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Khudai Khidmatgar

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History Post 1900

   Khudai Khidmatgar ( Pashto: خدای خدمتگر) literally translates as the
   servants of God. It represented a non-violent freedom struggle against
   the British Empire by the Pashtuns (also known as Pathans, Pakhtuns or
   Afghans) of the North West Frontier Province. The movement was led by
   Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known locally as Bacha Khan or Badshah Khan.

Conditions prior to the movement

   At the turn of the last century Pashtun society was colonized,
   stagnant, violent, worn down by feuds, inequalities, factionalism, poor
   social cooperation, and plain ignorance. Education opportunities were
   strictly limited. Pashtuns are Muslims; and religious leaders and
   Mullahs were known to have told parents that if their children went to
   school, they would go to hell. Khan stated that “the real purpose of
   this propaganda” was to keep Pashtuns “illiterate and uneducated”, and
   hence his people “were the most backward in India” with regard to
   education. He also stated that by the time Islam reached his people
   centuries earlier, it had lost much of its original spiritual message.

Origins of the Khudai Khidmatgar

   Formed out of the society for 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 disappaition
   was after Pakistan's independence in 1947 when the Muslim League Chief
   Minister Abdul Qayyum Khan banned the movement and launched a brutal
   crackdown on its members which culminated in the massacre at Babra
   Sharif massacre. At its peak the KK movement consisted of almost
   100,000 members.

   "The Khidmatgar movement was one of self-reform and introspection,"
   says Mukulika Banerjee, author of The Pathan Unarmed: Opposition and
   Memory in the North West Frontier (School of American Research Press,
   2000). "It involved two crucial elements: Islam and Pashtunwali (the
   Pashtun tribal code). Here nonviolence becomes an ideological system
   very compatible with Islam and Pakhtunwali, since these are
   reinterpreted."

Genesis of the Khudai Khidmatgar

   Initially the movement focussed on social reform as a means of
   imrpoving the status of pashtuns against the British. Ghaffar Khan
   founded several reform movements prior to the formation of the Khudai
   Khidmatgar, the Anjumen-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
   November 1929, almost on the eve of the Qissa Khwani bazaar massacre
   the Khudai Khidmatgar were formed.

"The Red Shirts"

   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.

Structure of the Khudai Khidmatgar

   Volunteers who took the oath formed platoons with commanding officers
   and learned basic army discipline. The volunteers had their own flags:
   red in the beginning, later tri-colour and bands: bagpipe and drums.
   The men wore red uniforms and the women black. They had drills, badges,
   a flag, the entire military hierarchy of rank and even a bagpipe corps.

   Khan set up a network of committees called jirgas, named and modeled
   after the traditional tribal councils. Villages were grouped into
   larger groups, responsible to district-wide committees. The Provincial
   Jirgah was the ultimate authority.

   Officers in the ranks were not elected, since Khan wanted to avoid
   infighting. He appointed a salar-e-azam or commander-in-chief, who in
   turn appointed officers to serve under him. Other ranks included
   Jarnails (Generals). The army was completely voluntary; even the
   officers gave their services free. Women were recruited too, and played
   an important role in the struggles to come.

   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.

Ideology of the 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. In more then
   one occasion when Hindus and Sikhs were attacked in Peshawar,
   Khidmatgar members helped protect their lives and property.

   “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

   Khan always considered trials and tribulations, which he underwent
   ceaselessly, as the means by which Almighty Allah meant to fashion his
   life for better things. Being a great humanist, he ardently believed
   that human nature was not so depraved as to hinder it from respecting
   goodness in others. It is easy to look down on others but to make an
   estimate of our failing is difficult. Allah's blessings according to
   Bacha khan are marked for those, who submit to Allah's will and serve
   Almighty Allah through selfless activities for the overall good of
   humanity at large irrespective of caste, colour, race or religions.

British tactics against the Khudai Khidmatgar

   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 1931, 5,000 members of the Khudai Khidmatgar and 2,000 members of
   the Congress Party are arrested in the spring of 1932.

   By 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 Bajadur Valley in March 1932 and
   arrested Abdul Ghaffar Khan as well as more than 4,000 Red Shirts. 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 tactics ranged from poisoning to the barbaric as castrations were
   used against some Khudai Khidmatgar actvists.

   After the anti-war resignation of Dr. Khans Ministry in 1939 because of
   the events of World War 2, British tactics towards the movement changed
   and added a sectarian and communcal element over brute force. Governor
   at the time George Cunnigham oversaw this policy. 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.’

The Khudai Khidmatgar & Indian National Congress

   Bacha Khan & Gandhi
   Enlarge
   Bacha 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, Abdul Ghaffar Khan with some of his colleagues went
   to Calcutta to attend a khilafat conference. The session ended badly
   with Maulana Shaukat Ali nearly being attacked by one member from the
   Punjab.

   The British authorities, had by this point sealed off the whole
   province. Two Khidmatgars Mian Jafar Shah and Mian Abdullah Shah
   escaped and managed to meet Ghaffar Khan in the prison to inform him of
   the horror that his followers were going through. It was decided that
   the two should continue to Lahore, Delhi and Simla to get help from
   friends in Muslim League. A few months later, the two returned with no
   success. The British, they said, was protecting them in order that they
   could fight the Hindus. Desperate for help, they decided to ask
   Congress.

   Despite the initial closeness between Ghaffar Khan and the Ali
   brothers, the harshness of their critique of Gandhi contrasted poorly
   with the patience shown by Gandhi in Ghaffar Khan's eyes. The Congress
   subsequently offered all possible help to the Pathans in exchange on
   their part to joining the Congress party for the freedom struggle for
   India. This offer was put forth in the Frontier province, and was
   accepted by the Khudai Kidmatgars on August 1931. The move shocked the
   British authorities who were forced to ease pressure on the KK.

The Khudai Khidmatgar: Mass Movement to Political party

   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 August 29, 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 opporunity to broaden
   their constituency.

Subhash Chandra Bose

   The KK's activists role in helping Subhash Chandra Bose's escape in
   1943 has largely been ignored till recently. In 1943, Amir Khan Khattak
   along with four other people received Subhash Chandra Bose at Nowshera
   Railway Station. He had come to make his escape to Germany via
   Afghanistan. Disguised as a Muslim, Subhash was taken to Khattak's
   village Dak Ismailkhel on the request of Mian Akbar Shah from Faqir
   Chand's house in Peshawar. He stayed with him for two days before
   leaving in a Pashtun attire for the German Embassy in Kabul leading to
   his journey to Germany and finally Japan.

Fall of the Khudai Khidmatgar

   The Khudai Khidmatgar movement decline can be traced back to two
   decisions the first was the Congress decision in 1939 to resign from
   power in protest against British World War II policy. This move gave an
   opportunity to the Muslim League to develop and for the British
   authorities to alter their strategy.

   In 1940, a split occurred within the Pakhtun Zalmey, the youth
   organisation affiliated with Bacha Khan's Khudai Khidmatgar movement.
   It occurred after Bacha Khan refused to accept the results of the
   internal party 1940 elections in which Salar Aslam of Kohat won the
   contest as president of Pakhtun Zalmey with overwhelming majority. The
   refusal by Bacha Khan to accept Salaar Aslam caused a great damage to
   the party in southern districts of the province where Khudai
   Khidmatgars won all the seats of the provincial as well as national
   assemblies in the previous elections. Salar Aslam was also a member of
   the Forward Block and Bacha Khan's argument was that he could not trust
   anyone but his elder son, Ghani Khan, whom he wanted to lead Pakhtun
   Zalmey. "It was a mistake of Bacha Khan. He was not happy about his
   decision later, but had to argue that at that sensitive stage of the
   political struggle, he could only trust Ghani Khan."

   An exception to the rule of non-violence occurred when Badshah Khan's
   son Ghani Khan on 26/27 April, 1947 founded the breakaway group Zalmai
   Pukhtoon (Pashtun Youth), a militant, organisation of Pukhtoon youth,
   carrying fire-arms, the aim of which was to protect the Khudai
   Khidmatgars (Servants of God) and members of the Congress Party from
   violence feared at the hands of Muslim League activists. It had no
   connection as such with the Khudai Khidmatgars. Nehru’s fateful visit
   to the Frontier in October, 1946, and its tragic aftermath in a gradual
   erosion of the popular base of the incumbent Khan Sahib Ministry.
   Despite this, the movement stayed true to its non-communal leanings,
   when the red shirts came out to protect thousands of sikhs and hindus
   worried they would be attacked in the increasing pre-partition violence
   between Hindus and Muslims.

Post Partition

   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. He
   successfully stopped an attempted reapprochment between Ghaffar Khan
   and Muhammad Ali Jinnah by stopping a planned meeting beteween the two
   citing security threats (Korejo 1997). With that, Jinnah gave Qayyum
   Khan a free hand in dealing with the Congress and the Khudai
   Khidmatgars. The crackdown that followed culminated with the Babra
   Sharif massacre. As part of the crackdown the houses of Khudai
   Khidmatgar activists were ransacked and plundered. In some cases men
   were stripped naked in presence of their mothers and sisters and their
   beards shaven (all of which was seen as a great insult by Pashtuns).
   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 that accepted Pakistan's
   creation and they would leave in Pakistan as its bona fide citizens and
   would refrain from making any sort of disturbance and difficulty for
   the new state.

   However Qayyum Khan and the central government had already decided that
   there would be no accord with the movement. The Khudai Khidmatgar
   organisation was declared unlawful in mid-September 1948, mass arrests
   followeed and the centre at Sardaryab (Markaz-e-Khudai Khidmatgaran),
   built in 1942, was destroyed by the Provincial Government. This
   crackdown ultimately led to the Babra Sharif massacre.

   The movement was also hit by defections as party members switched sides
   out of fear or for benefit. Those members that wished to surivive
   politically rallied behind a former ally, turned opponent of Qayyum
   Khan, 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.

   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, however Ghaffar Khan turned down the offer.

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

Criticisms

   Modern day red shirts at the funeral of Wali Khan
   Enlarge
   Modern day red shirts at the funeral of Wali Khan

   ‎ 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. As a result it has been seen as a sectionist
   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 perceived as far more brutal
   than any done by the British. Others have also suggested that the
   Khudai Khidmatgar movement was not in fact as non-violent as its
   supporters would argue. Writers like Schofiled and Bannerjee have
   documented cases of attacks on British personnel and soldiers.

Pledge of the Khudai Khidmatgar

   There are two variations on record:

   Example 1 In the name of God who is Present and Evident, I am a Khudai
   Khitmatgar.

   I will serve the nation without any self-interest.

   I will not take revenge (badla) and my actions will not be a burden for
   anyone.

   My actions will be non-violent.

   I will make every sacrifice required of me to stay on this path.

   I will serve people without regard to their religion or faith.

   I shall use nation-made goods.

   I shall not be tempted by any office."

   Example two

   In the presence of God I solemnly affirm that

   1. I hereby honestly and sincerely offer myself for enrollment as a
   Khudai Khitmatgar.

   2. I shall be ever ready to sacrifice personal comfort, property, and
   even life itself to serve the nation and for the attainment of my
   country's freedom.

   3. I shall not participate in factions, nor pick up a quarrel with or
   bear enmity towards anybody. I shall always protect the oppressed
   against the tyranny of the oppressor.

   4. I shall not become member of any other organization, and shall not
   furnish security or tender apology in the course of a non-violent
   fight.

   5. I shall always obey every legitimate order of my superior officers.

   6. I shall always live up to the principles of non-violence.

   7. I shall serve all humanity equally. The chief objects of my life
   shall be attainment of complete independence and religious freedom.

   8. I shall always observe truth and parity in all my actions.

   9. I shall expect no remuneration for my service.

   10. All my services shall be dedicated to God, they shall not be for
   attaining rank or for show."

The Oath of the Khudai Khidmatgar

   I am a Servant of God, and as God needs no service, serving His
   creation is serving Him,

   I promise to serve humanity in the name of God.

   I promise to refrain from violence and from taking revenge.

   I promise to forgive those who oppress me or treat me with cruelty.

   I promise to refrain from taking part in feuds and quarrels and from
   creating enmity.

   I promise to treat every Pasthun as my brother and friend.

   I promise to refrain from antisocial customs and practices.

   I promise to live a simple life, to practice virtue, and to refrain
   from evil.

   I promise to practice good manners and good behaviour and not to lead a
   life of idleness.

   I promise to devote at least two hours a day to social work.

   I put forth my name in honesty and truthfulness to become a true
   Servant of God.

   I will sacrifice my wealth, life, and comfort for the liberty of my
   nation and people.

   I will never be a party to factions, hatred, or jealousies with my
   people; and will side with the oppressed against the oppressor.

   I will not become a member of any other rival organization, nor will I
   stand in an army.

   I will faithfully obey all legitimate orders of all my officers all the
   time.

   I will live in accordance with the principles of nonviolence.

   I will serve all God's creatures alike; and my object shall be the
   attainment of the freedom of my country and my religion.

   I will always see to it that I do what is right and good.

   I will never desire any reward whatever for my service.

   All my efforts shall be to please God, and not for any show or gain.

Anthem of Khudai Khidmatgar

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

   In the name of God, we march And in his name, We die We serve in the
   name of God God's servant are we!

   God is our king, And great is he, We serve our Lord, His slaves are we!

   Our country's cause We serve with our breath, For such an end, Glorious
   is death

   We serve and we love Our people and our cause Freedom is our aim, And
   our lives are its price.

   We love our country And respect our country Zealously we protect it For
   the glory of God

   By canon or gun undismayed Soldiers and horsemen, None can come
   between, Our work and our duty.

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