Khudai Khidmatgar

Formed out of the Society for the Reformation of Pashtuns (Anjuman-e-Islah-e-Afghan), it initially targeted social reformation and launched campaigns against prostitution. Bacha Khan as its founder seemed to be influenced by the realisation that whenever British troops were faced with an armed uprising they eventually always overcame the rebellion. The same could not be said when using non-violence against the troops.

The movement started prior to the Qissa Khwani bazaar massacre, when a demonstration of hundreds of non-violent supporters were fired upon by British soldiers in Peshawar. Its low point and eventual dissipation was after Pakistan's independence in 1947 when the Muslim League Chief Minister Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri banned the movement and launched a brutal crackdown on its members, which culminated in the Babra massacre. At its peak, the KK movement consisted of almost 100,000 members.

Initially, the movement focussed on social reform as a means of improving the status of Pashtuns against the British. Ghaffar Khan founded several reform movements prior to the formation of the Khudai Khidmatgar, the Anjuman-e Islah ul-Afghan in 1921, the farmers' organisation Anjuman-e Zamidaran in 1927 and the youth movement Pashtun Jirga in 1927. Trying to further spread awareness on Pashtun issues Abdul Ghaffar Khan founded the magazine Pakhtun in May 1928. Finally in March 1930, almost on the eve of the Qissa Khwani Bazaar Massacre the Khudai Khidmatgar were formed.[1]

Khan drew his first recruits from the young men who had graduated from his schools. Trained and uniformed, they served behind their officers and filed out into various villages to seek recruits. They began by wearing a simple white overshirt, but the white was soon dirtied. A couple of men had their shirts dyed at the local tannery, and the brick-red colour proved a breakthrough, it was this distinctive colour that earned the Khudai khidmatgar movement activists the name "the Red shirts" or surkh posh. Other reason for the choice of red color was a symbolic adherence of the anti-colonial movements to the revolutionary and socialist discourse.

Ideology

Khudai Khidmatgar

Under the influence of Abdul Ghaffar Khan the movement advocated non-violent protests and justified their actions through an Islamic context. Khan did not find Islam and non-violence as incompatible. Despite that the movement was intrinsically non-sectarian, including Muslims, as well as some Hindu members.[13] In more than one occasion when Hindus and Sikhs were attacked in Peshawar, Khidmatgar members helped protect their lives and property. To this end, the Khuda Khidmatgar espoused Hindu-Muslim unity.[14][13]

"The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world 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, fellow men". – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

"There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca". – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

British troops employed a wide variety of tactics against KK activists.

"The British used to torture us, throw us into ponds in wintertime, shave our beards, but even then Badshah Khan told his followers not to lose patience. He said 'there is an answer to violence, which is more violence. But nothing can conquer nonviolence. You cannot kill it. It keeps standing up. The British sent their horses and cars to run over us, but I took my shawl in my mouth to keep from screaming. We were human beings, but we should not cry or express in any way that we were injured or weak." – Musharraf Din (Baldauf).

Another tactic employed against non-violent protesters who were blocking roads was to charge them with cars and horses.

In 1930, soldiers of the Garhwal Rifles refused to fire on non-violent protests led by Khudai Khidmatgars in Peshawar. By disobeying direct orders, the regiment sent a clear message to London that loyalty of India's armed forces could not be taken for granted to enact harsh measures. However, by 1931, 5,000 members of the Khudai Khidmatgar and 2,000 members of the Congress Party were arrested.[18] This was followed by the shooting of unarmed protestors in Utmanzai and the Takkar Massacre followed by the Hathikhel massacre.

In 1932, the Khudai Khidmatgar movement changed its tactics and involved women in the movement. This unnerved many Indian officers working in the region as in those days of conservative India it was considered a grave insult to attack women, more so in a conservative Pashtun society. However, the brutality increased and in one case five police officers in Benares had to be suspended due to "horrific reports about violence used against young female volunteers".

The British bombed a village in the Bajaur Valley in March 1932 and arrested Abdul Ghaffar Khan as well as more than 4,000 Khudai Khitmatgars. The British bombardments in the border area continued up till 1936–1937 because, "India is a training field for active military training which can be found nowhere else in the Empire", a British court concluded in 1933.

Other alleged tactics ranged from poisoning[19] to the use of castrations against some Khudai Khidmatgar activists.[20]

After the anti-war resignation of Dr Khan's Ministry in 1939 because of the events of World War 2, British tactics towards the movement changed to employ divide-and-rule tactics through the instigation of sectarian and communal tensions over brute force. Governor George Cunningham's policy note of 23 September 1942, called for the government to 'continuously preach the danger to Muslims of connivance with the revolutionary Hindu body. Most tribesmen seem to respond to this', while in another paper he commented about the period 1939–1943: 'Our propaganda since the beginning of the war had been most successful. It had played throughout on the Islamic theme.'[21]

Ghaffar Khan & Gandhi

The movement was facing intense pressure by 1930 and the leadership under Ghaffar Khan was actively seeking political allies in India to help reduce the pressure on it by the British authorities. Previously in December 1928, Barrister Muhammad Jan Abbasi invited Bacha Khan to attend a Khilafat conference. The session ended badly with Maulana Shaukat Ali nearly being attacked by one member from Punjab.

Despite the initial closeness between Ghaffar Khan and Ali, the harshness of their critique of Gandhi contrasted poorly with the patience shown by Gandhi in Ghaffar Khan's eyes. Another attempt was made by senior KK leaders to approach Sir Fazli Hussain a senior Punjabi leader of the Unionist party pleading for assistance against the crackdown which was dismissed.

The Congress subsequently offered all possible help to the Pathans in exchange on their part to join the Congress party for the independence struggle. This offer was put forth in the Frontier province and was accepted by the Khudai Kidmatgars in August 1931. The move shocked the British authorities who were forced to ease pressure on the KK.

More, with the introduction of provincial autonomy under the Government of India Act 1935, The first limited election were held in NWFP in 1936. Ghaffar Khan was banned from the province. His brother, Dr Khan Sahib, led the party to a narrow victory and became Chief Minister. Ghaffar Khan returned to Peshawar in triumph on 29 August 1937 on what the Peshawar daily Khyber Mail called the happiest day of his life. During the two-year stint of the Congress party under Dr Khan Sahib as Chief minister, major reforms were introduced including land reforms, promotion of the teaching of Pashto and the release of political prisoners.

On Congress directive, the ministries in eight out of eleven provinces resigned in protest against Britain's not promising India independence after the War. The decision to resign proved a pivotal moment in Indian history, in the Frontier, it was instrumental in giving those groups that opposed the Khudai Khidmatgar movement the opportunity to broaden their constituency.

The increasingly liberal movement faced an increasing backlash from conservatives because of its support for the Congress party amidst growing support for the Pakistan movement. The decision of Dr. Khan Sahib to support his daughter's marriage to a Sikh soldier led to some senior associates of Bacha Khan to leave.[23][24]

Similarly, his son Ghani Khan's criticism of feudal landlords angered many conservative "Khans" and Nawabs, some formerly sympathetic to the movement.[21]

This coincided with a determined effort by the British Raj to discredit the movement with the assistance of mullahs and ulema allied with the British.[25] The British Governor, Cunningham, instructed the big khans to meet each mullah on an individual basis and tell him to serve the cause of Islam' for which he would be duly paid. The Mullahs were told that in case of good progress they would also be considered for a government pension. A Cunningham policy note of 23 September 1942 reads: 'Continuously preach the danger to Muslims of connivance with the revolutionary Hindu body. Most tribesmen seem to respond to this', while in another paper he says about the period 1939–43: 'Our propaganda since the beginning of the war had been most successful. It had played throughout on the Islamic theme.[21]

Pakistan's Independence in August 1947 marked the beginning of the end of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement. While the Congress government remained in power briefly it was eventually dismissed by the Governor under the orders of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Dr. Khan Sahib was replaced by former Congressite Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri. He successfully stopped an attempted rapprochement between Ghaffar Khan and Muhammad Ali Jinnah by stopping a planned meeting between the two citing security threats.[26] With that, Jinnah gave Qayyum Khan Kashmiri a free hand in dealing with the Congress and the Khudai Khidmatgars.

Despite the provocation and its obvious ambivalence over Pakistan's creation, the Khudai Khidmatgar leaders reconvened at Sardaryab on 3 and 4 September 1947 and passed a resolution[27] that stated, "The Khudai Khidmagars regard Pakistan as their own country and pledge that they shall do their utmost to strengthen and safeguard its interest and make every sacrifice for the cause; The dismissal of Dr. Khan Sahib’s ministry and the setting up of Abdul Qaiyum’s ministry is undemocratic, but as our country is passing through a critical stage, the Khudai Khidmatgars shall take no step which might create difficulties in the way of either the Provincial or Central Government; After the division of the country the Khudai Khidmatgars sever their connection with the All-India Congress organization and, therefore, instead of the Tricolor, adopt the Red Flag as the symbol of their party."

You have thrown us (Khudai Khidmatgar) to the wolves.

— Bacha Khan addressing the Mahatma after Partition of India.

However, Qayyum Khan Kashmiri and the central government had already decided that there would be no accord with the movement. On 12 August 1948, while Bacha Khan and the deposed chief minister Dr. Khan Sahib were both under arrest, over 600 Khudai Khidmatgar supporters who were protesting for their release were killed by the government of Pakistan in Charsadda District during the Babrra massacre.[28] The Khudai Khidmatgar organisation was declared unlawful in mid-September 1948, mass arrests followed and the centre at Sardaryab (Markaz-e-Khudai Khidmatgaran), built-in 1942, was destroyed by the Provincial Government.[29]

The movement was also hit by defections as party members switched sides out of fear or for benefit. Those members that wished to survive politically rallied behind a former ally, turned opponent of Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, the Pir of Manki Sharif. The Pir created a breakaway Muslim League, however, it proved no match for Qayyum who engineered his re-election in 1951.[29]

The movement lingered on till 1955, when it was again banned by the central government because of Ghaffar Khan's opposition to the One Unit. An aborted attempt was made to bring Ghaffar Khan into the government as a minister as well as turning the KK movement into a national organization, but Ghaffar Khan turned down the offer.[30]

Although the ban on the movement was lifted in 1972, the Khudai Khidmatgar movement had been broken.

On 20 January 2011, young Gandhian activist Faisal Khan revived the Khudai Khidmatgar at a function in the Indian city of Delhi, with a focus on promoting communal amity and ameliorating poverty.[11][12] The Khudai Khidmatgar has volunteers in 14 states and according to Faisal, they number about 10,000.[12][11] Though the present organisation is predominantly Muslim, 10 of 40 seats in its national executive committee are reserved for Hindu members.[12]

The Khudai Khidmatgar movement was a success in the terms of its opposition to British rule. However, the social effects of the movement have not survived. While the Ghaffar Khan family maintains a hold over the political philosophy of the movement, its history has largely been wiped out from official memory in Pakistan. The movement has also been criticized for its opposition to partition and by that virtue the creation of Pakistan.[21]

As a result, it has been seen as a secessionist movement in Pakistan, and in the 1950s and 1960s, it was also perceived as pro-communist, an argument that was used by conservative elements to discredit it as anti-Islam. The movement's claim to total non-violence seems flawed as well; some critics argue that while the movement proved a success against the British, it like other non-violent movements would not have proved a success against another Imperial power. This is supposedly proved by its failure to pose a challenge to the Pakistani government amidst a crackdown that was far more brutal than any done by the British.[15] Others have also suggested that the Khudai Khidmatgar movement was not in fact as non-violent as its supporters would argue. Writers like Schofield and Bannerjee have documented cases of attacks on British personnel and soldiers.[31]

• All India Pakhtoon Jirga-e-Hind
• Composite nationalism
• Bacha Khan
• Mirzali Khan
• Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Khan (not to be confused with Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri)
• Khilafat movement
• Frontier Crimes Regulations
• Khan Roshan khan
• Qazi Ataullah Khan
• Qazi Fazal Qadir
• National Awami Party
• List of nonviolence scholars and leaders
• Nonviolent Soldier of Islam (book)

• Baldauf, Scott The Khudai Khidmatgar Christian Science Monitor
• Banerjee, Mukulika (2000). Pathan Unarmed: Opposition & Memory in the North-West Frontier. School of American Research Press. ISBN 0-933452-68-3
• Eknath Easwaran (1999). Nonviolent soldier of Islam: Ghaffar Khan: a man to match his mountains (see article). Nilgiri Press, Tomales, CA. ISBN 1-888314-00-1
• Khan, Behroz (July 2004) Journey in history. The NEWS. Jang group. Available online at
• Rashid, Haroonur (2005) History of the Pathans. Volume 2 p 573
• Taizi, Sher Zaman. (2002) Bacha Khan in Afghanistan: A Memoir. Asian Reflection.
• Babar, Aneela, (29 May 2006) On Doing Pakhtunwali. The Post.
• Khan, Abdul K. 1997. "The Khudai Kidmatgar (Servants of God)/Red Shirt Movement in the Northwest Frontier Province of British India, 1927–47." PhD. Diss., History. The University of Hawaii.
• Michel, Thomas S.J. (June 2004) Can’t We Be Like Abdul Ghaffar Khan? The significance of Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the recent history of peace activism is his institution of the importance of discipline in peacemakers.
• Talbot, Ian(1 March 1989)Provincial Politics and the Pakistan Movement: The Growth of the Muslim League in North-West and North-East India 1937–47

• Official website of Khudai Khidmatgar
• The Khudai Khidmatgar
• The Pashtun Code
• Ghani Khan (Poet and son of Ghaffar Khan); Interview, film, and sound recordings
• Interview with Ghaffar Khan
• Pervez Khan: Remembering Baacha Khan: the memory of his courage to stay for ever
• Rajmohan Gandhi: Mohandas Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and the Middle-East today
• Rajmohan Gandhi: Badshah Khan and our times
• Khan's triumph of will