Political Career
Political Career
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan began work in 1912, when he was 22 years old. He joined the Haji Sahib of Turangzai (A great freedom fighter from present day tribal belt) to bring simple religious education to people near his village of Utmanzai, outside Peshawar. This was an affront to British colonial rule. Gradually, he got into increasing trouble with the authorities despite being the son of the popular and wealthy landlord Khan Behram Khan.
Political life in NWFP during the century of British rule was marked by a series of uprisings. Much of the province consisted of tribal territory where British Indian law only applied on either side of paved roads. It was here that the Haji Sahib of Turangzai and a young Ghaffar Khan finally had to escape. Tribal areas were often bombed, however. In the 1920's, Britain successfully blocked a universal ban on civilian bombing from the air by arguing that there was no other way to control Pathans.
Ghaffar Khan met Gandhi and entered modren politics in 1919 during agitation over the Rowlatt Acts, which allowed the internment of political dissidents without trial. In the following year he joined the Khilafat movement, which sought to strengthen the spiritual ties of Indian Muslims to the Turkish sultan, and in 1921 he was elected president of a district Khilafat committee in his native North-West Frontier Province.
Soon after attending a Congress Party gathering in 1929, Ghaffar Khan founded the Khudai Khitmatgar and the Red Shirt Movement among the Pashtuns. It espoused nonviolent, nationalist agitation in support of Indian independence and sought to awaken the Pashtuns' political consciousness. By the late 1930s Ghaffar Khan had become a member of Gandhi's inner circle of advisers, and the Khudai Khitmatgar actively aided the Congress Party cause up to the partition of India in 1947.
He paid dearly for his principles, spending many years in jail and afterward residing in Afghanistan. He returned to Pakistan in 1972. His memoirs, My Life and Struggle, appeared in 1969.
After Creation Of Pakistan
After the creation of Pakistan,when Pashtoon were denied their due rights, Bacha khan started a movement for creation of Pushtun land called Pukhtunistan comprising all Pukhtun areas. At the same time he was working on the social development of Pukhtuns. He created a big group of Social workers through out NWFP called "Khuddai Khidmatgar" which means working for society or public servant with out having pay. In Pakistan most of the time he remained in prison. He was expelled from Pakistan to Afghanistan in 1958. He came back in 1970.
In the 1980s when he was too old he was touring the province in a wheel chair. From 1986 on, he was mostly in hospital. On 20th January 1988 he died in Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, at the age of 98. He was burried in Jalalabad (Afghanistan) according to his wish. His funeral was attended in Peshawar by Late Prime Minister of India Mr Rajive Gandhi and Millitary dictator of Pakistan Mr Zia. When he was taken to Afghanistan his funeral was attended by President Najibullah of Afghanistan. In all, he spent 52 years of his life behind the bars or in exile.
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Ghaffar Khan met Gandhi and entered modren politics in 1919 during agitation over the Rowlatt Acts, which allowed the internment of political dissidents without trial. In the following year he joined the Khilafat movement, which sought to strengthen the spiritual ties of Indian Muslims to the Turkish sultan, and in 1921 he was elected president of a district Khilafat committee in his native North-West Frontier Province.
Soon after attending a Congress Party gathering in 1929, Ghaffar Khan founded the Khudai Khitmatgar and the Red Shirt Movement among the Pashtuns. It espoused nonviolent, nationalist agitation in support of Indian independence and sought to awaken the Pashtuns' political consciousness. By the late 1930s Ghaffar Khan had become a member of Gandhi's inner circle of advisers, and the Khudai Khitmatgar actively aided the Congress Party cause up to the partition of India in 1947.
He paid dearly for his principles, spending many years in jail and afterward residing in Afghanistan. He returned to Pakistan in 1972. His memoirs, My Life and Struggle, appeared in 1969.
After Creation Of Pakistan
After the creation of Pakistan,when Pashtoon were denied their due rights, Bacha khan started a movement for creation of Pushtun land called Pukhtunistan comprising all Pukhtun areas. At the same time he was working on the social development of Pukhtuns. He created a big group of Social workers through out NWFP called "Khuddai Khidmatgar" which means working for society or public servant with out having pay. In Pakistan most of the time he remained in prison. He was expelled from Pakistan to Afghanistan in 1958. He came back in 1970.
In the 1980s when he was too old he was touring the province in a wheel chair. From 1986 on, he was mostly in hospital. On 20th January 1988 he died in Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, at the age of 98. He was burried in Jalalabad (Afghanistan) according to his wish. His funeral was attended in Peshawar by Late Prime Minister of India Mr Rajive Gandhi and Millitary dictator of Pakistan Mr Zia. When he was taken to Afghanistan his funeral was attended by President Najibullah of Afghanistan. In all, he spent 52 years of his life behind the bars or in exile.
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