For centuries, the Pashtuns (also called Pathans) have been stereotyped as deadly, fearless warriors. Narratives associating them with violence have typecast them as belligerent, blood-thirsty tribes. While this has long given the Pashtuns an association with war and violence, one story is less known: that the greatest non-violent struggles against colonialism was led by a Pashtun, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and his one hundred thousand followers.
Even Gandhi, in all his wisdom, could not distinguish between racist, stereotypical portrayal from reality. He could not believe the example of the Khudai Khidmatgar ‘Servants of God’ – who refused to raise a finger in anger against the British. To paraphrase Gandhi:
That such men, who would have killed a human being with no more thought than they would kill a sheep or a hen should at the bidding of one man have laid down their arms and accepted nonviolence as the superior weapon sounds almost like a fairy tale.
Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Frontier Gandhi and Bacha Khan (king of the chiefs), towered over all other at a height of six foot four. But there was a kindliness in him that disarms his warrior appearance. As a young man, he had dropped out of school to join the elite military outfit of Pathans called ‘the Guides’. But on seeing how a British officer shouted down at his troops, he realised that he would also be treated as a second-class soldier in the army. This made him change his mind. But was this an early sign that he was tiring of violence in all its forms?
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