Forgotten Frontier Gandhi

The Frontier Gandhi: My Life & Struggle – Translated from the original Pukhto by Imtiaz Ahmad Sahibzada Roli Books  Rs.695, Pages 576 TCA Raghavan (The Book Review) This is an autobiography of Khan Abdul Ghaffar (Bacha) Khan based on a 1983 text written by him in Pukhto. An earlier 1969 account, also translated and published in English, was deemed incomplete by Bacha Khan and he therefore wrote a more complete account which is now available to a non-Pukhto knowing readership. Bacha Khan is remembered by different names. For Gandhians, he was the iconic ‘Frontier Gandhi’. In his native region and in Pakistan, generally he is Bacha Khan. After release from his first stint in jail, he was called Fakhr-e-Afghan, and that name too has stuck in Pakistan and Afghanistan. For Indians, he is Badshah Khan. This autobiography, much like Gandhi’s My Experiments with Truth, has the endearing quality of simplicity and honesty that comes through and speaks directly to the reader. Among Pathans, Bacha Khan is and will remain, a legend and his political legacy remains very much alive to this day. Thus the book has an endorsement by Malala Yousafzai that his message remains an inspiration for her activism for girls education and women’s empowerment. My Life and Struggle takes us through the details of Bacha Khan’s early life, beginning with his rising frustration about Pashtun social and educational backwardness, and lack of unity. This was central to his activism and the autobiography brings out the frictions it generated with local maulvis and other status quoists such as maliks or headmen, who saw superstition and custom as integral to preserving the existing order and pride in their identity and privileges. Inevitably, this meant Bacha Khan incurred the displeasure of the authorities in what was the most securitised region of colonial India, concerned about anything new disturbing their enforced calm among tribes of the frontier. Khan’s social activism led inevitably to protest which led to politics, and finally to nationalist politics. His cadre of social workers — the Khudai Khidmatgar — thus became a political force winning elections under the 1935 GOI Act, and thereafter again in 1946 and forming the government in the North West Frontier Province. Bacha Khan himself was personally indifferent to the spoils of office and much like Gandhi, deeply ambivalent about State power bringing about real change. A close personal relationship with Mahatma Gandhi became very visible in 1930-40, and in 1947 amidst Partition and massacre, the two occupied a narrow crumbling ledge and remained steadfast to their ideals. What was striking about Bacha Khan was his grafting the virtue of non-violence among the Pashtun — raising in the process their self-esteem as also eroding the stereotype, which nevertheless endures up to the present day, of their predisposition to violence. In this memoir, Bacha Khan’s faith shines through and its enlightened common sense cannot fail to strike a chord: “If progress and prosperity could be attained merely through prayers and giving alms, why would our…