Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Bacha Khan or Badshah Khan, was a prominent Indian independence activist and Pakistani politician. He founded the Khudai Khidmatgar resistance movement to oppose British colonial rule through nonviolent means.

Early life and education

Khan was born on 6 February 1890 into a prosperous Sunni Muslim Muhammadzai Pashtun family in Hashtnagar. His father, Abdul Bahram Khan, managed lands in the region near the Swat River. Khan attended the British-run Edward's Mission School, which served as the only fully functioning school in the area. He performed well in his studies and felt inspired by his mentor, Reverend Wigram, who taught him that education was vital for community service.

During his tenth year of secondary school, he received an offer for a prestigious commission in the Corps of Guides regiment of the British Indian Army. Khan declined this position because he believed that even Indian officers remained second-class citizens within their own nation. He later graduated from Aligarh Muslim University and intended to study in London, England. Although his teacher offered him the chance to follow his brother, Abdul Jabbar Khan, to London, his mother refused to let another son travel abroad. Consequently, he began working on his father's lands while he considered his next steps.

Career

At age 20 in 1910, Khan opened a madrasa in Utmanzai to help others access education. He joined the independence movement led by Haji Sahib of Turangzai in 1911, but British authorities shut down his madrasa in 1915 due to his activism. Khan decided that social reform would be more effective than failed revolts against British rule. This conviction led him to form the Anjuman-e Islāh-e Afghānia in 1921 and the Pax̌tūn Jirga youth movement in 1927. After returning from a Hajj pilgrimage in May 1928, he launched the Pashto-language journal Pax̌tūn.

In November 1929, he founded the Khudāyī Khidmatgār movement to advocate for an independent India. This nonviolent resistance movement earned him the nickname "the Frontier Gandhi" because of his close friendship with Mahatma Gandhi and his commitment to pacifism. Between 1915 and 1918, he visited 500 villages across the settled districts of the North-West Frontier Province. During this period of intense activity, people began calling him Badshah Khan.

Khan strongly opposed the partition of India into Pakistan and India, choosing instead to side with the Indian National Congress. In June 1947, he and other leaders issued the Bannu Resolution to demand an independent Pashtunistan. When the British refused these demands, Khan and his brother boycotted the 1947 referendum regarding whether the province should join India or Pakistan. After the partition, he pledged allegiance to Pakistan but faced frequent arrests by the Pakistani government between 1948 and 1954. He was arrested again in 1956 to protest the One Unit program, which sought to merge West Pakistani provinces into a single unit.

He spent years in jail or exile during the 1960s and 1970s. Khan died in Peshawar in 1988 and was buried at his house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. His funeral drew tens of thousands of mourners, including Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah. Although two bomb explosions killed 15 people during the procession, both the Soviet-Afghan government coalition and the mujahideen declared a ceasefire to allow his burial.

Personal life

Khan was a secular Muslim who did not believe in religious divisions. He married his first wife, Meharqanda, in 1912. She was the daughter of Yar Mohamma.

Awards and recognition

The Indian government awarded him the Bharat Ratna in 1987. He also received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding.