SecondSecond Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan MemorialMemorial Lecture Re-imagining Pakistan Husain Haqqani Former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States Director, South & Central Asia, Hudson Institute Washington D.C Centre for Pakistan Studies MMAJ Academy of International Studies Jamia Millia Islamia The Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Memorial Lecture instituted by the Centre for Pakistan Studies, MMAJ Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in the memory of the legendary figure Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan is an initiative to propagate the values he stood for. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the great Pashtun leader is still remembered in India for his role in the national movement. The values he stood for still remain relevant for contemporary times. Born in Peshawar, North- West Frontier Province in 1890, he is known for his non-violent opposition to British rule during the final years of the Empire on the Indian sub-continent. In his early career, he wanted to uplift his fellow Pashtuns through the means of education. It was during his tireless work to organise and raise the consciousness of the Pashtuns that he came to be known as Badshah Khan, the ‘King of Chiefs.’ A lifelong pacifist and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he also came to be known as the ‘Frontier Gandhi.’ He was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence and forged a close, spiritual, and personal friendship with him. In 1929, he founded the Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God) known as the Red Shirt Movement among the Pashtuns. The Khudai Khidmatgar was founded on a belief in the power of Gandhi’s notion of Satyagraha. It espoused non-violent nationalist agitation in support of Indian independence and sought to awaken the Pashtun’s political consciousness. His goal was a united, inde- pendent, secular India. After the Partition of the sub-continent, due to his opposition to authoritarian rule, he spent most of his time in prison and exile. In 1956, in association with some of the East Pakistani leaders he founded the Na- tional Awami Party – which was banned in 1958. He was arrested and upon his release left for Afghanistan and returned to Pakistan only in 1972. He died in 1988 after a long illness. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s political legacy is to be cherished. He is renowned amongst the Pashtuns and internationally as a leader of a non-violent movement. He is credited with his tireless advocacy of peace in the region. This great leader held no official post during his lifetime and worked tirelessly for the uplift- ment of his people. He was also a strong champion of women’s rights and education. He promoted educa- tion and social service through the work of the Khudai Khidmatgars. He was an ardent believer in the common destiny of the people of both India and Pakistan. Apart from this, his commitment to democracy and non-violence made him a legendary South Asian to be celebrated de- spite the borders in contemporary South Asia. In 1985, he was nominated for the Nobel peace prize and in 1987 he became the first non-citizen to be awarded India’s highest civilian award – the Bharat Ratna. The inaugural Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Memorial lecture titled A Vision for Pakistan in the 21st Century was delivered by Mr. Asfandyar Wali Khan, President of the Awami National Party, Pakistan and the grandson of Badshah Khan. The Second Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Memorial lecture was delivered on 11th August 2014 by Ambassador Husain Haqqani, former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States and Director, South and Central Asia, Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. His lecture was titled Re-imagining Pakistan. The programme was chaired by Prof. Talat Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia. 02 1 Second Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Memorial Lecture wrote, adding, “A conceited young man in the audience kept on heckling him. But Gandhiji did not get angry; he just laughed and went on talk- ing. The young man interrupted again and again, but Gandhiji only laughed. This made a deep im- pression on me, and when I returned to my lodg- ing, I told my companions about it. ‘If only our Muslim leaders could remain as calm and unper- turbed as Gandhiji, the leader of the Hindus,’ I said.” According to Bacha Khan, he was put off by the haughty response of Maulana Mohammed Ali when he spoke to him about Gandhi’s patience t is an honour for me to be invited to deliver and self-control. “Mohammed Ali Saheb did not I the Second Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Memo- react as we had hoped he would. He became very rial Lecture at Jamia Millia Islamia. annoyed and said: ‘And who do you think you are, you Pathans from the back of beyond, to One of the great tragedies of the Partition of the come and tell me how to behave?’ Then he got sub-continent has been the development of sepa- up and left the room. We were very disappointed rate narratives of history in India and Pakistan, and hurt. After that I did not want to attend the which do not do justice to several great men. Khilafat Conference anymore.” Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan – or Badshah Khan or Bacha Khan, as he is lovingly known, is one of If the conceit of the Khilafat leadership brought them. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan close to Gandhi, his disappointment with the Muslim League made Just as most Indians know little about the early him an ally of the Indian National Congress. contribution of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Quaid-e- Bacha Khan saw the British, and not other Indian Azam to Pakistanis, to the demand for self-rule in communities, as the enemy of the Pashtun people British India, most Pakistanis remain ill-informed he led. about the struggle of Bacha Khan against British imperialism. The Muslim League leaders did not confront the British during the course of the Second World Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a towering figure War as they saw the British as protecting Mus- in Indian, and later Pakistani history. He spent lims “in order that they could fight the Hindus.” more years in prison for his beliefs than Nelson Mandela, first under British rule and later under By his own account, Bacha Khan’s Khudai Khid- dictatorships in Pakistan. Bacha Khan was pun- matgar Movement had not joined the Congress ished by the British for demanding freedom from until the Muslim League turned down its request foreign rule. After independence, he was pun- for support against the British. “Now we were ished in the new state of Pakistan for questioning desperate,” he wrote. “A drowning man has no its elites and their policies. choice but to catch any straw to save himself. We were very disappointed with the Muslim League. The Frontier Gandhi had embraced the philoso- So we asked our two friends to contact the Con- phy of non-violence. In his autobiography, he ex- gress leaders and request them to help us. In their plained how he saw Mahatma Gandhi at a Con- meeting with the Congress leaders our friends gress moot while attending a conference of the were told that the Congress would be prepared to Khilafat Movement in Calcutta and began to like give us all possible help, if we, from our side, him. “Gandhiji was addressing the meeting,” he would agree to join them in the struggle for the 03 2 Pakistan Studies Programme, Jamia Millia Islamia Centre for Pakistan Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia freedom of India.” Bacha Khan, along with some other leaders like Bengal’s Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, opposed Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan became one of the the conjuring of this ‘ideology of Pakistan.’ He most influential Muslim leaders of the sub- had opposed Partition but after the Partition he continent who opposed the idea of Pakistan. Oth- said: “Now that the existence of Pakistan is a fact, ers included Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Dr. and the Congress and the Muslim League have Zakir Husain, co-founder and Vice Chancellor of both accepted that fact, I only wish to serve my this University. Sixty-seven years later, when the country and my people, without asking for a share existence of Pakistan is a reality that cannot be in anything. My people are now loyal citizens of undone, it should be possible for us to objectively Pakistan and we will do our bit for the reconstruc- examine the arguments of Muslim opponents of tion and the progress of the country.” the Muslim League. But as he wrote himself, the “Pakistan Govern- Unfortunately, that has not been the case in Paki- ment was not impressed.” stan. The Pakistani establishment has evolved a particular narrative of what led to Pakistan’s crea- It accused Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan of disloy- tion and any discussion of it from a different per- alty to Pakistan. It is a tragedy that this great free- spective is treated, not as history but as an attack dom fighter spent more time in prison in the inde- on the country’s foundation. pendent state of Pakistan than he had even under British rule. After mobilising support for the demand for Paki- stan, and establishing it as an independent coun- According to Bacha Khan, “Though we did not try, successive Pakistani leaders have chosen to commit any crimes, the treatment the Pakistan keep alive the divisive frenzy that led to Partition. Government meted out to us from the very begin- If Pakistan was attained with the slogan ‘Islam in ning was more cruel, and more unjust than any- danger,’ it has been built on the slogan ‘Pakistan thing we had suffered under the rule of the for- in danger,’ creating a constant sense of insecurity eign infidels.