By M Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: “One morning past week, someone knocked at my door and still dozing when I opened the gate, I was pleasantly surprised when a fair looking man – a Pathan or Pashtun in appearnce – took my name and enquired about Khudai Khidtmatgar,” says Faisal Khan about his first meeting with Arbab Muhammad Tahir Khan Khalil, General Secretary of the Awami National Party’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial unit.
In town on personal visit, Arbab Muhammad wanted to meet the new batch of Khudai Khidmatgars and hence went knocking the door. Faisal Khan later hosted a dinner for him where he invited some volunteers and friends to have an interaction with the General Secretary of the ANP.
Arbab Muhammad Tahir Khan Khalil with IIT, Delhi Professor Prof. V.K. Tripathi.
Over dinner, Arbab Muhammad told this reporter, “Through media we had come to know about the revived Khudai Khidmatgars and since then our party keenly follows updates about this new group through internet. As I was coming to India, I was instructed to meet this group and get to know more about them,” adding that he was personally also interested in meeting them.
Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God), 1929. Also called “Surkh Posh” or “Red Shirts” for the colour of the shirt the KK volunteers wore, was originally started by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan or Badshah Khan in the then North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of united India in early 20th century. What was originally a social reform organisation focusing on education and the elimination of blood feuds known as the Anjuman-e-Islah-e Afghania (society for reformation of Afghans), gradually evolved into a political movement as the movement formally joined the Indian National Congress in
For inspiring Khudai Khidmatgars to working voluntarily for the betterment of society and for leading a non-violent freedom struggle against the British Empire by the Pashtuns, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan came to be known as the ‘Frontier Gandhi.’
As the NWFP (present Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) became part of Pakistan after partition, Khudai Khidmatgar was relegated to being a brief chapter in history. In Pakistan it was rechristened as the Awami National Party (ANP) currently headed by Asfandyar Wali Khan, grandson of Frontier Gandhi.
However, Faisal Khan in 2009 decided to revive the movement by adapting it to today’s Indian context and finally on January 20th, 2011, on the occasion of Frontier Gandhi’s 23rd death anniversary, fifty volunteers under his leadership, took the initiative of reviving Khudai Khidmatgar, by taking the oath to serve the humanity without seeking any worldly desire.
Faisal Khan speaking. Arbab Muhammad, Professor Prof. V.K. Tripathi and others also in the picture.
Keeping the original idea of selflessly serving the society, KK volunteers work towards larger integration of the marginalized communities and has members cutting across religions. Today, it has over 3000 voluntary members across the country.
Although many volunteers come from the Muslim community, what is appreciable about KK volunteers that they do not harp on their Muslim identity. In fact their volunteers have just returned from Uttarakhand, helping in providing aids to the flood victims. Only yesterday KK volunteers organised a peace prayer for unity among communities at Shanti stupa after the Sunday blast in Bodh Gaya, and KK delegation had meeting with Katsu behan, well known Indian Buddhist religious leader and peace activist and chairperson of vishwa Shanti Stoop.
Khudai Khidmatgar volunteers at a peace prayer meeting.
Asked about his impressions about the new group, Arbab Muhammad says, “I am delighted to see that most of the volunteers are very educated and enthusiastic youths and that they are following the same basic principles of serving the society, rising above faith, caste or class.”
He added, “It’s fairly new group and it remains to be seen what positive and enduring changes they can bring, but certainly it’s on the right path.”
Besides, talking about how original Khudai Khidmatgar had begun, how Badshah Khan joined the Congress party to strengthen his struggle against British, and how he opposed partition and how he later came to terms with Pakistan, Arbab Muhammad also spoke about his family, his village house, where Jawaharlal Nehru had stayed for two nights during his trip to NWFP before independence how his ANP party has tried to hold on to legacies of Badshah Khan and work for the people.
Wikipedia photo of Mahatma Gandhi and Frontier Gandhi addressing Khudai Khidmatgars at a public meeting in Peshawar.
He says, “I can tell you with full surety that ANP is the only secular party in Pakistan.” He also spoke about the current challenges his party faces after being defeated by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the larger challenges of extremism and Taliban.
Attributing his party’s defeat in the recently concluded elections to Taliban, he says Talibans are terrorists, who particularly targeted his party cadres and leaders before the elections. He says that over 800 of his party cadres were killed in terror attacks or in target killings, including three senior leaders. He said that none of his party’s leaders could hold a public rally.
Asked, how his party aims to survive in such a scenario, he said that our cadres are still working on ground and enjoy lots of popularity, but “we have reworked our strategies and avoid media attention and publicity for any of our programmes for the time being.”
Related:
Faisal Khan — TCN Person of the Year 2011