By TCN News
Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi said that of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan would remain relevant as long as there is a need for peace and non-violence in the society. He was speaking at a function organised to announce the institution of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Annual Memorial lecture series at Jamia Millia Islamia.
Prof Talat Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, JMI presiding over the function said the university would hold a memorial lecture on Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan on 21st February every year from next year. The university is proud to relive and work on the legacy of a man who not only fought for India’s freedom but was a devoted social reformer.
Prof. Ahmad also unveiled a portrait of Ghaffar Khan with Mahatma Gandhi in the Library of the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy which has instituted the annual memorial lecture.
An exhibition on the life and times of Ghaffar Khan for which the Centre has collaborated with the Nehru Museum and Memorial Library was also opened by the VC-JMI.
Rajmohan Gandhi, author of Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns said that it was not only the responsibility of society to reclaim the legacy of Bharat Ratna Badshah Khan who was much loved in the entire subcontinent but also to recapture his teachings of peace and nonviolence.
He recalled the “deep spiritual and intellectual unity” between Badshah Khan and Gandhiji said that Frontier Gandhi had on one of his many visits to India, predicted that there will always be Hindu-Muslim unity.
Talking about minorities, Rajmohan Gandhi said that their rights should be a matter of concern not only in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh but in other parts of the world too and that all nations must work to safeguard and protect their minorities.
He said that Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan had spent more than 27 years in jail— of which 15 years were for India’s freedom struggle and 12 years fighting for Pakhtun autonomy in Pakistan. He was much loved in the entire region, something that could be gauged from the fact that Badshah Khan’s funeral procession was “the grandest pageant in history” with thousand marching from the Khyber Pass to be a part of it.
Badshah Khan was a true Muslim who maintained that he had derived his non-violence from the Holy Quran, Rajmohan Gandhi further added. Frontier Gandhi had advised Indian Muslims to be non-retaliatory, he recalled.
Rajmohan Gandhi said that Frontier Gandhi linked non-violence to patience and was fully aware of the dangers of extremism.
He recalled Badshah Khan’s address to the Indian Parliament in which he told the members that India was collecting revenues from liquor taxes and duties but had forgotten Buddha and Gandhi in their own land.