THE SHADOW OF PARTING 139
to Badshah Khan and his Old Guard of Khudal Khidmat-
,gars. Badshah Khan was busy settling In consultation
with Gandhiji, final details about his future programme
of work and sighed that the fresh commitments into which
he was about to .enter left little chance of realizing Ms
long-cherished dream of a Bohemian ramble among the
enchanting hills of Shawal and Swat: " Mahatmaji, this is
what I have been telling the Khudai Khidmatgars since
your arrival. ' You have made the cause of the poor your
own. But what have you done to remove their poverty ?
You have pledged yourself never to retaliate, but have
you gone among your opponents and tried to win them by
your love ?' " He narrated to Gandhiji a few of his ex-
periences which showed how deep the spirit of non-vio-
lence had burnt itself into him. A ""Mussulman friend
from the Punjab had found himself in his company during
a train journey. " He was full of denunciation of me
saying that I had undermined the spirit of Islam by
preaching non-violence to the Pathans, I told him that
lie knew not what he was saying and that he would never
have talked like that if he had seen with his own eyes, the
wonderful transformation that the message of non-vio-
lence has worked in the midst of the Pathans, to whom it
has given a new vision of national solidarity. I cited
chapter and verse from the Quran to show the great em-
phasis that Islam has laid on Peace, which is its coping
stone. I also showed to him how the greatest figures in
Islamic history were known more for their forbearance
and self-restraint than for their fierceness. The reply
rendered him speechless/'
He then described how on another occasion he
was accused of having a lashkar of one lakh of "Khudai
Khidmatgars to help the Hindus to subdue the Mussulman
population. " I was advised by several friends to
issue a contradiction of the gross libel. But I refused.
11 have not yet sufficiently penetrated the Frontier
masses/ I told them. To them what I might say
will probably be on a par with what anybody else might
tell them till, as a result of our selfless service, they learn