How is Bacha Khan remembered in KPK? And What are your views about him?

[BunnyRabbit]

Reading the history of Pakistan, I can not really find much about Bacha Khan other than the fact that he vehemently opposed partition and did not want to be associated with either India or Pakistan. He had actually requested for KPK to be merged with Afghanistan.
I do not know what his rationale of not being associated with Pakistan was about. Why did he dislike all the other provinces and ethnics of Pakistan?

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Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was born on 6 February 1890 in Utmanzai, Hashtnagar, Frontier Tribal Areas of Punjab Province, of British India, nicknamed as Bacha Khan ("King of chiefs"). Ghaffar attend the British run Edward's mission school, since this was the only fully functioning school because it was run by missionaries. At school the young Ghaffar did well in his studies, and was inspired by his mentor Reverend Wigram to see the importance of education in service to the community.

In his 10th and final year of high school, he was offered a highly prestigious commission in The Guides, an elite corp of Pashtun soldiers of the British Raj. Young Ghaffar refused the commission after realising that even The Guides officers were still second-class citizens in their own country. He resumed his intention of university study, and Reverend Wigram offered him the opportunity to follow his brother, Dr. Khan Sahib, to study in London. An alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University, Ghaffar eventually received the permission of his father. Ghaffar's mother wasn't willing to lose another son to London. So Ghaffar began working on his father's lands, while attempting to discern what more he might do with his life.

In 1910, at the age of 20, Bacha Khan opened a mosque school at his hometown Utmanzai. In 1911, he joined independence movement of the Pashtun freedom fighter Haji Sahib of Turangzai. However in 1915, the British authorities banned his mosque school. Having witnessed the repeated failure of revolts against the British Raj, Bacha Khan decided that social activism and reform would be more beneficial for the Pashtuns. This led to the formation of Anjuman-e Islah-e Afaghina ("Afghan Reform Society") in 1921, and the youth movement Paxtun Jirga ("Pashtun Assembly") in 1927.

After Bacha Khan's return from the Hajj pilgrimage at Mecca in May 1928, he founded the Pashto language monthly political journal Paxtun ("Pashtun"). He was a political and spiritual leader known for his nonviolent opposition, and a lifelong pacifist and devout Muslim. A close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, Bacha Khan was nicknamed the "Frontier Gandhi" in British India. Bacha Khan founded the Khudai Khidmatgar ("Servants of God") movement in 1929, whose success triggered a harsh crackdown by the British Empire against him and his supporters, and they suffered some of the most severe repression of the Indian independence movement.

Bacha Khan strongly opposed the All-India Muslim League's demand for the partition of India. When the Indian National Congress declared its acceptance of the partition plan without consulting the Khudai Khidmatgar leaders, he felt very sad and told the Congress "you have thrown us to the wolves." After partition, Bacha Khan pledged allegiance to Pakistan and demanded an autonomous "Pashtunistan" administrative unit within the country, but he was frequently arrested by the Pakistani government between 1948 and 1954. In 1956, he was again arrested for his opposition to the One Unit program, under which the government announced to merge the former provinces of West Punjab, Sindh, North-West Frontier Province, Chief Commissioner's Province of Balochistan, and Baluchistan States Union into one single polity of West Pakistan.

Bacha Khan also spent much of the 1960s and 1970s either in jail or in exile. Upon his death in 1988 in Peshawar under house arrest. He died on 20 January 1988 (aged 97), in Peshawar, following his will, he was buried at his house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of mourners attended his funeral, marching through the Khyber Pass from Peshawar to Jalalabad, although it was marred by two bomb explosions killing 15 people. Despite the heavy fighting at the time, both sides of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the communist army and the mujahedeen, declared a ceasefire to allow his burial.

https://kp.gov.pk/page/khan_abdul_ghaffar_khan_1/page_type/person

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Don't know anything about him, but reading what you have posted, his opposition to partition seems based on fundamental Islamic supremacy beliefs that India belonged to Musllim rule so why carve out a smaller piece and call it Pakistan?

 

[The Bald Eagle]

I have read about him, was a disillusioned scholar who cling to Gandhi gang for fame and now his own grand children disown his political philosophy. Was a learned man but not a extra ordinary leader.

 

[Major]

Don't know anything about him, but reading what you have posted, his opposition to partition seems based on fundamental Islamic supremacy beliefs that India belonged to Musllim rule so why carve out a smaller piece and call it Pakistan?

still, any such opposition was dangerous for the likes of Jinnah as what Jinnah was able to pull off would had not been able to pull it off if people like Bacha had more influence.

 

[anikrc1]

Bacha khan or Frontier Gandhi was a lion hearted man. Don't know how he is remembered in Pakistan, but he is remembered as one of the greatest heroes in India. There was a story about him, don't know the accuracy of it, but it goes to show the character of the man. He was on hearing for a bail petition. The judge asked that what's the gurantee that if he was granted bail, he will not do anything violent. Upon hearing this, Khan placed his hands on the bar of the witness box, bent it and then smiled and said to the judge, "My lord, if I wanted to, I could have done many things, but If you grant mr bail, I will do non-violent protest only again."

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Don't know anything about him, but reading what you have posted, his opposition to partition seems based on fundamental Islamic supremacy beliefs that India belonged to Musllim rule so why carve out a smaller piece and call it Pakistan?

Seems to me he was more of segregationist who had some misplaced belief in the supremacy of KPK to other ethnic Muslims. Maybe posters from KPK might have more knowledge and can tell us more about it.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

I have read about him, was a disillusioned scholar who cling to Gandhi gang for fame and now his own grand children disown his political philosophy. Was a learned man but not a extra ordinary leader.

What kind of learned man he was if he believed in supremacy of one ethnicity over the other.
Would like posters from KPK to shed more light on his legacy and what they know about him. He is not much talked about in the capital though.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Seems to me he was more of segregationist who had some misplaced belief in the supremacy of KPK to other ethnic Muslims. Maybe posters from KPK might have more knowledge and can tell us more about it.

Just from reading what you've posted in the OP, it seems he was quite a devout person, if he was he would not believe in ethnic superiority as that would go against Islamic teachings, but perhaps he believed Pakhtuns/Afghanistan as a group believed more rigidly in Islam. In that he is probably right, they tend to be very religiously conservative in that region compared to others in Pakistan.

 

[FearlessRoar]

Bacha Khan was a true hero

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Bacha Khan was a true hero

How?

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Just from reading what you've posted in the OP, it seems he was quite a devout person, if he was he would not believe in ethnic superiority as that would go against Islamic teachings, but perhaps he believed Pakhtuns/Afghanistan as a group believed more rigidly in Islam. In that he is probably right, they tend to be very religiously conservative in that region compared to others in Pakistan.

I myself am not sure what he really stood for. He was fine with not dividing India but if divided, did not want to be bundled together with the other 3 provinces.
I have seen some of the new generation people calling him a hero and stuff. But I can not understand why.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Some people say that he was against Pakistan's creation... Not sure how much reality is in that claim.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Some people say that he was against Pakistan's creation... Not sure how much reality is in that claim.

Wiki has a lot of info.

 

[BouncerGuy]

Wiki has a lot of info.

Cannot really trust wiki... Have to confirm from other sources as well..

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Some people say that he was against Pakistan's creation... Not sure how much reality is in that claim.

That was a view shared by many ultra-religious scholars of the time, and indeed some hardliners today.

 

[FearlessRoar]

How?

Bacha Khan was a hero because he preached peace, unity and education, dedicating his life to uplifting Pashtuns selflessly.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Bacha Khan was a hero because he preached peace, unity and education, dedicating his life to uplifting Pashtuns selflessly.

How did he uplift Pashtuns? Why was he against creation of Pakistan? To me, he seems like a flawed individual who promoted the ethnic segregation rather than unity. Thankfully Pathans don't have this mentality of being victims. Majority of Pathans I have met over the course of my life are lion hearted and hard working atleast in the capital which is a stark contrast to the Karachites and "Muhajirs" who keep blaming everyone in Pakistan for their shortcomings. I even heard from residents of Karachi how unjust shifting the capital from Karachi to Islamabad was for the city of Karachi and its residents.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

That was a view shared by many ultra-religious scholars of the time, and indeed some hardliners today.

The people who say it today would have been crying for partition today if there had been no partition then. Such bunch is never happy. Always deflect blame to anyone but themselves.

 

[KB]

Abdul Ghaffar Khan - born in British India, died in Pakistan, buried in Afghanistan - was a remarkable figure.

Ghaffar Khan was a vehement voice against the partitioning of British India. The Khudai Khidmatgar movement, that he spearheaded, allied with the Congress movement. The result of this support was clear: nowhere else in the Indian subcontinent was the Congress able to establish as strong a political foundation amongst Muslims as it did in the Frontier.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Pakistan state remained suspicious of him: Ghaffar Khan spent more time in prison under Pakistani rule than he did under British Indian rule.

In his ideas we see a fascinating combination of the local and the universal. On one hand, he sought to transcend the blood feuds which marked the region, by promoting Pashtun nationalism as a higher ideal and as a focus for unity. He did so by making a reinterpreted Pashtun code (Pashtunwali) a cultural basis for such unity. On this level, he was an ethnic nationalist, who was seeking to protect and promote Pashtun interests. The cultural appeal also contained a class dimension: he criticised the pro-British large landed Khans, people whose only “desire was to shake hands with the Sahib Bahadurs and to secure employment for their sons.”

On the other hand, this promotion of a more localised identity was blended with a greater universalism that was inspired by his understanding of Islam. Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a pious and austere Muslim by all accounts, grounded notions of non-violence, brotherhood, fraternity, self-reformation and commitment to serving humanity within an Islamic frame.

One example of his universalist message is revealed by his rejection of the label ‘Red Shirts’. The Khudai Khidmatgars wore uniforms that were dyed with red brick dust. The British called them the Red Shirts. Like many European movements that emerged in the inter-war period, therefore, the Khudai Khidmatgars was a uniformed movement. This was the era that witnessed the rise of the masses combined with the availability of new techniques of propaganda. Symbols - like clothing - became useful affective tools to engineer the shaping of souls and the making of new societies. Uniforms also provided a sense of brotherhood and belonging. Ghaffar Khan saw his uniformed movement, though, as very different to the European uniformed movements. He said while the British thought:

“They should show to the world that we are the type of shirts just as there are Mussolini’s shirts, Hitler’s shirts and Sir Oswald Mosley’s shirts. We are not any shirts. They are deceiving the world. We are only Khudai Khidmatgar and our movement is based on universal brotherhood. We desire the welfare of the entire humanity. There German shirts are after the welfare of Germany only and they want to destroy the other nations of the world. The same is the condition of Italy and England. They also desire the welfare of Italy and England respectively and want the destruction of other nations. But our shirts are not like that, we desire the advancement of all nations. There is a great difference between these two points of view.”

The activity triggered by his death indicated that his was an unusual life lived. India, Pakistan and Afghanistan declared a period of official mourning. The Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, flew to Peshawar to pay homage. Fifteen thousand accompanied his body to Jalalabad where he was laid to rest.