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Talking of grandfathers...
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Rajmohan Gandhi and Afsandyar Khan, the grandsons of Mahatma Gandhi and Badshah Khan, were in New Delhi for the launch of "Ghaffar Khan", a Penguin publication. ZIYA US SALAM speaks to the duo to find out why the Frontier Gandhi is more relevant now than before.
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TIME TO PAY OUR DUE: Rajmohan Gandhi tells us why we need to look afresh to Badshah Khan today.
IN TODAY'S charged times, Muslims in India are often reminded of Aurangzeb. And derided by some as Babar ki Aulad. Nobody, almost nobody talks of Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khanan. Or Malik Mohammed Jayasi. Or even Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Unless of course, you happen to be Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who decides it is time for us to repay the debt of history. Then he invites Afsandyar Khan, leader of the Awami National Party of Pakistan, and grandson of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, to recall the contribution of the Frontier Gandhi in India's freedom struggle. The result? A Penguin publication called "Ghaffar Khan", a book he researched largely in Pakistan, and unfortunately could not go across to Afghanistan to be in the land where the towering apostle of non-violence was buried. Now they are planning a tomb at the site. That will come later, as part of a larger exercise at posthumous reconciliation with a man who was "abandoned by people he loved, and whom he never abandoned".
That "abandonment" happened in 1947 as the Congress, Muslim League and Britain sought to strike a balance on transfer of power to India, and creation of Pakistan. Even as the subcontinent won the fight for freedom, Khan lost the battle for unity and equality. He was forgotten by the people he had come to admire and love as his own.
Work of gratitude
Says Rajmohan Gandhi, "This book is in part gratitude for the failure of this country to acknowledge the greatness of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and partly intended to present him as a compelling alternative to the images of violence and extremism that dominate the media today."
He contests the widespread belief that the Pakhtuns whom Khan dearly loved, only stood for violence, revenge or badal. "In North-West Frontier Province, we have not seen exceptional violence in recent years and though Badshah Khan believed in the affinity of Pakhtuns, he believed in the larger unity of the country," asserts Gandhi, adding that he did not discriminate between people on the basis of their religion and caste. "In some ways, the odds confronting him were more steep than those faced by Mahatma Gandhi, though one cannot overlook the great divisions of caste in the Hindu society. Badshah Khan's non-violence should not be mistaken as any weakness because he was passionately uncompromising opponent of the British rule. Nobody enlisted a larger non-violent army - Khudai Khidmatgar - than him."
NOT JUST GRATITUDE: Afsandyar Khan recalls the contribution of Badshah Khan
Yet, India, as indeed Pakistan conspired to forget him, probably seeking to wipe off their guilty by obliterating uncomfortable images. "Badshah Khan was not assassinated but his character was many times. At Independence he was left at the mercy of the Muslim League. It was a setback for the man who spent 15 years in jail under the British rule and later, another 17 in independent Pakistan."
Why this book at this time when the freedom struggle is but a memory? "Ghaffar Khan will help in better understanding of Islam. He will make a significant dent in the false images of the religion being perpetuated by media's easy stereotypes. He was a comrade in arms for Mahatma Gandhi. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1987 but he was too much of a fighter to be appeased by any award. His spirit will be placated when India embraces the weakest elements of the society, and we as a nation express unconcealed sympathy for Pakhtun dignity."
Now in Urdu
IT HAS to be an extraordinary stroke of luck. Speaking to two grandsons of apostles of peace on the same day has to count as something more than mere serendipity. There was Rajmohan Gandhi who authored the Penguin tribute to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and Asfandyar Khan who was around at the launch of the book, "Ghaffar Khan" in New Delhi this past week.
Even as Gandhi calls the book an exercise in gratitude, the grandson of Frontier Gandhi sees it differently. "I won't call it just gratitude. I see it in the larger international perspective. After 9/11, there was a necessity to give greater prominence to people like Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. There was a need to give a message that Islam is not about terrorism, nor are all Afghans terrorists. Islam stands for peace and Ghaffar Khan, a devout follower of religion, was a true representative of what Islam stands for. Today, there is a greater need to follow his philosophy of peaceful co-existence than may be even at that time."
Like Gandhi, Khan believes that justice was denied to Frontier Gandhi on both sides of the divide. "In Pakistan there is a difference between Independence movement and movement for free and separate Pakistan. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was an integral part of the fight for freedom but his not being part of the struggle for creation of Pakistan led to the absence of official acknowledgement of his role in the entire freedom struggle."
As a consequence, reveals the towering Khan, "the new generation of Pakistanis is not aware of the contribution of Frontier Gandhi despite all the work of Khudai Khidmatgars. However, the new generation of Pakhtuns is aware, largely because grass-root activism took place here in the run up to the Independence."
Khan, who visited the Capital for the book launch at the India International Centre, rejects the notion that whatever Ghaffar Khan, also called Badshah Khan, stood for was against the general feelings of people in the region, the Pathans, known for their bravery. "On the contrary, his non-violence philosophy appealed to people. True, there was a mild opposition but not significant. Otherwise, the Congress could not have won two elections from NWFP in pre-Independence India."
Even as Pakistan and India ignored this grand fighter for Pakhtun dignity and our Independence, Rajmohan Gandhi decided it was time to recall the life and times of the man who was faced with as many obstacles as Gandhiji. Says Khan, "The book is entirely his. It is his vision, his tribute. I or anybody else has not imposed other views." And even as the book hits the stalls across India, there is a plan afoot in Pakistan to translate it into other languages. "We had sought and got permission for translating the book into Urdu and Pashtu. We are about to start work on that to get the message of Badshah Khan across to his own people," concludes the grandson of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, adding, "We have also requested architects to come up with new designs for Badshah Khan's tomb in Jalalabad."
Photo: S. Subramanium
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