Faisal Khan — TCN Person of the Year 2011

By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: TCN annual awards have been announced. The TCN Person of the Year 2011 is young Gandhian Faisal Khan, a grass-root activist attached with National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM). The award to Khan is in recognition of his initiative to revive “Khudai Khidmatgar” (Servants for God’s Creation), an idea which has at present caught the imagination of the entire country.


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Revival of Khudai Khidmatgar

Khudai Khidmatgar was a movement started by Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, in 1930s to fight British rule through Satyagraha (Non-Violent struggles). But when Badshah Khan’s message of peace and Non-Violence, was forgotten by Pathans, Muslims and India, Faisal Khan in 2009 decided to revive the movement by adapting it to today’s Indian context.



L-R: Faisal Khan (in skull cap), Tara Gandhi (granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi) and others giving membership to Tanzila

On January 20th, 2011, on the occasion of Frontier Gandhi’s 23rd death anniversary, fifty volunteers under the leadership of Faisal Khan, took the initiative of reviving Khudai Khidmatgar, by taking the oath to serve the humanity without seeking any worldly desire.

Explaining his approach towards Khudai Khidmatgar to TwoCircles.net, Khan said that he wanted to revive the movement because, “at present, when social activism has become another name for NGO business and corruption, an honest and selfless kind of social activism has become urgent need of the hour. So the idea of Khudai Khidmatgar or servants of God’s creation becomes all the more necessary and relevant.”

Ironically, Khan who belongs to Farrukhabad, parliamentary constituency of Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Salman Khursheed, doesn’t want to harp much on issues like Muslim identity. Instead he wants to focus on “people’s empowerment through right based approach, which could bring and increase awareness towards one’s rights in the country and society,” said Khan and criticized the Muslim leadership for their failure to link religious and identity issues with the issues of socio-economic empowerment.

One understands the potential of Khudai Khidmatgar and gets an inkling of this “right based approach,” by meeting one of the fifty founding members of Khudai Khidmatgar. Tanzila is a maid in Jamia Nagar, a predominantly Muslim area in Delhi. She might not know the complex ideological debates around non-violence but this much she knows, that by joining Faisal Khan and by becoming a Khudai Khidmatgar, she would further her community’s fight for daily wages.

“We wash people’s dishes and clean their houses for petty sums of money. My husband, a rickshaw puller, earns not enough to ensure a decent life to me, my family. By being a Khudai Khidmatgar, I want to fight for our rights because a dignified life is as much our right, as it is of these people whose houses we work in,” Tanzila passionately explained the logic behind her being a part of the movement.

Gurumukh Singh, a resident of Ambala and founding member of Khudai Khidmatgar, joined Faisal Khan after he saw Khan’s work to bring about communal harmony in his village.



Faisal Khan, 3rd from right, talking to the victims of violence aganist Dalits in Mirchpur, Hisar in Haryana

A platform for Muslim participation in social activism

What seems amazing is the way the idea of Khudai Kidmatgar has facilitated a platform to ordinary Muslims to channelize their energy for positive and constructive activism. Khan, who is into social activism for more than one decade, says that one purpose of the revival was also to increase Muslim participation in social activism.

Probably very few would disagree with Khan, when he said that through Khudai Khidmatgar he wanted an ordinary Muslim to enter social activism because, “at present there are hardly any Muslim representations in civil society movements.”

“An ordinary Muslim is hesitant in joining both Left and Gandhian ideologies which form the biggest chunk of social activists in India today. I want Khudai Khidmatgar to become a stepping stone for ordinary Muslims for their further larger participation in big movements. It will be like training centers for people who will realize their potential for social activism and right movements,” says Khan, a rare but very prominent Muslim face in the social activism.

Faisal Khan’s work for communal harmony

“Communal harmony tops the agenda of Khudai Khidmatgar because if the idea of communal harmony has to sustain itself in India it has to be taken out of seminar rooms and press conferences to the common man on the street. It requires engaging general public on day to day basis,” says Khan who has led several Padyatras across the country for communal harmony and peace in the country.

Social activism is not new for Khan who has been working on the issues of communal harmony, women empowerment and minority rights, prominent among others.

Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) honored Faisal Khan with the ACHA Peace Star Awards 2010, in recognition for his works for communal harmony and peace across the country.

But most importantly of all, Khan termed the revival of Khudai Khidmatgar as a remembrance of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. “It’s a shame that Pathans, Muslims and India, all of the three, let Frontier Gandhi down by forgetting his message of peace, non-violence and communal harmony, which are much more relevant today than the time when Badshah Khan started the movement.”

Takes off with no roof

Even though the organizational set up is yet to take complete shape as it’s in nascent stage, it didn’t stop the Khudai Khidmatgars to start working on the ground.

When Yamuna got flooded last year the authorities turned a blind eye towards the plight of slum and shanties on the banks of Yamuna but the Khudai Khidmatgars rushed in for flood relief work and also worked with the authorities on a proper rehabilitation plan.

Khan is also the key initiator behind Save Sharmila Campaign, which targeted to mobilize people’s voices and pressurize the government to remove the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act. At preset he is in Ahmedabad as a part of weeks long Yatra for this campaign, traveling every state across the country. He has also been the main force behind “Beti Bachao Andolan,” (Save Girl Child) a nationwide campaign against female infanticide.



Faisal Khan (in green kurta) interacting with Ajmer pilgrims over communal harmony issue

Overwhelming support

Khan said that the idea of revival of Khudai Khidmatgar has got overwhelming support across the country an abroad, from every quarter, including from common people, intellectuals and activists. “At present we are getting calls from every state and big and small cities alike, of people who want to join Khudai Khidmatgar, so much so we cant call all of them for our national convention scheduled to be in early next year,” said Khan.

To revive Khudai Khidmatgar and adapt it to Indian conditions is not an easy job and faces several challenges ahead but TCN extends all the good wishes to Faisal Khan.

Contact details:
Khudai Khidmatgar
24/84, Friends Apartment, Ghaffar Manzil
Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110025
+919868619699, +919313106745, +919968828230

Links of some stories related to Faisal Khan:

Faisal Khan: Untiring Messenger of Peace, Communal Harmony

Khudai Khidmatgar revived with fifty members taking oath to serve the humanity

Muslim leaders failed to link Babri issue with community’s backwardness: Faisal Khan

Membership drive of Khudai Khidmatgar conducted in 3 states

A meeting to bring hearts together in Jammu and Kashmir

Srinagar-Imphal Save Sharmila Jan Karwan starts

National membership drive of Khudai Khidmatgar launched in Guwahati

After Kumbh, social activists now awakening Ajmer pilgrims

Activists to monitor minority welfare schemes at district level

Civil society questions govt, why ignoring Sharmila’s fast

Jamia Nagar maids gather over their issues

Gandhians fast to counter Modi’s ‘sham’

ACHA Peace Star Award 2010 declared

Peace activist Faisal leads relief work for Jamia flood victims

Nationwide prayer organized to counter Babri verdict fallout

Civil society plans nationwide campaign for Irom Sharmila’s fast

Young rights activists to revive Khudai Khidmatgar

http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/india-matters/frontier-gandhi-a-forgotten-hero/189293

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6631555,00.html

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=29499&Cat=7&dt=2%2F5%2F2011

http://www.khyberwatch.com/nandara/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=821&Itemid=84

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Modis-fast-draws-flak-activists-reply-the-Gandhian-way/articleshow/10046753.cms

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15410653,00.html

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