34 A PILGRIMAGE FOR, PEACE
Chief Commissioner, Sir George Roos Keppel to ' placate
the Pathans '.*
The elder brother, Dr. Khan Saheb, in the meantime,
after taking his degree of M.R.C.S. (London) from St.
Thomas' Hospital, had gone to the front in France in utter
ignorance of what was happening to his younger brother
and father— not a letter from India was permitted to
reach him. On his return to India in 1920 he resigned
Ms Commission. Badshah Khan attended the Congress
Session at Nagpur in 1920 and took a leading part in the
Khilafat movement. He led a numerous party of muha-
jreen (pilgrim exiles) who performed an exodus as a pro-
test against the Khilafat wrong and suffered untold hard-
ships in their march to and from Kabul. The old Behram
Khan, nearly ninety, was with difficulty dissuaded from
joining. In 1921, Badshah Khan was again imprisoned by
the British authorities for no other crime than establishing
national schools. Even from the contiguous areas of
Malakand, Bajaur and Swat the tribesmen were sending
their children to these azad schools as they were
called, and the authorities saw red. "Why should your
son take it upon himself to establish this school, when no
one else is interested in it ? " the Chief Commissioner, Sir
John Maffey, suggested to his father. The father spoke
to the son. " Father/' replied the son, " supposing all the
other people ceased to take interest in the namaz, would
you ask me also to give it up and forsake my duty or
would you ask me to go on with the religious duty in scorn
of consequences ? "
" Certainly not/' said the father. " I would never
have you give up your religious duties, no matter what.
others may do."
" Well, then, father, this work of national education
Is like that. If I may give up my namaz, I may give up
the school."
" I see/' said the father, " and you are right/'
This time he was sentenced to three years' rigorous
* Discussed in detail in chapter HI.