Sarhadi Gandhi
April 20, 2010
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, leader of the Pukhtuns, was given the sobriquet of "Sarhadi Gandhi" by his followers in reference to his commitment to the freedom struggle and non-violence. Ghaffar Khan was a great admirer of Mahatma Gandhi. He had built a close and spiritual friendship with Gandhi, the pioneer of the non-violent mass movement of civil disobedience. The two had a deep admiration for each other and worked together closely until 1947. In India he is still revered as "Sarhadi Gandhi."
Realising that the British Raj could not be defeated by revolts, Ghaffar Khan founded the Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God) movement to create social and political awareness among the Pakhtuns. He believed that social activism and reform would be more beneficial for Pakhtuns. Unfortunately, he remained the leader of Pakhtuns and avoided mainstream politics. He remained unaware of the strength of the Pakistan movement which was gaining ground all over India. He completely misread the situation when he formed an alliance with the All-India Congress.
Ghaffar Khan was not alone in opposing the idea of Pakistan. There were many Muslim leaders who had opposed the creation of a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. However, most of them reconciled with Pakistan and stopped opposing the new country. It should be conceded that the Muslims opposing Pakistan were neither traitors nor anti-Islam. They held an opinion against Pakistan but changed it when Pakistan came into existence. Ghaffar Khan and his followers, however, gave the impression that they still held anti-Pakistan feelings. Radio Kabul created this impression by advocating Pakhtunistan, a separate state.
Isfandyar Wali Khan, head of the Awami National Party and grandson of Ghaffar Khan, has a problem on his hands. Would he modify the "Sarhadi" or leave it as it is. "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Gandhi" would sound inappropriate. The fact remains that the ANP has moved in haste to rename NWFP without taking other linguistic groups into confidence and rejecting a referendum that could have given credibility and authenticity to the new name. Name-changing is neither a big political feat ensuring an enhanced popularity of the ANP, nor will the new name Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa give economic relief to the people of the province. However, it is the first province in Pakistan which has been named on linguistic grounds. That is dangerous!
No other province of Pakistan is named linguistically. The Punjab is named after its five rivers – punj (five) and ab (water). Sindh gets its name from the River Indus and not because the people of Sindh speak Sindhi. Balochistan is a multi-linguistic province. The origins of its names are buried in ancient history.
The renaming of NWFP without following constitutional and consensual path has encouraged the people of the Saraiki belt and Bahawalpur to press their demand for separation from Punjab. The strongest encouragement has come from federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, who has invited all and sundry to have a province of their own choice, provided they remained within the bounds of the Constitution. This open invitation offering a province or name-change will have serious consequences. Instantly, Jinnahpur comes to mind.
The change of NWFP's name so far has taken a toll of ten dead and over one hundred injured. This is the first time since the restoration of democracy that the police has fired upon and killed innocent and unarmed people who were demonstrating against the new name. The most unfortunate part of the killings is that they were carried out with the ANP ruling the province. It is unbelievable that the descendants of Ghaffar Khan, the most non-violent leader of all and a strong believer in secular politics, could have let this carnage happen.
Email: mirjrahman@hotmail.com
Realising that the British Raj could not be defeated by revolts, Ghaffar Khan founded the Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God) movement to create social and political awareness among the Pakhtuns. He believed that social activism and reform would be more beneficial for Pakhtuns. Unfortunately, he remained the leader of Pakhtuns and avoided mainstream politics. He remained unaware of the strength of the Pakistan movement which was gaining ground all over India. He completely misread the situation when he formed an alliance with the All-India Congress.
Ghaffar Khan was not alone in opposing the idea of Pakistan. There were many Muslim leaders who had opposed the creation of a separate homeland for Indian Muslims. However, most of them reconciled with Pakistan and stopped opposing the new country. It should be conceded that the Muslims opposing Pakistan were neither traitors nor anti-Islam. They held an opinion against Pakistan but changed it when Pakistan came into existence. Ghaffar Khan and his followers, however, gave the impression that they still held anti-Pakistan feelings. Radio Kabul created this impression by advocating Pakhtunistan, a separate state.
Isfandyar Wali Khan, head of the Awami National Party and grandson of Ghaffar Khan, has a problem on his hands. Would he modify the "Sarhadi" or leave it as it is. "Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Gandhi" would sound inappropriate. The fact remains that the ANP has moved in haste to rename NWFP without taking other linguistic groups into confidence and rejecting a referendum that could have given credibility and authenticity to the new name. Name-changing is neither a big political feat ensuring an enhanced popularity of the ANP, nor will the new name Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa give economic relief to the people of the province. However, it is the first province in Pakistan which has been named on linguistic grounds. That is dangerous!
No other province of Pakistan is named linguistically. The Punjab is named after its five rivers – punj (five) and ab (water). Sindh gets its name from the River Indus and not because the people of Sindh speak Sindhi. Balochistan is a multi-linguistic province. The origins of its names are buried in ancient history.
The renaming of NWFP without following constitutional and consensual path has encouraged the people of the Saraiki belt and Bahawalpur to press their demand for separation from Punjab. The strongest encouragement has come from federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, who has invited all and sundry to have a province of their own choice, provided they remained within the bounds of the Constitution. This open invitation offering a province or name-change will have serious consequences. Instantly, Jinnahpur comes to mind.
The change of NWFP's name so far has taken a toll of ten dead and over one hundred injured. This is the first time since the restoration of democracy that the police has fired upon and killed innocent and unarmed people who were demonstrating against the new name. The most unfortunate part of the killings is that they were carried out with the ANP ruling the province. It is unbelievable that the descendants of Ghaffar Khan, the most non-violent leader of all and a strong believer in secular politics, could have let this carnage happen.
Email: mirjrahman@hotmail.com
