Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakistan

Born into the Muhammadzai tribe, from the Charsadda valley in the Pakhtun heartland, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a passionate believer in the nonviolent core of Islam and sought to wean his people the fierce warrior Pakhtuns or Pathans of the North-West Frontier Province from their violent traditions and fight for a separate Pakhtun homeland that would no longer be a buffer between Russia and Britain in the Great Game.

In 1929 came Mahatma Gandhi s call for nonviolent resistance against British rule and Badshah Khan, responded by raising the Khudai Khidmatgars ( Servants of God ), an army of 1,00,000 men who pledged themselves to the service of mankind and nonviolence as a creed. For this, and for his steadfast devotion to his principles, this towering figure was imprisoned for a total of twenty-seven years, first by the British and later by the Pakistani government.

This is a perceptive biography that offers fresh insights into the life and achievements of an extraordinary man, drawing close parallels with the life of Mahatma Gandhi, his brother in spirit .