6g. Abdul Ghaffar Khan: The Frontier Gandhi

While pretty much everyone can identify Mohandas K. Gandhi, not many people have heard of another nonviolent leader who also opposed British rule during the same era. Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988) was a Muslim leader of the Pashtun people in a region of northwest India which today is within Pakistan. Ghaffar Khan is often referred to as the ‘Frontier Gandhi’ because he led a comparable movement against British rule and in favour of Pashtun independence.

Khan was a friend of Gandhi and pursued similar principles of nonviolent resistance to oppression. In 1929 he started an army of nonviolent soldiers working for home rule, called the Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God), numbering over 100,000.

Clashes between the Pashtun people and the British Raj often broke out in violence. However, Ghaffar Khan expected the Khudai Khidmatgar members to make a pledge of nonviolence that was both interpersonal and intergroup. You can find the oath for recruits and the ten-point pledge in the reading “Radical Islam and Nonviolence” by Robert C. Johansen, page 59.

This pledge was especially notable because the Pashtun people were often characterized as warlike and prone to violence. In this way, Ghaffar Khan’s movement "exploded the myth that nonviolence works only for those who are already peaceful"¹; that is, people who use violence as a matter of habit can adopt alternative approaches to conflict.

Like Gandhi, Ghaffar Khan drew from his religious tradition – Islam – as a foundation for his belief that the truth must be expressed through nonviolence and that such a response undermines the moral authority of those exerting violence. This was very similar to Gandhi’s approach. The reading this week by Johansen focuses on religious identity as something that can foment violence against others, but that can also be a force for nonviolent love towards the 'enemy.' In today’s world, we often associate strongly held religious beliefs with fanaticism that can lead to violence. But, as Johansen notes, virtually all systems of religion have teachings and practices that transform conflict and promote peace.

 Ghaffar Khan opposed the partition of India in 1947 that created the state of Pakistan, because he favoured a united, secular India, rather than nations divided along religious lines. There was a crackdown on him and his followers as a result. The violence and suffering experienced by the Servants of God was severe, largely because the British did not know what to do with people from whom they expected violence. Ghaffar Khan was arrested and imprisoned many times, and in 1962 he was named Prisoner of the Year by Amnesty International.

The example of Ghaffar Khan shows that Gandhi’s approach to colonial conflict was not a singular response. Rather, nonviolent approaches to violent regimes of occupation can be found throughout history, especially in the mid-20th century and onward, as states in the global south rid themselves of colonial governments.

The next two modules will examine a number of resistance movements that, in various respects, modelled themselves on ideas and tactics that Gandhi exemplified. What puts Gandhi and Ghaffar Khan’s movements at the heart of peace history is that both countered forces of violence and oppression with nonviolent, proactive responses that enlisted hundreds of thousands of people to act for peace.

 

Stop and Ask

What are the aims/goals, methods/tactics, ideology/philosophy, and symbols of these movements?

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