KHAN ABDUL GHAFFAR KHAN

Subject : History

Context :

Concept :

Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988), the foremost 20th-century leader of the Pashtuns ( a Muslim ethnic group of Pakistan and Afghanistan) was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was called the “Frontier Gandhi”.
Ghaffar Khan met Gandhi and entered politics in 1919 during agitation over the Rowlatt Acts, which allowed the confinement of political dissidents without trial.
In 1920 he joined the Khilafat movement, which sought to strengthen the spiritual ties of Indian Muslims to the Turkish sultan
In 1921 he was elected president of a district Khilafat committee in his native North-West Frontier Province.
Soon after attending an Indian National Congress (Congress Party) gathering in 1929, Ghaffar Khan founded the Red Shirt movement (Khudai Khitmatgar) among the Pashtuns.
In 1987 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna Prize, the highest Indian honour that can be given to civilians. He was the first non-Indian to receive this honour.
Another non-Indian to receive Bharat Ratna is Nelson Mandela (1990).
Mother Teresa, in 1980, became the first and only naturalised citizen to be awarded the Bharat Ratna.

Additional Information : Khudai Khidmatgar Movement

The Khudai Khidmatgar was a non-violent movement against British occupation of the Indian subcontinent led by Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a Pashtun freedom fighter, in the North-West Frontier Province.
Over time, the movement turned political, leading to the British taking notice of its growing prominence in the region.
Following the arrest of Khan and other leaders in 1929, the movement formally joined the Indian National Congress after they failed to receive support from the All-India Muslim League.
Members of the Khudai Khidmatgar were organised and the men stood out because of the bright red shirts they wore as uniforms, while the women wore black garments.
The Khudai Khidtmatgar opposed Partition, a stance that many interpreted as the movement not being in favour of the creation of the independent nation of Pakistan.