Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

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Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan , known as Badshah Khan (* around 1890 in Utmanzai , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , † January 20, 1988 in Peshawar , Northwest Province) was a Pashtun freedom fighter from India and later Pakistan . He gained fame through non-violent protest against British rule in the Indian subcontinent .

Life

Ghaffar Khan was born into a wealthy family. The father was the leader of an Afghan tribe and Ghaffar Khan worked on their land after completing school. The Northwest Province was the most backward province of British India in training until 1947. Ghaffar Khan recognized the importance of education for society amid archaic structures and opened a school at the age of 20. He became part of a reform-oriented group and visited the Dar ul-Ulum Deoband every six months between 1916 and 1919 to discuss strategies for countering British rule. After he worked tirelessly to raise the political awareness of Afghans and traveled across the region, he acquired the name Badshah Khan (King of Leaders).

His goal became a united, independent, secular India . He founded the Khudai Khidmatgar movement , which invoked Mahatma Gandhi's strategy of Satyagraha . Gandhi relied on traditions that took account of female parts in male consciousness, Ghaffar Khan, however, never referred to thoughts of femininity, rather to traditions of self-restraint and thus had a completely different philosophical blueprint to justify non-violence. The consensus in the movements they initiated consisted in the direction against foreign domination and the emphasis on the importance of willpower, whether it was assigned to the feminine side of consciousness by Gandhi or viewed by Ghaffar Khan as the basis of truly masculine self-control.

The group was able to unite tens of thousands of members in an opposition to the United Kingdom and it succeeded in dominating the politics of the Northwest Province. Ghaffar Khan's brother, Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan , led the movement's political wing. There were also close ties to the Indian National Congress (Congress Party). In order to weaken this axis, the British consciously promoted the Muslim League from the mid-1930s .

A particular concern of Ghaffar Khan was the connection between Islam and nonviolence , but fighting back Pashtun custom and the talk about nonviolence was new and difficult to understand. The end of the typical tribal feuds dragged on for years. On the other hand, the emphasis on nonviolence remained a guiding principle in the lives of many Khudai Khidmatgar even after the withdrawal of the British; it had acquired moral and religious significance. The disappearance of long-held hostility and hatred has been the most enduring win for many.

At the beginning of the Second World War , the Congress Party was of the opinion that one must support the democratic forces in Europe, provided the British would recognize India's claim to freedom. Ghaffar Khan, on the other hand, believed that wars and their horrors had been condemned and that Gandhi and his party could not follow the line that advocated participation in the British war effort. Even a short collaboration could destroy years of persuasion among the Pashtuns. Only when the Congress Party changed in 1942 and passed the Quit India Resolution did he resume cooperation.

Ghaffar Khan was considered a stern opponent of the partition of India . When it came to the question of an annexation of the Northwest Province to Pakistan , he called for a boycott of the referendum, which prevented 45 percent of the electorate from voting. After this referendum in 1947 did bring the union together, he declared at a meeting of his supporters that all they demanded is full freedom for the Pashtuns to regulate their internal affairs as a unit within Pakistan. Ghaffar Khan was placed under house arrest in newly formed Pakistan . After years in prison, he went into exile in Kabul . In 1987 he was the first non-Indian to receive the Bharat Ratna award .

He died under house arrest in Pakistan the following year. Even so, thousands attended the funeral service. His son Ghani Khan became a poet, his son Khan Wali Khan founded the Awami National Party .

Honors

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sayed Ali Shah Wiqar: Ethnicity, Islam and Nationalism. Muslim Politics in the North-West Frontier Province 1937-1947. Oxford 1999, p. 8.
  2. ↑ Mukulika Banerjee: The Pathan Unarmed. Opposition & Memory in the North West Frontier. Oxford 2000, p. 49.
  3. ↑ Mukulika Banerjee: The Pathan Unarmed. Opposition & Memory in the North West Frontier. Oxford 2000, p. 212.
  4. ↑ Mukulika Banerjee: The Pathan Unarmed. Opposition & Memory in the North West Frontier. Oxford 2000, p. 111.
  5. ↑ Mukulika Banerjee: The Pathan Unarmed. Opposition & Memory in the North West Frontier. Oxford 2000, pp. 160, 165.
  6. ↑ Maulana Abul Kalam Azad ; India Wins Freedom: the complete version. London u. a. 1988, p. 27.
  7. ↑ Sayed Ali Shah Wiqar: Ethnicity, Islam and Nationalism. Muslim Politics in the North-West Frontier Province 1937-1947. Oxford 1999, p. 128.
  8. ↑ Mukulika Banerjee: The Pathan Unarmed. Opposition & Memory in the North West Frontier. Oxford 2000, pp. 172-174.
  9. ^ Ludwig W. Adamec : Afghanistan's Foreign Affairs to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Relations With the USSR, Germany, and Britain. Tucson 1974, p. 264.
  10. ^ Samuel M. Burke / Lawrence Ziring: Pakistan's Foreign Policy. An Historical Analysis. 2nd ed. Oxford et al. 1990, p. 73.

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personal data
SURNAME Ghaffar Khan, Khan Abdul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Khan, Badshah; Khan, Abdul Ghaffar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian-Pakistani freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH around 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Utmanzai , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1988
Place of death Peshawar , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan