaza Khan’s

172

“The number

173

“All “I

214

I

am

story

is

from Ghani Khan,

16-21.

of British troops”: quoted in Tendulkar, 359.

know”: Fischer, 444. not going”: Fischer, 444-445.

174

“Burning the candle”: the expression

is

Nayars,

I)r. Siishila

who

was with Gandhi at this time; quoted in Fischer, 468. “You are right” and “India seems an inferno”: lendulkar, 403.

176

177

“It is

my

“We

shall

Gandhis

hatma,

178

181

intention”

be

and “His inner agony”: Tendulkar,

422.

outcastes”: Tendulkar, 416.

talk at

the

May

7 prayer meeting

is

from Tendulkar, Ma-

391.

“Before long” and “He “I

have

“I

consider

full faith”:

it

“In the

“As

181-182

if

little

a true

Tendulkar,

a crime”:

“There was an

is

air”:

fakir^':

Tendulkar, 416-417.

417.

.

quoted in Yunus,

132.

Gampbell-Johnson, 156-157.

scene”: Gampbell-Johnson,

157.

he were”: Gollins and Lapierre, 266.

Mountbattens

from Gampbell-Johnson,

from viceroy to governor-general is and Gollins and Lapierre, 266-267,

transition 156-157,

275-277.

182

“No power

185

“Rule of the Pathans”: Tendulkar, 465.

in history”:

quoted in Gampbell-Johnson,

162.

“The Khudai Khidmatgars”: Tendulkar, 450-451.

THE REFERENDUM. The

Mountbatten plan divided India not where Muslims were predominant, but where the elected representatives belonged to the Muslim League. By this criterion, the Frontier would have remained part of India, on the same basis as any of the other Indian provinces. Less than a year earlier, in a clear majority,

it

had voted

Khan Saheb and other Gongress and Nationalist candidates Muslim League. Yet Jinnah would not accept a “moth-eaten that did not include the Frontier. Further, the to

Many

it.

over the Pakistan”

League could not “claim

be the unqualified representative of Muslim India” with

percent Muslim province voting against

in Dr.

a ninety-five-

(Gopal, 333)

— including Sir Olaf Garoe, governor-general of 1946 — personally supported the Muslim League. The

British officials

the Frontier since

League had cooperated with them loyally since the twenties; the Khudai Khidmatgars and the Gongress had been thorns in their sides. To such men, a Gongress-governed Muslim province was an aberration to be cleared up. Garoe “acted openly on the premiss that ‘the Gongress is not natural here,’” and a letter from him to Mountbatten indicates that he “repeatedly urged [Dr. Khan Saheb] to oust the Hindus in his ministry

and sever

his

connection with the Gongress — advice which was Notes

«

215

hardly in keeping with the governor’s constitutional position.” (Gopal, 348)

Caroe argued

Mountbatten that another election was needed to allow the Frontier to ally itself with its Muslim neighbors. It was, he felt, the only way to make Pakistan a reality. Mountbatten adopted Caroes plan into his own and pressed the whole package on the Congress, whose to

around them went from horrible to worse. Northern India was being torn to pieces by Hindu-Muslim riots and a kind of panic had set in; self-government was wholly blocked until the issue of partition could be resolved.

leaders finally acquiesced as the violence

186

“He

186-187

will

not bend”: Tendulkar,

Pyarelal’s

account of his

1.

visit

with

Khan

is

quoted in Tendul-

kar, 523-528.

189 “The world needs”: From Khan, February 2, 1984. 193

“With

194

“My “I

Day,

me

from Abdul Wali

alone”: Desai, Day-to-Day, 174.

creed”: Gandhi,

do not

a letter to the author

infer,”

Mind of Mahatma Gandhi,

143.

“A nation,” and “But do you know”: Desai, Day-to-

166.

“There

is

hope”: Gandhi,

Mind of Mahatma Gandhi,

194-195 “The coward dies”: Ghani Khan, 30. 195 “Being fighters”: Tendulkar, 526. “The bravest”: Nehru is quoted in Yunus, x. “I started” and “Nonviolence is not”: Ghaffar Khan, 196

197

“If

the

Pyarelal, Pilgrimage, 59.

198

“You have

199

“Is

216

193-194.

“To me”: Yunus, xiii. “I have learned”: Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, “To bear this”: Tendulkar, 148. “To realize nonviolence” and

to

be

against”: Tendulkar, 187.

always noble”: Yunus,

132.

143.

16.

Khudai Khidmatgars”:

Glossary

i

an English context,

In

all

these words

mately with vowels as in Spanish or

dhle ainal

Selfless service

amir

An Afghan

145

based on

spiritual disciplines

Revenge, vendetta, blood feud

Scoundrel

badrnash

King

badshah

A

chilla

period of meditation and fasting Small, bowl-shaped clay pipe used for smoking

chillum

A

fakir

haji

p.

ruler

A community

badal

haj

approxi-

Italian.

“People of the Book”: see note for

kitcih

ashram

may be pronounced

renunciate, holy

man

Pilgrimage Title taken

by one

hujra

Guest house

jirgah

Council of

who

has gone on haj to

for travelers

Mecca

and communal gatherings

elders, tribal leaders, lineage leaders, or

heads of

families

khan

Added

to a

name

to indicate superior social status, often of a

village or tribal chief

maktab

A

school run by a mosciue

muezzin

The Pathan code -of hospitality Crier who calls the faithful to prayer

muhabat

lx)ve;

melmastia

mullah

Muslim

compassion religious leader, often with

training

[

217

]

no formal theological

namaz

Prayer

A

nan

delicious kind of

The Pathan code

nanawati

A Hindi

pyjama

some

unleavened bread

word

for

of giving sanctuary to fugitives

the baggy trousers and long shirts worn in

regions in north India and beyond

Pakhtun

Pathan; see note,

The “way

Pakhtunwali

p.

201

of the Pathan': the social codes of badal,

melmastia, and nanawati by which Pathans rule themselves

The

Pakhtu pir

language of the Pathans; see note,

A Muslim

purdah

Veil;

qahwa

202

saint

the custom of keeping

Green

p.

tea,

drunk

women

in seclusion

salted or sugared; the

“Pathan national

drink” raj

Hindi

satyagraha

for “reign”;

used of the Mogel and British Indian empires

“Soul-force,” the

term Gandhi coined

to describe his

nonviolent campaigns satyagrahi

sepoy

A

One

engaged in or training

native Indian soldier, generally

martial tribes: Sikhs, Gurkhas, sitar

surnai

tulwar

A

from one of the so-called

and Pathans

stringed instrument of northern India

A reed instrument A curved sword

of the Pathans

yakeen

Faith

zulum

Tyranny, oppression, injustice

218

for satyagraha

Chronology

4 f

Events in Badshah Khans

life

are chronicled in the

general events in the right. Before 1947, the right-hand ally follows

developments

left

column

column gener

in British India; after 1947, in Pakistan.

1890

Born (Utmanzai)

1894

Lord Elgin, viceroy

1895

Chitral punitive expedition

1897

Queen

Victoria’s

Diamond

Jubilee (June 22)

Great Erontier War

1898

Enters Municipal Board

School in Peshawar

Transfers to Edwardes

1899

D)rd Gurzon, viceroy

1901

North-West Erontier Province

mission school, Peshawar

created

Grimes Reg. Act

1903

Erontier

1905

Lord Minto, viceroy

Refuses Guides commission

1906

Muslim League formed

Islamic school at Aligarh

1908

Decides against college England

in

1909

Utmanzai

1910

Opens

first

school,

[2191

Lord Hardinge, viceroy

Marries

1912

Left to lead reform move-

ment by

Haji of Turangzai

Attends Muslim League

1913

conference, Agra

Ghani, born

First son,

To

Bajaur; long fast (chilla);

1914

World War

1915

Gandhi returns

begins (August)

1

returns to work with settled tribes >•

»

Second son,

Wali,

born

to India

from

South Africa

Wife dies

Exposure

to

Muslim

sance in Al-Hilal

renais-

1916

Lord Chelmsford, viceroy

1918

World War

1919

Rowlatt Act passed (March)

etc.

Gandhi

ends

I

calls

nationwide strike

to protest (April 6)

Arrested

&

months

Amritsar massacre

sentenced to 6 in prison

(Apr.. 13);

martial law in India Khilafat

movement begins

Gandhi begins publication Young India (Oct)

of

Montagu-Chelmsford reforms passed (Dec)

1920

Released; remarries

To

Khilafat conference in

Delhi; sees Gandhi, Azad, et al.

Joins

mass pilgrimage

to

Afghanistan as part of Khilafat protest

Attends Nagpur session

Nagpur Congress,

at

Gandhis

of Indian National

urging, declares policy of

Congress (Dec)

self-rule

&

the

time (Dec)

220

first

nonviolence

for

Founds high school

&

Arrested years’

sentenced to

1921

1

1922

Gandhi announces

/ord

Reading, viceroy

3

imprisonment (Dec) satyagraha, calls

it

off

(Feb); arrested (Mar. 18)

&

sentenced to 6 years’

imprisonment

Mother

1923

dies

/

Released from prison

Mecca

Pilgrimage to of

&

1924

Gandhi

1926

Lord Irwin, viceroy

1928

Simon Commission boycotted

tour

Muslim countries

Wife dies

in Jerusalem

Father dies Starts journal,

Pakhtun

Punjab unrest: Lajput Flai killed by police; police

Attends Khilafat conference

&

released from prison

Congress session

in

Calcutta (Dec)

chief assassinated (Dec)

Forms Khudai Khidmatgars

1929

Attends Lahore session of

Congress (Dec)

Gandhi

&

&

meets

Congress declares

Nehru

independence (Dec.

1930

Salt

March begins (March)

Salt

Satyagraha launched

Dandi

(April

Many thousands

Arrest (April 23) triggers mass

demonstrations and

jailed in

shootings in Peshawar

activities

Repression in Utmanziii

(May

at

5)

attacked and

nonviolent

throughout

India worst repression ;

on

Frontier in history of

13)

British

1931 Released (March)

Commences

31)

village tours

ILij

Gandhi

arrested

Gandhi

released (Jan)

(May

Gandhi-lrwin Pact; resistance

ci\

4)

il

suspended

(March)

Chronology

«

221

Attends Karachi session of

1931

Lord Willingdon, viceroy

Gandhi

Congress (March); member of Working

London

to

for

Round

Table Conference on

Committee with Gandhi

Indian independence

(Sept-Dec)

Imprisoned

in arrest of

Gandhi-Irwin “truce” breaks

all

down under new

Congress leaders

viceroy;

Congress leaders arrested;

& martial law Frontier & elsewhere

repression in

(Dec)

1932

Gandhi imprisoned without trial (Jan)

Civil resistance

resumed

Elwin report on Frontier repression

1933

Gandhi

released at start of

21-day fast (May)

Gandhi

arrested; released;

rearrested; released (Aug)

Released;

banned from

1934

Frontier (Aug)

Gandhi at Wardha Visits Muslims in Bengal

Joins

Gandhi

from politics to concentrate on Constructive Program retires

of village uplift (Sept)

Declines presidency of

Bombay

Congress; gives speeches in

Bombay

session of

(Oct);

Arrested at Wardha for

Gandhi

Congress resigns,

pledging support

Bombay speeches (Dec) 1935

Govt, of India Act provides for election of provincial officials

Released from prison

banned from

222

(July);

Frontier

1936

Lord Linlithgow, viceroy

Banishment lifted by new Imontier government;

home

returns

1937

Congress wins majority of provincial elections;

Khan

Saheb chief minister of

(Aug)

Frontier

Gandhi

visits

(May

&

Oct)

1938

Begins Constructive

Program

in Frontier

1939

World War

starts

II

Congress ministries resign t

Opens center for Constructive Program

at

1940

Sardaryab

Muslim

Resigns from Congress (June)

commitment

passes

resolution for separate

(near Peshawar)

out of

Muslim Ixague

state

(March)

war support UK if independence promised (June); refuses support when promise

Congress

to

nonviolence

offers

to

refused (Aug)

1941

Gandhi

gives

up leadership of

Congress;

starts individual

civil

Pearl

Pledges support of “Quit

1942

civil

movement

Harbor attacked (Dec)

Singapore

falls,

then Rangoon

Gandhi launches “Quit

India” (Aug); Frontier

begins

resistance

India”

campaign (Aug)

resistance

Gandhi & Congress Working Committee arrested (Aug) 1943

Ix)rd Wavcll,

Imprisoned (Oct)

1944

Gandhi

Released (March)

1945

World War

v

iceroy

released (May) II

ends

General release of

all

political

prisoners

Khan Saheb

reinstated as

chief minister of Frontier

New

Lal^or govern inent in

I>ondon prepares for Indian independence

Chronology

«

223

1946

Simla conference on transfer of power

on

fails

issue of

Pakistan

Muslim League “Direct Action Day”;

riots in

Calcutta (Aug

16)

Interim govt, formed (Sept)

Tours

riot-torn

Noakhali massacre (Oct.

Bihar

Gandhi departs riots in

1947

Gandhi

for

10)

Noakhali;

Bihar (Oct. 28)

joins

Khan

in Bihar

(Jan)

Riots in Punjab

&

Frontier

Lord Mountbatten, viceroy, arrives in Delhi (Mar. 22) Congress accepts partition in principle

Referendum

Asks Khudai Khidmatgars to boycott referendum

(May

1)

(July 6-18);

Frontier votes to join

Pakistan

Independence granted to India

(Aug.

Khan

Pakhtun suspended by meeting of Khudai

Khidmatgars

Pakistan

15)

Saheb's Frontier

ministry dissolved by

Pakistan govt. (Aug) Calls

&

Pakistan (Aug)

Fighting begins in Kashmir,

to accept

disputed by Pakistan

Pakistan (Sept)

&

India (Sept. 24)

Takes oath of allegiance to

1948

Gandhi

assassinated (Jan. 30)

Pakistan (Feb. 23)

Elected head of Pakistan Peoples Party (Mar.

13)

Imprisoned (with Khan Saheb); Khudai Khidmatgars suppressed (June)

224

Jinnah dies (Sept.

11);

Khwaja

Nazimuddin governorgeneral of Pakistan

1951

Ghulat

Mohammad

governor-

general of Pakistan

Released from

jail;

under house

1954

kept

Khan Saheb

released from

prison; joins central

arrest

cabinet of Pakistan

Returns

to Frontier after 7

1955

Gen. Iskander

years’ detention (July)

Mirz.a assumes

presidency of Pakistan

“One

Unit” plan incorporates

Frontier

&

other

provinces of West Pakistan

under central govt.; Khan Saheb chief minister, W. Pakistan Arrested; property confis-

1956

Pakistan proclaimed Islamic

cated in lieu of fines

republic; constitution

(June)

adopted (March

Forms National Awami Party

23)

1957

(July)

1958

Dr.

Khan Saheb (May

assassinated

9)

Mirza declares martial law throughout Pakistan;

Pres.

abolishes constitution;'

dismisses central provincial govts.

& &

dissolves all political

parties (Oct. 7)

Arrested

&

jailed (Oct.

Mirza exiled; Gen. Ayub Khan takes power in coup

11)

(Oct. 28)

Released “on consideration of age

&

1959

health” (April);

disqualified

any public

from holding

office

Chronology

«

225

Arrested

&

jailed

1961

with

hundreds of co-workers

for

“spreading disaffection” (April 12)

Named Amnesty

1962

Interna-

constitution (March

tional Prisoner of the Year

Released (poor health) to

house Allowed

go to England

1)

1964

Nehru, Khan’s foremost champion in India, dies (May 27)

1965

Further fighting between

arrest (Jan) to

Ayub Khan proclaims new

for

medical treatment (Sept) Exile in Afghanistan (Dec.)

India

&

Pakistan over

Kashmir

1968

Thousands of Khudai Khidmatgars demonstrate for

&

end of

One

Unit Rule

restoration of Frontier

province (April)

Student

&

opposition leaders

arrested Visits India to

speak

at

1969

Gandhis birth centenary; fasts for Hindu-Muslim

Student

&

labor unrest

throughout Pakistan

Ayub Khan

resigns to General

Yahya Khan,

unity in India

who

proclaims martial law

(March

1970

New

25)

Pakistan constitution

(March

29)

Martial law continued; tensions

between E.

Pakistan break into

1971

226

Civil

war (March)

&

W.

1971

Returns from exile (Dec) with end of

War ends (Dec);

K. Pakistan

secedes as independent

12 years'

state of

military rule in Pakistan

Bangladesh

Yahya Khan resigns (Dec. 20);

Bhutto president

Ali

Frontier, Baluchistan, etc.

again declared separate

provinces

1972

Pakistan withdraws from British copi monwealth '

(Jan. 30)

1973

New

Pakistan constitution

(Aug); Bhutto chief

executive Civil

war begins

as

Baluchistan attempts to

secede (continues until 1977) Jailed as National

Awami

1975

Party outlawed

Released from

jail

“in con-

sideration of his old age”

1977

Ceasefire in Baluchistan

Gen. Zia proclaims martial law

&

postpones elections;

army assumes control (Kily)

1979

Bhutto hanged

USSR

invades Afghanistan

(Dec) Arrested with son Wali

&

all

1983

opposition leaders; kept

under house

arrest in

all

medical treatment

hospital in

Kabul

opposition parties)

nonviolent resistance

Released (Dec); to hospital

To

of

attempts nation-wide

govt.-designated “subjail”

for

Movement for Return to Democracy (coalition

against military rule

1984

Chronology

«

227

Badshah Khan {Yunus)

Bibliography

(

KHAN ABDUL GHAFFAR KHAN The primary based on

sources of biographical information for Khan’s

oral interview:

life

are both

Desai (1935) and the autobiography as narrated to

Other biographies rely heavily on these two sources. history of Khan’s life and movement remains to be written.

K, B. Narang (1969).

The Barr,

definitive

Mary. “A Tribute to the Frontier Gandhi.” In Bapu: Conversations and

Mahatma Candhi. 2nd The most intimate glimpse

Correspondence with

ed.

Book House, 1956. westerner. Mary Barr lived

of

in Gandhi’s

Bombay:

Khan

yet

International

produced by

ashram and draws on personal experi-

ence of Khan during the Bombay Congress session of 1934 and a Frontier in 1941,

when

Two

a

visit to

the

she was a guest at Khan’s house.

Times Press, 1935. The first biography of Badshah Khan, commissioned by Gandhi during Khan’s stay with him at Wardha. Desai bases it upon extensive conversations Desai, Mahadev.

with the two

Khan

Servants of God. Delhi: Hindustan

brothers at the time.

Khan, Abdul Ghaffar. [1969].

My

Life

and

Struggle. Delhi:

Khan’s autobiography as told to K.

Pyarelal.

N.W.F.P.

A

B.

Hind Pocket Books,

Narang.

Pilgrimage for Peace: Gandhi and Frontier Gandhi Pathans.

Ahmedabad:

Navajivan

Publishing

Among

House,

the

1950.

Describes Gandhi’s two tours of the Frontier in 1938. Pyarelal, Gandhi’s per-

accompanied him on these tours and kept graphic records of Gandhi’s words and actions. sonal secretary,

Thrown

to the

detailed steno-

Wolves: Abdul Ghaffar. Calcutta: Eastlight Book

House, 1966. Based on the Desai biography and rience.

[

229

]

Pyarelal’s personal expe-

Tendulkar, D. G. Abdul Ghaffar Khan: Faith

Peace Foundation (Popular Prakashan), 1967.

Is

a Battle.

Bombay: Gandhi

The most comprehensive

biog-

raphy to date, commissioned by Nehru after the model of Tendulkar’s eight-

volume biography of Gandhi, Mahatma. Tendulkar had access to the unpublished autobiography and draws on it heavily for Khan’s story, along with the Desai biography.

government gress

and

its

He

quotes extensively from such primary sources as British

and official reports, the records of the Indian National ConWorking Committee, handwritten transcriptions of Khan’s and

files

Gandhi’s speeches, issues of the Pakhtun (Khan’s journal), and other

peri-

odicals.

Yunus,

Mohammad.

a social

and

Bombay: Hind

Frontier Speaks.

political history of

movement. Yunus was

a

Kitabs, 1947. Primarily

the Pathans, with a section on Khan’s

life

and

Pathan colleague of Khan’s.

Zutshi, G. L. Frontier Gandhi:

The

National Publishing House, 1970.

Fighter, the Politician, the Saint. Delhi:

A condensation of material

from the above

biographies with the author’s commentary.

THE PATHANS AND THE NORTH-WEST ERONTIER Barton, Sir William. India's North-West Frontier. Lx^ndon: John Murray, 1939.

Barton was a British

official

on the Frontier

for

twenty

years. Writing

during

the height of the independence movement, he displays the attitudes of those officials

who saw

leaders (Khan,

the Indian nationalist

Gandhi, Nehru,

et

al.)

movement

and

its

as disloyal opportunists.

Caroe, Olaf. The Pathans: 5 SO B.C. — A.D. J957. 1958.

as “insurrection”

The most complete scholarly work on the

New York:

St.

Martin’s Press,

Pathans. Caroe, the

last

gover-

nor of the North-West Frontier Province before independence (1946-1947), writes of the Pathans with understanding, respect,

and

affection. His treatment

of Khan’s movement, however, and the Indian independence general,

is

movement

in

understandably characterized by a staunch pro-British attitude.

Dupree, Louis. Afghanistan. Princeton: Princeton University

Press, 1980.

An

and cultures of Afghanistan by the foremost anthropologist. Includes a good deal about the Pathans.

authoritative discussion of the history area’s

“Pushtun.” In Muslim Peoples, ed. by Richard V. Weekes. Westport,

Conn.: Greenwood

Press, 1978.

Khan, Ghani. The Pathans:

A

Bombay: National Information and Publications, 1947. A small but sensitive and often moving description of Pathan life and temperament by Badshah Khan’s eldest son, a respected poet. Unfortunately the book is out of print and difficult to obtain. 230

Sketch.

'

Mayne,

The Narrow Smile.

Peter.

account of a return

l>on(lon:

to the Frontier by

John Murray,

an Fnglishman

1955.

who lived

An

engaging

with Pathans

in the last years of British India.

Miller, Charles.

Khyber: British India’s NorthWest Frontier; The Story of an

Imperial Migraine.

New

York:

Macmillan Co.,

tionalized history of the Frontier,

which

1977.

A

lively

hut often sensa-

on

British military

relies heavily

sources. Pennell, T. L.

& Co.,

1909.

doctor

who

Said Khan, story of the

Mostly

Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan

Pathan lived

life at

Frontier.

London: Seeley

the turn of the century, described by a missionary

on the Frontier

Mohammed. The

for

many

years.

i

Voice of the Pukhtoons. [Lahore:

Pukhtoons of the twentieth century

articles written for the

1972].

“The

living in Pakistan today.”

Khyber Mail, the Pakistan Times, and the

Peshawar Times, now suppressed. Guardians of the North-West Frontier: The Pathans. Peoples of the Wild series. Amsterdam: Time-Life Books, 1982. A sensitive, readable Singer, Andr^.

record of an anthropologists stay firsthand description of

life

among

the

Mohmands,

including a rare

behind purdah from one of the photographers,

Toby Molenaar. Lavish color photographs

in the

Time-Life Books tradition.

The Pathans of Pakistan. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962. A balanced and most readable account of Pathan history, written by a sympathetic American scholar. Includes a brief account Spain, James W. People of the Khyber:

of an interview with

Khan

in the early sixties.

OTHER WORKS CITED Campbell-Johnson, Alan. Mission with Mountbatten. London: Robert Hale, 1951.

Churchill, Winston

G.

P.

S.

Great Destiny. Edited by

F.

W. Heath.

New

York:

Midnight.

New

York:

Putnam's Sons, 1965.

Collins, Larry,

Simon and

and Dominique Lapierre. Freedom

at

Schuster, 1975.

Desai, Mahadev.

Prakashan, 1968. Fischer, Louis.

Day-To-Day With Gandhi. Benares: Sarva Seva Sangh Cited: Vol. 1, From Nov. 1917 to March 1919.

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. New

York:

Harper

Se Brothers,

1950; Collier Books, 1962.

Bibliography « 231

Fletcher, Arnold. Afghanistan:

Highway of Conquest

Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell

University Press, 1965.

Gandhi, M. K. All Men Are Brothers. Ed. by Krishna Kripalani. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1960.

The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi. Ed. by R. K. Prabhu and Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1967. Satyagraha

House,

U. R. Rao.

South Africa. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing

in

1950.

Gopal, Sarvepalli. Jawaharlal Nehru: versity Press, 1976. Cited: Vol.

James, Lionel.

The Indian

and Tirah Expeditions,

1

1,

A

Biography. Cambridge: Harvard Uni-

1889-1947.

Frontier War: Being an Account of the

897.

London: William Heinemann,

Mehta, Ved. Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles.

New York:

Mohmund

1898.

Penguin Books,

1976.

Morris, James. Pax Britannica:

The Climax of an Empire. London: Eaber and

Eaber, 1968.

Nehru, Jawaharlal. The Discovery of India. Ed. by Robert I. Crane. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., Anchor Books, 1960. (Original ed.: The John Day Co.,

1946.)

Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power: Three Case Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1960.

Sharp, Gene. ries.

Histo-

Tandon, Prakash. Punjabi Century: 1857-1947. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.

Tendulkar, D. G.

8

vols.

Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. 2nd

Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcast-

ing, 1962. Cited: Vol.

7,

1945-47.

Tuchman, Barbara W. The Proud Tower: War, 1890-1914.

New

Wolpert, Stanley.

A New History of India.

Press, 1982.

232

ed.

York:

A

Portrait

Macmillan Co.,

of the World Before the

1966.

2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University

Index

i /

Abdul Aziz, 66

Azad, Maulana Ahul Kalam

Abdul GhalTar Khan, Khan, see

167,

Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Abdul Wahid Sahcb,

Haii,

Azad

167,

Maulana,

197.

Revenge

Abdul Ghaffar Bajaur, 69-70

37_38, 47-48, 201-202, 205

Pathan emigration

to, 83,

Barani Kaka, 57-59

208

Barr,

Afridis, 29, 30, 210 213:

Khan

Mary, 169-170

Bengal, 106, 145-146,

on, 145

Air nisarmanicnt Gonfcrcnce, 203

Akhar,

40-41, 96,

Badshah Khan, see Khan, Khan

206

Able Kitah,

17,

see also

9, 68,

Afghanistan: British policy and,

Akaziiis,

school, 83,91

badal, Aziid,

206

66-68,

206

Abul Kalam

atroeities, 38,

204

173,

52-53

Bhaizai, 133

Alniora prison, 152

Bihar, 174, 177

omul,

Blood, Sir Bindon, 45, 50

12

Bolshevism: imputed to Khan,

Amritsar massacre, 208 Anger: Gandhi on, 197

Bombay: Khans speeches

on, 214

of Retribution, 38

Bose, Suhhas Chandra, 106

of the Indus, 37-38

British

British

Amritsar, 207-208

at Kissa

Khani

Government

46-47

of India,

see British Raj

Baz^iar, 122-124

British public sentiment, 151,

of 1931-32 Salt Satyagraha,

173, 183

136-137, 169-170

British Raj:

Auckland, Lord, 37

Maulana Ahul Kalam,

Empire, 25-27

British Foreign Offiee,

in Tirah, 51-53

Aziid,

in, 147,

151-152

Atrocities: at Utmanziii, 125-127

at

128,

134

Anjuman-Islah-ul-Afaghina, 82, 91

Army Army

177

Besant, Annie: on Frontier

48

Mahommcd,

Khan

(cont.)

Army

of the Indus,

18 9,

development of policy on

68,

[233

]

Comm,

Congress Working

British Raj (cout.)

Nagpur,

Frontier, 46-53, 64-65,

at

215-216

during World War

during World War

II,

165,

165-168

Constructive Program,

141, 142,

146, 160, 168-169, 212-213

Cowardice: Gandhi on, 194

15-16

of,

establishment

72, 182-183

Daily Mail: report on Khan, 134

independence, 172-173

policy of Divide 166,

Curzon, George, Lord, 64-65

35-39, 202

of,

nonviolence and, offers

and Rule,

65,

Dandi

salt

march,

118

Declaration of Indian independence,

205

reforms suppressed by, 77-79,

117-118, 121

Dera Ghazi Khan prison, 90 Dera Ismail Khan prison, 88-90

81-85, 120-121, 133-134,

207-208 relations

9, 10 II,

167-168, 171-172

end

(cont.)

with Pathan

17-19, 29, 45-53,

Khan

Desai, Mahadev: on

tribes,

64-65

brothers,

143-144

Diamond

repression in North-West

Queen

Jubilee,

Victorias,

25-27, 38-39, 46, 53

Frontier, 17-19, 51-53, 81,

Direct Action Day, 173

122-127, 136-137, 170, 203

Brydon, Dr. William, 38

Divide and Rule policy, 65,

Buddha,

Durand Line,

the, 199

166,

205

202

48,

Dyer, Gen. Reginald, 207-208

Burnes, Alexander, 37 Byculla prison, 152

Gompany, 35-38

East India Trading

Cab

(Political Agent),

Education: on Frontier,

68-69, 77

Khans reforms

Calcutta, 173

Campbell-Johnson, Alan,

in,

56,

83

77-79, 82-85

Ellenborough, Lord, 37

181

Caroe, Sir Olaf, 215-216

Elphinstone, Alountstuart, 166

Chamberlain,

Elwin, Verrier, 136-138, 197

chilla, 70,

Sir Neville, 17

English government, see

207

Chitral: 1895 uprising, 32, 46, 48

British Raj

Churchill, Winston, 45-46, 49-50, 129, 168, 171, 172, 173

Clive, Robert, 36, 202

Close Border School, 47

Communal

War

Frontier

Indian National Congress party

Congress Inquiry Committee report, 120-124

18,

37-38

of Independence, 38,

205

Policy, 47-53, 65

Francis of Assisi,

Congress, Indian National, see

234

First

Forward

183-185, 216

172

Afghan War, 39, 123,

violence, 173-176,

Congress Working Committee,

First

St., 70,

199

Grimes Regulation Act,

65, 67, 172

Frontier 57.

War

‘

(1897),

45-46, 49-53,

See also Mastun, Mullah

171,

Gandhi, Devadas,

133

“Gandhi,

Frontier,” see

Khan,

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Gandhi, M. K.: and Khilafat

Gandhi'lrwin Pact, 129

Garhwal

Rifles, 123

Great Britain, government

movement, 208 and Partition, 17, 175-178

“Great

arrested following Salt

Great Indian Mutiny,

in India, see British Raj

Game,

205

the,” 47,

38, 39, 123,

204-205

Satyagraha, 120

Griffith, Sir Ralph, 134-136

assassinated, 184 at

Wardha,

at

time of independence,

9,

of,

142-145, 147-148 16-17,

“Grim,

the,” 18, 159

Guides, the, 57-58,

124, 155

183-184

during World War

II,

167-168,

Ilaji

206

171-172

during

fast

communal

violence,

Al-llilal, 67,

noncooperation movement,

relations, 166-167,

173-176, 183-184, 205, 208,

215-216

91, 139

his

206

Hindu-Muslim

183-184 halts

Saheb of Tarangzai, 66-68,

army recruitment campaign,

Honor, Pathan code

194

95-101,

of, 30,

84,

111

imprisoned, 136

Hospitality of Pathans, 30

in Bihar, 174

hujraSy 30, 204

in Noakhali, 173-174 in

South Africa, 71-72, 196

influence

of,

on Khan,

Imperialism: mercantilism

transformed

78, 85,

See also British Raj

170

Independence of

launches Salt Satyagraha,

India, 16-17:

and nonviolence,

118-119

negotiates with Lord Irwin,

128-129

on

35-39

to,

on nonviolence,

117-118

20, 80,

16-17

celebration

of,

declaration

of, 117-118, 121

Indian National Congress party:

India’s declaration of

independence,

183

111,

156-158, 160-162, 193-194

and Khudai Khidmatgars, and Muslim League, 166, at

Calcutta (1928), 106

rising influence of, 78, 79

at

Lahore

sends Elwin to Frontier, 136

at

Lucknow

source of his power,

at

Nagpur

11

tours Frontier, 154-162, 197 tried tries

and imprisoned, 91 to keep Khan from

with

to

of,

(1929), 117-118 (1929), 107

(1920), 83

Gandhi’s leadership

in,

80

prison,

Irwin, Lord, 106,

119,

128-129

Iskander Mirza, 16

go

Khan

youth

173, 175

leadership jailed, 172

148, 151

wants

211

to Frontier, 146

brothers, 142-145

170

Islam:

and nonviolence,

156,

11-12,

209-210

Khan’s understanding

of, 11-12,

Index

«

235

Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar

Islam (cont.)

and

63, 143-145, 188-189, 210

renaissance

Partition, 16, 166, 174-179,

183-185

103-104,

of, 67,

166

British

view of his nonviolence,

19, 85,

Jallianwalla

Bagh

210-211

imprisoned, 19-20, 81-82,

tragedy, see

Amritsar massacre

84-85, 121-122,

Jesus, 199

Jinnah,

(cont.)

136, 138-139,

152, 172, 185

Mohammed

boyhood

Ali, 16, 177,

setting, 27-28,

39-43

influence of his parents, 41-42

215

207

jirgah, 104, no,

education

55-57, 59-61

of,

joined British regiment, 57-58

witnessed insult by English

Kaira, 193-194

Kashmir,

184, 185

59

officer,

Khan, Abaidullah, 30

listened to mother's plea, 60-61

Khan, Abbas,

yearns to serve, 63-64, 70-71

Khan, Abdul

127

reform work

Ali, 145

Khan, Abdul Ghani,

Khan Abdul

Khan,

challenged mullahs, 66 married, 67

Ghaffar

Khan, Abdul Wali,

birth of son (Ghani), 67

125, 126-127,

meets Haji Saheb, 67

136, 145, 169-170, 186

Khan,

Atta,

96-98

Khan, Badshah,

see

meets national

Khan,

meets Maulana Azad,

Khan, Behram, 28-31, 39-43, death

attends

59-60: of,

67,

fast, 70,

transformation

83-84

68,

of,

207

70-71, 170,

198, 214

death of

127

Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar: at Nagpur railway station, his renunciation,

10,

Gandhi,

wife, 78

first

influence of

Gandhi on,

78-79,

83, 85, 170

10

tours villages, 78-79, 107,

132

132-134, 154-155, 158-159, 212

10-11, 176, 178

nonviolence, a creed, 10-11,

167,

196

religious basis of his work, 11-12,

called “Badshah," 79, 132 in shackles, 81,

87-88

70-71, 134, 143-145, 188-189,

remarried, 82

198-199, 207

emigrated to Afghanistan, 82-83

raised nonviolent army, 12, 110-113, 195-197

236

Muslim conference,

undertakes

Khans reform work,

his loyalty to

206

goes to Bajaur, 68-70

103

Khan, Hassan,

68,

106

imprisoned with son, 81-82 questions

leaders, 68,

106-107

Khan Abdul Ghaffar 56,

121,

168-169, 212-213

95-101, 105, 136, 145, 170 see

64, 65-71,

77-79, 82-85, 104-105,

67, 78, 91,

Khan, Abdul Ghaffar,

of,

16,

at

Congress meetings, 106-107, 117-118

83,

Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar

Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar on Gandhi, 146-147, 170

(cont.)

not drawn to politics, 83

plans work with Bcngiili Muslims,

treated like criminal, 84, 87-90,

146, 147-148

138-139, 172

refuses to give security, 84-85

arrested for

refuses British compromise, 87

147-148

in

Dera Ismail Khan

in

Dera Ghazi Khan prison, 90

prison,

88-90

on

women,

in Bihar, 174-175

and

Pakhtu journal, 104-105

conference, 106-107

•

independence, 183-187

in Pakistan, 184-186

seeks united province for

meets Gandhi, 107

Pathans, 185-186

meets Nehru, 107

thirty years in prison, 186

Khudai Khidmatgars,

in Afghanistan, 186-187

unconquerable

195-197 128, 134, 212

on tyranny, 199 131,

142

his

name and

variants, 201

influence of Aziid on, 206

objectives, 132

his influence, 133-134, 153-154

Khan

his appeal to villagers, 133-134

Khan, Liaquat AH,

brought to Ghief Gommissioner,

Khan, Mehar Khan,

134-136

banned from at

Frontier, 141-142

143,

144-145, 188-189

Gandhi on,

143-144, 162, 176,

107,

204

16

Taj, 145

Mohammed

Naquib, 128 170-171,

198

Khan, Rabnawaz,

147-148, 153

temperament,

Khattak, Khushal,

Khan, Murtaza, 96-98,

Gandhi’s ashram, 142-145,

his religious

187

spirit,

his genius, 195

131

called “Frontier Gandhi,”

two

Partition, 176-179

after

observes Gandhi’s patience, 106

regarded as saint,

170

during “Quit India” campaign, 172

104-105,

his sister, 105, 132-133

his

167-168,

on Gandhi’s influence,

of, 104, 132

calumniated,

II,

171-172

132-133, 147, 168

110-113,

'

during World War

103

led reforms for

establishes

exile, 153-154

167

death of second wife, 103

at Khilafat

151-152

refuses to renounce nonviolence,

goes on pilgrimage, 103

started

Bombay,

184-185, 211

gives alms to sciioul, 103

asceticism

Bombay speech,

and Muslim l^eague, 166-167,

violence, 101

Mecca,

trial in

ends

understood cause of Pathan

in

(cont.)

Khan

125

Saheb, Dr., 28

after Partition, 185 at

Gandhi’s Ashram, 142-145, 147-148

178

with Bengali Muslims, 145-146

banned from Frontier, 141-142 compared to brother, 144

declines Gongress presidency, 146

during 1930 campaign, 121-122,

compared

to brother, 144

Index

«

237

Khan

“Mad

Saheb, Dr. (cont.)

124-125

Maffey, Sir

during World War

communal

during

Mahsuds,

172

II,

violence, 175

elected to office, 144,

153,

214

173,

29, 30

Malakand: Khan

in,

68-70

Mastun, Alullah,

31,

39-40, 43,

68, 131

Mecca: Khan

Gandhi on,

143

imprisoned,

136, 139

in, 103

the Prophet’s nonviolence

from government,

resigns

Mastun, Mullah John, 83-84

Fakir,” see

165,

in,

209

melmastia, 30 Mercantilism: transformed to

171

imperialism, 35-39

returned from Europe, 87 studied in England,

60

55, 59,

Mohammed,

supports Khan, 59

movement, 208

Khilafat

Khudai Khidmatgars,

110-113,

and Muslim league, 166

Mohammedzais, 29, 30 Mohmands, 29, 30 207-208, 209

Moslems, see under Islam

in Pakistan, 185

Mountbatten, Louis,

called Bolshevik, 128

Constructive Program entirely

Faiz, 126

Montagu-Chelmsford reforms,

194-199, 211

banned

Mirza, Iskander, 16

Muslim,

of,

168-169

175, 177, 181-182,

muhabat,

12

Earl, 15-16,

215-216

12

Gandhi meets, 154-162

Mullahs: and British education, 56

historical significance of, 195,

Munshi, K. M.,

Muslim League,

209 in

“Quit India” movement, 172

in Salt Satyagraha, 121-128, 210

oath

repression

of, 121-129,

state:

movement

for, 166,

136-138

Muslims, see under Islam

of, 112

Khwaja Nazimuddin,

107,

204

National

Martin Luther, 199

Jr.,

Kissa

Khani Bazaar,

Kripalani, Acharya

122-124, 152

J.

B.,

9,

83 9,

Awami

104

Party, 186

Nehru, Jawaharlal,

9, 107, 118,

153, 167, 181-182

on the Pathans, 20

209

175, 177-178,

Nagpur,

Naidu, Sarojini,

16

Pass, 29, 30, 51

King,

Koran,

Muslim

Mutiny, see Great Indian Mutiny

Khushal Khan Khattak,

Khyber

175-177, 211, 215

Congress Party accepts, 175

of, 113

uniform

166-167, 173,

215-216

of, 111-112

protected minorities, 175

song

182

9

meets Khan, 107 tours Frontier, 154

Gandhi

Lajput Rai, Lala, 106

Noakhali:

Liaquat Ali Khan, 16

Noncooperation, 90-91

Linlithgow, Lord, 165

Nonviolence: and end of British

Lytton, Lord, 47

238

Raj, 182-183

in,

173-174

Nonviolence

North-West Frontier (cout.)

(cout.)

•and Islam, 11-12,

209-210

156,

and personal transformation,

68, 120

suppression of reforms in, 11-T), 81-85, 120-121, 147, 209, 210

170-171, 195-199, 214

and World War

Flwin reports on, 136-138

167

II,

as tool for building society,

North-West Frontier Province, 65,

204

155-156, 160-162

Congress Party adopts,

Gandhi on,

83, 118

Orakziiis, 29, 30, 51, 52

80, 156-158,

160-162, 193-197

incomplete, is

Pakhtu language, 1Q4-105, 202

155, 158, 161

Pakhtun,

a battle, 199

Khan

refuses to renounce, 167

of the brave, 18-20,

Pakhtun

105, 185 Jirga,

'

104

“Pakhtunistan,” 185

111

of the strong, 157-158, 194-195

Pakhtuuu'ali, 29, 40

of the weak, 156, 193

Pakistan:

Pathans capacity

for, 18-19,

101, 122-128, 137-138,

independence,

Khidmatgars

15-17, 183-185,

proposed, 166 Pashto, Pashtu, see

Pakhtu

language

Satyagraha

North-West Frontier,

12, 17-18:

Passive resistance, 193, 196.

See also Satyagraha

British acquisition of, 38,

46-48

Patel,

British policy in, 17-18,

46-48, 64-65,

207

147,

tours, 133-134

during 1919 hartal,

Salt Satyagraha, 121-128,

210 211 ,

I,

during World War

II,

77

of,

82-83

154-162

political agencies of, 67-68,

Pathans: and Partition, 184-186

Congress meeting

at

autonomous province bombing of, 203

Lahore, for,

118

185-186

48-53, 170,

81,

120-128, 136-138,

203

capacity for nonviolence, 18-19, 101,

122-128, 137-138, 155-162,

170-172, 193-198

206

repression in, 17-19, 48-53,

characteristics of, 17-20, 30-31,

40-41, 56-57, 95-101, 110-112,

120-128, 136-138

sealed off by British,

Pathan Youth league, 104

British repression of, 17-19,

171-172

in, 56, 77-79,

9, 167,

Patel, Vithalbhai, 120

at

81

during World War

Sardar Vallabhbhai,

182, 183

reorganiziition of, 65

Devadas Gandhi

77,

184

Partition, 175-179, 215-216

Nonviolent resistance, see

Gandhi's tour

to,

216

Nonviolent army, see Khudai

education

go

185-186

transformative, 195-199

during

to

government imprisons Khan,

155-162,

170-172, 193-198

Curzons

Gandhi

19, 65,

194-195, 197-198, 204

Index

«

239

Pathans (cont.)

courage

sahr,

Salt Satyagraha, 118-120

122-128, 195

of, 18-19,

Satyagraha, 72, 80,

fear of, in India, 158, 193, 194

division

between

and

“settled”

“free,” 29, 47-48,

196,

118, 171,

209

Sharp, Gene, 122

205

Simon Commission,

hospitality of, 30-31

homeland and language

Khans exhortation

209-210

of,

of,

201-202

106

Soul force, 197-198. See also Satyagraha

92,

Spinning, 145-146,

108-110, 121, 133

158, 161, 170

Suleiman Inquiry Committee, 120

religious devotion of, 131 tribes of the^ 29

women,

Teresa of Calcutta, Mother, 199

104-105, 132-133

Pax Britannica,

Two

27, 53

Ser\ants of God, 143

Pennell, Rev, T. L., 40-41 Personality: nonviolence transforms,

195-198

108:

British sack of (1919), 81

Peshawar: “disturbances,” 121-124,

Gandhi

in, 155

repression in, 124-128

211

welcomes Khan, 91-92

repression in, 136-137 Political

Agencies, 68-69, 77, 206

Prasad, Rajendra, 9-10, 181 Prison:

Utmanzai, 29-30,

Khans experience

Victoria,

Queen, 25-27

Village reforms, 139, 142, 144-146,

in, 81,

147-148, 160-161, 168-169

82, 84-85, 87-90, 138-139,

Violence: of the Pathans, 95-101

152-153

Pukhtuns, see Pathans

transformation

of,

197

Punjab, 106, 177, 184

purdah, 104, 105

Wardha,

Pushtu, see Pakhtu language

Waziris, 29, 30, 48, 52

Pyarelal, 186-187, 214

Wigram, E.

ashram, 142-145

9:

F. E., 55, 57,

Women: Khan on “Quit

Rajagopalachari, C. V.,

9,

Rajendra Prasad, 9-10,

181

Shirts, see

167

in

Khudai

Khidmatgars Revenge: Pat ha n

I:

World War

II:

112

India during, 77

India during, 165,

207-208

12

Mohammed,

Yusufzais, 29, 30

British policy in

North-West Frontier, 46-48, 206, 212

168

147

lust for, 17,

Yunus,

and

for,

167-168, 171-172

hadal Russia:

240

World War

yakeen,

81,

of,

Khudai Khidmatgars,

40-41, 95-101. Sec also

Rowlatt Acts,

reforms

Pathan, 104-105, 132-133, 168

India,” 171

awakening

Red

60

65,

Zagai, 69, 70

zulum, 197

128, 153

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Nonviolent Soldier: The

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When Mahatma Gandhi roused ence

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the achievement of Badshah

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Khan exploded

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more urgent today than ever before. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 1985, Badshah Khan offers a weapon of hope for the deadlocked conflicts Islam.

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around the globe — in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, Central America, Cold War Europe— that threaten to draw the world into nuclear disaster. “A straightforward yet devoted biography. “For the most part, other people’s stories are a curiosity, not a challenge. Other, rarer histories throw down a gauntlet— the histories of Gandhi and Martin Luther .

.

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.

.

.

.

a few others

who

refused to be swept along

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it

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be ours

to

make, and went

the better. ... By his example,

[Khan] asks us what we ourselves, as individuals made from the same stuff as he, are doing to shape history.”

— The New

Yorker