Bacha Khan, The King Without a Throne

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Written by Abdul Hai Aryan

Tragically, Pakistan is a country whose curriculum has no space for progressive and true heroes.  It admires Muhammad Bin Qasim, the Arab nationalist who conquered the Sindh in 712 and later on, was killed by his own Caliph. Mahmud Ghaznavi, the destructor of ‘Somnaat temple’ in India is an icon of pride in the country’s textbooks. Pakistan history has great reverence for the Mughal emperors who instead of building schools and universities just built luxurious monuments like Taj Mahal built by king Shahjahan’s in memory of his third wife Mumtaz Mahal with an amount of Rs.22 million accumulated through taxes. It has space for Syed Ahmad Barelvi, the fanatic fundamentalist who tried to implement Wahhabism, Taliban’s school thought in the then India through the swords but the country’s textbooks unfortunately has no room for the son of the soils of the country and has the deficiency to honor and value its true heroes like Bacha Khan, G. M Syed and other protagonists whose endeavors would holistically be productive for the generations to come.

Abdul Ghafar Khan known as Bacha Khan in Pakistan, Frontier Gandhi in India and Fakhr-i-Afghan in Afghanistan is internationally known as monger of non-violence but disastrously  is known to very few in his own country. In 1890 he was born to Behran Khan House, a tribal but moderate chief of Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Bacha Khan after completing his education joined the British army however shortly realized the atrocities the Indians suffered in hands of British officers; then as a protest left the army and started to change his people lives through education. In 1921 he started his social reform movement in NWFP now Khyber- Pkhtinkhawa province. and later he organized youths under the platform of Afghan Youth League and in 1930 founded Khudai-Khidmatgar movement (the servants of God), a nonviolent and social reforms movement for awareness. The movement had millions of members who always adhered to their oath of reforming the society through non-violence and peaceful revolution of education. During 1915 to 1918 in a short period of three years he visited more than five thousands villages of K-Pakhtunkhaw and setup more than 70 schools in the province. He was a great advocate girls’ education. Henceforth, In 1932, he was the first person of the province who sent his daughter Mehr Raj abroad for getting higher education.

He always believed in serving humanity and correspondingly was a staunch believer of non-violence, Peace, love, freedom, service to men and equality were the core values of his teachings and politics. Denouncing violence by the religious extremists at that time, he said, “killing of people on the name of religion, plundering and burning their houses is not the religion of Allah,” the religion of God is ‘love’ and the purpose of religion is to serve humanity.” Being a progressive grandee and becoming the symbol of harmony regardless of any religious discriminating he urged his supporters to know your true enemy and true friends. The over sixth-feet-tall Khan Baba tortuously ruled the hearts of millions of people instead of sitting on a throne. He was so simple; his dress was that of an ordinary man. The Afghan President Hamid Karzai while talking abou Khan’s Personality which he had seen during his childhood when Bacha Khan was invited to his home in Kandahar by his father, During his speech on the death anniversary of Bacha Khan, Karzai added that Bacha Khan Baba was very tall and strong man but he wore pretty simple dresses. In spite of surrounded by many dishes and meal, he just dinned on ‘Shorwa’, an ordinary Afghan meal saying his life was going to be tough.

Bacha Khan was the close ally and the most trusted friend of Mahatma Gandhi. In an interview Mehr Taj, the daughter of Bacha Khan explains Baba’s relations says, “ They were more or less alike in ideas and the way they lived, the clothes and the simple food were the same.” The personal secretary of Gandhi, in an interview says, “Bacha Khan used to read the holy Kuran. Sometimes he forgot his glasses and borrowed Gandhi glasses to read the Kuran.”  Gandhi had a great respect for Khan and called him ‘Man of God’.

 In the 1920s, he formed an alliance with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, an alliance that lasted until 1947--the partition of India. The 27 years long alliance with the Indian Congress remain futile as his supporters and Bacha Khan felt betrayed by both India and Pakistan after the partition, and his last words to Gandhi were, "You have thrown us to the wolves," because the Pashtuns of British India were not offered the choice of being an independent state or re-joining with Afghanistan after the formation of the Durand Line, the boundary between modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan; instead, they were compelled to choose between joining Pakistan or India, and voting results showed that the majority wanted to join Pakistan--the Muslim state, considering Pashtuns are also Muslims.

 In 1967, he was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding while after his withdrawal from politics; he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Eventually, during his visit to India he partook in the centennial celebrations of the Indian National Congress in 1985; his untiring struggle also earned in 1987 the India’s highest civil award the ‘Bahrat Ratna’.Unfortunately after the emergence of Pakistan, despite his speech in the first constituent assembly in which he expressed his commitments to work for prosperous Pakistan, was portrayed as ‘persona non grata’ due to his alliance with the Indian Congress party.

Bacha Khan had spent as many as 27 years in imprisonment, 12 years under British rule and 15 in Pakistan, There were times he went in fettered for six months, the marks of which remained on his feet till he died at the age of 98. In the words of Bacha Khan "I had to go to prison many a time in the days of the Britishers. Although we were at loggerheads with them, yet their treatment was to some extent tolerant and polite. But the treatment which was meted out to me in this Islamic state of ours was such that I would not even like to mention it to you."

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan in the united India campaigned for the release of Bacha Khan from prison in 1929-1930 which has been duly noted by Stanley Wolpert in his biography of Jinnah. it was Jinnah who had put forth Bacha Khan’s name for inclusion in the first round table conference 1930, an all Indian parties conference called by the then British government. But after the creation of Pakistan Bacha Khan and Jinnah were always kept at distance. In 1948, a meeting due in Peshwar between the two leaders was canceled as Abdul Qayum Khan then Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkaw cunningly deluded Muhammad Ali Jinnah terrifying him of his assassination plan plotted by Bacha Khan.

Bacha Khan always urged for ‘character integrity’ and candor.  At an occasion, he said, “A nation that is merely power monger and wealth oriented, will never enjoy national harmony, it will never go through democratic values, Socialism and even the true face of Islamization.”  Sadly, the aphorisms of Baba have never been followed by his own family and supporters. He commenced the endeavors of politics from his small village which gradually became the most powerful voice of India uniting millions of people in his movement oddly, his political heirs are proving clumsy. Many roads, hospitals and airports were retitled after him but forgot Baba’s true teachings.

After retirement from politics he remained in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and finally a heart attack followed by a coma on January 20, 1988 caused his demise. Many still question his burial in Jalalabad but many deem it as a symbol of Pashtun.

Source: http://www.pashtunwomenvp.com/index.php/2013-01-28-03-21-27/political/397-bacha-khan-the-king-without-a-throne