A pilgrimage for peace;

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

GANDHI AND FRONTIER GANDHI AMONG N. W. F. PATHANS

BY

PYARELAL

NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE
AHMED ABAD

First Edition, February 1950, 3,000 Copies

Ruvees Five

Printed and Published by Jivanji Dahyabhai Desai,
Navajivan Press, Kalupur, Ahmedabad

PREFACE

After Gandhiji’s tragic death last year I was asked by
some of our revered leaders and all the closest friends
and associates who constituted Gandhiji’s wider family to
take up the writing of his full-dress, authentic biography
as a matter of sacred duty. An outline of the plan of the
book was published in Harijan of 6-3-1949. But it was
ten months before I could disengage myself from the
work in Noakhali with which Gandhiji had entrusted me
along with other members of his entourage. Further
preliminaries took more time, and it was only recently
that details were finally completed to begin work under
the auspices of the Navajivan Trust, the prospective pub¬
lishers of the biography.

I utilized the interval to prepare for publication a
series of forestudies to the full-dress biography, particu¬
larly bearing on the last phases of Gandhiji’s mission. The
present volume is the first of the series. The next one
will deal with his “ Do or Die ” mission of peace and re¬
conciliation in Noakhali. The third is my sister Dr.
Sushila Nayyar’s diary of the twenty-one months’ deten¬
tion in Aga Khan Palace with Gandhiji. It will be
published in the first instance in Hindustani by the Sasta
Sahitya Mandal, Connaught Circus, New Delhi. A Guja¬
rati rendering will be published about the same time by
the Navajivan Press, Ahmedabad.

In giving precedence to these publications I have
been led by the consideration that they embody Gandhiji’s
reply to the^j atomic challenge which confronts the
world today. They unfold in minute detail the theory
and practice of non-violence of the strong, to perfect
which especially his last days were devoted. The sub¬
stance of these volumes will later be incorporated in a
condensed form in the full-dress biography of Gandhiji.

iii

IV

My thanks are especially due to Mr. Arthur Moore
and Horace Alexander for having gone through the
manuscript as a labour of love, to the photographers who
have allowed me to reproduce their photos to illustrate
the text, and to numerous other friends without whose
co-operation and help these pages might not have seen the
light of day.

PYARELAL

Harijan Colony,

Kings way, Delhi,

1st January, 1950

INTRODUCTION

In the autumn of 1938, Gandhiji made an extensive
tour of the North-West Frontier Province in the company
of Khan Saheb Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Never shall I forget
the ecastatic exaltation of the soul which filled him
throughout that memorable tour. To witness it was a rare
privilege.

I covered the story of that tour in a series of articles
in Harijan at that time. Rut it was Badshah Khan's de¬
sire that the text of Gandhiji’s utterances during that tour
and particularly of his discourses on non-violence before
the Khudai Khidmatgars * should be made available to the
public in full and as far as possible in Gandhiji’s own lan¬
guage. The articles needed a thorough revision and at
places further amplification. But other duties pressed
their claim and the inspiration of those halcyon days re¬
fused to be recaptured afterwards aw^ay from the scene,
and so the publication has been delayed up till now.

During two successive incarcerations in the Nagpur
Central Prison in pursuance of the No-Participation-In-
War-Satyagraha Campaign of the Congress in 1940, I had
the privilege of coming into close touch with a number
of public workers and political leaders. As satyagrahis
they -were all deeply interested in the theory and practice
of non-violence. Challenging questions would now and
again crop up and give rise to debate and discussions
which sometimes lasted for weeks on end. To my agree¬
able surprise, I found that almost all the questions that
were debated had been anticipated and answered by

* Literally “ Servants of God ” being the name given by Khan
Abdul Ghaffar Khan — the Frontier Gandhi as he came to be known
— to his volunteers, when he founded his non-violence movement
among the warlike Frontier folk.

VI

Gandhiji in the course of his talks to the Khudai Khidmat-
gars. These talks, as Gandhiji used to remark, constitute
the most systematic and comprehensive exposition of the
theory and technique of non-violence that he ever gave in
one place.

Nor is this surprising. In the Frontier Province
Gandhiji had to expound non-violence to a set of
people who not only had no living tradition or background
of non-violence for a long time past, but whose entire his¬
tory for the last two thousand years had run counter to it.
Non-violence was not only not an extension of what they
had held and practised for a long time past, but it was
in many ways its reverse. Gandhiji had therefore to begin
from scratch and reduce his philosophy to its simplest
terms so that even a child could understand. In the dis¬
courses to the Khudai Khidmatgar officers Gandhiji has
described in minute detail the nature and working of non¬
violence with an anatomist’s thoroughgoing patience and
care, and delved deeper and deeper till you come to the
pulsating spring of the Godhead enshrined in the human
heart, from which it gushes forth.

Gandhiji’s tour of the North-West Frontier Province
was undertaken under the shadow of the Munich crisis.
That gave to his utterances a distinct international
slant and he did not hesitate to claim for his message
a world-wide application to meet the challenge of brute
force which the Munich crisis dramatized.

It has been argued that the weapon of non-violence
can be of avail only when the power opposing it is sus¬
ceptible to moral appeal, but is of no use against a power
that has, by the totalitarian technique of suppression and
unscrupulous propaganda, rendered itself impervious to
world opinion or any other moral influence. For instance,
it is pointed out that if the German Jews had resorted to
Satyagraha, the Nazi rulers would have thought nothing
of mowing them down by machine-gun fire as if they were
a herd of diseased cattle and thus putting an end to all
trouble and trouble-mongers once and for all.

VI1

These friends seem to forget that non-violence does
not depend for its working upon the sufferance of the
tyrant. It is independent of his will. It is self-sustained.
For instance, it was not lack of will or confidence in his
capacity to annihilate that “ dark contemptible supersti¬
tious heresy” — as Christianity was then known — that
stayed Nero’s hand when he started burning alive Christ¬
ian heretics to illuminate the nocturnal garden sports of
Rome or throwing them to gladiators and hungry lions
in the Colosseum to make a Roman holiday. Enlightened
public opinion of his day was wholly on his side. To ex¬
terminate Christians like a pest was regarded as a
laudable and meritorious act of public service. They
were regarded as by nature corrupt and steeped
in sedition, enemies of the State and of true religion.
No anti-Jewish diatribe of Goebbels or Streicher could
exceed in virulence or cold-blooded hatred words put by
Anatole France into the mouth of Pontius Pilate,* which
very correctly sum up the historical attitude of Roman
proconsuls towards the early Christians. Nor were the
Christians sufficiently numerous or important to employ
“ embarrassment tactics ” successfully. And their per¬
secutors knew it. Had they actually decided upon their

* “ Since we cannot govern them, we shall be driven to destroy
them. Never doubt it. Always in a state of insubordination, brew¬
ing rebellion in their inflammatory minds, they will one day burst
forth upon us with a fury beside which the wrath of the Numidians
and the mutterings of the Parthians are mere child’s play. They
are secretly nourishing preposterous hopes and madly pre-meditating
our ruin. How can it be otherwise, when, on the strength of an
oracle, they are living in expectation of the coming of a Prince of
their own blood whose kingdom shall extend over the whole of
the earth ? There are no half measures with such a people. They
must be exterminated. Jerusalem must be laid waste to the very
foundation. Perchance, old as I am, it may be granted me to behold
the day when her walls shall fall and the flames shall envelop her
houses, when her inhabitants shall pass under the edge of the sword,
when salt shall be strewn on the place where once the temple
■stood. And in that day, I shall at length be justified.”— Anatole
France : Procurator of Judaea.

viii

extermination, nothing could have prevented them from
it. And yet, they did not, because they could not. f

So baffling, so subtle, so novel in character and con¬
trary to all that they had all along recognized or were
familiar with was this new force that confronted them
that they did not know what to do. And before they were
aware of it, it had like a hidden leaven permeated and
transformed the entire mass. The triumphant smile on
the face of the Christian martyr, as he proceeded calmly
to the stake to be burnt alive, at first surprised, then
exasperated and finally undermined and overwhelmed the
complaisance and smug self-confidence of the proud patri¬
cian. The javelin-proof coat-of-mail of the Roman
cohorts was not proof against this subtle force. It insi¬
nuated itself secretly into the families of the high and
the mighty and gained a footing even in the Imperial
household.

Coming to our times, scientific testimony as to the
superiority of the power of non-violence to physical
strength or the cunning of the brains in nature and primi¬
tive society is furnished by that great savant Prince
Kropotkin in his Mutual Aid as a Factor in Evolution.
Even in wild nature, where there is not any curb
or check upon the destructive propensities of the strong,
Kropotkin has shown that “ the fittest to survive are not
the physically strongest nor the cunningest but those who
learn to combine so as mutually to support each other.”

But, argues the sceptic, whilst in Utopia non-violence
would be all right and whilst in an academic way many
people would today endorse the declaration embodied in
the Atlantic Charter that “ on spiritual as well as realistic
grounds the renunciation of the use of brute force is in-

f " And you yourself Pontius, have seen perish beneath the cud¬
gels of your legionaries simple-minded men who have died for a
cause they believed to be just without revealing their names. Such
men do not deserve our contempt. I am saying this because it is desi¬
rable in all things to preserve moderation and an even mind. But I own
that I never experienced any lively sympathy for the Jews." —
Anatole France: Procurator of Judaea.

IX

evitable in the long run ”, the present trend of human
evolution as typified in the rise of totalitarian dictator¬
ships is against it. This argument ignores the pheno¬
menon of dialectical transformations and mutations in
nature and history. A close study of natural and his¬
torical phenomena shows that when a particular ten¬
dency in nature or society has reached its peak, it is very
often ripe for a mutation, i. e., transformation into its
opposite by a sudden leap. During the last war the
culmination of the power of armaments gave rise to the
technique of frightfulness which means you do not need
to kill if you can demonstrate your undoubted capacity
to kill. By the use of this technique it was found possible
by totalitarian powers to subdue and enslave whole
nations almost without firing a shot. It is not without
significance that although the destructive power of
armaments and the numbers involved in the last World.
War were far greater than in World War I, actual
casualties were less. Proceeding on this analogy,
it should not be difficult to visualize that as the
number of people groaning under the iron heel of
militarism grows, the stage is set for the discovery that
if the oppressed masses simply shed the fear of death,
it might not be necessary for them to die to regain their
freedom. The deadlier the weapons of destruction be¬
come, the greater is the chance of humanity’s learning to
confront them with a power of an altogether different
kind against which they cannot prevail. Armaments can
but destroy. Yet, total destruction is not what the tyrant
seeks, but co-operation, willing or forced, of the victim
and this no power of armaments can extract from a people
if they have the strength to say ‘ No ’. The moment,
therefore, the people become aware of soul force or the
power of the spirit, which armaments can neither destroy
nor subdue, the arms will be rendered useless and the
citadel of tyranny will fall.

The earliest and perhaps the most brilliant recorded
historical instance of the triumph of this power of the
spirit is to be found in the encounter on the plain of

X

Taxila between Alexander and the Indian sage Dandamis
who, according to the Greek chronicler, “ though old and
naked, was the only antagonist in whom he (Alexander),
the conqueror of many nations, had met his match.” The
reader would do well to ponder over the inner meaning
of that episode, symbolizing as it does the reply of the
East to the challenge of the armed might that was hurled
at its head 300 years before the Christian Era:

“ The East bowed low before the blast
In patient deep disdain;

She let the legions thunder past
And plunged in thought again.”

Today the same challenge is being repeated in an
even more accentuated form and once more people’s
thoughts are beginning to revert to that weapon and
source of inexhaustible power which is India’s peculiar
heritage from the past and promises to be her special
contribution to the world’s future progress. Humanity is
in the grip of the atomic nightmare. What is the nature
of this power which Gandhiji had set out to discover and
present to the world ? How can it be developed in the
individual and in the mass ? What is the type of organiza¬
tion needed for it ? How does it differ from the other type
of organization based on violence ? How is a non-violent
attitude to be related to the world around us which not
only does not swear by unadulterated ahimsa but actually
believes and practises largely its opposite ? These and
other equally vital questions confronting a votary of
ahimsa will be found posed and answered in these pages
in Gandhiji’s own words

But whilst ahimsa on an individual scale is independ¬
ent of one’s environment and can be practised anywhere
and everywhere, a non-violent order calls for a particular
type of socio-economic milieu. What will the mind and
face of a society based on non-violence be like ? A
few glimpses of this world order in miniature based on
ahimsa will be found in the two articles on Taxila. It is
an enchanting world — that once existed in actuality —
a world of Arcadian simplicity, individual freedom and

XI

natural living, honest, healthy industry and bread labour,
a world in which there were the fewest laws but a highly
developed social system, a world in which war was
abolished and toleration in its broadest sense reigned
supreme in the political no less than in the religious
sphere. And all this efflorescence sprang forth from the
seed of non-violence. How Gandhiji and Badshah Khan
endeavoured again to plant it in the hearts of the Khudai
Khidmatgars of the North-West Frontier Province w r ill
be found described in the following pages. Let the
reader ponder over the inner meaning and significance of
this experiment and decide for himself whether it is not
worth living for and dying for.

PYARELAJL

Harijan Colony,

Kingsway, Delhi,

1st January, 1950

A Note on the Cover Design

The cover design symbolically represents the modern miracle
of the near conversion of the warlike Pathans of the North-West
Frontier Province into soldiers of the spirit under the influence
of the two Gandhis. Under the shadoiv of the sinister looking
Khyber Pass, “the boulevard of sudden death", a monster
gathering of the Pathans listens to the message of non-violence
and peace from Gandhiji’s lips. It is the same message as is
enshrined in the Ashokan monuments in the NWFP and the ruins
of Tarila (seen below), where it ivas nractised by the ancestors
of the modern Pathans two thousand years ago. The fire of
passion in Gandhiji's soul is reflected in his face and the gestur
of his outstretched hand. Behind Gandhiji looms the gigantic
figure of Frontier Gandhi, his face radiant with joy to see Ms
children being weaned from the curse of violence which threatened
them with race suicide., and his dream of their setting an example
to the ivorld of the non-violence of the brave, nearing fulfilment.
The heap of broken rifles and swords are the arms that the,
Pathans have discarded, having discovered a far more powerful
weapon in Soul Force.

Xll

CONTENTS

Chapter

Page

PREFACE

iii

INTRODUCTION

V

A NOTE ON THE COVER DESIGN

xii

I

THE LAND OF CONTRASTS

3

II

THE TRAMP OF CENTURIES

11

III

FROM ROADS TO RAIDS

20

IV

A NEW PORTENT

28

V

THE SHADOW OF MUNICH

47

VI

IN FRONTIER GANDHI'S VILLAGE HOME

52

VII

THE ROAD TO NOWSHERA

63

VIII

THE TWO GANDHIS CONFER

71

IX

IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN

79

X

“THE WILD VALLEY ” OF BANNU

92

XI

SOLDIERS OF VIOLENCE VERSUS SOLDIERS

OF THE SPIRIT

102

XII

ACROSS THE SALT RANGE

ill

XIII

KHUDAI KHIDMATGARS AND THEIR CHIEF

122

XIV

MORE SERMONS ON NON-VIOLENCE

128

XV

THE SHADOW OF PARTING

136

XVI

PESHAWAR KHADI EXHIBITION

141

XVII

TAXILA —I THE PAST SPEAKS

147

XVIII

TAXILA —II WHEN THE WORLD CONQUEROR

MET HIS MATCH

155

XIX

EPILOGUE

361

I THE GATHERING CLOUDS

161

II A NEW ORDEAL

166

III THE LONE WITNESS

175

APPENDIX: QUINTESSENCE OF SATYAGRAHA

195

I PREFATORY

197

Rights and Duties

Ahimsa — The Supreme Duty

II AHIMSA —ITS NATURE

198

Ahimsa (Non-violence)—A Positive
Virtue

Power of Non-violence

Non-violence in Individual and Col¬

T

lective Life

Non-violence — The Law of the
Human Race

xiii

XIV

Non-violence and Politics — Basic
Principle

Non-violence — Virtue of the Strong
III SOUL FORCE IN ACTION 201

Satyagraha or Soul Force — The Law
of Truth

Satyagraha as Direct Action — How
It Works

Ten Commandments of Satyagraha

Weapon of Non-co-operation

Civil Disobedience — A Constitu¬
tional Weapon

Civil Disobedience — Inherent Right
of a Citizen

Requisites of Civil Disobedience —
Discipline, Non-violence, Truth,

Justice and Purity

REFERENCES 207

INDEX

209

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing

Page

1. FRONTIER GANDHI AND GANDHXJI IN A

HAPPY MOOD Frontispiece

2. “BADSHAH KHAN, MY HOST ” 1

3. GANDHIJI WITH THE KHAN BROTHERS 16

4. KHYBER PASS 21

5. THE ARTIFICIAL FRONTIER OF INDIA 28

6. “ Looking the embodiment of the traditional

painting of Christ ” 33

7. FRONTIER DEFENCE— OLD STYLE:

TOCPII SCOUTS „ 48

8. FRONTIER DEFENCE —NEW STYLE:

BEFRIENDING THE TRIBESMEN 53

9. ADDRESSING KHUDAI KHIDMATGAR

OFFICERS 60

10. THE ROAD TO NOWSHERA 65

11. GANDHIJI AND BADSHAH KHAN AT PRAYER 80

12. A POSER AT A PATHAN GATHERING 85

13. THE ANSWER 92

14. AT AHMADI BANDA IN THE MONTH OF

RAMZAN 97

15. “ You ought to feel the stronger for having put

away your arms ” 112

16. WITH THE NAWAB OF DERA 117

17. ON HEALING MISSION IN RIOT-TORN

BIHAR (1947) 124

18. TAXILA-—DISTANT VIEW 129

19. TAXILA —VISITING BUDDHIST MONASTERY

OF JAULIAN 144

20. AT BHANGI NIWAS, NEW DELHI, DURING

BRITISH CABINET MISSION'S VISIT

(1945-46) 161

21. THEIR LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE TOGETHER

(AT THE ASIAN CONFERENCE, 1947) 176

MAPS

1. MAP OF N.W.F.P., SHOWING GANDHIJTS

TOUR

2. N.W.F. PROVINCE: MILITARY AND

STRATEGIC ASPECT

xv

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Gandhi and Frontier Gandhi among N. W. F. Fathans

CHAPTER I

THE LAND OF CONTRASTS

The North-West Frontier Province has been describ¬
ed as the land of contrasts — “ of light and shade, of gaiety
and tragedy, of romance and reality, of kindness and
hatred, of consistencies and contradictions.” Its climate
varies from the blazing heat of the sun-baked Derajat to
the bracing cold of the salubrious Hazara, with its vista
of pine woods and snow-capped hills. The natural scenery
too presents the same variations. In the picturesque,
mountainous north, dense forests and terraced cultivation
alternate with waving, dark green fields of sugarcane and
com and charming orchards teeming with luscious fruit
of the finest variety — peach and plum, apple and apricot,
pear and grape, orange and pomegranate. Across the Salt
Range and to the south stretch a clay desert and the
treeless plain of Lakki and Marwat flanked by the un¬
inviting, howling wilderness of the storm-swept Waziri-
stan hills. There is in the province a profusion of natural
wealth side by side with the poverty of the people.

The boundaries of the North-West Frontier country
have varied from time to time. During the early Aryan
period they appear to have extended from the valley of the
Indus to some far away tracts in Central Asia and included
the major part of Afghanistan, the present North-West
Frontier Province and also the southern valley of the
Indus in Sindh and perhaps Baluchistan. From about
the 6th century B.-C. onward, that part of the country
which is known as the North-West' Frontier Province
formed part of the Iranian, the Greek, the Kushan, the
Gupta, the Turki, the Ghorian, the Moghal and the Dur¬
rani Empires down to 1819. In 1849, after about 20 years
of Sikh rule, the area now identifiable as the Settled Dis¬
tricts was taken over by the British.

3

4 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

The boundary line fixed under the Treaty of Ganda-
mak with Afghanistan (1880 A. D.) added the eastern half
of the old sub-province of Kandahar to the British Indian
Empire. The modified Frontier line known as the Durand
Line, was fixed in 1894 along the crests of the Sulaiman
Range of mountains and brought the tribes living in the
Khyber and Mohmand Tirah, Kurram and Waziristan
within the British sphere of influence.

Thus, by a curious anomaly, the North-West Frontier
Province came to have two boundaries, the Durand Line
which separated British India from Afghanistan and the
Administrative Boundary, demarcating the zone actually
held by the British. The tract between these two, known
as the “ Tribal Belt ”, constituted a “No-man’s Land ”.
It was “ part of India on the map but not British India
in fact ”. Its residents did not owe any direct allegiance
to the British' Crown or allow their lands to be annexed.
The King’s writ did not run there. But the British re¬
garded it as their “ Protectorate ” and claimed the right
to bomb its inhabitants from the air for police purposes.*

As at present constituted, the North-West Frontier
Province is bounded on the north by the mountains of
the Hindukush, on the south by Baluchistan and the
Dera Ghazi Khan District of the Punjab, on the east by
Kashmir and the Punjab and on the west by Afghanistan.
In size it is bigger than Czechoslovakia by three thousand
square miles, its total area being 38,000 square miles. Its
territories fall into three geographical groups, viz., (i) the
cis-Indus 'District of Hazara, (ii) the comparatively nar¬
row strip between the Indus and the Hills constituting the
settled trans-Indus Districts of Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu,
Mardan and Dera Ismail Khan and (iii) the rugged mount¬
ainous region between these Districts and the borders of
Afghanistan. Of this territory a little over one-third or
13,193 square miles is covered by the six Settled Districts.
The remaining two-thirds or approximately 25,000 square
miles are held by tribes of either the Tribal Belt or of the

* Further discussed in chapter IV.

THE LAND OF CONTRASTS

5

Independent Territory, who, for well nigh a century,
resisted subjugation by the British. For administrative
purposes, the latter area (before the partition) was divided
into five Political Agencies, viz., Malakand, Kurram,
Khyber, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

Much of the province is still “ virgin soil ”. It is rich in
untapped mineral resources, the principal among these
being rock-salt, oil, cement, marble, sulphur, coal and tin.
Some gold and iron too have been found. It has plenty of
labour and an immense reservoir of water power. The prin¬
cipal crops ,are maize and barley in the cold weather and
wheat, barley and gram in the spring. Rice and sugarcane -
are largely grown on the irrigated lands of Hazara, Pesha¬
war and Bannu Districts, while the well and canal irriga¬
ted tracts of the Peshawar District produce fine crops of
cotton and tobacco. In the trans-border agencies, the val¬
leys of the Swat, the Kurram and the Tochi rivers yield
abundant rice crops.

The following is an account of its natural features
as recorded in the Administrative Report for 1922-23:

The District of Hazara forms “ a wedge extending
north-eastwards far into the outer Himalayan Range and
tapering to a narrow point at the head of the Kagan
valley.” It comprises both the hill tracts in the tahsil of
Mansehra and Abbottabad and the well watered plain of
Haripur tahsil. This area corresponds to the territory of
Takshashila or Taxila — the ancient flourishing cis-Indus
Kingdom, which fell to the prowess of Alexander’s arms.
The mountain chains which form the Kagan defile “ sweep
southward into the border portion of the district, throwing
off well-wooded spurs which break up the country into
numerous glens ”. The District is a fine health resort and
full of spots of rare natural beauty which can compare
with any in the world.

The tract between the Indus and the hills consists of
a series of three plains, viz., Peshawar, Bamiu and Dera
Ismail Khan, divided one from the other by the low hills
of Kohat and by the off-shoots of the Salt Range. The
vale of Peshawar is for the most part highly irrigated and

6

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

well-wooded, presenting in the spring and autumn “ a
picture of waving corn lands and smiling orchards framed
by rugged hills Adjoining Peshawar and separated from
it by the Jawaki hills, lies the District of Kohat — “a

rough, hilly tract intersected by narrow valleys.”

The southern spurs of the Kohat hills gradually subside
into the Bannu plains, where irrigated by the Kurram
river is a tract “ of unsurpassed fertility ”, presenting a
striking contrast with the harsh desolation of the Kohat

hills.To the east is the broad, level plain of

Marwat extending from Lakki to the base of Sheikh Budin
hills. “ A broken range of sandstone and conglomerate ”
divides the Bannu plain from the daman or plain of Dera
Ismail Khan “which for the most part is a clay desert
formed by the deposits of the torrents issuing from the
Sulaiman range on the West.”

Turning to the mountainous region between the Set¬
tled Districts and Afghanistan, to the extreme north lies
the Agency of Dir, Swat and Chitral. Below Chitral are

the “ thickly timbered forests ” of Dir and Bajaur.

Between this Agency and the Khyber lie the Mohmand
hills, a rough, rocky country. The Khyber itself is “ a
little narrow, gloomy gorge ” with some scanty attempts
at cultivation but bristling with “ forts, picket posts and
block houses ”. West and south-west, of the Khyber
comes the country of the Afridis and of the Orakzais.
South of the Kurram lie the “disorderly congeries of
Waziri Hills ”, intersected by the Tochi valley in the
north and the gorges that lead to Wana plain on the
south. These inhospitable hills are for the most part bar¬
ren and treeless. But here and there they open into fertile
and well-irrigated dales, as for instance, round Shawal, the
summer grazing ground of the Darwesh Khel which is
thickly wooded.

Before the partition of 1947, the Province used to be
divided politically into four parts : (i) the Six Settled Dis¬
tricts roughly representing the territory which was taken
over from the Sikhs in 1849 with a population of about 25
lakhs, (ii) the belt of tribal population numbering 13 to 14

THE LAND OF CONTRASTS

7

lakhs between the boundary of the Settled Districts and
the border of the Independent Territory which was subject
to the political control of the Deputy Commissioner of the
Settled Districts, who was answerable fpr the administra¬
tion of the independent tribes to the Political Department
of the British India Government, (iii) the northern States
within the Malakand Agency, viz., Chitral, Dir, and Swat
with a population of about 9J lakhs, (iv) the region lying
between the border of the Tribal Belt and the Durand
Line and constituting the Independent Territory with a
population of 5 to 5i lakhs of Pathans, the bulk of whom
were in Tirah and Waziristan.

The bulk of the inhabitants of the N. W. F. Province
are Pathans. The term “ Pathan ” * is applied to any
tribe speaking the Pushtu (Pukhtu) language. It has no
racial significance. Thus it can be applied to Pushtu¬
speaking Hindus and Sikhs too of the Frontier Province,
as in fact it often was, after the inauguration of the
Xhudai Khidmatgar movement. The Pathans of the trans-
border Tribal territory, who owe no dependence to Kabul,
nor to the British Government, are hardier and fiercer than
their fellow clansmen living in the Settled Districts of the
North-West Frontier Province. The Tribal Belt, a hilly
■country between the Frontier Province proper and the
Durand Line is held by the four important tribes of Afridis,
Mohmands, Waziris and Mahsuds. Other important
tribes are the Orakzais, Usufzais, Bhittanis, Shinwaris etc.

Beginning from the north, the Usufzais inhabit Buner
and the hilly country beyond the vale of Peshawar. The
Usufzais of Buner are said to be frugal and abstentious,
yet extremely hospitable. Even the smallest village pos¬
sesses its hujra or guest-house. They are very patriotic
and proud of their descent, “of which they eternally
boast ”.f

To the north-west of Peshawar, between ihe Kabul
river and the Swat river dwell the Mohmands. In their

* Rhymes with tarn, not to be pronounced as Paithan.

t Collin Davies: The Problem of the North-West Frontier, p. 60.

8

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

domestic customs they are like the Usufzais, except that
they have no hujras. Round the Khyber and to the south
live the much maligned Afridis whom circumstances have
forced to become “ distrustful of all mankind ”. Once,
however, this distrust is removed, the Afridi is said to be
capable of the greatest devotion, and “ may turn out to be
your staunchest friend * In appearance lean and wiry,
“ his eagle eye, proud bearing and light step ” f bespeak a
freedom born of his wind-swept mountain glens. The
Afridis played a very important part during the two
Afghan Wars and during the Civil Disobedience days of
1930, when the brutalities perpetrated on the Khudai
Khidmatgars in Peshawar and other parts of the Settled
Districts caused a deep stir among them.!'

The southern villages of Tirah are inhabited by hetero¬
geneous tribes, known collectively as Orakzais or lost
tribes. Between the Kurram and the Gomal lies Waziris-
tan, the Frontier Switzerland. It is an intricate maze of
mountains and valleys. Here dwell the Waziris. Tough
and rugged as the mountains which they inhabit, their
nature has the untamed fierceness of the elements around
them. An important off-shoot of the Waziris are the
Mahsuds, nicknamed the “ scourge of the Derajat bor¬
ders ”.§ They hold the heart of Waziristan. The Bhittanis
occupy the territory that stretches along the eastern bor¬
ders of Waziristan, from the Gomal to the Marwat. They
have a long-standing blood feud against the Mahsuds.

* Collin Davies: The Problem of the North-West Frontier, p. 62.
f Ibid.

t There was a delectable story told about them at the time of
the Gaifdhi-Irwin Truce, illustrating their simple faith. In the
conference with the Political authorities their ‘ terms of peace ’ were
stated to be release of:

(i) Badshah Khan (Abdul Ghaffar Khan),

(ii) Malang Baba (Naked Fakir, i.e. Gandhiji), and

(ni) m Inquilab (Revolution)_ (Inquilab Zindabad — Long

Live the Revolution — being a universal, popular slogan those
days, they equated it with some patriotic individual whom
the British Government had imprisoned!)

, § Collin Davies: The Problem of the North-West Frontier, p. 62.

THE/LAND OF CONTRASTS

9

From Bannu through Kohat stretch the lands of the Khat-
taks. Hardworking and industrious, they are engaged in.
agricultural pursuits or find employment in the salt trade.
In Bannu dwell the Bannuchis and the Marwats, “ the-
most mixed and the most hybrid ” of the Pathan tribes, a.
“mongrel” race who represent the “ebb and flow of
might, right, possession and spoliation”.* The flat and
dreary wastes of Dera Ismail Khan are peopled chiefly
by Jats, the Pathan element forming only about one-third
of the total population. Similarly in the Hazara District,
the bulk of the population is non-Pathan, being composed,
of Punjabi Muslims, Gakhars, Syeds etc.

With a few exceptions the tribesmen are all Moham¬
medans of the orthodox Sunni sect, that is to say, they
recognize all the successors of Mohammad and accept not
only the Quran but also the Hadis or traditional sayings-
not embodied in the Quran.

The language of the Pathans is known as Pushtu or
Pukhtu. It has a close affinity to Sanskrit from which it
is derived. It boasts of a well developed literature and
has produced' some remarkable mystic and patriotic-
poetry, the best knowm writers being Khushal Khattak,
the warrior poet (1630 A. D. -1660 A. D.) and the great
mystic Abdur Rehman Baba. The Pathans are great,
lovers of their language and feel most happy when,
addressed in their mother-tongue.

During the British period the internal administration
of the tribes used to be conducted through the Maliks-
(tribal chiefs) and the Jirga system. Jirga means as¬
sembly of elders. The more democratic a tribe the wider
the Jirga. Full Jirga therefore means nothing less than
a gathering of every adult male. It has been remarked
that the tribal Jirga, particularly in the Agency areas-
served as the school for diplomacy par excellence to young:
British officers.

The system of ‘ border protection ’ followed by the
British was that of entrusting as much as possible of

* Collin Davies: The Problem of the North-West Frontier , p. 66L

10

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

irans-Frontier garrison duty and watchful guard of
unimportant valleys to Khassadars (local levies) and pay¬
ing handsome allowances to tribesmen and Maliks to keep
the peace. This system of allowances was only a euphe¬
mism for blackmail and bribery and has had its apologists
among British Imperialists, e.g., Davies,* Bruce, Sir
Michael O’Dwyer and others.

In Afghanistan, Baluchistan and the Frontier Pro¬
vince could be found colonies of Hindus and Sikhs in the
midst of Muslim population. Their total population in the
Settled Districts was computed to be about two lakhs in a
population of 24 to 25 lakhs. But their importance and
influence were not to be judged by their numbers. Prac¬
tically all the trade of the Indian border land was
in their hands. In fact they constituted an economic
necessity. They were the bankers, the pawnbrokers and
goldsmiths. Everywhere they were to be found as shop¬
keepers, grain dealers and cloth merchants. On the whole,
their relations with the tribesmen in the independent
territory were peaceful.

* " Allowances may be expensive; may savour of blackmail to
"the fastidious; yet they are infinitely to be preferred to the still
more expensive system of punitive expeditions.”

— Collin Davies; The Problem of the North-West Frontier
p. 33

CHAPTER II

THE TRAMP OF CENTURIES

Owing to its unique geographical position the North-
West Frontier Province has for many centuries played an
important role in Indian history. The north-west front¬
ier of India is not represented by any definite boundary
line. It is a zone or belt of mountains of varying depths,
stretching for a distance of 1,200 miles. It presents an
almost impenetrable barrier to any foreign invader except
where it is pierced by the Khyber, Kurram, Tochi, Gomal
and Bolan passes. It was through the “ north-western
gate ” that wave after wave of foreign invasion poured
into India and converted this province into the caravan¬
serai of foreign hordes, the ethnological museum of
many Asiatic races. Even after the advent of European
maritime powers on the Indian seaboard, the Frontier
Province lost none of its importance. It continued to
dominate British Indian foreign policy for nearly a cen¬
tury. The Frontier Province with its adjoining tribal
area has been likened to “ a powder magazine where the
conditions are very electrical To the British Imperial
strategist the Independent Territory, without a power to
back its claim to independence, represented a “ No-man's
Land ", which could be used as a training ground * to keep
the fighting force in trim, border skirmishing and

* “ That the British Exchequer had been relieved at India’s
■expense was recently acknowledged in a practical manner by the
Report of the Indian Defence Tribunal (Cmd. 4473). This Tribunal
allowed £. 1,500,000 as a rebate to India on two stated grounds :

(i) That India provides a special training ground for British
troops on active service;

(ii) That the British Army in India is available for imme¬
diate use in the East.”

— C. F. Andrews : The Challenge of the North-West Frontier „
?• 54 .

11

12

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

expeditions into the tribal territory providing the necessary
exercise. The young, ambitious Army Officer regarded it
as an ideal “ shooting preserve ”, where untrammelled by
international conventions he could engage in a little fili¬
bustering on his own to gain some military experience..
In fact a young army officer’s training was not supposed
to be complete unless he had served a term of active duty
on the North-West Frontier. The Frontier Province was
the Political Department’s Eldorado, its close preserve,
where everybody who was not of its freemasonry was a
trespasser and which “ in the interval of peace offered to
British officers a field of distinction when that of war is
(was) closed ”.f

Thanks to the official secrecy with which this “ veiled
sanctuary of the Political and Military Officers ” has been
surrounded, till recently the average person even in India
had little knowledge of this fascinating region or its people,
their traditions and usages, hopes and aspirations and the
forces that made them what they were. To the average
Westerner, the Frontier Province was just the land with
the “ highest murder rate in the world ”, the witches’
cauldron where trouble was always brewing and its inha¬
bitant, the Pathan, a predatory freebooter with “ the law¬
lessness of centuries in his blood who had blood-feuds
for his favourite pastime and raiding, kidnapping and
holding to ransom his victims as his main occupation
and means of livelihood. “ Villain of the deepest dye,
treacherous, pitiless, vindictive, blood-thirsty ” — these
are some of the epithets that have been applied to
him. Nobody seems to have paused to consider how, for
nearly a century he has been bullied and coerced and
deceived and used as a pawn in the game (of internatiorial
power politics). “ His proud bearing and resolute step,
his martial instincts and independent spirit, his frank,
open manners and festive temperament, his hatred of

f Cited by Dewan Chand Obhrai in The Evolution of North-West
Frontier Province.

* Collin Davies: The Problem of the North-West Frontier, p. 80.

THE TRAMP OF CENTURIES

13

control, his love of country, and his wonderful powers of
endurance ” f have been remarked upon by many writers
from Davies downwards. But how many people in the
West are fully conversant with the leading part which
this province has played in the Indian struggle for
independence, or with the great movement of non¬
violence that grew up in it in the twenties and
proved that the doughty Pathan, the matchless guer¬
rilla fighter, “ the best umpire in mountain warfare ”,
famed in history for his martial valour, physical stamina,
unrivalled marksmanship and skill in the use of arms, is
also capable of holding the place of honour in the order
of the “ terrible meek ” and excelling in the bravery of
the non-violent variety which disdains the use of any
other weapon except that of the spirit and against which
earthly weapons cannot prevail ?

Rich in the associations of India’s long history, the
North-West Frontier Province is strewn with imperish¬
able Asokan monuments which bear witness to the glory
which was Buddhism and which once flourished there in
its full splendour. Peshawar was the capital of
Kanishka’s Buddhist Empire which extended from the
Vindhyas to Central Asia. To Taxila, the “ biggest
University in the East ” in its time, pilgrims and students
from the Far East and the West came in quest of piety
and learning. Later when the famous Nalanda Uni-
versity was founded in Bihar in the 4th century A. D.,
most of the students there were from this part of the Bud¬
dhist domain which became the meeting place of three
great cultures — the Indian, the Chinese and the Graeco-
Roman. It was across these Frontier tracts that India
sent her message of art and religion to the Far East.

The earliest glimpse that we have of the region
known today as the N. W. F. Province is in connection
with the great Aryan immigration into India across the
snow-clad Hindu Kush which, starting from the river
Oxus towards the valley of Herat,, fanned out through

t Collin Davies: The Problem of the North-West Frontier, p. 48.

14

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Ghazni and Kabul on one side and through Kandahar and
the Sulaiman mountains on the other, to the country water¬
ed by the river Indus. In the great epic Mahabharata,
which is supposed to have been composed in about 3000
B.C., figures the celebrated heroine Gandhari — native
of Gandhar (modern Peshawar) the mother of the Kaura-
vas, the rulers of Hastinapur (modern Delhi). Panini, the
great Sanskrit grammarian — perhaps the greatest gram¬
marian that the world has produced — was born and bred
in this region. Peshawar is said to have been founded by
Parashurama, the great brahmana warrior who figures in
the other ancient epic of India — the Ramayana. About
the 5th century B. C. Cyrus, King of Persia, led his army
into the territory that corresponds to the modem Afghan¬
istan and Baluchistan, and Darius I annexed Gandhar
(modern Peshawar and Rawalpindi Districts). The pro¬
vince provided troops to Xerxes for his invasion of Greece.

In 326 B. C. the Greeks under Alexander the Great,
entered India and conquered the Peshawar valley which
was at that time under the rule of a Raja whose capital
was Pushkarwati — the modern Charsadda, on the Kabul
river — and made it into a Governor’s province under a
Macedonian officer named Philip. The Hindu chief of
Taxila, then a great centre of Buddhistic learning, labour¬
ing under a grievance against his neighbour, King Porus,
invited the foreign invader to attack his rival. Porus was
overthrown in battle and Alexander, after restoring his
kingdom to him, pushed on as far as the Beas where his
troops refused to march further against the powerful King
of Magadha and the Macedonian had to retreat. After
Alexander’s death in 323 B. C., Ambhi, the Governor of
Taxila, and Porus — their power broken by the Greek in¬
vasion—were subdued by Chandragupta and their terri¬
tory was incorporated in the Maurya Empire of the King
of Magadha. The whole of Afghanistan and Frontier tracts
of northern India, including Kashmir, came under the
highly developed civil and military administrative system
of Chandragupta, as detailed in the Arthashastra of Kau-
tilya, his world-famed Minister of State. In Chandragupta’s

THE TRAMP OF CENTURIES

15

reign (300 B. C.) Buddhism became the prevailing reli¬
gion in Gandhara (Peshawar District) and Pakhli
(Hazara District). The Maurya Empire culminated in the
Apostle Empire of Asoka, perhaps the greatest monarch
in the world that ever lived. He made Buddhism the
State religion and abolished war, touched by the miseries
of a victorious war against Kalinga in which 100,000 were
slain on the battlefield. Thereafter, instead of sending
emissaries of war, he sent forth only emissaries of peace
to deliver sermons on Peace and the Supreme Law to the
nations of the world.* Under him was developed an
elaborate system of Imperial administration based on

* This is how the event is described in the famous Xlllth
(Kalinga) Edict:

“ The Kalingas were conquered by His Sacred and Gracious-
Majesty the King when he had been consecrated eight years.
150,000 persons were thence carried away captive, 100,000 were
there slain and many times that number perished.

“ Directly after the annexation of the Kalingas began His-
Sacred Majesty's zealous protection of the Law of Piety, hi&
love of that Law, and his giving instruction in that Law
(dharma). Thus arose His Sacred Majesty's remorse for having:
conquered the Kalingas, because the conquest of a country pre¬
viously unconquered involves the slaughter, death and carrying,
away captive of the people. That is a matter of profound sorrow
and regret to His Sacred Majesty.

“ Thus of all the people who were there slain, done to d'eath
or carried away captive in the Kalingas, if the 100th or the-
1000th part were to suffer the same fate, it would now be matter
of regret to His Sacred Majesty. Moreover, should any one do-
him wrong, that too must be borne with by His Sacred Majesty
if it can possibly be borne with.

“ And this is the chiefest conquest in the opinion of His
Sacred Majesty — the Conquest by the Law of Piety — and this-
again, has been won by His Sacred Majesty both in his own
dominions and in all the neighbouring realms as far as 600
leagues.

“ And for this purpose has this pious edict been written in
order that my sons and grandsons, who may be, should not re¬
gard it as their duty to conquer a new country. If perchance,
they become engaged in a conquest by arms, they should take-
pleasure in patience and gentleness and regard as (the only-
true) conquest, the conquest won by piety. That avails for both*
this world and the next.”

16

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

■compassion and dharma — the law, of which Greek writers
have left us a detailed account. His edicts and inscriptions
found at Shahbazgarh and near Mansehra mention Taxila
-as one of his subordinate territories. Asoka’s Frontier
policy was to maintain peaceful relations with his neigh¬
bours and not to enlarge his kingdom by conquest. The
first Kalinga edict desired that “ the unsubdued borderers
should not be afraid of me, that they should trust me and
.should receive from me happiness and not sorrow ”.

Asoka died in 231 B.C. and with him passed away
.Buddhism as the State Church. From the middle of the
2nd century B.C. till about 135 B.C. Bactrian kings ruled
over Bactria, Kabul, Gandhar and Taxila. Next came the
Scythians called Sakas (135 B.C.) and were followed by
the Kushans who, driven from their own mountains by
the Huns, overran the territory held by Yavana, Saka and
Pahlavi rulers. By about 29 A.D. they were ruling in
•'Taxila. The empire of Kanishka, the third of the Kushan
Kings extended over North-West India and Kashmir with
Purushpura (Peshawar) as his capital. The Kushan kings
■continued to rule over the north-west territory up to the
time of the Hun invasion in the 5th century A.D. It next
formed part of Harsha’s empire (7th century A. D.).

The Arabs came to India about 710 A.D. and Sabuk-
tagin, the third in the order of Slave Kings of Balkh and
Ghazni accompanied by Waziri and Afridi hordes occu¬
pied Peshawar and the plains west of the Indus. Mahmud
of Ghazni’s invasions followed. But Mahmud never aim¬
ed at permanent conquest of India. However, all the
trans-Indus portion of the present Frontier Province was
'held in fief by him. But his brother Mohammad Ghori
of Ghazni occupied Peshawar in 1180 A.D. Thereafter
through the period covered by the Slave, Khilji and Tugh-
lak dynasties, till the well-established reign of Akbar in
the Mughal times, these parts experienced an unrelieved
spell of chaos, misrule and anarchy, which became chronic,
varied by an occasional foreign invasion. The most nota¬
ble of these was of Timur, the Tartar, who left his capital
of Samarkand in Central Asia with a vast concourse

THE TRAMP OF CENTURIES

17

of cavalry and passing through Kabul came down
through the Khyber Pass as far as Delhi, which he sacked
for five days and where he massacred 100,000 male Hindu
prisoners of war, building a tower out of their skulls.

After him,” to quote Fielding King Hall, “ not a bird
moved wing for whole two months in Delhi.” His
ostensible reason for the expedition was the fact that as
a strict Muslim he was “ disgusted by the tolerance which
the then Mohammedan rulers of Delhi were extending
towards Hinduism ”.*

During Akbar’s well-ordered and tolerant reign, East¬
ern Baluchistan and the great Persian fortress of Kandahar
were added to the northern dominions and continued to
form part of the Moghal Empire till after the reign of
Aurangazeb. During the latter’s reign and towards the
close of his father Emperor Shah Jehan’s reign, trouble
arose beyond the Indus due to the Yusufzai rising and
the rising of the Khattaks respectively, and was put down
by sending out retaliatory columns against them. After
the initial reverse of the Moghal arms, the Khattaks joined
the Afridi confederacy and there was a general rising
“ from Kandahar to Attock ”. The Emperor himself con¬
ducted operations (1664 A.D.) to reduce the- Yusufzais and
“ by skilful diplomacy contrived to bring the situation well
in hand ”. His policy, which was the precursor of the
policy later followed by the British Government, was “ to
set one tribe against another and to subsidize their chiefs
into keeping peace on the Frontier, where the establish¬
ment of military posts proved less effective ”.f

Nadir Shah, the Persian monarch, overran the Frontier
province in 1739 A.D. when he crossed the Indus, just as
Timur the Lame had done in 1388, carrying fire and sword
wherever he went. After his assassination in 1739
Ahmed Shah Abdali (1747-1773) formed the Provin¬
ces of Kandahar, Kabul and Ghazni, along with the area
—---\

* Cited by Fielding King Hall in Thirty Days of India , p. 1S8.

f Dewan Chand Obhrai: The Evolution of North-West Frontier
Province, p. 23.

18

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

around Peshawar, Derajat and Hazara, Sindh, Kashmir
and Multan into a separate Durrani kingdom.

Following upon the break up of the Durrani kingdom
and till the advent of Sikh rule, the Central Government
exercised only “ a sort of irregular and disturbed autho¬
rity over the tract known as the Frontier Maharaja
Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjab, pushed the
Afghan settlers out of the North-West Frontier and by
1820 had occupied the territory around Peshawar, Bannu,
Kohat and portions of Derajat. He may thus be said to
have “ created ” the present N. W. F. Province by sweep¬
ing the Afghans back across the Indus into their
mountains. The Sikh rule over the Frontier Province
(1834-48), however, was that of the sword alone. Dacoi-
ties and blood-feuds were unchecked, and even more
calamitous than these were the periodical visits of the
Sikhs for revenue collection, when, in the words of Major
James, “ crowds of women and children fled frightened
from their homes and the country presented the appear¬
ance of an emigrating colony.”

After Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s death, his kingdom fell
into anarchy and a period of gross misrule and chaos fol¬
lowed. Sikh power was completely broken at the con¬
clusion of the First Sikh War. But the danger of Afghan
armies crossing the Frontier and sweeping across the
trans-Indus territory impelled the British power to aban¬
don the idea of annexing the Punjab and to recognize the
minor Maharaja Daleep Singh as the ruler of that pro¬
vince. Under the treaty of 16th December 1846 the power
of administration was vested in a Council of Regency,
“ acting under the control and guidance of the British
Resident ”. The treaty of 16th December further provided
that “ a British officer with an efficient establishment of
assistants shall be appointed by the Governor-General to
remain at Lahore, which officer shall have full authority
to direct and control all matters in every department of

the State.’’Sir Henry Lawrence and Reynal Taylor

were accordingly posted at Peshawar, Major Abbot in
Hazara and Mr. Herbert at Attock. In the Christmas season

THE TRAMP OP CENTURIES

19

of 1847 Major Edwards was ordered to subjugate to the
Khalsa Dewan “ the wild valley of Bannu ” for failure on
the part of the Bannuchees (inhabitants of Bannu District)
to pay land revenue. Profusely watered by two streams,
the valley was one “in which the crops never failed and
where the richest and idlest agriculture was overpaid with
almost all Indian grains in abundance ”. What followed
is graphically described by Major Herbert Edwards In his
A Year on the Punjab Frontier and is, in fact, an epitome
of the history of subsequent British rule in India :

“ It (the valley) was gained neither by shot nor shell, but
simply by balancing two races and two creeds. For fear of a
Sikh army, two warlike and independent Mohammedan tribes
levelled to the ground at my bidding, the four hundred forts
which constituted the strength of their country and for fear of
those same Mohammedan tribes, the Sikh army, at my bidding,
constructed a fortress for the Crown which completed the sub¬
jugation of the valley. Thus was a barbarous people brought
peacefully within the pale of civilization and one well-intentioned
Englishman accomplished in three months, without a struggle,
a conquest which the fanatic Sikh nation had vainly attempted
with fire and sword for five and twenty years/’

CHAPTER III

FROM ROADS TO RAIDS

In 1849 after Lord Dalhousie’s formal annexation of
the Punjab, the North-Western Frontier districts came
under the East India Company’s administration. It
brought British India into direct contact with several in¬
dependent and warlike Pathan tribes occupying the so-
called “ tribal territory ” and opened a new phase in
Frontier policy. The foreign relations of India with
Afghanistan during British rule passed through several
phases at different times, but running through consistently
was the policy of maintaining the independence of the
ruling house so long as it remained in friendly relations
with England and entirely free from the subversive in¬
fluences of other rival powers, particularly Russia, whose
moves in Central Asia were Britain’s constant headache
from the middle of the last century. There was the
“ alarmist policy ” when Mount Stuart Elphinstone was
sent out on his “ Kabul Mission ” in 1809. Then came the
“ meddling policy ” in 1832 when A. Burns passed through
on his “ commercial mission ” and again in 1838, when
General Keene advanced into Afghanistan to dethrone the
popular Barakzai chief, Dost Mohammad, and to place on
the throne a friendly king, Shah Shujah, thus giving rise
to the first Afghan War (1839-42). The first phase ended
disastrously for the British with the assassination of Sir
William Macnaughten, the British envoy, and Sir William
Burns, the Political Agent, and the loss of all but one of
the British troops garrisoned at Kabul. An “ avenging
army” was then sent. It swept on to Kabul, blew up
the Great Bazar — “ an inexcusable act of vandalism ”, as
General Roberts afterwards described it. British prestige
being thus “ retrieved ”, the British forces returned to India
leaving Afghanistan to stew in its own juice. This was
followed by the policy of “ masterly inactivity ” of Sir
John Lawrence when, on the death of Amir Dost Moham¬
mad Khan in 1863, he refused to side with either of the

20

KHYBER PASS

Murderous high road...... boulevard of sudden death.

p., 80 .

FROM ROADS TO RAIDS

21

two disputing sons. But when Sher Ali emerged victo¬
rious from the contest, the Viceroy acknowledged him as
the Amir.

The Russian move towards Khiva in 1864, the occu¬
pation of Yarkand in 1865 and the reduction of Bokhara
“ to the position of a vassal State ” in 1867 and similarly
of Khiva in 1873, were interpreted as a definite menace
by the British Government to her far eastern possession.
When on top of it, Amir Sher Ali refused to receive a Bri¬
tish mission under Lord Lytton, with a view to entering
into a definite alliance with the throne of Kabul, it was
treated as a “ contemptuous disregard of British interests ”
and the Amir’s reception of a Russian envoy “ as an act
of war against the British Government in India

In 1878, the policy of sticking to the Frontier and
of defending India against any foreign attack on the bor¬
der line then existing gave way to what came to be known
as the “ Forward Policy ” of abiding occupation of Afghan¬
istan or part thereof in British interests. In pursuance of
this policy which was of a piece with Napier’s exploit in
Sindh described in his famous “ Peccavi — I have sinned
(Scind) ” despatch, a British agency was established
at Gilgit, followed by a declaration of war and an
attack on Kabul from three different routes (The
Second Afghan War). Quetta was taken because “it
would open the way to Kandahar and permit the outflank¬
ing of an enemy seeking to advance against India by the
northern passes.” t By the treaty of Gandmark (1880) the
Amir of Kabul agreed to receive a British Resident at
Kabul and to cede to the English the eastern part of the old
sub-province of Kandahar besides giving them the occu¬
pation of the passes. The modified Frontier line known
as the Durand Line fixed in 1894 along the crests of
the Sulaiman Range brought the tribes of the Khyber and
Mohmand Tirah, Kurram and Waziristan within the Bri¬
tish sphere of influence. Strong military forces were

* Cited by Dewan Chand Obhrai in The Evolution of North-West
Frontier Province, p. 41.

t Ibid., p. 42.

22

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

stationed at Peshawar, Nowshera, Risalpur, Landikotal
and Kurram to enable the British effectively to control
the passes, and by steady penetration tribal areas were
“ opened up ” and further military outposts established at
Wana — in the heart of the Mahsud territory, — Razmak
and llii-am Shah, backed by an elaborate system of strate¬
gic motor-roads, picket-posts and block-houses with forts
at commanding positions.

In 1901 the five Settled Districts of Hazara, Peshawar,
Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan and five agencies
were separated from the Punjab and constituted into a
separate X. W. Frontier Province by Lord Curzon.
The former were put under the Chief Commis¬
sioner assisted by a Revenue and Judicial Com¬
missioner and the latter- under the same officer in
his capacity as the Agent to the Governor-General,
directly under the control of the Central Government,
“ so that the conduct of external relations with the tribes
on the Punjab Frontier should be more directly than
hitherto under the control and the supervision of British
India The N. W. F. Province was excluded from the
political reforms under the Montford scheme of 1919-20.

The immediate result of the separation was to throw
back the five advanced and settled trans-Indus districts
to a “ lower system of administration ”. While the rest
of India, including the parent province of the Punjab from
which it was torn away, was put under a system of self-
government through the reformed councils in the pro¬
vinces, the Frontier Province got the Chief Commissioner’s
autocratic rule with the added incubus of the Frontier
Crimes Regulation III of 1901,* which denied to the citizen

* “ It provided for powers of courts and officers; the civil re¬
ferences to council of elders; penalties in shape of blockade of tribes,
or fines on communities; with power to prohibit election of new
villages, or to direct removal of villages, regulation of hujras, chauks,
demolition of buildings used by robbers; powers to arrest, security
and surveillance, and imprisonment with a view to prevent crimes
etc., giving no right of appeal, but a restricted power of civil or
criminal revision by the Chief Commissioner.” — Dewan Chand
Obhrai: The Evolution of North-West Frontier Province, p. 118.

FROM ROADS TO RAIDS

23

even the elementary right of legal defence. The contrast
was so glaring that it created a lot of discontent among
the nationalist section of the Hindus and Muslims both,
who demanded re-amalgamation of the province
with the Punjab. Partly as a result of this agitation, after
the Second "Indian Round Table Conference (1931), the
province was elevated to the status of a Governor’s pro¬
vince with a constitution analogous to other Indian pro¬
vinces and a subvention from the centre to the tune of
about a crore of rupees annually to enable the five Settled
Districts which formed a miniature deficit province, to
balance the budget.

The annexation of the Punjab in 1849, had brought
with it an evil legacy which gave the Frontier no peace.f
Up till the arrival of Lord Lytton (1876) the Punjab
Frontier, in the words of Davies, was controlled by a
system of “ non-intervention varied by expeditions ”.
“ Non-intervention ”, was, however, a myth.* Between
1849 and the outbreak of the Sepoy Rising of 1857, there
were altogether 17 expeditions. Between the outbreak of
the Second Afghan War and the Pathan Revolt of 1897,
there were 16 expeditions against Frontier tribes. In July
1897 there was an extensive Pathan revolt. Malakand

t “ The administrative line which really followed the boundary
which the British had inherited from the Sikhs, possessed no mili¬
tary value whatever and was like most Indian Frontiers, more likely
to provide subjects of dispute than to secure a clear-cut division of
interests between two neighbouring states

— Cambridge History of India, p. 89.

* “ In February 1921 it was pointed out in the Indian Legislative
Assembly that the policy of the Government of India had always been
one of non-interference.... This statement of policy cannot be ac¬
cepted.”

— Collin Davies : The Problem of the North-West Frontier , p. 181.

And again,

“ It is my considered opinion, after sifting all the available evi¬
dence, that the 1897 disturbances were mainly the result of the
advances that had taken place in the nineties. Although many of
these were justified from the military point of view, they nevertheless
were looked upon as encroachments into tribal territory

— Ibid, p. 98.

24

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Ridge was attacked by tribesmen in great force led by
the Mad Mullah who proclaimed a Jehad (holy war) against
the Bx’itish. Almost simultaneously there was invasion of
the Peshawar valley across the Kabul river by a combined
lashkar in which Afridis of the Khyber Pass joined. It
resulted in the despatch of the Tirah expedition into the
Mohmand territory to “ chastise ” the Afridis. The grow¬
ing conviction that it was physically difficult to conquer
and hold Afghanistan without incurring ruinous expendi¬
ture in men and money, “ which sound strategy suggested
ought to be thrown on the enemy ”, led to a gradual
abandonment of the Forward Policy and the substi¬
tution of a policy of cultivating friendship with a strong,
stable and independent Afghanistan under a ruler pre¬
pared to give control of the independent tribes on the
borders to the British Government. Accordingly, Amir
Abdur Rahman was elevated to the Kabul throne which
he held for many years, supported by British arms and a
handsome subsidy from the India Government towards the
defence of his kingdom. The policy held good during the
reign of his successor, Amir Habibur Rahman, who was
murdered in 1919. The holding of the “ Scientific Frontier
Line ”, however, brought in its own complications. By
bringing the British power into direct touch with the
trans-border tribes, it virtually enabled the Amir of
Afghanistan to transfer his headache to his erstwhile an¬
tagonist, the British power. Under the treaty of Gandamak
with Afghanistan and “ political arrangement ” (another
name for coercion) with border tribes, the British Gov¬
ernment had secured to themselves the control of the
passes and territorial rights in respect of two militar y
routes from India to Kabul, one by the Khyber, the other
by the Kurram. This in its turn led to a steady pene¬
tration into the tribal territory which gave to the tribes¬
men the “blessing” of a system of metalled roads and
strategic railways strangely at variance with their econo¬
mic and political backwardness. These roads could
easily be the envy of any civilized part of the West,
and the strategic railways, particularly those bevond the

FROM ROADS TO RAIDS

25

boundaries of the Settled Districts, winding their way
round the hills and through the mountain sides, stood out
as a remarkable monument to British engineering skill.
But they failed to enthuse the independent tribesman. The
latter might have been ignorant; he was not unintelligent.
He only saw in these roads and block-houses the symbol
and instrument of his subjugation and resented the sei¬
zure of every inch of ground by the British Government
for strategic purpose as an act of unprovoked aggression.
The usual consequences followed, trans-border raids being,
met with punitive expeditions by the British. The
result was a “ ceaseless and chronic state of war ” between
the tribesmen and the British forces. For instance, every
man, woman, and child in the clan (the Zakkas), accord¬
ing to Major Roos-Keppel,* looked upon those who com¬
mitted murder, raids and robberies in Peshawar or Kohat
as heroes and champions. They were the crusaders of the
nation. They departed with the good wishes and prayers
of all, and were “ received on their return after a success¬
ful raid with universal rejoicings.”

To take an instance, down to 1893 Waziristan, like
the rest of Independent Territory, was beyond the British:
sphere of influence and was treated as part of Afghan¬
istan. By the Durand Agreement Amir Abdur Rahman
Khan renounced claim upon it. Raids and offences of all
sorts were extremely rare in the eighties. But during the
demarcation of the Durand Line, there was an attack on.
the escort at Wana. It resulted in the campaign of 1894-98.
Till 1912, not a single road was completed in Waziristan
territory. A road from Thai to Idak in the Tochi
area appeared for the first time on the map in 1913-14.
The scheme of strategic roads in Waziristan was in hand
when the Mahsuds rose and field operations had to be
undertaken against them. From 1917 to 1924 was the-
period of the Mahsud Expedition and occupation and a.
vigorous strategic roads construction programme. The

* Cited by C. F. Andrews in The Challenge of the North-West
Frontier, p. 62.

26

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

result was a sharp rise in the number of trans-border
annual raids. The following table will show the inter-rela¬
tion between the roads and raids :

Year

No. of raids

Year

No. of raids

1911-12

71

1918-19

189

1912-13

77

1919-20

611

1913-14

93

1920-21

391

1914-15

165

1921-22

194

1915-16

345

1922-23

131

1916-17

292

1923-24

69

1917-18

223

To the Army Department of the British India Gov¬
ernment, this was not altogether unwelcome. There was
a general outcry in India at the bulk of the revenue of
the country ranging up to 60 per cent of the total being
absorbed by “ military expenditure ” and occasional skir¬
mishes and sending of expeditions into the tribal area
provided a convenient justification for it. * But it was the
British Indian subjects of the Frontier in particular who
paid the price. The tribesman made no distinction be¬
tween the British Government and the British Indian
subject who, he argued, provided men and money for
aggression into his land and massacre of his kith and kin,
and was thus “ fair game ” to kill, plunder or secure as
a hostage. As an eastern proverb says, “ when armies
fight, it is the grass that is trampled under the feet.”

I\lore money went in bribes and punitive expeditions
for the construction of every ten miles of railway or road
than would have sufficed to establish schools, post offices,

* Protested Shri Bhulabhai Desai, the nationalist leader, in the
course of the Central Assembly debate in 1935: “ The expedition is
just an excuse for the maintenance of an army, without which the
present expenditure of over forty million pounds sterling cannot be
justified. Once you have got an army, there is always an inclination
— almost a justification — for its use. Each time we are within our
borders, we must take under our wing a little beyond that border.
If we have taken that part under our wing, then we must fly a
little further and keep on doing that all the time. In fact, it is
this talk of Frontier warfare which throughout the last thirty odd
-years has been the only excuse for piling up armaments at the
•expense of the poor people of this country.”

FROM ROADS TO RAIDS

27

hospitals and dispensaries and such amenities, which
the trans-border people lacked and which they would
gratefully have accepted as a friendly gesture. From 1882
to 1891 alone 13 crores were expended on sending out
expeditions. The recurring financial liabilities of the cen¬
tre on account of its Frontier policy included:

(i) One crore and fifty-four lakhs annually sent
through the External Affairs Ministry.

(ii) Annual loss of two crores registered by
strategic railways.

(iii) Maintenance of Defence Works and the
Army in and about these parts estimated to cost about
10 or 11 crores.

(iv) The cost of the grim and almost annual mili¬
tary pastime of punitive expeditions or major and
minor operations during the forty years following the
Chitral War which easily reached an average of two
crores yearly. According to a statement made in the
Indian Central Assembly the total amount spent in
these parts during the ninety years (1849-1938) since
the British took over from the Sikhs in the Punjab
approached the figure of 400 crores.

For over seventy years this went on. The result of in¬
dulging in these countless expeditions, “ burn and scuttle
affairs ” as Sir Michael O’Dwyer called them, was almost
nil. To quote Sir Michael again, “ they subdued the tribe
or tribesmen concerned for a time, but were unable to
prevent a return to lawlessness as before.” *

* Sir Michael O’Dwyer in Col. Bruce’s Waziristan — 1936-37.

CHAPTER IV

A NEW PORTENT

In 1919-20 a new chapter opened in India’s his¬
tory. Satyagraha movement on a national scale was
born. During World War I, instead of taking advantage-
of the difficulty of her alien rulers, India decided to co¬
operate in the war, but at the end of it instead of freedom
she got the Rowlatt Act which, under the ostensible object
of putting down seditious crime, embodied the most arbi¬
trary suppression of civil liberties that India had ever
known. It turned Gandhiji who had hitherto prided him¬
self on being the ‘ loyalist subject ’ of the British Empire
into a declared rebel and an open enemy of British rule
in India. He launched a countrywide Satyagraha move¬
ment against it. The Government replied by proclaiming
martial law in the Punjab which culminated in General
Dyer’s massacre at Amritsar. The movement against the-
Rowlatt Act thereafter merged and broadened into the non¬
violent non-co-operation movement under Gandhiji’s lea¬
dership for the redress of the “ triple wrong ” of the Punjab
Martial Law atrocities, violation of the Khilafat * and the
denial of Swaraj, which India claimed as her birthright. A
miracle then happened. Hindus and Muslims so long kept
asunder by the ‘ Divide and Rule ’ policy inherent in any
foreign Government, decided to bury the hatchet and for

* The Turkish Sultan used to be regarded by the Muslim world as
their Caliph or spiritual head. During World War I, the British Pre¬
mier, Lloyd George, gave a pledge that the integrity of Turkey
would be maintained and the sacred places of Islam would re¬
main with the acknowledged head of the Muslim religion. But after
the war, the Turkish Empire was dismembered and deprived of her
Arabian provinces. This meant violation of the Caliphate or the
Khilafat since the Islamic law required that the Caliph must exercise'
temporal power over the “ Island of Arabia ” in order to be able
to protect the holy places of Islam. This was regarded by the Indian
Muslims as a breach of faith and constituted the * Khilafat Wrong h

28

THE ARTIFICIAL FRONTIER OF INDIA
Itoyond IFh 4 ‘ Mo-manV’ 1 .and F

A NEW PORTENT

29

the time became one, to the chagrin and perturbation of
Imperialists, whose one anxiety thereafter was to set
them by the ears so as to make India ‘ safe for British
rule ’ for all time to come. Hitherto it had been their
policy to nurture the Frontier Province as a bulwark
against the Russian menace. Now it became their policy
to develop it not from the point of view of all-1 ndia in¬
terest, external or internal but as an autonomous “ Mus¬
lim majority Province ” to balance the “ Hindu majority
Provinces ” so as to serve as a bulwark against the rising
tide of Indian nationalism. And to that end the Chief
Commissioner and all his responsible officers of the Poli¬
tical Service were expected to subordinate the rights of
the inhabitants of the directly administered districts “to
keep the tribesmen in good temper ”.f

The non-co-operation movement swept over the
N. W. F. Province with the rest of India in the years 1919t
22. It was followed by a phase of extensive communal
tension and disturbances which, in certain cases, could be
.shown to have been deliberately encouraged, if not ac¬
tually engineered by the authorities and their agents, the
local officials. The most notable disturbances in the
N. W. F. Province were in Kohat in 1924 and in Dera
Ismail Khan in 1927. But in spite of the virus of com-
munalism injected into the body politic by the Govern¬
ment’s policy, 1930 again witnessed a national mass move¬
ment in the N. W. F. Province. A new portent then
appeared on the Indian horizon — the emergence of the
non-violent Pathan. In the 1930 Salt Satyagraha, the
Frontier Pathans in their thousands took part in the pro¬
gramme of peaceful picketing of law courts, foreign cloth
and liquor shops. The Frontier authorities, who regarded
the non-violent Pathan as a greater menace to their plans
than the armed Pathan, did not hesitate to resort to the
most draconian measures to suppress the non-violent
Frontier movement. On the 23rd of April, following upon
the arrest of leaders, there was firing at Peshawar on a

t Cited by Dewan"Chand Obhrai in The Evolution of North-West

Frontier Province.

30

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

peaceful crowd of Pathans, including Hindus and Sikhs.
For a full account of the gruesome tragedy that followed,
we may turn over the pages of Shri V. J. Patel’s Report
of Inquiry into Peshawar Firing (1930), which was ban¬
ned at that time by the British Government. Here are a
few extracts culled from a report which was sent by a
responsible Muslim leader of the Punjab at that time and
published in Young India :

“A troop of English soldiers.reached the spot and

without any warning to the crowd began firing into the crowd

in which a number of women and children were present.

When those in front fell down.those behind came forw r ard

with their breasts bared and exposed themselves to the fire.

some people got as many as 21 bullet wounds.and all the

people stood their ground without getting into a panic. A young
Sikh boy came and stood in front of a soldier and asked him to
fire at him, which the soldier unhesitatingly did, killing him

.an old woman seeing her relatives and friends being

wounded, came forward, was shot down and fell down wounded.
An old man with a four-year old child on his shoulders, unable
to brook this brutal slaughter, advanced asking the soldier to
fire at him. He was taken at his word and he also fell down

wounded.people came forward one after another to face

the firing and when they fell wounded they were dragged back
and others came forward to be shot.”

“ A fairly senior military officer ” described the “ in¬
cident ” in the columns of the British-edited Indian Daily
Mail as follows:

“ You may take it from me that shooting went on for very
much longer than has been stated in the newspapers. We

taught the blighters a lesson which they won't forget.Our

fellows stood there shooting down the agitators, and leaders who
were pointed out to them by the police. It was not a case of a
few volleys, it was a case of continuous shooting.”

It made everybody who knew anything about the
Pathans • rub his eyes in wonder. Two platoons of war-
hardened Garhwalis, belonging to the Royal Garhwal
Rifles, who were ordered to fire upon the unresisting
crowd were so affected by what they saw that they refused
to carry out orders, were courtmartialled and were sent¬
enced to terms of imprisonment varying from 10 to 14
years. Their cases were not covered by the amnesty

A NEW PORTENT

31

clause under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and they had to serve
out full terms of their sentence. One of them at the
expiry of his term in 1942 came to Gandhiji and stayed for
some time as a member of his Ashram at Sevagram.

The man who brought about this marvellous trans¬
formation was Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, "popularly
known as Badshah Khan in his province who, in 1929-30,
with his elder brother Dr. Khan Saheb, launched the
Khudai Khidmatgar movement. “ A King among men by
stature and dignity of bearing ” as Charlie Andrews des¬
cribed him, “ practising ahimsa or non-violence and en¬
joining it upon his followers, and implicitly taking his in¬
structions from Mahatma Gandhi ”3hifr story of his life
almost reads like a legend or a romance. He was born
in 1890 rich, aristocratic family of Khans of the

Mohmadzai tribe. His father, Khan Saheb Behram Khan,
was the chief Khan of the village of Utmanzai in the
Charsadda Tahsil of the District of Peshawar. He studied
in the Edward Mission High School but failed to matri¬
culate and stayed at home unlike his elder brother, Dr.
Khan Saheb, who proceeded to England for his higher
medical studies, and returned home a full fledged mem¬
ber of the Indian Medical Service^ after serving in
France in World. War I. For 'a' while Badshah
Khan nursed the ambition to serve in the army
and distinguish ''‘'himself as a soldier but was saved
from it by Providence when he saw with his own
eyes the disagreeable spectacle of a friend of his in
the army, whom he had gone to visit, being grossly
insulted by a British officer of inferior rank. Later he
joined the Aligarh Muslim University but was summoned
home after one year by his father, who wanted him to
proceed to England for education as an engineer. Every¬
thing had been duly arranged. Even the passage by a
P. & 0. liner had been booked. But devotion to mother
proved stronger than the ambition to become an engineer.
“ One of my sons is already away. What shall I do if you
go away as well ? ” the mother sobbed when he went to
her to bid goodbye. The son’s heart melted and the plan

32

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

of studying abroad went by the board. In the case of
Gandhiji the mother’s love by hedging him with the triple
vow of abstention from wine, women and meat eating, set
him on the way to life-long tapasya (penance). In the case
of Badshah Khan — the Frontier Gandhi, as his friends
lovingly call him — the mother’s love made him fling
away all worldly ambition once and for all and turned
him into a fakir — as the masses in the Frontier endear¬
ingly call him — dedicated to self-sacrifice and the service
of his people, particularly the poor. The decision once
made, neither of them turned or looked backward.
Both marched breast forward, each to meet his destiny in
his own characteristic way.

In 1911, in collaboration with the Haji Saheb of Turang-
zai, whose patriotism later led him to go into and end his
days in voluntary exile in the Tribal territory, Badshah
Khan started a number of national schools in his province.
During those days orthodox Mullahs were carrying on
agitation against schools run by the Government but they
had no alternative to suggest. Badshah Khan tried to
rescue the agitation from sterility by canalizing it into
constructive effort. The example of Rev. Wigram, the
Principal of the Edward Mission School in which he had
studied, inspired him to dedicate himself to the service of
his people.

From his mother, according to him, he inherited his
devout and religious bent; from his father, his instinctive
adherence to non-violence. Both of them were unlettered
and both lived more in the world of the spirit than of the
flesh. “ My mother would often sit down after her namaz

(Muslim prayer) to meditate in silence and stillness.

My father throughout his life made many friends but no

enemies.He knew no revenge and he had something

in him which told him that there was no dishonour in
being deceived; it lay in deceiving. He was a man of
his word and he was so transparently truthful that not
even his enemies dared to disbelieve or contradict him.” *
His word apparently was held to be as good as a bond

* Cited by Mahadev Desai in Two Servants of God.

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
his 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.

A NEW PORTENT

35

imprisonment and was subjected to all the hardships of jail
life; solitary cell, fetters for months, grinding for prison
task, etc. He lost 55 lb. in weight and suffered from
scurvy and lumbago and what not, as a result of the
rigours to which he was subjected. He behaved
as a model prisoner and conscientiously observed jail dis¬
cipline, cheerfully putting up with all privations and hard¬
ships of jail life, never asking for favours or compromising
on principles. Even some of the jail officials were moved
by the sufferings of their high-principled, illustrious pri¬
soner and tried to relax the rigours which were to be
imposed upon him under the rules. He implored them
to let him be. He started a crusade against the corruption
in jail. One constable, under his influence, tendered his
resignation because he could not make both ends meet
without indulging in corrupt practices. The jail authori¬
ties took alarm and transferred Badshah Khan to another
prison, this time in Gujarat in the Punjab, where his un¬
compromising honesty and rigorous observance of jail
discipline became a source of embarrassment to his more
easy-going fellow prisoners. But he stood firm as a rock.
For, he held with that other illustrious jail-bird, Tom
Clark, that “ once you compromise on principle, you not
only compromise truth, but you compromise your self-
respect ”, which is the most valuable asset in the prison
life of a civil resister.

The transfer to Gujarat prison brought him into con¬
tact with a wider circle and enabled him to make a study
of the scriptures of other religions, especially the Bhaga-
wadgita and the Sikh scriptures. In order to understand
one another better, he suggested in consultation with his
Hindu fellow civil resister prisoners, that there should be
Gita and Quran classes. The classes went on for some,
time but ultimately had to be discontinued “ for want of
any other pupil but myself in the Gita class and for want
of more than one pupil in the Quran class

Unlike his elder brother Dr. Khan Saheb, who often
used to say in jest, “ My brother offers the namaz on my

* Cited by Mahadev Desai in Two Servants of God.

36

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

behalf also,” Badshah Khan never missed a single namaz
(prayer) or roza (fast). With that he combined a rare
catholicity of outlook. “ I do not measure the strength
of a religion by counting heads,” he once told the late
Mahadev Desai, “for, what is faith until it is expressed
in one’s life ? It is my inmost conviction that Islam is
amal, yakeen, muhabbat (work, faith and love) and with¬
out these the name Mussulman is sounding brass and
tinkling cymbal. The Quran Shareef makes it absolutely
clear that faith in One God without a second and good
works are enough to secure a man his salvation.”

“ I think, at the back of our quarrels is the failure to
recognize that all faiths contain enough inspiration for
their adherents,” he remarked on another occasion. “ The
Holy Quran says in so many words that God sends mes¬
sengers and warners for all nations and all peoples and
they are their respective prophets. All of them are
Ahl-i-kitab (Men of the Book).I would even go fur¬

ther and say that the fundamental principles of all reli¬
gions are the same, though details differ because each
faith takes- the flavour of the soil from which it springs.”

The period between 1924-29 was a hard testing time
in the struggle for independence. Communal passions
mounted high and many lost their moorings. But the
Khan brothers kept their heads above the storm and never
wavered. Badshah Khan ceaselessly toiled and undertook
long and arduous tours on foot to carry to the tribesmen
in their villages and mountain fastnesses the message of
truth and non-violence and the new technique of fight
without weapons which Gandhiji had presented. When
the 1930 struggle came, he with his brother was again
in the thick of the fight. Yet, strangely enough, they had
never met Gandhiji all this time. It was only at the
Karachi session of the Congress in 1931 that he and his
Khudai Khidmatgars, whose fame had travelled before
them, first came into contact with Gandhiji and fellow
workers in the cause in other parts of India.

The Khudai Khidmatgar movement was primarily
conceived as a movement for social reform and

A NEW PORTENT

37

economic uplift. It aimed at teaching the Pathans in¬
dustry, economy and self-reliance by educating them
and inculcating upon them self-respect and the fear
of God which ‘ banishes all fear It was only in
1929 that Badshah Khan decided to convert his
small body of volunteer workers into a full-fledged
political organization to carry out the whole of the Con¬
gress programme. The ideal of the Khudai Khidmatgars,
as their name implies, was to become true servants of
God — in other words, to serve God through service of
humanity. They were regularly drilled and taught to take
long marches in military fashion. But they bore no arms,
carried no weapons, not even a lathi or a stick. They
took the pledge to be loyal to God, the community and
the motherland. They were all pledged to non-violence
in thought, word and deed and to service of their fellow
beings without expectation of any remuneration or re¬
ward for themselves. They bound themselves to observe
purity in personal life and abjured communalism. They
adopted red shirts as their uniform, since white khadi shirts
were too readily soiled and brick-red colour was com¬
monly available in and round about Peshawar District.
Up till April, 1930, the Khudai Khidmatgars did not num¬
ber more than 500. In 1938 their figure stood at over one
lakh.

Released on the conclusion of the Gandhi-Irwin Pact
in January, 1931, the Khan brothers were not allowed to
enjoy their liberty for long. The British officials regarded
the Pact as a personal defeat * and set about to “retrieve ”

* It is characteristic of the Khudai Khidmatgars that they never
claimed the Gandhi-Irwin truce as a victory for themselves. Dr.
Khan Saheb once related to the late Shri Mahadev Desai how during
one of his visits to Peshawar with his ‘ Guides ’ during the truce,
Col. Sandeman, the son of Col. Sir Robert Sandeman of Quetta fame,
scarcely disguised the feeling of unhappiness over the truce which
he shared with the British officials. Dr. Khan Saheb, a born sports¬
man who never forgot the tradition of the cricket team he
led in college, soothed him, “ No, Col. Sandeman, dismiss
the thought of your having been defeated entirely out of your mind.
Political life is a game in which the victor ‘and the vanquished must

33

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

it. Breaches of the agreement were numerous and the
Khudai Khidmatgars were given no peace. On the 23rd
of December the Khan brothers were invited by the Chief
Commissioner to a Darbar. They declined the invitation
as a protest against continuance of repression on the rank
and file of the Khudai Khidmatgars. On the night of the
24th of December, with almost all the important members
of the family they were arrested under an Ordinance and
sent out of the Frontier Province for detention for an
indefinite period, just on the eve-of Gandhiji’s return from
the Second Round Table Conference.

During the two Civil Disobedience struggles between
1930-33, there was a virtual Black-and-Tan regime im¬
posed upon the Frontier Province. Standing crops of
civil resisters were burnt, Istocks of grain ruined by pour¬
ing kerosene oil into them and houses set fire to. There
were martial law, shootings and lathi f charges and indig¬
nities and brutalities that will not bear telling. As an
American tourist observed, “ Gunning the Red Shirts was
a popular sport and pastime of the British forces in the
province.” They were stripped naked, made to run
through cordons of British soldiers who kicked them and
jabbed them with rifle ends and bayonets as they ran.
They were thrown out from the roofs of houses, ducked
in dirty ponds and subjected to indecent tortures which,
in some cases, left them maimed for life.

The Pathans are a proud, sensitive race who prefer
death to dishonour. One of the Khan brothers’ cousins,
Haji Shah Nawaz Khan, compelled by domestic circum¬
stances to pay security to secure release, was so overcome
by remorse that he quietly killed himself as an expiation
for his weakness. His friends and relatives in vain argued

shake hands with one another as much as in a game of football or
cricket. And here, in this instance, there is no question of victory.
We have just had a draw in which there is no victor and no vanquish¬
ed.” When they parted from each other, the soldier said, “ Well,
well, we have known each other so well that I hope and pray the
‘ Guides ’ may not have to be guilty of anything bad in Chars adda.”

t Long bamboo sticks sometimes heavily shod with iron.

A NEW PORTENT

39

with him that he could go back to prison by doing some
act in breach of security. He simply left a note behind
saying that the disgrace he had brought upon the family
could be expiated only by his death.

Another prominent worker, Syed Abdul Wadud Bad-
shah, a great religious head and zamindar from the Mala-
kand Tribal Agency, had been in prison for three years.
His decrepit old father, being very near death’s door, paid
the security so that he might see his son before he passed
away. The son, on coming out, shot himself dead, unable
to bear the shame of it.

Everybody knows how highly excitable * the Pathans
are. Yet, throughout this period, not a single case of ac¬
tual violence was adduced against the Khudai Khidmat-
gars. Some of them committed suicide when their non¬
violence was strained to the breaking point.

In 1934 the Khan brothers were again released, but
an order was passed banning their entry into the Frontier
Province and the Punjab. Badshah Khan came and stay¬
ed with Gandhiji at Wardha. He sent for his daughter
who was in England for education and put her
in Mahila Ashram (a women’s educational institution) at
Wardha under the care of Mirabehn (Miss Slade), Admiral
Slade’s daughter, who had taken to Gandhiji’s way of life
and become his close and devoted associate. This was in
the last week of November. On the 7th of December,
Badshah Khan was again arrested under a warrant from
the Bombay Government in connection with a speech
which he had delivered on the invitation of the Associa¬
tion of Young Christians at Bombay and sentenced to
three years’ rigorous imprisonment.

* Fielding King Hall narrates the following as an instance of
the proverbial inflammability of the Pathan in his Thirty Days of
India :

<c One Pathan was sitting on the ground listening in intently
to a radio broadcasting programme whilst his neighbour conti¬
nued to chatter. The first man told the talker to shut up> but
the latter observed that he had as much right to speak as " that
loud mouth over there The radio fan promptly switched off
th° human “ loud speaker ” by sticking a knife into his ribs.”

40

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

On his release in 1936, he again came to Gandhiji and
stayed this time as the guest of Seth Jamnalal Bajaj at
Wardha, though he passed most of his time with Gandhiji
in his Sevagram Ashram, which continued to be his home
till the turn of the wheel enabled him to go back to his
province. It was a great and valuable opportunity for
both, for it enabled them to know each other most inti¬
mately, and there grew up between them a bond which
continued to grow closer and closer.

Memory fondly lingers over the many heart to heart
talks which they had during their stay together, their un¬
equalled love and regard for each other and the sharing
of their respective inner experiences. To Gandhiji, with
his passion for communal unity, Badshah Khan symbo¬
lized the entire Muslim community. And where else could
you find a truer Muslim, more devout, more deeply reli¬
gious, more transparently sincere or more tolerant than
Badshah Khan ? On Badshah Khan’s part, it was not
name or fame or even Gandhiji’s political work which
drew him to the latter. The secret of his devotion to and
unquestioning faith in Gandhiji was that he found in
Gandhiji a kindred spirit, a man of faith and prayer, dedi¬
cated to a pure, ascetic life, who waited upon God and
sought to do His will even in the littlest of little acts of
his life.

“There is nothing surprising in a Mussulman or a
Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of non-violence,”
he once remarked. “ It is not a new creed. It was follow¬
ed 1,400 years ago by the Prophet all the time He was
in Mecca and it has since been followed by all those who
wanted to throw off an oppressor’s yoke. But we had so
far forgotten it that when Mahatmaji placed it before us

we thought he was sponsoring a novel creed.To him

belongs the credit of being the first among us to revive a
forgotten creed and to place it before a nation for the re¬
dress of its grievances.”

“Whenever a question of great pith and moment
arises in Gandhiji’s life and Gandhiji takes an important
decision,” remarked Badshah Khan on one occasion, “I

A NEW PORTENT

41

instinctively say to myself, 1 This is the decision of one
who has surrendered himself to God, and God never
guideth ill.’"

And again, “ I have never found it easy to question his
decisions, for he refers all his problems to God and always
listens to His commands. After all I have but one standard
of measure and that is the measure of one’s surrender
to God.”

In 1937 the Congress decided to accept office in the
Provinces under the Government of India Act of 1935,
supplemented by certain assurances of the Viceroy.
The Khan brothers were precluded from taking part in
the elections as the externment order banning their entry
into the Frontier Province still stood, and even Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru was not allowed to enter the Frontier
Province to conduct the election campaign, while leaders
of the Muslim League from India were allowed all facili¬
ties. The officials openly worked against the Khan bro¬
thers and the Congress. In spite of it Dr. Khan Saheb
secured a thumping majority and was declared elected in
absentia. In September, 1937, a Congress Ministry was
formed in the Frontier Province under his Premiership,
and the outlaws of yesterday became the party in power
in their land of birth.

But Badshah Khan, the Fakir (the recluse), did not
stand for election, nor did he join his brother’s Ministry,
but chose instead to tread the hard and stony path of
service. He had become convinced that nothing but non¬
violence, as inculcated by Gandhiji, could elevate his peo¬
ple and raise them to their full moral stature. How deep
was his passion for service and his faith in non-violence
will be seen from the following statement of his recorded
in Young India :

“ My non-violence has become almost a matter of faith with
me. I believed in Mahatma Gandhi’s ahimsa before. But the
unparallelled success of the experiment in my province has made
me a confirmed champion of non-violence. God willing, I hope
never to see my province take to violence. We know only too
well the bitter results of violence from the blood-feuds which
spoil our fair name. We have an abundance of violence in our

42

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

nature. It is good in our interests to take training in
non-violence. Moreover, is not the Pathan amenable to love
and reason ? He will go with you to hell if you can win his
heart, but you cannot force him even to go to heaven! Such
is the power of love over the Pathan. I want the Pathan to
do unto others as he would like to be done by. It may be, I may
fail and a wave of violence may sweep over my province. I shall
then be content to take the verdict of fate against me. But it
will not shake my ultimate faith in non-violence which my peo¬
ple need more than anybody else.”

For over a decade and a half Badshah Khan had
fought against the British but at the end of it he harbour¬
ed no ill-will or bitterness in his heart. “ The British have
put me in prison, but I do not hate them,” he told Robert
Bernays who interviewed him during the Truce in 1931.
“ My movement is social as well as political. I teach
the ‘ Red Shirts ’ to love their neighbours and speak the
truth. Muslims are a warlike race; they do not take
easily to the gospel of non-violence. I am doing my best
to teach it to them.” *

That night the author of The Naked Fakir recorded
his impression of Abdul Ghaffar Khan in his diary as fol¬
lows :

“ Looking the embodiment of the traditional painting of
Christ Abdul Ghaffar Khan is a kindly, gentle and rather lovable
man. As well think that old George Lansbury is a dangerous
revolutionary.”

In the following year (1938), Badshah Khan invited
Gandhiji to make a tour of his province to study and guide
the Khudai Khidmatgar movement. The inauguration of
the Congress Ministry had created an anomalous situation
in the Frontier Province. The British authorities, espe¬
cially the Political Department in the N. W. F. Province,
had not taken kindly to the coming of the Congress into
power. They now used the tribesmen as an invisible lever
against the Congress Ministry. In this they were aided
by the dual system of administration which obtained in
the Frontier Province. For instance, whilst the Governor
in his capacity as the head of the Provincial Government
was, under the constitution, required to act on the advice

* Robert Bernays: The Naked Fakir.

A NEW PORTENT

43

of his Ministers, in the matter of the teibal areas, he was
responsible only to and had direct dealings with the Viceroy
as King’s representative. Again, under the doctrine of the
‘ inseparability of the Districts and the tribal territory
whilst the higher civilian officers, in regard to their
functions as District Magistrates, were under the Ministry,
the same officers as administrators of the tribal territory
were answerable directly to the Political Department and
could and did actually do things over the heads and even
without the sanction and knowledge of the legislature or
the Ministry. The language of the official Administrative
Reports in the period from 1919-20 to 1936-37 gives one
the impression that the authorities almost regarded com¬
munal feeling as a specific against “ political distemper
Take for instance, the following from the 1931-32 report
in regard to the N. W. F. Province :

During the early days of September, there was a
lull in the political activities of the Province, perhaps
largely due to the absence from their headquarters of
Abdul Ghaffar Khan who, after a visit to Simla to meet
Mr. Gandhi and a short stay in the Punjab, proceeded
direct to Dera Ismail Khan, where he spent a week in an
unsuccessful attempt to effect a reconciliation between the
Hindu and Mohammedan communities.”

And further:

“At this time, the political situation in the District
was much easier." (Italics mine.)

Deterioration of relations between ’ the Ministry in
power and the Political Department and the Army was
reflected in slackness and indiscipline in the services and
an increase in lawlessness. In the third quarter of 1946,
Pandit Nehru, as the Vice-President of the Interim Gov¬
ernment that had been set up at the Centre in terms
of the 15th of May announcement of the British Cabinet
Delegation, visited the N. W. F. Province. His visit was
an occasion for a right royal welcome by the Khudai Khid-
matgars lining at regular intervals both sides of the road

44

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

on a route more' than ten miles long. But in the
Malakand Agency his car was ambushed by some
tribesmen. The officials were suspected to have a hand in
the affair, and action had to be taken against the political
officer concerned for dereliction of duty.

Characteristic of this new challenge were the Bannu
raid and the Dera Ismail Khan riots.f What was the popu¬
lar Congress Ministry to do ? Force had been tried
by the British and had failed. The British Government had
even tried aerial bombing of the tribes. It shocked the
civilized conscience of mankind but could not re¬
duce the tribesmen to submission.* The experiment of
Sir Robert Sandeman of Quetta fame, of “peaceful
penetration ” and “ control from within ” by “ supporting
the tribal headman ” and “ conferring moral and material

t See chapters x and xii.

* At ^ le !933 Air Disarmament Conference at Geneva Sir Anthony
Eden put forward, on behalf of Great Britain, a plea to exempt from
the ban “ air bombing for police purposes in certain outlying dis-
tricts ” His argument was that the only alternative would be the
use of land troops, involving casualties perhaps of a heavy nature.
“The sending of expeditionary forces involved loss of life and
health ”, whereas in air bombing “ usually a warning sufficed, and
it was possible, perhaps, to avoid casualties altogether.” The motion
was opposed by Mr. Wilson, U.S.A., who insisted that the abolition
of bombardment from the air should be ” absolute, unqualified and
universal.”

Lieut.-General MacMunn in his book on the Frontier, pp. 273-274,
describing the comparative ineffectiveness of air bombing, writes :

One of the disappointments of modern times is the uselessness of
the Air Force in handling the problem. It was hoped that a solution
might have been found. But it was soon realized that bombing has-

no material effect against tribal skirmishers and sharp-shooters.

Even punitive bombing has been realized as of little avail. To bomb
unwarned means destruction of families. To bomb after warning is
absurd.” 6 k

As regards the defence that no casualties of the tribesmen were
mvoived because previous warning was given, here is what Charlie
Andrews, that God-fearing Englishman, says: “The first warning
they get is the first bomb which is dropped on them by aeroplanes ”
The Challenge of the North-West Frontier, p. 94.

A NEW PORTENT

45

benefits ” (The Sandeman System) could possibly be held
out as an example of what could be achieved by way of
‘ gradual civilization and betterment of tribes It, how¬
ever, carried with it its own seeds of evil. Apart from the
fact that it sought to stabilize an effete feudal system, it
was not in essence different from the imperialist system
of grab of which it was really an adjunct.. Did it not
enable the British gradually, almost imperceptibty to
absorb the whole strip of territory which constitutes the
present Province of Baluchistan and open up the Gomal
Pass, “ although the politicals in the Punjab had been sit¬
ting before those mountain ranges in Waziristan for
yea’’s ? ” f Every writer on the Frontier from Davies
downward has noted the democratic character of the
Pathan tribesmen and their intense passion for freedom.
Is it any wonder that they regarded the Sandeman system
as a menace to their much treasured freedom ?

Of a different order was the venture of Dr. Pennell of
the Bannu Mission, who settled down among the Pathan
folk to evangelize them by loving, selfless service. He
lived among them, adopted their dress, spoke their lang¬
uage fluently and ultimately laid down his life serving
them. He always went unarmed among the most turbu¬
lent Pathan folk and when once a new commandant in¬
sisted that he should take an escort, he answered that
-that would be the surest way of getting ambushed and
shot. It was said of him that to have Pennell was worth
“ a couple of regiments ”. Such was the power this man
of peace had come to wield.

But Dr. Pennell’s was an individual venture, not free
from a suspicion of a proselytizing motive. It still left
unanswered the question of questions, so admirably pro¬
pounded by that saintly Englishman, Charlie Andrews:

“ Is there a place for moral resistance in face of the violent
measures that are destroying civilization today ? Would it have
been possible in Korea, Manchukuo or North China for the
Chinese to have resisted in this manner Japanese domination ?

f Sir Michael O’Dwyer in his foreword to Col. Bruce’s Waziristan
— 1936 - 37 .

46

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Could it have had a place in counteracting Italian aggression ?
Could it he employed in Spain ? How is the conscience of the
world to be roused against the aggressor in such a way that
mere physical success becomes turned into a moral defeat ? Is
there a moral world sanction that does not depend for its effect¬
iveness upon the use of physical force ? Would it be possible to
use such a moral sanction, to put a last question, to pacify the
tribesmen on the North-West Frontier of India ? ”

Badshah Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgar move¬
ment had partly furnished the answer. Gandhiji now set
out to see whether the question mark could not altogether

be removed.

CHAPTER V

THE SHADOW , OF MUNICH

After prolonged consultations with Khan Saheb Abdul
Ghaffar Khan (endearingly called Badshah Khan by the
Frontier people), his prospective host, Gandhiji set out
from Sevagram towards the close of September, 1938, on
a one month’s tour among the Khudai Khidmatgars in
the North-West Frontier Province. It was in fulfilment
of a promise he had given to Badshah Khan. His health
had been none too good and it was with no small trepida¬
tion and anxiety on the part of friends that he decided
to halt at Delhi on the way and face the strain of the
Working Committee and a couple of other meetings that
had been arranged to be held there in anticipation of his
visit. The Working Committee met under the shadow of
the war cloud that threatened to burst over Europe and
decided to go into a perpetual sitting till the crisis was
over. Its members met and discussed and talked over this
question of questions “ loud and long But before they
could arrive at any final conclusion the crisis for the time
being was resolved by the signing of the Munich Pact, and
the entire picture changed with kaleidscopic quickness.
There were Congressmen who felt that India ought to
make England’s adversity its opportunity to strike the
most favourable bargain with that country to gain control
of political power which was her due. But to Gandhi ji
the occasion represented the hour of his trial and of India’s
trial. What would it profit her if she gained complete con¬
trol of power but lost her soul into the bargain ? For near¬
ly a quarter of a century he had endeavoured to inculcate
the way of non-violence upon the country. His life’s work
was at stake. What account would the Congress give of
itself in this hour ? Would it have the strength and the
courage to live up to its creed of unqualified non-violence
in the face of a possible European conflagration ? “ If the

47

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

48

Congress could put the whole of its creed of non-violence
into practice on this occasion,” he remarked to a friend,
“ India’s name would become immortal. She would make
history. But I know, today, it is only a dream of mine.”
“ Should India take to the sword, she would cease to be
the India of my dreams and I should like to betake me to
the Himalayas to seek rest for my anguished soul,” he
had written on a memorable occasion. “ You may rest
assured,” he told some friends who interviewed him at
Delhi, “ that whatever happens there will be no surrender.
For me, even if I stand alone, there is no participation in
the war even if- the Government should surrender the
whole control to the Congress.” To another friend who
doubted whether enough people would respond to his call
of unqualified ahimsa in the face of danger, he replied,
"Who would have thought aeroplanes to be a practical
reality fifty years ago ? Who would have imagined in
this country, thirty years ago, that thousands of innocent
men, women and children would be ready smilingly to
march to the prison ? The weapon of ahimsa does not
need supermen or superwomen to wield it; even beings
of common clay can use it and have used it before with
success. At any rate, fifteen members of the Working
Committee did express their readiness to put their ahimsa
to the test. That was more than I was prepared for.”

Though the crisis for the time being was averted, it
set him thinking furiously. He began to address his
thoughts to Europe. “ It needed great courage,” he wrote
to a friend, “ but God gave it.”

In an article entitled “ If I were a Czech ”, dated
Peshawar, 6th October, 1938, in which he characterized
the Anglo-French arrangement with Herr Hitler as “ peace
without honour ”, he wrote : “ I want to say to the Czechs
and through them to all those nationalities which are call¬
ed ‘ small ’ or ‘ weak ’.that the small nations must

either come or be ready to come under the protection of
the dictators or be a constant menace to the peace of
Europe. In spite of all the goodwill in the world England

THE SHADOW OF MUNICH

49

and France cannot save them.If I were a Czech,

therefore, I would free these two nations from the obli¬
gation to defend my country. And yet,.I would not

be a vassal to any nation or body.To seek to win in

a clash of arms would be pure bravado. Not so, if in
defying the might of one who would deprive me of my
independence I refuse to obey his will and perish unarmed
in the attempt. In so doing, though I lose the body, I
save my soul, i. e., my honour.

“ £ But,’ says a comforter, ‘ Hitler knows no pity,
your spiritual effort will avail nothing before him.’

“ My answer is, ‘ You may be right.If Hitler is

unaffected by ■ my suffering, it does not matter. For I
shall have lost nothing worthwhile. . My honour is the
only thing worth preserving. That is independent of
Hitler’s pity. But as a believer in non-violence, I may
not limit its possibilities. Hitherto he and his like have
built upon their invariable experience that men yield to
force. Unarmed men, women and children offering non¬
violent resistance without any bitterness in them will be
a novel experience for them. Who can dare say that it is
not in their nature to respond to the higher and finer
forces ? They have the same soul that I have.’

“ But, says another comforter, ‘ What you say is all
right for you. But how do you expect your people to
respond to the novel call ? They are trained to fight.'

“ You may be right. But I have a call I must answer.
When I first launched out on Satyagraha in South

Africa I had no companion.But the honour of the

nation was saved. New history was written by the South
African Satyagraha. A more apposite instance is that of
Khan Saheb Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Servant of Sod as
he calls himself, the Pride of Afghan as the Pathans
delight to call him. He is sitting in front of me as I pen
these lines. He has made several thousand of his people
throw down their arms. He thinks he has imbibed the

P-4

50

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

lesson of non-violence. He is not sure of his people. I
reproduce the pledge that his soldiers of peace make:
“In presence of God I solemnly affirm that:

1. I hereby honestly and sincerely offer myself for en¬
rolment as a Khudai Khidmatgar.

2. I shall be ever ready to sacrifice personal comfort,,
property and even life itself to serve the nation and for the
attainment of my country’s freedom.

3. I shall not participate in factions, nor pick up a quar¬
rel with or bear enmity towards anybody. I shall always
protect the oppressed against the tyranny of the oppressor.

4. I shall not become member of any other organization,
and shall not furnish security or tender apology in the course
of the non-violent fight.

5. I shall always obey every legitimate order of my
superior officers.

6. I shall always live up to the principle of non-violence.

7. I shall serve all humanity equally. The chief object
of my life shall be attainment of complete independence and
religious freedom.

8. I shall always observe truth and purity in all my ac¬
tions.

9. I shall expect no remuneration for my services.

10. All my services shall be dedicated to God; they shall
not be for attaining rank or for show.”

I have come to the Frontier Province, or rather he hag ,
brought me, to see with my own eyes what his men here
are doing. I can say in advance and at once that these men.
know very little of non-violence. All the treasure they
have on earth is their faith in their leader. I do not cite
these soldiers of peace as at all a finished illustration. I
cite them as an honest attempt being made by a soldier
to convert fellow soldiers to the ways of peace. I can
testify that it is an honest attempt, and whether in the
end it succeeds or fails, it will have its lessons for satya-
grahis of the future. My purpose will be fulfilled if I
succeed in reaching these men’s hearts and making them
see that if their non-violence does not make them feel
much braver than the possession of arms and the ability
to use them they must give up their non-violence, which
is another name for cowardice, and resume their arms
which there is nothing but their own will to prevent them

THE SHADOW OF MUNICH

51

from taking back.There is no bravery greater than

a resolute refusal to bend the knee to an earthly power,
no matter how great, and that without bitterness of spirit
and in the fullness of faith that the spirit alone lives,
nothing else does.”

CHAPTER VI

IN FRONTIER GANDHI’S VILLAGE HOME

Thanks to the hospitable care of Badshah Khan and
his brother Dr. Khan Saheb, contrary to all forebodings
Gandhiji flourished in the bracing climate of the North-
West Frontier Province. The cold was not yet too in¬
tense and there was an agreeable nip in the air. Badshah
Khan, the fakir, gave him all the rest that one could
wish for. A kinder or a more considerate ‘ jailor ’ Gandhiji
never had. He left Gandhiji free to follow his regime of
almost unbroken silence and to order his time just as he
liked. There were no public functions, no interviews,
practically no conversations even by written slips of paper.
It is related about Emerson that when he paid his historic
visit to the Sage of Chelsea, neither of them spoke a word.
At the end of his “ wordless interview ” the Poet of Con¬
cord rose with the parting remark, “ Sir, we had a good
talk,” to which Carlyle, who believed in the virtue of
silence, replied, “ Yes, sir, and a most eloquent one.” I am
perfectly sure that if Gandhiji had only wished it, Badshah
Khan, on his part, would have been satisfied to give him
a “ tour ” without any touring and a “ programme ”
without any engagements, and at the end of it allowed
him to say Emersonwise, “Sir, we had an exciting tour
programme! ”

Badshah Khan never feels completely happy, unless
he can breathe the fresh, free air of the countryside in the
midst of his native surroundings. No Pathan evei does.
And Badshalf Khan has a particular horror of big cities
with their seething population, self-seeking and chicanery.
In order, therefore, to give to Gandhiji complete physical
and mental rest, he brought him away from Peshawar on
the 9th of October, 1938, after a four days’ stay, to his
country residence at Utmanzai.

52

IN FRONTIER GANDHI’S VILLAGE HOME 53

Set in the midst of a landscape of rare pastoral beauty,
on the bank of the Swat river, the little village of Utmanzai
is not lacking in idyllic charm. For miles together on
all sides there is an unbroken stretch of dark green fields
of maize and cane and legumes and cotton, interspersed
with fruit gardens which grow the finest fruit, from blood-
red oranges to prize peaches and plums and grapes and
apricots and rich luscious pears. The soil is rich, the
water- plentiful, thanks to the Swat river canal which,
with the soft gurgle of its numberless little waterfalls, fills
the entire landscape with a gentle, unceasing music by
day and by night.

On the edge of the village there is a small, picturesque
water mill. A quaint, old-world air hangs over the place,
which seems loath to change with the changing times.
The houses in the village, even of the aristocracy, are
mostly mud, with thick adobe walls and heavily timbered
roofing which keep them cool_ in the hot weather and
agreeably warm in the cold. Some of these houses are
still built in the old Pathan style with hujra (guest room)
in front, the stables next, and the residential quarters
proper right at the back. The hujra at present serves as
the servants’ quarters, but in the good old days it served
also as the ‘ village club house ’ where all the male adults
of the village daily gossiped together and smoked, and
where the bachelors slept at night in preference to their
own homes. The horses in the stables, I was told, used
to be kept ready harnessed day and night in the old un¬
settled times so that in case of an emergency the Khan
could in an instant leap into the saddle and ride off.

Thanks to the fine metalled roads with which the
whole of the Frontier Province is heavily intersected, and
increasing facilities for vehicular traffic which they pro¬
vide, the stables are today almost all empty, though an
enthusiastic horse-lover might still, here and there, try to
maintain the appearance of the old tradition. These roads
are a gratuitous gift, at the expense of the poor Indian
tax-payer, which the Frontier Province owes to the strate¬
gic exigencies of British Imperialism. During the Civil

54

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Disobedience days they became at once a prize and a
penalty for “ insubordination ”. The more mettle a vil¬
lage showed, the more metal it got in the form of a metal¬
led road — for punitive purposes, of course.

The village has no proper drainage system; there is
no municipality. The principal drain meanders sluggishly
through the streets, spreading out into black, slushy, and
none too sweet-smelling pools here and there, and ends
blindly. Nor have the people learnt the value and import¬
ance of proper sanitary arrangements. All this left a deep
impression on Gandhiji’s mind and formed the theme of a
talk which he gave to the Khudai Khidmatgars later at
Peshawar.

A little incident in connection with Gandhiji’s stay
at s , Utmanzai, that was misreported and exercised several
friends, must be noticed here § in passing. Being over¬
anxious for Gandhiji’s safety, Badshah Khan had posted
on the roofs of the rooms in his residence Khudai Khidmat¬
gars to keep watch during the nights that Gandhiji was
at Utmanzai. Before posting them, Badshah Khan had
a talk with Gandhiji without mentioning his plan. He
simply asked if Gandhiji objected to policing. Gandhiji
was in silence and, without knowing what he was in for,
he nodded so as to say, he did not. Badshah Khan under¬
stood it as consent for the posting of armed night watches.
When, however, Gandhiji came to know of armed guards,
he objected and said that whilst he would tolerate policing
for others he could not tolerate armed guards for his pro¬
tection. It would be quite contrary to the practice of a
lifetime. Badshah Khan had thought that since the arms
were meant only to scare away possible mischief-mongers
and were intended never to be used, Gandhiji probably
would have no objection to their retention. Gandhiji point¬
ed out the fallacy in his argument by a parable. The Lord
God once sent for the serpent and told him that He would
take away his fangs. “All right,” replied the serpent,
“ but, let me retain my hiss.” “ You may do so,” warned the
Lord God, “but remember, Adam’s children will in that
event exterminate you and your kind.” “ The moral,”

IN FRONTIER GANDHI’S VILLAGE HOME 55

remarked Gandhiji, “ is that show of force is also a species
of violence and brings upon the user the same retribution
as violence itself, indeed it is worse.” Badshah Khan appre¬
ciated Gandhiji’s objection. The guards were removed,
but Badshah Khan insisted on unarmed night watches to
which Gandhiji submitted, though under protest.

To Gandhiji’s mind the incident seemed to be sym¬
bolical of another and bigger issue that confronted the
country. Just as a satyagrahi must renounce the use of
arms for self-protection, even so, if India was ever to at¬
tain non-violent Swaraj she must first be able to defend
herself against the trans-border raids without the help of
the police and the military. Here in the Frontier Pro¬
vince there were said to be one lakh of Khudai Khidmat-
gars pledged to the creed of non-violence. If they had
really assimilated the principle of non-violence, said
Gandhiji, if their non-violence was the true non-violence
of the brave and not a mere expedient or a lip profession,
they ought to be able to befriend the trans-border raiders
by their loving service, and to wean them from their raid¬
ing habit. Indeed they could win independence for India
and set an example to the whole world.

He opened out his heart in the course of a talk with
Badshah Khan : “ The conviction is growing upon me,” he
began, “ that unless we can develop the capacity to stop
these Frontier raids without the help of the police and the
military, it is no use the Congress retaining power in this
province. For, in that case, our strength will continue to
ebb away and we are bound to be defeated in the end. A
wise General never waits till he is beaten. He withdraws
in time from a position which he knows he would not be
•able to hold.”

“ For years,” he continued, “ ever since we met
each other, it has been a pet dream of mine to visit
the tribal areas, go right up to Kabul, mix with the trans-
border tribes and try to understand their psychology. Why
•should we not go forth together, present to them our
viewpoint and establish with them a bond of. friendship
and sympathy ? I am certain that the only way of bring-

—66

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

ing about a permanent settlement of the Frontier problem
is through the way of peace and reason. If our Khudai
Khidmatgar organization is what its name signifies and
what.it ought to be, I am sure we can achieve that feat
today.

“ I am, therefore, anxious to find to what extent the
Khudai Khidmatgars have understood and assimilated the
spirit of non-violence, where they stand and what your
and my future line of action should be.

“ In South Africa a small band of 13,000 satyagrahi
countrymen of ours were able to hold their own against
the might of the Union Government. General Smuts
could not turn them out as he had the 50,000 Chinese who
were driven out bag and baggage in less than six months
and that without compensation. He would not have hesi¬
tated to crush us if we had strayed from the path of non¬
violence. What could not an army of one lakh Khudai
Khidmatgars trained in the use of the non-violence method
achieve ? ”

Addressing the officers of the Red Shirts next he pro¬
ceeded, “We are lucky in having a true, honest, God¬
fearing man like Badshah Khan in our midst here. To
his credit stands the miracle of making thousands of
Pathans renounce their arms. No one can say what the
future will reveal. May be that all Khudai Khidmatgars
may not prove to be true servants of God as their name
implies. But making due allowance for all that still what
has been achieved is nothing short of marvellous. What
I shall expect of you is that even if some one subjects
you to the most inhuman tortures, you will joyfully face
the ordeal and make the supreme sacrifice with God’s
name on your lips and without a trace of fear or anger or
thought of revenge in your hearts. That will be heroism
of the highest type. To fight with the sword does call
for bravery of a sort. But to die is braver far than to kill.
He alone is truly brave, he alone is martyr in the true
sense who dies without fear in his heart and without
wishing hurt to his enemy, not the one who kill's and dies.
If our country, even in its present fallen state, can exhibit

IN FRONTIER GANDHI’S VILLAGE HOME

57

this type of bravery, what a beacon light will it be for
Europe with all its discipline, science and organization I
If Europe but realized, that heroic as it undoubtedly is
for a handful of people to offer armed resistance in the
face of superior numbers, it is far more heroic to stand
up against overwhelming numbers without any arms at
all, it would save itself and blaze a trail for the world.”

He told Badshah Khan that he would like to have a
heart to heart talk with as many Khudai Khidmatgars as
possible so that he might be able to understand them
thoroughly and they, him. Accordingly, he met the officers
of the Charsadda tahsil, thirteen in number, on two suc¬
cessive days at Utmanzai, and another group at Peshawar.
At both places, in reply to his questions they assured him
that their adherence to the principle of non-violence was
implicit and unqualified. They even went So far as fi>
declare that even if the impossible happened and, as
Gandhiji had postulated to them, Badshah Khan turned
away from the path of non-violence, they would not give
up their faith in non-violence.

Gandhiji told them that though it sounded to him
an overbold statement for them to make, still, as was his
wont, he would take them at their word. He explained
to them in detail what his conception of the nature and
implications of non-violence was. It was comparatively
easy to maintain a passive sort of non-violence when the
opponent was powerful and fully armed. But would they
remain non-violent in their dealings amongst themselves
and with their own countrymen, where there was no ex¬
traneous force to restrain or check them ? Again, was
theirs the non-violence of the strong or that of the weak ?
If theirs' was the non-violence of the strong, they should-
feel the stronger for their renunciation of the sword. But
if that was not the case, it was better for them to resume
their weapons which they had of their own free will dis¬
carded. For it was much better for them to be brave sol¬
diers in arms than to be disarmed and cowardly.

“ A charge has been levelled against me and Badshah
Khan,” he remarked, “that we are rendering India and

58

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Islam a disservice by presenting the gospel of non-violence
to the brave and warlike people of the Frontier. They
say that I have come here to sap your strength. The
Frontier Province, they say, is the bastion of Islam in
India, the Pathans are past masters in the use of the sword
and the rifle and mine is an attempt to emasculate them
by making them renounce their arms and thus undermine
the citadel of the strength and security of Islam. I wholly
repudiate the charge. My faith is that by adopting the
doctrine of non-violence in its entirety you will be render¬
ing a lasting service to India and to Islam which, just now,
it seems to me, is in danger. If you have understood the
power of non-violence, you ought to feel the stronger for
having put away your arms. Yours will be the spiritual
strength with which you can not only protect Islam but
even other religions. But if you have not understood the
secret of this strength, if as a result of renouncing arms,
you feel weak instead of stronger than before, it would be
better for you to give up the profession of non-violence.
I cannot bear to see a single Pathan turn weak or coward¬
ly under my influence. Rather than that I would that
you returned to your arms with a vengeance.

“ Today the Sikhs say that if they give up the kirpan *
they give up everything. They seem to have made the
kirpan into their religion. By discarding it, they think,
they will become weak and cowardly. I tell them, that
is an idle fear and I am here to. tell you the same. I
have read the Quran with as much care and reverence
as I have read the Gita. I have read other important
books on Islam too. I claim to have as much regard in
my heart for Islam and other religions as for my own, and
I dare say with all the emphasis that I can command that
although the sword has been wielded in the history of

* A miniature dagger which the Sikhs generally wear in their
turban as a religious symbol. Some of the Sikhs, during the period
of communal tension, claimed the right to carry Mr pans of any size
they liked as a matter of religious right, to which exception was
taken by the authorities as being in contravention <pf the Arms Act
Regulations.

IN FRONTIER GANDHI’S VILLAGE HOME

59

Islam and that too in the name of religion, Islam was not
founded by the sword nor was its spread due to it. Simi¬
larly in Christianity the sword has been freely used. But
the spread of Christianity was not due to its use. On the
contrary, the use of the sword has only tarnished its fair
name. Millions in Europe swear by Christianity. But
contrary to the teachings of Jesus, they are engaged
in a fratricidal orgy of bloodshed and murder, which is a
negation of true Christianity. If you can assimilate what
I have been telling you, your influence will travel far and
"beyond your borders and you will show the way to Europe.

“ Today a force of 17,000 British soldiers is able to
rule over us because they have behind them the power
of the British Government. If Khudai Khidmatgars really
felt within themselves the upsurge of soul force as a
sequel to their renouncing arms, not even 17,000 would
be needed to win India her freedom, because they shall
have the strength of God behind them. As against it if
a million of them professed non-violence while there was
violence lurking in their hearts, they would count as no¬
thing. You should renounce the sword because you have
'realized that it is the symbol not of your strength but of
your weakness, because it does not make for true bravery.
But if you put away your sword outwardly but there is
the sw.ord in your hearts, you shall have begun the wrong
way and your renunciation will be devoid of any merit.
It may even prove dangerous.

“What is the meaning of eradicating violence from
the heart ? ” he next asked and proceeded to explain that
it meant not merely the ability to control one’s anger but
its complete eradication from the heart: “If a dacoit
inspires anger or fear in my heart, it means that I have
not yet purged myself of violence. To realize non-violence
means to feel within you its strength, otherwise known as
soul force, in short, to know God. A person who has
"known God will be incapable of feeling or harbouring
anger or fear within him, no matter how overpowering the
cause for it may be.”

60

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

A Khudai Khidmatgar, he told them at one place, had'
first to he a man of God, i.e. a servant of humanity. It
would demand of him purity in deed, word and thought
and ceaseless, honest industry, since purity of mind and
idleness are incompatible. They should, therefore, learn
some handicraft which they could practise in their homes.
This should preferably be ginning, spinning and weaving’
as these alone could be offered to millions and in their
own homes : “A person who renounces the sword dare
not remain idle for a single minute. An idle man’s brain,
as the popular proverb says, is the devil’s workshop. Idle¬
ness corrodes the soul and intellect both. A person who
has renounced violence will take the name of God with
every breath and do his work all the twenty-four hours.
There will be no room for an idle thought.

“ Moreover, every Khudai Khidmatgar must have an
independent means of livelihood. Today many of you.
have land, but your land can be taken away from you,
not your craft or your manual skill. It is true that God
provides to His servant his daily bread but only if he per¬
form bread labour. If you work not, neither shall you.
eat, is nature’s law and should be yours too. You have-
adopted red shirts as your uniform. I had hoped you
would have adopted khadi too which is the livery of free¬
dom. But I see that very few among you wear khadi.
The reason perhaps is that you have to provide your own
uniform and khadi is dearer. That would not be so if you
spin for yourself.”

They should further, he told them, learn Hindustani,
as that would enable them to cultivate and enlarge their
minds and bring them in touch with the wider world. It
was up to them also to learn the rudiments of the science
of sanitation and first-aid, and last but not least, they
should cultivate an attitude of equal respect and reverence-
towards all religions. “ It is not the wearing of the red
shirt, that makes a Khudai Khidmatgar,” he concluded,

“ nor standing in serried ranks but to feel within you the
strength of God which is the opposite of.'the strength of
arms. You have yet only arrived at the portal of non-

IN FRONTIER GANDHI’S VILLAGE HOME 61

violence. Still you have been able to achieve so much.
How much greater your achievement will be when you
have fully entered its holy edifice! But as I have said
before, all that requires previous preparation and training.
At present you lack both.”

A dialogue between Badshah Khan and Gandhiji
next followed:

Badshah Khan : There are some Pathans in the
villages here who persecute Khudai Kh.i dmat.garH
beyond endurance. They beat them, seize their lands
and so on. What are we to do against them ?

Gandhiji : We have to meet their high-handedness
with patience and forbearance. We have to meet their
atrocities in the same way as we used to meet the
Britishers’, not answer violence by violence, nor abuse
by abuse, nor harbour anger in our hearts. If we do
that it is sure to melt their hearts. If it fails, we shall
non-co-operate. If they seize our lands, we shall refuse
to provide them the labour even though we may have
to starve. We shall brave their wrath but refuse to
submit or go against our conscience.

Badshah Khan : Would it be permissible for us to
lodge a complaint against them before the police and
get them punished ?

Gandhiji : A true Khudai Khidmatgar won’t go
to - a law court. Fighting in a law court is just like
physical fighting. Only, you use force by proxy. To
get the police to punish the aggressor is only a form of
revenge which a Khudai Khidmatgar must abjure. Let
me illustrate my meaning by a personal instance. At
Sevagram some Harijans came to me and told me that
unless I could get a Harijan included in the C. P. Con¬
gress Ministry, they would offer ‘ Satyagraha ’ by stag¬
ing a hunger strike. I knew it was all the doing of a
mischief-maker. The Police Superintendent wanted to
post some police force as he was afraid that the hooli¬
gans might do some mischief. But I said ‘ no ’ to him
and told the Harijans that they need not sit outside in
the sun they could occupy any room they liked in the

62

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Ashram. I offered to feed them too if they wanted.
They chose my wife's bathroom. I let them occupy It.
We looked after their needs and when one of them fell
ill, we nursed him. The result was that they became

our friends.

CHAPTER VII

THE ROAD TO NOWSHERA

Like all good things on earth, the spell of ‘ masterly
inactivity’ which the Faqir Badshah Khan had provided
to Gandhiji came to an end when we set out on a tour
of the interior of the Mardan District and Nowshera, the
remaining tahsil of the Peshawar District. The itinerary
was brief and arranged in easy stages, so that Gandhiji
was able to cover it practically without any fatigue. The
journey was by motor, the propaganda bus which Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru had donated to the Khudai Khidmat-
gars being requisitioned for the purpose. As we sped
along the asphalted road, whole villages on either side of
the road turned out of doors to have a glimpse of Gandhiji.
They were all silent. Such was their discipline. The Pathans
combine, with their giant stature a warmth of generosity
and a stoical reserve and dignity of bearing which irre¬
sistibly endear them to you. Their one weakness — if a
weakness it may be termed — is their passion for hospi¬
tality, and it might have proved embarrassing to Gandhiji.
But thanks to Badshah Khan’s forethought and his timely
appeal, it was kept effectively in check.

The only exception was when in the course of a
casual outing near Utmanzai, Gandhiji had to get out of the
bus to accept gifts of fruit and sugar-cane and vegetables
which the inhabitants of Munat Khan Kili — named after
one of Badshah Khan’s uncles — had brought as a token
of their hospitality. “We want you to settle in our midst
and make our province your home,” they said to him.
“We have a right prescriptive over you,” remarked the
leading Khan. “You kept our Badshah Khan in your
part of the country under duress for six years.* We can

♦A humorous reference to Badshah Khan’s various terms of
imprisonment when he was kept outside his province in British
Indian jails in connection with the Civil Disobedience struggle.

63

64

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

keep you here as prisoner of our love for at least six
months.” And everybody laughed heartily at the joke,
Gandhiji with the rest. Over a score of little children too
had tumbled out of the village to be introduced to
Gandhi ji and shake hands with him. They walked up to
Gandhiji one by one, their Mohmand caps drawn close
over their ruddy, cherub faces, took both his hands in
theirs and shook them with a grave air of importance in
the right Pathan style, not forgetting their familiar
■“ stirra mashe ” f and conceitedly strutted off like turxey
cocks, with an additional air of importance which they,
had gained in their own eyes !

From Peshawar to Nowshera is an hour’s journey by
car. The sun shone clear in the sapphire blue sky and
the air was agreeably crisp and cool when we started.
The rich natural beauty of the lanscape seen through a
thin purple haze, the garish panorama of tumbled up
masses of hills, said at one time to have been heavily wood¬
ed but now bare, torn and wind-swept, that girdled the
distant horizon, entranced one. Before the mind’s eye
rose the vision of the storied past as one contemplated
the numerous relics of the Buddhists and Graeeo-Baetrian
culture with which the whole of the Swat and the Kabul
river valleys are thickly strewn. But Gandhiji’s mind was
wholly occupied with thoughts, of the Khudai Khidmat-
gars. He had undertaken a tremendous responsibility.
Here was a body of men, famed throughout the world as %
the doughtiest of fighters. And now, at the bidding of
•one man, they had renounced the use of arms and adopt¬
ed non-violence as their creed. What must he do to con¬
vert them into full-fledged soldiers of non-violence for
winning India’s freedom ? Would he succeed ?

We reached Nowshera after crossing the Kabul river.
There was a big military establishment at Nowshera
which, together with the cantonment and air base at Risal-
pur, served to reinforce the military set-up at Peshawar.
Peshawar, being near the border, was not considered

t The Pathan form of greeting meaning ‘May you never be tired ’.

THE ROAD TO NOWSHERA

65

altogether immune against a possible surprise from
the direction of the Khyber Pass which it guarded. At
Nowshera, as at Utmanzai and Peshawar, Gandhiji had
a meeting with the officers of the Khudai Khidmatgars.
In the course of a written address which they presented
to him, they thanked him for having given them the wea¬
pon of non-violence which was infinitely superior to and
more potent than the weapons of steel and brass. They
assured Gandhiji that their faith in non-violence was ab¬
solute and unqualified as had been amply proved by their
conduct during the Civil Disobedience fight and that they
would never go back upon it.

“ I accept in toto your assurance,” said Gandhiji in
acknowledging the address, “that you have fully under¬
stood the principle of non-violence and that you will hold
on to it always. I congratulate you on it, and I further
say that if you can put the whole of that doctrine into
practice, you will make history. You claim to have one
lakh Khudai Khidmatgars on your register which exceeds
the total number of Congress volunteers as it stands to¬
day. You are all pledged to selfless service. You get no
monetary allowance. You have even to provide your own
uniforms. You are a homogeneous and disciplined body.
Badshah Khan’s word is law to you. You have proved
your capacity to receive blows without retaliation. But
this is only the first step in your probation, not the last.
'To gain India’s freedom, the capacity for suffering must
go hand in hand with the capacity for ceaseless, selfless
labour. A soldier of freedom must incessantly work for
the benefit of all.”

He then proceeded to describe in detail the difference
between a Khudai Khidmatgar and an ordinary soldier in
regard to their behaviour and training. “ The resemblance
between you and the ordinary soldier begins and ends
with the cut of the uniform and perhaps the nomencla¬
tures of the ranks which you have adopted. Like the
military you have your Colonels and G. 0. C.’s. But un¬
like them the basis of all your activity is not violence but
non-violence. Therefore, your training, your preoccupa-

P-5

66

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

tions, your mode of working, even your thoughts and
aspirations must necessarily be different from theirs. A
soldier in arms is trained to kill. Even his dreams are
about killing. He dreams of fighting, of winning fame
and advancement on the battlefield by the prowess of his
arms. He has reduced killing to an art. When he is not
engaged in fighting he occupies himself with eating, drink¬
ing, swearing and making merry in the way he knows. A
satyagrahi, a Khudai Khidmatgar, on the other hand,
would always long for opportunity for silent service. All
his time would be given to labour of love. If he dreams,
it will not be about killing but about laying down his life
to serve others. He has reduced dying innocently and for
his fellow-men to an art.”

“ But what shall be the training that will fit you out
for this sort of work ? ” he next asked, and replied that it
must be training in various branches of constructive work.

With one lakh Khudai Khidmatgars trained in the
science of constructive non-violence, he told them, trans-
border raids should become a thing of the past. “You
should consider it a matter of utter shame if a single theft
or dacoity takes place in your midst. Even the thieves
and trans-border raiders are human beings. They com¬
mit crime not for the love of the thing itself but because
they are driven to it largely by necessity and want. They
know no better. The only method of dealing with them
that has been adopted so far has been that of force. They
are given no quarter and they give none. Dr. Khan Saheb
feels helpless against them because the Government has
no other way of dealing with them. But you can make a
non-violent approach to the problem, and I am sure you
will succeed where the Government has failed. You can
teach them to live honestly like yourselves by providing
them with cottage occupations. You can go in their midst,
serve them in their homes and explain to them things in
a loving and sympathetic manner, and you will find that
they are not unamenable to the argument of love. There
are two ways open to you today, the way of brute force
that has already been tried and found wanting, and the

THE ROAD TO NOWSHERA 67

way of peace. You seem to have made your final choice.
May you prove equal to it.”

The halt at Nowshera was only for a couple of hours.
We reached Hoti Mardan at evening. Hoti Mardan is
the headquarters of the Mardan District. Like Nowshera
it also is a cantonment town and owes its strategic im¬
portance to the fact that it is the centre of traffic for the
tribes inhabiting the adjoining territories of Swat, Buner,
Bajaur and Dir.

A note of caution rang through the talk that Gandhiji
gave to the Khudai Khidmatgars at Mardan. In reply to
his usual question, whether they had fully understood the
meaning of non-violence and whether they would remain
non-violent under all circumstances, one of them replied
that they could put up with every kind of provocation
except the abuse of their revered leaders. This gave
Gandhiji his cue, and he explained to them that non-vio¬
lence could not, like the curate’s egg, be accepted or re¬
jected in part. It had value only when it was practised in
its entirety. “ When the sun rises the whole w'orld is filled
with its warmth so that even a blind man feels its presence.
Similarly when one lakh of Khudai Khidmatgars are fully
permeated with the spirit of non-violence, it will proclaim
itself and everybody will feel its life-giving breath.”

He gave a detailed description of the close relations
that existed between him and the Pathans in South Africa
and a word picture of Pathan characteristics and added,
“ I know it is difficult, it is no joke for a Pathan to take
an affront lying low.” The sign, he went on to explain, by
which he would judge whether the Khudai Khidmatgars
had really assimilated the spirit of non-violence would be
that they should have won the hearts of all, including the
lowliest and the most helpless, through their loving and
selfless service and be able to command their co-operation
and obedience not through fear but love. “I have known the
Pathans since my South African days. I had the privilege
of coming into close and intimate contact with them. Some
of them were my clients. They treated me as their friend,
philosopher and guide, in whom they could confide freely.

68

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

They would even come and confess to me their secret
crimes. They were a rough and ready lot. Pastmasters
in the art of wielding the lathi, inflammable, the first to
take part in riots, they held life cheap, and would have
killed a human being with no more thought than they
would a sheep or a hen. That such men should, at the
bidding of one man, have laid down their arms and ac¬
cepted non-violence as the superior weapon sounds almost
like a fairy tale. If the one lakh Khudai Khidmatgars
became truly non-violent in letter and in spirit and shed
their violent past completely as a snake does its outworn
skin, it would be nothing short of a miracle. That is why
in spite of the assurance of your faith in non-violence that
you have given me, I am forced to be cautious and pre¬
face my remarks with an ‘ if ’. My diffidence is only a
measure of the difficulty of the task. But nothing is too
difficult for the brave and I know the Pathans are brave.”

He then went on to describe the signs by which he
would judge whether the Khudai Khidmatgars had im¬
bibed the spirit of non-violence. “ The crucial test by
which I shall judge you is this. Have you befriended and
won the confidence of each and all in your locality ? Do
the people regard you with love or with fear ? So long
as a single individual is afraid of you, you are no true
Khudai Khidmatgar. A Khudai Khidmatgar will be gen¬
tle in his speech and manner, the light of purity will shine
forth from his eyes, so that even a stranger, woman or
even a child would instinctively feel that here was a friend,'
a man of God, who could be implicitly trusted. A Khudai
Khidmatgar will command the co-operation of all sections
of the community, not the sort of obedience that a Musso¬
lini or a Hitler can command through his unlimited power
of coercion, but the willing and spontaneous obedience
which is yielded to love alone. This power can be acquir¬
ed only through ceaseless, loving service, and waiting
upon God. When I find that under your influence people
are gradually giving up their insanitary habits, the drunk¬
ard is being weaned from drink and the criminal from
crime and the Khudai Khidmatgars are welcomed every-

THE ROAD TO NOWSHERA

69

where by the people as their natural protectors and friends
in need, I shall know that, at last, we have got in our
midst a body of men who have really assimilated the spirit
of non-violence and the hour of India’s deliverance is close
at hand.”

Throughout these talks with the Khudai Khidmatgars
Badshah Khan acted as interpreter, and a finer interpre¬
ter Gandhiji could hardly have had or wished for. He
did his work with rare devotion and zeal and put his whole
soul into it. After explaining to the Khudai Khidmatgars
in Pushtu what Gandhiji had said, he uttered the memo¬
rable words ? “I know it is difficult to curb one’s anger
altogether. But you have pledged yourselves to it before
God. Man is by nature weak but God is all powerful. By
yourselves you may fail in your efforts to be completely
non-violent but God helping, you will succeed. It may
not be all at once. The progress will be slow and there
will be set-backs. But each effort will take you a step
higher on your path. Do not lose heart.” Simple words
and straight, that proceeded from the depths of a soul
aglow with faith in God and went straight to the hearts
of his disciples !

Swabi Tahsil constitutes the north-easternmost part of
Mardan District from which it is separated by the Kalpani
or Chhalpani (literally, the ‘deceitful river’). It is one
of the strongholds of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement.
During the Civil Disobedience days, along with Utmanzai
it became a storm-centre of the fight which gave occasion
for ruthless repression on the one side, and a rare non¬
violent heroism on the other. Gandhiji’s speech here was
a passionate appeal to the Khudai Khidmatgars to turn
the searchlight inward. In it he propounded the philoso¬
phy of courting imprisonment. It was not the going to
prison by itself but the moral qualification that lay behind
it which constituted the real sanction in Satyagraha. He
warned them too that if they cquld not bear insults and in¬
dignities in jail without anger in their hearts, it would
be better for them to give up the Khudai Khidmatgars’
uniform. They had proved their mettle by marching to

70

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

jail in their hundreds and thousands. But that was not
enough. Mere filling of the jails would not bring India
freedom. “ Even thieves and criminals go to prison, but
their prison-going has no merit. It is the suffering of the
pure and innocent that tells. It is only when the autho¬
rities find that the only place where they can keep the
purest and most innocent citizens is prison that a change
of heart is forced upon them. A satyagroM goes to prison
not to embarrass the authorities but to convert them by
giving to them an experience of his innocence. You should
realize that unless you have developed the moral fitness
to go to prison which the law of Satyagreftia demands,
your jail-going will be useless and will bring you only
disappointment at the end. A votary of non-violence must
have the capacity to put up with the indignities and hard¬
ships of prison life not only without retaliation or anger
but with pity in his heart for the perpetrators of those
hardships and indignities. I would, therefore, today ask
you to examine yourselves in the light of my remarks,
and if you find that you cannot or do not want to go the
full length, to drop your badge of non-violence and request
Badshah Khan to release you from your pledge. That
will be a species of heroism. But if you have full faith in
the creed of non-vioMnce as I have described it, then know
it from me that God'will arm you with the required
strength in your hour of trial.”

And the appeal was not wasted. At the end of the
speech, in answer to Badshah Khan’s interrogatory, the
Khidmatgars said: “ We admit we fall short of Mahatmaji’s
standard of non-violence. We have not been able to banish
anger from our'hearts. We often lose our temper. Some
of the implications of non-violence that Mahatmaji has
set before us are new to us. All we can say is that we
feel our shortcomings and that we will sincerely strive
and spare no effort to overcome them and reach the ideal
that has been placed before us.”

Gandhiji was pleased at the truthful reply of the
Khidmatgars. “ Then it is well with us,” he remarked as
he took leave of them.

CHAPTER Vm

THE TWO GANDHIS CONFER

An important stage in Gandhiji’s Frontier mission
was reached when in his quiet retreat at Utmanzai he
devoted two days to confabulate and compare notes with
Badshah Khan after his tour of the Khudai Khidmatgars
in Peshawar and Mardan Districts.

“ What is your impression ? ” he asked Badshah Khan.
“ How do the Khudai Khidmatgars stand with regard to
non-violence ? ”

“ My impression, Mahatmaji,” replied Badshah Khan,
“ is that as they themselves admitted before us, the other
day, they are raw recruits and fall short of the standard.
There is violence in their hearts which they have not been
able altogether to cast out. They have their defects of
temper. But there is no doubt as to their sincerity. Given
a chance they can be hammered into shape and I think
the attempt is worthwhile.”

Badshah Khan was dreadfully in earnest. He was
convinced that violence had been the bane of his people.
It was the deadly canker that was eating into their vitals
and was responsible, more than anything else, for their
downfall. He reverted to that theme later in the course
of a conversation with Gandhiji. He was describing to him
the natural beauty and richness of the country around
and, as is usual with him on such occasions, was in an
ecstacy. But his brow was clouded as he passed on from
nature to ‘ what man unto man has done ’. “ Mahatmaji,
this land, so rich in fruit and grain, might well have been
a smiling little Eden upon this earth, but it has today
fallen under a blight. My conviction is daily growing
deeper that more than anything else, violence has been
the bane of us Pathans in this province. It shattered our
solidarity and tore us with wretched internal feuds. The

71

72

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

entire strength of the Pathan is today spent in thinking
how to cut the throat of his brother. To what fruitful
use this energy might not be put, if only we could be rid
of this curse!

“ Whatever may be the case with other provinces, I
am firmly convinced that so far as the Frontier Province
is concerned, the non-violence movement is the greatest
boon that God has sent to us. There is no other way of
salvation for the Pathans except through non-violence. I
say this from experience of the miraculous transformations
that even the little measure of non-violence that we have
attained has wrought in our midst. Mahatmaji, we used
to be so timid and indolent. The sight of an Englishman
would frighten us. We thought nothing of wasting our
time in idleness. Your movement has instilled fresh life
into us and made us more industrious so that a piece of
land that formerly used to yield hardly ten rupees worth
of produce now produces double that amount. We have
shed our fear and are no longer afraid of an Englishman
or, for the matter of that, of any man.”

And he gave an instance of how during the Civil Dis¬
obedience days once an English officer accompanied by a
body of soldiers had ordered dispersal of a procession of
the Red Shirts which they had organized. He had a prohi¬
bitory order under section 144 in his pocket but would
not show it as he was out to bully. He even tried to
snatch away the national flag which a Red Shirt who was
heading the procession carried in his hand. But the latter
would not surrender it whereupon he grew wild and
shouted out the order ‘ fire ’ to his soldiers. But he was
flabbergasted by the calm determination of the Red Shirts
who stood fast where they were, ready to breast the
bullets. He had not the courage to proceed further.
“Mahatmaji, you should have seen his condition. He
could hardly speak. I tried to set him at his ease by tell¬
ing him that unarmed as we were, he had nothing to fear
from us and that if he had only produced the prohibitory
order at the outset instead of trying to bear us down by
arrogance and stupidly issuing the order to open fire, we

THE TWO GANDHIS CONFER

73

would have gladly dispersed as it was not our intention to
break orders. He felt thoroughly crestfallen and ashamed.
Englishmen are afraid of our non-violence. A non-violent
Pathan, they say, is more dangerous than a violent
Pathan.

“ If we could assimilate and put into practice the
whole of the doctrine of non-violence as you have explain¬
ed it to us, how much stronger and better off we should
be. We were on the brink of utter ruination. But God
in His mercy sent us the non-violence movement to save
us in our extremity. I tell my people, ‘ What is the use
of your shouting empty slogans about Swaraj ? You have
already got your Swaraj if you have learnt to shed all
fear and to earn an honest, independent living through
manual work as shown by Mahatmaji.’ ”

Gandhiji suggested to Badshah Khan that if non¬
violence was to receive a fair trial, the Khudai Khidmat-
gars must be prepared to go through a rigorous course of
training in constructive non-violence which he had in
mind for them. Badshah Khan had already decided to
establish a training centre and home for the Khudai
Khidmatgars in the village of Marwandi near Utmanzai.
In addition to it, it was decided to start a spinning and
weaving centre in Utmanzai itself, where the people at
large, who were not necessarily Khudai Khidmatgars,
would learn the civilizing and peace-advancing arts of
spinning, weaving and the allied processes.

“ My idea, Mahatmaji,” Badshah Khan explained, “ is
to make Utmanzai into a model village. The spinning and
weaving centre will serve as a sort of permanent exhibition
for the education of the villagers. At the home for Khudai
Khidmatgars we shall set before us the self-sufficiency
ideal. We shall .wear only the clothes that we ourselves
produce, eat only such fruits and vegetables as we raise
there and set up a small dairy to provide us with milk.
We shall deny ourselves what we cannot ourselves pro¬
duce.”

“ Good,” remarked Gandhiji. “ May I further suggest
that the Khudai Khidmatgars should take their due share

74

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

in the building of the huts too that are to house them ? ”

“ That is our idea,” replied Badshah Khan.

To train the first batch of workers, Gandhiji suggest¬
ed that some Khudai Khidmatgars whom Badshah Khan
might select, might be sent to Wardha, where, besides
becoming adepts in the science of khadi, they would also
.get a grounding in first-aid and hygiene, sanitation and
village uplift work and in Hindustani. They would also
be initiated there into the Wardha Scheme of education
so that on their return they would be able to take up the
work of mass education. “ But your work will not make
headway unless you take the lead and yourself become
an adept in all these things.” Badshah Khan agreed.
■“ Lastly,” said Gandhiji, “ your work will come to nought
unless you enforce the rule of punctuality in your retreat.
There must be a fixed routine and fixed hours for rising
and going to bed, for taking meals and for work and rest,
and they must be rigorously enforced. I attach the great¬
est importance to punctuality; it is a corollary to non¬
violence.”

They next proceeded to discuss the modus operandi
by which the Khudai Khidmatgars, when they had become
sure of their non-violence, would fulfil their mission of
coping with the trans-border raids. Badshah Khan was
of the opinion that the task was rendered infinitely diffi¬
cult by the presence of the police and the military who
were not fully under popular control and whose presence
there brought in all the evils of double rule.. “ Either the
authorities should whole-heartedly co-operate with us or
they should withdraw the police and the military from
one district to begin with, and we shall then undertake to
maintain the peace of that district through our Khudai
Khidmatgars.” He was afraid that unless this was done,
all their efforts to establish peace would be thwarted.

But Gandhiji held a different view. He remarked, “ I
frankly confess that I do not expect the authorities whole¬
heartedly to co-operate with us. They would distrust our
ability, if not our motive. It is too much to expect them

THE TWO GANDHIS CONFER

75

to withdraw the police on trust. Non-violence is a uni¬
versal principle and its operation is not limited by a hos-
tile environment. Indeed its efficacy can be tested only
when it acts in the midst of and in spite of opposition.
Our non-violence would be a hollow thing and nothing
worth, if it depended for its success on the goodwill of
the authorities. We can establish full control over the peo¬
ple, we shall render the police and the military innocuous.”
And he described to Badshah Khan how during the
Bombay riots on the occasion of the Prince of Wales’ visit,
the police and the military found their job gone because
the Congress immediately regained control and peace was
restored.*

Badshah Khan : “ But the difficulty is that the raid¬
ers are mostly bad characters, who have absconded from
British India. We cannot make contact with them be¬
cause the authorities won’t permit us or our workers to
go into the tribal territory.”

Gandhiji : “ They must, and I tell you they will when
we are fully ready. But for that we shall need to have a
Body of Khudai Khidmatgars who are really and truly
■servants of God, with whom non-violence is a living faith.
Non-violence is an active principle of the highest order.
It is soul force or the power of the Godhead within us.
Imperfect man cannot grasp the whole of that Essence —
he would not be able to bear its full blaze — but even an
infinitesimal fraction of it when it becomes active within
us, can work wonders. The sun in the heavens fills the
whole universe with its life-giving warmth. But if one
went too near it, it would consume him to ashes. Even
■so, it is with the Godhead. We become Godlike to the

* In 1921 riots broke out in Bombay on the occasion of the Prince
*of Wales’ visit, which the Indian National Congress had boycotted
in pursuance of the programme of non-violent non-co-operation. They
took a communal complexion when the Parsees refused to join in
the boycott. Gandhiji, who was in Bombay at that time, instead of
invoking the aid of the police or the military to restore peace, de¬
clared a limitless fast. As a result, peace returned to the city when
he had fasted for three days.

76

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

extent we realize non-violence ; but we can never become
wholly God. Non-violence is like radium in its action. An
infinitesimal quantity of it imbedded in a malignant
growth, acts continuously, silently and ceaselessly till it
has transformed the whole mass of the diseased tissue into
a healthy one. Similarly, even a tiny grain of true non¬
violence acts in a silent, subtle, unseen way and leavens
the whole society.

“ It is self-acting. The soul persists even after death.
Its existence does not depend on the physical body. Simi¬
larly, non-violence or soul force, too, does not need phy¬
sical aids for its propagation or effect. It acts independently
of them. It transcends time and space.

“ It follows, therefore, that if non-violence becomes
successfully established in one place, its influence will
spread everywhere’. So long as a single dacoity takes place
in Utmanzai, I shall say that our non-violence is not
genuine.

“The basic principle on which the practice of non¬
violence rests is that what holds good in respect of your¬
self holds good equally in respect of the whole universe.
All mankind in essence is alike. What is, therefore, possi¬
ble for me is possible for everybody. Pursuing further
this line of reasoning, I came to the conclusion that if I
could find a non-violent solution of the various problems
that arise in one particular village, the lesson learnt from
it would enable me to tackle in a non-violent manner all
similar problems in India.

“And so I decided to settle down in Sevagram. My
sojourn in Sevagram has been an education for me. My
experience with the Harijans has provided me with what
I regard as an ideal solution for the Hindu-Muslim pro¬
blem, which does away with all pacts. So if you can set
things right in Utmanzai your whole problem would be
solved. Even our relations with the English will be trans¬
formed and purified if we can show to them that we really
do not stand in need of the protection for which their
police and the army are ostensibly kept.”

THE TWO GANDHIS CONFER

77

But Badshah Khan had a doubt. In every village
there is an element of self-seekers and exploiters who are
ready to go to any length in order to serve their selfish
ends. Could one proceed by ignoring them altogether or
should an attempt be made to cultivate them too ?

“ We may ultimately have to leave some of them out,”
replied Gandhiji, “ but we may not regard anybody as irre¬
claimable. We should try to understand the psychology
of the evil-doer. He is very often victim of his circum¬
stances. By patience and sympathy, we shall be able to
win over at least some of them to the side of justice. More¬
over, we should not forget that even evil is sustained
through the co-operation, either willing or forced, of good.
Truth alone is self-sustained. In the last resort we can
curb the power of the evil-doers to do mischief, by with¬
drawing all co-operation from them and completely iso¬
lating them.

“ This in essence is the principle of non-violent non-
co-operation. It follows, therefore, that it must have its
root in love. Its object should not be to punish the oppo¬
nent or to inflict injury upon him. Even while non-co-
operating with him, we must make him feel that in us
he has a friend and we should try to reach his heart by
rendering him humanitarian service whenever possible.
In fact it is the acid test of non-violence that a non-violent
conflict leaves no rancour behind, and in the end the ene¬
mies are converted into friends. That was my experience
in South Africa with General Smuts. He started by being
my bitterest opponent and critic. Today he is my warm¬
est friend. For eight years we were ranged on opposite
sides. But during the Second Round Table Conference,
it was he * who stood by me and, in public as well as in
private, gave me his full support. This is only one in¬
stance out of many that I can quote.

“ Times change and systems decay. But it is my
faith that in the result it is only non-violence and things

* General Smuts happened to be present in London at that time
in connection with the Faraday Centenary celebrations over which
he presided.

78

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

that are based on non-violence that will endure. Nine¬
teen hundred years ago Christianity was born. The
ministry of Jesus lasted only for three brief years. His
teaching was misunderstood even during his own time,
and today's Christianity is a denial of his central teaching
— £ ‘ Love your enemy But what are nineteen hundred
years for the spread of the central doctrine of a man's
teaching ?

“ Six centuries rolled by and Islam appeared on the
scene. Many Mussulmans will not even allow me to say
that Islam, as the word implies, is unadulterated peace.
My reading of the Quran has 'convinced me that the basis
of Islam is not violence. But here again thirteen hundred
years are but a speck in the cycle of Time. I am convinced
that both these great Faiths will live only to the extent
to which their followers imbibe the central teaching of
non-violence. But it is not a thing to be grasped through
mere intellect; it must sink into our hearts.”

CHAPTER IX

IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN

After a brief interlude of rest at Utmanzai during
which Gandhiji was engaged in hammering out, in colla¬
boration with Badshah Khan, a plan for the reorientation
of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement in the light of non¬
violence which he had been explaining, Gandhiji resumed
his tour of the Frontier Province. The following week
was devoted to a strenuous programme in the Kohat,
Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan Districts. Distances to
be covered every day grew longer, the motor runs more
fatiguing and the crowds noisier, more unwieldy and less
disciplined as we moved away and southwards from the
purely Pushtu-speaking Districts of Peshawar and Mar-
dan, ‘ Red Shirt Districts ’ as they are sometimes called
owing to the greater concentration of the Khudai Khid¬
matgar movement there. To this was added the strain
of public meetings. They had to be addressed in all the
places visited ; and although Gandhiji would have prefer¬
red to reserve his speeches exclusively for Khudai Khid¬
matgar gatherings, he had to yield to Badshah Khan's
pressure and relax his rule. A heavy round of deputations
at Kohat and Bannu completed the measure. But thanks
to the salubrious climate of the Frontier Province at that
time of the year and still more to Badshah Khan’s unfail¬
ing care, Gandhiji was able to pull through all that un¬
scathed and continued to keep fit.

The month of Ramzan had set in. To spare Badshah.
Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars the strain of conduct¬
ing the tour during the Ramzan fast, Gandhiji had suggest¬
ed that the tour programme might be curtailed or its pace
accelerated. But Badshah Khan would not hear of it, and
he and his team of the Khudai Khidmatgars continued to
perform their exacting duties as unremittingly as ever,
the fast notwithstanding. At Utmanzai he turned his entire

79

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

80

household inside out to cater to the comfort of Gandhiji.
He drove his son into what was obviously intended to be
the servants’ quarters and himself slept wherever he
could. His eye was never off Gandhiji and he kept con¬
stant vigil ovej him as a mother lion does over her little
cub. One should have seen him move about with soft,
cautious steps to see that everything was all right while
Gandhiji slept. Now he would gently adjust over Gan¬
dhiji the cloth that had slipped off, or with his kerchief
whisk off flies when no one was near, and then as un¬
obtrusively glide out of the room when somebody turned
up to take his place. He ransacked the fruit orchards of
friends and neighbours to fetch for Gandhiji the pick of
the fruit. It was a sight when one fine morning, he
quietly slipped out of the house and returned after several
hours with a big bunch of early grapes which he served
to Gandhiji with his own hands! It transpired after¬
wards that he had gone out to pay a casual visit to the
chief of the Khudai Khidmatgars at the latter’s residence,
some two or three miles from Utmanzai, where his con¬
stant concern for Gandhiji led him to spot out that prize
bunch hidden among the vine clusters ! This was just an
instance of the delicate attention with which he surround¬
ed Gandhiji. Before leaving for Kohat he decided to have a
busful of his seasoned Khudai Khidmatgars to accompany
Gandhiji during the rest of the tour.

Kohat District lies in the heart of the North West
Frontier Province. The town and cantonment of Kohat
which occupy the western portion of the Kohat tahsil are
forty miles drive from Peshawar, part of the road lying
through the independent territory of the Pass Afridis.
The Kohat Pass is not so long as the Khyber. The Khyber
has been variously termed “ murderous high road ”,
“ boulevard of sudden death ” and so on. The sinister
silence of its narrow defiles strikes one with awe. It is
always the Khyber, “ bold, bloody and untamed, unbeaten,
triumphant and above all unpredictable ”. The Kohat Pass
is more rugged, more inspiring for its savage beauty and

IN THE MONTH OP RAMZAN

81

looks less sinister than the Khyber. Its pinnacles are high¬
er, its rocks red, white and black, bathed in sunlight, more
pleasing to the eye, while the magnificent prospect of
richly cultivated valleys dotted with lovely little adobe
huts that spread out below like a picture touched with
amethyst and gold, once beheld, can never be forgotten.

Badshah Khan was in raptures, intoxicated with the
keen mountain air and the ravishing beauty of the land¬
scape. He would not suffer any one to remain apathetic in
the presence of such natural grandeur. All of a sudden
he exclaimed, “ Look, there is the nidus of Ajab Khan,”
as he pointed out a neat, little mud hut in the valley
below. “Ajab Khan, the adbuctor of Mollie Ellis,* noto¬
rious outlaw, who paid the penalty for his long dossier of
crimes on a frontier gallows ? ” I asked, mechanically
repeating remarks which I had picked up from Mac-
Munn. Badshah Khan laughed. “ Dead ! Hanged ! Why,
he is still alive and settled somewhere on the bor¬
der of Turkistan. And he was no scoundrel either.”
And with that he told the whole story of the outlaw as
attested to by eye-witnesses, who personally knew
all the parties concerned. The story may or may not be
true in every detail, but it was universally believed to be
authentic by the Frontier Pathans, who held Ajab
Khan to be guiltless of Mrs. Ellis’ blood, and Badshah
Khan sincerely shared that conviction. Ajab Khan
was what one might call “a gun runner”, a traffic¬
ker in unlicensed arms. His house was raided by

Major B.of the British Army. “You may do

whatever else you like,” he warned the search
officer, “ but if you enter the zenana, or touch the
womenfolk, there will be a score to settle.” The officer
laughed and rudely proceeded to unveil the ladies in the

* Daughter of Col. Ellis and Mrs. Ellis was abducted by Ajab
Khan and his men as vendetta against an alleged affront to the ladies
of Ajab Khan’s family. Mrs. Ellis was murdered at the same time.
Mollie Ellis was later contacted by Mrs. Starr, the widow of Dr.
Starr, and recovered with the help of some local Maliks (tribal
chiefs).

82

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

zenana. The outlaw proved as good as his word. He
settled the score in the only way known to Pathans.
Automatically, I remembered the remarks of a well-known
writer on the Frontier tribes : “In this country a blow
to a man, an insult to a woman, has only one result —

death. Under no condition is there any reprieve.

If a man comes across his enemy asleep or sick that does
not save him.A blood-feud never ends.” I re¬

peated the words to Badshah Khan ; Bhadshah Khan went
on : “ And how did Ajab Khan treat Miss Ellis while she
was in his custody ? Ask anybody, she herself attested
to it. No white man in Ajab Khan’s place would have res¬
pected her honour more.”

The programme at Kohat was a crowded one and
left little time for paying a visit to its famous hot and cold
springs, or to do more than passing justice to the lovely
mountains by which the city is begirt. Numerous depu¬
tations met Gandhiji in the course of the day. There was
the deputation on behalf of the Kohat Loan Relief Com¬
mittee. They wanted the loans granted for the relief
of victims of arson and loot during the communal out¬
breaks of 1924 to be written off according to the oft-
repeated promises. There was another deputation on be¬
half of the cultivators who stated their grievance about
the 1 terig dues still another deputation on behalf of the
Harijans and yet another from the Sikhs. There was be¬
sides a whole sheet of written complaints and appeals
which various people had placed in his hands “ to be con¬
veyed to the Prime Minister ”. Gandhiji, whilst assuring
them of his sympathy, told them that he would discuss all
those matters with the Prime Minister on returning to
Peshawar.

A public meeting was held in the evening at a lovely
spot outside the city overlooked by a natural amphitheatre
of hills that engirdled the city almost completely. Gandhiji
was presented with an address by the District Congress
Committee on behalf of the citizens of Kohat. Referring
to the various representations that he had received in the
course of the day, Gandhiji in his reply to the address

IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN

83

said, “ I have given more than an hour today to acquaint
myself with your difficulties and woes. But I confess to
you that I am no longer fit to tackle such matters. While
on the one hand, old age is slowly creeping upon me, on
the other my responsibilities are becoming more and more
multifarious and there is the danger that if I have too
many irons in the fire, I may not be able to do justice to
the more important of my responsibilities. Among these,
the responsibility that I have undertaken in respect of
the Khudai Khidmatgars is the most important. If I can
discharge it to my satisfaction, in collaboration with Bad-
shah Khan, I shall feel that my closing years have not
been wasted.

“ People laugh at me and at the idea of Khudai Khid¬
matgars’ becoming full-fledged non-violent soldiers of
Swaraj. But their mockery does not affect me. Non-vio¬
lence is a quality not of the body but of the soul. Once
its central meaning sinks into your being, all the rest fol¬
lows by itself. Human nature in the Khudai Khidmatgars
is not different from mine. And I am sure that if I can
practise non-violence to some extent, they and for that
matter any one can. I therefore invite you to pray with
me to the Almighty that He may make real my dream
about the Kudhai Khidmatgars.”

One of the most difficult problems of Gandhiji was
to bring home to the warlike Pathans the significance of
constructive work in terms of non-violence and how it
could be made dynamic. In Civil Disobedience there was
at least the element of defiance to provide kudos. But
constructive work was to them like green meat to a pan¬
ther. Gandhiji, therefore, gave a series of addresses to
elucidate the relation between constructive work and the
power of non-violence.

In the course of his talk before the Khudai Khidmat-
gar officers at Kohat, he impressed upon them the tremen¬
dous nature of the step which they had taken. He had
often said before that if the Pathan, famed in the world
for the prowess of his arms, really took to non-violence.

84

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

renouncing arms, it would be a red letter day in the his¬
tory of India and the world. “ For good or for ill, the
Pa than today has come to be regarded as a bogey-man by
the average person in India. In Gujarat and Kathiawad
children turn pale at the very mention of the Pathan. At
Sabarmati Ashram, we try to inculcate fearlessness
among the children. But I am ashamed to confess that
in spite of all our efforts we have not succeeded in making
them eradicate the fear of the Pathan from their hearts.
I have not been able to impress upon our Ashram girls
that they have no need to fear a Pathan. They try to
make a show of bravery. But it is only a make-believe.
During a communal disturbance they dare not stir out
of their homes if there is a report of even a casual Pathan
being about. They are afraid they would be kidnapped.

“ I tell them that even if they are kidnapped they
must not be frightened. They should appeal to the kid¬
napper’s sense of honour to behave chivalrously towards
one who should be as a sister to him. If in spite of their
entreaties he persists in his evil intentions, (since all must
die some day), they can put an end to their life by biting
the tongue but not submit. They answer, ‘ What you say
is right. But it is all new to us. We have not the confi¬
dence that at the proper time we shall be able to do what
you tell us.’ If such is the case with the Ashram girls,
what must it be with others ? When, therefore, I hear
that a body of Khidmatgars has arisen among the Pathans,
who have completely renounced violence, I do not know
whether to believe it or not.”

“ What are the implications of renouncing violence
and what is the mark of a person who has renounced vio¬
lence ? ” he next asked. One did not become a Khudai
Khidmatgar by adopting that name or by putting on the
Khudai Khidmatgar’s uniform, he told them. It needed
systematic training in non-violence. In Europe where
they had glorified killing into a noble profession they
spent millions on perfecting the science of destruction.
Their best scientists were pressed into its service. Even
their educational system was centred on it. They spent

IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN

85

stupendous sums too on luxuries and means of physical
comforts, which formed a part of their ideal. By contrast,
the mark of a man of God or a Khudai Khidmatgar should
be purity, industry, and unremitting hard labour in the
service of God’s creation. “ In the course of serving your
fellow creatures you will get a measure of the progress
you have made in non-violence and of the power that is
in non-violence. Armed with this power, a single person
can stand against the whole world. That is not possible
with the sword.”

Hitherto, non-violence had been synonymous with
civil breach of laws and taking the penalty for the same
non-violently. But he wished to tell them that, although
Civil Disobedience was included in the programme of non¬
violence, its essence, as he had pointed out at Swabi, was
the moral right or fitness which it presupposed in the
civil resister and which accrued to one who trained him¬
self in the practice of non-violence. In Satyagraha fight
“ Civil Disobedience is the end, not the beginning. It is
the last step, not the first.” People used to have a craven
fear of the Government. As a remedy, he had prescribed
Satyagraha or Civil Disobedience. It was a sharp medicine.
“ Unless a physician, who administers powerful drugs,
knows exactly when to stop, he loses his patient. That
is why I promptly called off Civil Disobedience, confining
it to myself alone when the situation demanded it.* It
was just in time. So I would like you, for the time being,
to forget Civil Disobedience.”

He next proceeded to explain that service of God could
only be performed through service of His creatures. He

* In April, 1934, Gandhiji advised all Congressmen to suspend
Civil Disobedience for Swaraj as distinguished from Civil Disobe¬
dience for specific grievances. The decision resulted from the dis¬
covery that civil resistance had not touched the hearts either of the
terrorists or of the rulers as a class owing to the “ adulteration ”
of its message in the process of transmission. Thereafter, Civil
Disobedience, for achieving Swaraj, was to be confined to himself
alone, the rank and file were to resume it during his life-time only
under his directions and in the meantime to devote their time to
self-purification, self-discipline and nation-building activities.

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

made it his habit to try to see always the hand of
. in everything even at the risk of being considered
srstitious. Thus, he saw the hand of God in the name
. Badshah Khan had given them. Badshah Khan had
called them Satyagrahis but Servants of God.

“ But how to serve God since He is incorporate and
is no personal service ? We can serve Him by ser¬
if His creation. There is an Urdu verse which says :
m can never be God but in essence he is not different
a Divinity.’ Let us make our village our universe. We
1 then serve God by serving our village. To relieve
distress of the unemployed by providing them work,
end the sick, to wean people from their insanitary
its, to educate them in cleanliness and healthy living
ild be the job of a Khudai Khidmatgar. And since
itever he does is in God’s service, his service will be
ormed with far more diligence and care than that of
l workers.”

He ended by giving a few practical hints as to how
ultivate non-violent strength. “A Khudai Khidmat-
will keep a strict account of every minute of his time
ch he will regard as God’s trust. To waste a single
nent of one’s time in idleness or frivolity is a sin
nst God. It is on a par with stealing. If there is
1 a tiny little bit of land available, he will occupy him-
with growing something on it — food or vegetables for
destitute and needy. If he should feel inclined to sit
and do nothing because his parents have enough
ey to enable him to purchase food and vegetables from
bazar, he will argue to himself that by drawing upon
bazar supplies, he deprives the poor of the same and
:s what belongs to God. Before he purchases or uses
hing, a Khudai Khidmatgar will ask himself whether
e is not somebody else whose need may be greater
his. Supposing somebody places a sumptuous dish
re him and a starving person appears on the scene, he
think of the latter s need first, feed him and then alone
ake of the dish.”

IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN

87

Twenty-six miles to the west of Kohat, as the road
goes, is Hungoo, the headquarters of the tahsil of that
name. Gandhiji visited it on the following day. The wea¬
ther was glorious and the distant mountains shone bright
and clear through the dry transparent air. The hillsides,
mostly composed of red rubble, were overgrown with
scrub and alive with countless herds of goats and fat-tailed
sheep that were scattered as far as the eye could reach
and filled the air with their plaintive bleating. At Hungoo
there was a public meeting and an address. In the address
there was a remark that the Frontier Province held the
key to India’s freedom. Gandhiji in his speech while
agreeing with that remark added that in the Frontier-
Province again the Khudai Khidmatgars held the key.
“ Even as the rose fills with its sweet fragrance all the
air around, when one lakh Khudai Khidmatgars become
truly non-violent, their fragrance will permeate the en¬
tire length and breadth of the country and cure the evil
of slavery with which we are afflicted.”

At Hungoo, as at Kohat, Gandhiji gave important
talks to the Khudai Khidmatgars in which he explained
to them in minute detail the inner nature, working and
quality of non-violence and the way in which a begin¬
ning could be made for developing it in the individual.

He referred to an address of welcome that had been
presented to him at Nasarat Khel on the way, at the
foundation laying ceremony of the Khudai Khidmatgars'
office. In it there was a reference to “ our last struggle ”.
“ Let me tell you,” he remarked, “ that Civil Disobedience
may come and go, but our non-violent struggle for free¬
dom goes on and will continue till Independence is at¬
tained. Only the form has changed.”

The other thing mentioned in that address was that
the Khudai Khidmatgars had not been cowed down by
repression and never would be. “ I know,” said Gandhiji,
“ that to 90 per cent Indians, non-violence means that
and nothing else. It is good so far. There is bravery in
it. But you and particularly the Khudai Khidmatgar
officers must clearly understand that this is not the whole

88

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

of non-violence. If you have really understood the meaning
of non-violence, it should be clear to you that non-violence
is not a principle or a virtue to be brought into play on a
particular occasion or to be practised with reference to
a particular party or section. It has to become a part and
parcel of our being. Anger should disappear from our
hearts altogether, otherwise what is the difference be¬
tween ourselves and our oppressors ? Anger may lead
one person to issue an order to open fire, another to use
abusive language, a third one to use the lathi. At root
it is all the same. It is only when you have become in¬
capable of feeling or harbouring anger in your hearts that
you can claim to have shed violence or can expect to re¬
main non-violent to the end.”

He then proceeded to explain the difference between.
Civil Disobedience and Satyagraha. “ Our Civil Disobe¬
dience or non-co-operation, by its very nature, was not
meant to be practised for all time. But the fight which
we are today putting up through our constructive non¬
violence has a validity for all time; it is the real thing.
Supposing the Government were to cease to arrest civil
resisters, our jail going would then stop but that would
not mean that our fight is over. A civil resister does not
go to jail to embarrass the jail authorities by indulging
in the breach of jail rules. Of course, there can be Civil
Disobedience in jail too. But there are definite rules for it.
The point is that the civil resister’s fight does not end
with his imprisonment. Once we are inside the prison
we become civilly dead so far as the outside world is con¬
cerned. But inside the prison our fight to convert the
hearts of the Government’s bond slaves, i.e., the jail offi¬
cials, just begins. It gives us a chance of demonstrating
to them that we are not like thieves or dacoits, that we
wish them no ill, nor do we want to destroy the opponent
but want only to make him our friend, not by servilely
obeying all orders, just or unjust — that is not the way
to win true friendship-— but by showing them that there
is no evil in us, that we sincerely wish them well and in
our hearts pray that God’s goodness may be upon them.

IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN

89

My fight continued even when I was lodged behind prison
bars. I have been several times in prison and every time
I have left only friends behind in the jail officials and
others with whom I have come in contact.

“ It is a speciality of non-violence that its action never
stops. That cannot be said of the sword or the bullet.
The bullet can destroy the enemy ; non-violence converts
the enemy into a friend and thus enables the civil resister
to assimilate to himself the latter’s strength.”

By their Civil Disobedience struggle, he continued,
they had demonstrated to the world their determination,
no longer to be ruled by the British. But they had now
to give proof of valour of another and higher type. During
the Khilafat days tall, hefty Pathan soldiers used to come
and meet the Ali Brothers and himself secretly. They used
to tremble at the thought of their visit being discovered
by their superior officers and resulting in their dismissal
from service. In spite of their tall stature and physical
strength they used to cower and become servile when
confronted by a person physically stronger than they.

“ I want strength which will enable me to submit to none
but God, my sole Lord and Master. It is only when I can do
that that I can claim to have realized non-violence.”

He then proceeded to expatiate on another speciality
of non-violence, viz., one need not go to a school or a
pir * or a guru to learn its use. Its virtue lay in its simpli¬
city. If they realized that it was the most active principle
that worked all the twenty-four hours without rest or
remission, they would look for opportunities for its appli¬
cation in their homes, in the streets, in relation to their
foes no less than friends. They could begin to practise it
in their homes from that very day. He had disciplined,
himself sufficiently never to feel angry with the enemy,
but he confessed that he sometimes lost temper with
friends. Such discipline in non-violence as he had, he
told them, he had at home from his wife. And with that*
he unfolded in poignant detail a chapter of his domestic

A Muslim spiritual teacher.

90

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

life. He used fo be a tyrant at home, he said. His tyranny
was the tyranny of love. “ I used to let loose my anger
upon her. But she bore it all meekly and uncomplain¬
ingly. I had a notion that it was her duty to obey me, her
lord and master, in everything. But her unresisting meek¬
ness opened my eyes and slowly it began to dawn upon
me that I had no such prescriptive right over her. If I
wanted her obedience, I had first to persuade her by
patient argument. She thus became my teacher in non¬
violence. And I dare say, I have not had a more loyal and
faithful comrade in life. I literally used to make life a
hell for her. Every other day I would change my resi¬
dence, prescribe what dress she was to wear. She had
been brought up in an orthodox family where untouch-
ability was observed. Muslims and untouchables used to
frequent our house. I made her serve them all regardless
of her innate reluctance. But she never said ‘ no She
was not educated in the usual sense of the term and was
simple and unsophisticated. Her guileless simplicity con¬
quered me completely.”

“ You have all wives, mothers and sisters at home,”
continued Gandhiji. “You can take the lesson of non¬
violence from them. You must besides take the vow of
truth, ask yourselves how dear truth is to you and how
far you observe it in thought, word and deed. A person
who is not truthful is far away from non-violence. Un-
truth itself is violence.”

Referring to the month of Ramzan that had just set
In, he told them how it could be used to make a start in
non-violence. “ We seem to think that the observance of
Ramzan begins and ends with abstention from food and
drink. We think nothing of losing temper over trifles or
indulging in abuse during the sacred month of Ramzan.
If there is the slightest delay in serving the repast at
the time of the breaking of the fast, the poor wife is hauled
over live coals. I do not call it observing the Ramzan
but its travesty. If you really want to cultivate non-vio¬
lence, you should take a pledge that come what may you
will not give way to anger or order about members of

IN THE MONTH OF RAMZAN

91

your household or lord it over them. You can thus
utilize trifling little occasions in everyday life to cultivate
non-violence in your own person and teach it to your
children.”

He took another instance. Suppose somebody hit
their child with a stone. Usually the Pathan tells his
child not to return home to whine but to answer back with
a bigger stone. But a votary of non-violence, said Gan¬
dhi ji, would tell his child not to meet a stone by a stone
but by embracing the boy who threw the stone and
making friends with him. “ The same formula, i. e., to
banish anger completely from the heart and to make
everybody into one’s friend, is indeed enough to win India
her Independence,” he concluded. “ It is the surest and
the quickest way, too, and it is my claim that for winning
Independence for the poor masses of India, it is the only
way.”

CHAPTER X

“ THE WILD VALLEY ” OF BANNU

Bannu was reached after an eighty miles’ motor
drive. In all important villages on the way people had
erected arches of green plantain stems and tree leaves and
beflagged the approaches to the villages to accord Gan-
dhiji a welcome. For eight miles on this side of Bannu
Red Shirts posted at regular intervals interspersed with,
knots of Waziris, Bhittanis and Orakzais, lined the route.
Their flowing robes, loose baggy, pyjamas, camels and
native matchlocks which they carried on their shoulders
lent a bizarre effect to the reception which was enlivened
by the playing of surnais and the beating of drums.

Bannu is a walled town. It was still under the shadow
of a recent raid which, by the peculiar circumstances ac¬
companying it, had at that time startled the whole of India.
A party of raiders numbering between 100 and 250 had
marched one evening at about 7-30 p. m. into the city
through one of the city gates, which they either forced
or got opened by the sentries on duty. They looted shops
while the town was still awake, fired joy shots, smashing
municipal electric lamps as they advanced, and set a
number of shops on fire. Yet, strange to say, they met
with no resistance from the police and made their exit as
openly as they had come in, carrying away with them
booty which was variously estimated at one to over three
lakhs of rupees. Several people were killed during the
raid.

According to an official statement, 22 raids by tribes
on the North-Western Frontier had occurred in Bannu
and other places in British Indian territory during the
three months preceding this raid. Thirteen Hindus and
Muslims had been killed. The value of cash and property
looted amounted to Rs. 1,33,830. Following upon the raid,
about a dozen Hindus had been kidnapped.

92

“ THE WILD VALLEY ” OF BANNU

93

In the course of the day, Gandhiji was met by a depu¬
tation on behalf of the Citizens’ Defence Committee and
another on behalf of the Sufferers’ Relief Committee. A
group of Waziri tribesmen and some of the bereaved
relations of kidnapped persons from Pahar Khel and
Jhandu Khel also met him and narrated to him their tales,
of woe. One of them had his wife killed and a near rela¬
tion kidnapped ; another had his mother and uncle carried
away by the raiders who demanded heavy ransom which
he was unable to pay. A glimpse of the consternation
under which the people of Bannu seemed perpetually to
live was afforded at the public meeting that was held to
present Gandhiji with an address of welcome. The loud¬
speaker went out of order. Thereupon Gandhiji asked
the people who were far away from the dais to move a
little nearer. This gave rise to a mild rush which in its
turn caused a stampede among the women who mistook
the harmless rush for a danger signal!

Gandhiji’s speech was his weightiest public utterance
during the tour. In it he gave his considered opinion on
the various alternative remedies for the trans-border raids
and presented his prescription of non-violent approach as
the only sure and permanent remedy.

“ The recent raid of Bannu and the happenings during
the raid have touched me deeply,” he began. “ This pro¬
vince is peculiarly placed and is different from the other
provinces inasmuch as, on one side, it is bounded by a
number of border tribes containing men whose profession
is raiding. So far as I have been able to know they are
not actuated by communal considerations. The raiders’
motive seems to be satisfaction of primary needs. That
the Hindus are more often their victims is probably due
to the fact that they generally possess more money. The
kidnappings too appear to have the same motive.

“ Continuation of the raids is in my opinion a proof
of British failure in this part of India. Their Frontier
policy has cost the country crores of rupees, and thousands
of lives have been sacrificed. The brave tribesmen still

94

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

remain unsubdued. If all the accounts I have heard to¬
day are substantially correct, and I believe they are, life
and property are not secure in most parts of this pro¬
vince.

“ A number of people whose relations or dear ones
have either been killed or kidnapped and held to ransom,
by the raiders, saw me today. As I listened to the har¬
rowing tales of distress, my heart went out to them in
sympathy. But I must confess to you that with all the
will in the world, I possess no magic spell by which I
could restore them to their families. Nor should you ex¬
pect much from the Government or the Congress Ministry.
No Government can afford, and the present British Gov¬
ernment lacks even the will, to mobilize its military re¬
sources every time one of its subjects is kidnapped, unless
the person kidnapped happens to belong to the ruling race.

“After studying all the facts, I have gained the im¬
pression that the situation in respect of border raids has
grown worse since the inauguration of Congress Govern¬
ment. The Congress Ministers have no effective control
over the police, none over the military. The Congress
Ministry in this province has less than the others. I there¬
fore feel that unless Dr. Khan Saheb can cope with the
question of the raids, it might be better for him to tender
his designation. There is danger of the Congress losing
its prestige in this province if the raids continue to in¬
crease. Apart from my opinion, you have to say for your¬
selves whether in spite of the handicaps I have mentioned,
you would rather have the Congress Ministry or some
other. After all, the Prime Minister is your servant. He
holds office under the triple sufferance of his electorate,
the Provincial Congress Committee and the Working
Committee.

“ Some of those who met me today asked me if they
could seek safety by migrating from the Frontier Pro¬
vince. I have told them that migration is a perfectly
legitimate course to adopt when there is no other way
of living with safety and honour. A complaint has fur¬
ther been brought to me that the Muslim populations in

“ THE WILD VALLEY ” OF BANNU 95

the affected places no longer give help against the raiders,
as they used to formerly, before certain sections of the
Frontier Crimes Regulation Act were repealed, and that
has encouraged the raiders. While that may be true, let
me warn you that if you depend for your protection on.
the armed assistance of others you must be prepared,
sooner or later, to accept the domination of these defend¬
ers. Of course, you are entitled to learn the art of defend¬
ing yourselves with arms. You must develop a sense of
co-operation. In no case should you be guilty of cowardice.
Self-defence is everybody’s birth-right. I do not want to
see a single coward in India.

“ The fourth alternative is that of non-violent
approach, which I am here before you to suggest. It is
the surest and infallible method of self-defence. If I had
my way, I would go and mix with the tribes and argue
it out with them and I am sure they won’t be impervious
to the argument of love and reason. But I know, today
that door is shut to me. The Government won’t permit
me to enter the tribal territory.

“ The tribesman cannot be the bogey-man that he is
represented to be. He is a human being just like you
and me and capable of responding to the human touch
which has hitherto been conspicuous by its absence in
dealing with them. A number of Waziris came and saw
me today at noon. I did not find that their nature was
essentially different from human nature elsewhere.

“ Man’s nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature
has been known to yield to the influence of love. You
must never despair of human nature. You are a com¬
munity of traders. Do not leave out of your traffic that
noblest and most precious of merchandise, viz., love. Give
to the tribesmen all the love that you are capable of, and
you will have theirs in return.

“ To seek safety by offering blackmail or ransom to
the raiders would be a direct invitation to them to repeat
their depredations and would be demoralizing alike to the
giver and the tribesmen. Instead of offering them money,
the rational course would be to raise them above penury

96

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

by teaching them industry and thereby removing the
principal motive that leads them into the raiding habit.

“ I am having talks with Khudai Khidmatgars in this
connection and evolving a plan in collaboration with Bad-
shah Khan. If the plan bears fruit, and the Khudai Khid¬
matgars truly become what their name signifies, the in¬
fluence of their example, like the sweet fragrance of the
rose, will spread to the tribes and might provide a per¬
manent solution of the Frontier question.”

Before leaving Bannu Gandhiji allowed himself to be
taken to the site of the recent raid. In the course of our
brief visit several facts were brought to his attention.
From what one saw and heard, it was clear that the raid
could have been aborted if there had been the slightest
wish on the part of the officers immediately concerned.
They had notice of the coming raid. The raiders were
practically under observation all the time. Why the raid
was allowed to run its full course is a mystery.

But the reader should have some knowledge of the
theatre of the raiders’ action. The fertile and beautiful
Bannu plain watered by the Kurram and the Gambila
rivers has a varied and woeful history. Surrounded as
it is by the bleak and waterless salt range in the Kohat
District on the north, by the sandy tract of Dera Ismail
Khan on the south, and on the west and north-west by
the howling wilderness of the Waziristan hills, where life
is a perpetual struggle, not only of man against nature,
but also of man against man, it naturally became an ob¬
ject of temptation to its fierce border neighbours. Its early
history reads more like a blood-curdling narrative of the
battles between hawks, kites and other birds of prey than
anything else. The following excerpt taken at random
from Thorburn’s monograph on Bannu will serve as an
apt illustration:

“ Now the children of Shah Farid, who was also called
Shitak, were glad for they were sore pressed at the hands of
men of the tribe Wazir, and they girded up their loins, and with
their wives and little ones came down from the mountains, and
camped at the mouth of the pass called Tochi. Then their elders
assembled together and said, ‘ Let us send three pigeons to the

AT AHA1ADI BANDA IX THF MONTH OF RAMZAN
Gandliiji (scareelj' visible) with a cordon of non-violent KhticR
Khidmatgarti being conducted through a Pat ha n .gathering

THE WILD VALLEY ” OF BANNU

97

Mangals and Hanis as a sign of what we shall do unto them/
Then they took three pigeons, and the first they left entire, and
the second they plucked of its wing-feathers alone; but on the
third they left not a feather and moreover they cut off its head
and feet; and they sent a messenger with them, who said to
the elders of the Mangals and Hanis, ‘ The Lord is wroth with
you, for you have treated his Pir scornfully, and he has delivered
you into our hands; if ye rise and flee, even as this pigeon, ye
shall be safe; if ye remain, ye shall be maimed even as this one
and if ye resist, ye shall be destroyed even as this one.’ Then
the Mangals and Hanis feared exceedingly and it happened unto
them as unto the pigeons.”

In the Middle Ages, it became a valley of rest and
ease to foreign hordes on their march from Ghazni to
India; and all those vile concomitants of moving armies,
“ pimps, panders, harpies and whores ”, made it a centre
, of their nefarious activities, leaving behind a tradition
that has not become altogether extinct yet. A proper
appreciation of this historical background is necessary to
understand clearly the phenomenon of trans-border kid¬
nappings and raids.

The talk with the Khudai Khidmatgar officers at
Bannu was one of the most important during the tour. In
it Gandhiji explained the difference between non-violence
of the strong and non-violence of the weak and the
difference between constructive work, taken up as a
philanthropic activity or as a political expedient, and con¬
structive work linked to non-violence, when it becomes an
emancipative force with tremendous potency. He re¬
called how the movement of non-violence was launched in
India. Millions at that time felt that they would not he
able to fight the British Government with the sword as
the latter was infinitely better armed. He told them that
even if they went forth to fight, sword in hand, they had
to be ready to face death. If the sword broke in their
hand, death would be a certainty. Why should not they
then learn the art of dying without killing and pit against
the enemy the strength of their spirit ? The Government
might imprison them or confiscate their property or even
kill them. What did it matter? The argument went

P-7

98

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

home. But in their heart of hearts, said Gandhiji, many
had the feeling that if only they had sufficient armed
strength they would resort to fighting. They accepted
non-violence because there was nothing else. In other
words, there was violence in the heart. Only it was given
up in action. It was non-violence of the weak, not of the
brave. Even so it had made them stronger. He was there
to tell them that it was a big mistake to regard non-vio¬
lence as a weapon of the weak or to adopt it as such. If
the Khudai Khidmatgars fell into that mistake, it would
be a tragedy. “ If you give up the sword at Badshah
Khan’s word, but retain it in your hearts, your non-vio¬
lence will be. a short-lived thing — not even a nine days’
wonder. After a few years you will want to revert to it
but, may be, you will then find that you have got out of
the habit and are lost to both the ideals. Nothing will, in *
that event, remain to you but vain regret. What I want
of you is a unique thing, i. e., that you will disdain to use
the sword although you have got the capacity and there is
no doubt as to victory. Even if the opponent is armed
with a broken sword, you will oppose your neck to it.
And this, not with anger or retaliation in your hearts but
only love. If you have really understood non-violence in
this sense, you will never want to use the sword because
you will have got something infinitely superior in its
place.

“You will ask, ‘How will all this have any effect
on the British Government ? ’ My reply is that by uniting
all the people of India in a common bond of love through
bur selfless service, we can transform the atmosphere in
the country so that the Britisher will not be able to resist
it. You will say that the Britisher is impervious to love.
My thirty years’ unbroken experience is to the contrary.
Today 17,000 Englishmen can rule over three hundred
millions of Indians because we are under a spell of fear.

If we learn to love one another, if the gulf between Hindu
and Muslim, caste and outcaste, and rich and poor, is obli¬
terated, a handful of Englishmen would not dare to con¬
tinue their rule over us.

“ THE WILD VALLEY ” OF BANNU

99

“ Just as there are laws of armed warfare,” he nex
told them, “ there are laws of non-violent warfare too
They have not been fully discovered. Under violence yoi
punish the evil-doer, in non-violence you pity him, anc
regard him as a patient to be cured by your love.

“ What must you do then to drive out the British bj
the non-violent method ? If you want to adopt the method
of violence, you have to learn to drill and to become adept
in the use of arms. In Europe and America even women
and children are given that training. Similarly those who
have adopted the weapon of non-violence have to put
themselves through a vigorous discipline in non-violence.”

And with that he came to the constructive programme
and its place in the scheme of non-violence as a dynamic
force. He had placed the programme of non-violence
before the country in 1920, he explained. It was divided
into two parts, non-co-operation and constructive pro¬
gramme. The latter included establishment of communal
unity, abolition of untouchability, prohibition, complete
eradication of the drink and drug evil and propagation of
khadi, hand-spinning, hand-weaving and other cottage
industries. But all these things had to be taken up not
as a political expediency but as an integral part of the
programme of non-violence. This last made all the dif¬
ference. For instance, Hindu-Muslim unity, regarded
as an expedient, was one thing and quite another,
when adopted as an integral part of non-violence.
“ The former, by its very nature, cannot be lasting. It
will be' discarded as soon as the political exigency that
suggested it is over. It may even be a stratagem or a ruse.
When it is taken up as a part of the programme of non¬
violence it will have nothing but love at its root and will
be sealed with one’s heart’s blood.”

In the same way the charkha or the spinning wheel
had to be linked to non-violence. “ Today there are mil¬
lions of unemployed destitute in India. One way to deal
with them is to allow them to die off so that, as in South
Africa, there might be more per capita land for the sur¬
vivors. That would be the way of violence. The other

100

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

way, the way of non-violence, is based on the principle
of ‘ even unto this last It requires us to have equal
regard for the least of God’s creation. A votary of this
path will deny to himself what cannot be shared with the
least. That applies even to those who labour with their
hands — the relatively better off among the labouring
class must seek to align themselves with the less fortu¬
nate.” It was this line of thinking, said Gandhiji, which
had led to the discovery of the charkha on his part. “ I
had not even seen a charkha when I first advocated its
use. In fact I called it a handloom in Hind Swaraj* not
knowing a spinning wheel from a handloom. I had before
my mind’s eye the poor, landless labourer without em¬
ployment or means of subsistence, crushed under the
weight of poverty. How could I save him — that was my
problem. Even now while I am sitting with you in these
comfortable surroundings, my heart is with the poor and
the oppressed in their humble cottages. I would feel more
at home in their midst. If I allowed myself to succumb
to the love of ease and comfort, it would be my undoing
as a votary of ahimsa. What is it then that can provide
a living link between me and the poor ? The answer is
the charkha. No matter what one’s occupation or rank
in life is, the charkha, taken with all that it signifies, will
provide the golden bridge to unite him to the poor. For
instance, if I am a doctor, while I draw the sacrificial
thread, f it will make me think how I can assuage the suf¬
fering of the destitute instead of the royalty in rich palaces
with the prospect of fat fees. The charkha is not my in¬
vention. It was there before. My discovery consisted in
linking it to the programme of non-violence and inde¬
pendence. God whispered into my heart: ‘ If you want

to work through non-violence, you have to proceed with

* Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule by M. K. Gandhi, published
by the Navajivan Publishing House. It was originally written in
Gujarati in 1909 when Gandhiji was editing the Indian Opinion in
South Africa.

t A term used by Gandhiji to mean ‘ spinning not for self ’ but
as a sacrament, to identify oneself with the poor.

“THE WILD VALLEY” OF BANNU 101

small things, not big.’ If we had worked the fourfold con¬
structive programme in its completeness during the last
twenty years as I had envisaged it, we should have been
our masters today. No foreign power would have dared
to cast its evil eye upon us. No enemy from outside would
have dared to come and do us harm if there had been
none within. Even if one had come we would have assi¬
milated him to ourselves and he would not have been able
to exploit us.

“ It is this type of non-violence,” he concluded, “ that
I want you to attain. I expect you to be twenty-four-
carat gold, nothing less. Of course, you can deceive me.
If you do that, I shall blame myself only. But if you are
sincere, you have to prove by your action that nobody
need be afraid of a Red Shirt or know fear while there
is a Red Shirt alive.”

CHAPTER XI

SOLDIERS OF VIOLENCE
versus

SOLDIERS OF THE SPIRIT

m striking contrast to the smiling Bannu plain is
the Tahsil of Marwat. It is a vast sandy tract 1,198 square
miles in area, with Lakki as its headquarters. Gandhiji
visited it after a thirty-nine mile motor drive. An in¬
teresting feature of the programme at Lakki was a Khat-
tak dance that Badshah Khan had specially arranged for
him. The Khattak dance is based on movements involved
in sword play and is a very popular form of folk-dance
among the Khattak clan of Pathans whose land stretches
from Bannu through Kohat and along the Indus as far
north as Akara in the Peshawar District. Like many
other indigenous folk-arts, it was fast falling into desue¬
tude, when the Khudai Khidmatgar movement which
stands for the revival of all that is best in ancient, indi¬
genous Pathan culture, came to its rescue. The elemental
vigour and simplicity of its rhythmic movements that are
performed to the accompaniment of the music of the
drums and the surnais held one spellbound while the
sheer elan, with which the young and the old, including a
sprinkling of Hindus, participated in it, gladdened one’s
heart. Particularly unforgettable was the performance of
a youthful “ grand old man ” who seemed to personify
perfectly the spirit of the old song, “Happy is the
hall where beards wag all ”, and who nimbly popped in
and lit up the intervals between the more vigorous for ms
by the snow-white glory of his beard and the irrepressible
exuberance and abandon of his movements which threw
even the most phlegmatic into roars of laughter.
As one watched the performance one was reminded

102

SOLDIERS OF VIOLENCE v. SOLDIERS OF THE SPIRIT 103

of Fielding King Hall’s * description of a Khattak dance :
“ Their feet stamped and they leapt, now witn the force of
elephants, then with grace of gazelles.” And again, “ the
grace and agility of the leading ‘ girl ’ f was beyond any¬
thing I could have imagined. Nijinsky, Massine, Joos and
others whom l have admired have a rival far away.”

There was a public meeting at night when the forest
of matchlocks and service rifles, with 'which the gathering
was bristling, served vividly to remind one that it was no
audience of milksops that sat listening with rapt atten¬
tion to Gandhiji’s discourse on non-violence. It provided
a particularly appropriate background for his theme, viz.,
“ The Power of Disarmament ” on which he spoke to
them: “ I am here to tell you, with fifty years’ expe¬

rience of non-violence at my back, that it is an infinitely
superior power as compared to brute force. An armed
soldier relies on his weapons for his strength. Take away
from him his weapons — his gun or his sword — and he
generally becomes helpless, his resistance collapses and
nothing is left to him but surrender. But a person who
has truly realized the principle of non-violence has God-
given strength for his weapon of which he cannot be de¬
prived and which the world has not known anything to
match. Man may, in a moment of unawareness, forget
God, but He keeps watch over him and protects him
always. If the Khudai Khidmatgars have understood this
secret, if they have realized that non-violence is the great¬
est power on earth, well and good; otherwise it would
be better for Badshah Khan to restore to them their wea¬
pons which they have discarded at his instance. They
will then be at least brave after the manner of the world
that has today made the worship of brute force its cult.
But if they discard their old weapons and at the same
time remain strangers to the power of non-violence, it
would be a tragedy for which I for one am not and, so
far as I know, Badshah Khan too is not prepared.”

* Fielding King Hall: Thirty Days of India.

t In the folk-dances of the Pathans female parts are always played
Iby males.

104

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

The talk to the Khudai Khidmatgars was a brilliant
exposition of the difference between the organization of
violence and that of non-violence. “ The principles on
which a non-violent organization is based,” he observed,.
“ are different from and the reverse of what obtains in a
violent organization. For instance, in the orthodox army,
there is clear discrimination as between an officer and a
private. The latter is subordinate and inferior to the
former. In a non-violent army the General is just the
chief servant — first among equals. He claims no privi¬
lege over or superiority to the rank and file. You have
fondly given the title ‘ Badshah Khan ’ to Khan Abdul
Ghaffar Khan. But if in his heart of hearts he actually
began to believe that he could behave like an ordinary
General, it would spell his downfall and bring his power
to an end. He is Badshah in the sense only that he is the
truest and foremost Khudai Khidmatgar and excels all
other Khudai Khidmatgars in the quality and volume of
service.

“ The second difference between a military organiza¬
tion and a peace organization is that in the former, the
rank and file have no part in the choice of their General
and other officers. These are imposed upon them and
enjoy unrestricted power over them. In a non-violent
army, the General and the officers are elected or act as
if they are elected. Their authority is moral and rests
solely on the willing obedience of the rank and file.

“ So much for internal relations between the General
of a non-violent army and his soldiers. Coming to their
relations with the outside world, the same sort of differ¬
ence is visible. Just now we had to deal with an enor¬
mous crowd that had gathered outside this room. You
tried to disperse it by persuasion and loving argument,
not by using force and, when in the end, you failed in your
attempt, withdrew and sought relief by getting behind the
closed doors of this room. Military discipline knows no
moral pressure.

“ Let me proceed a step further. The people who are
crowding outside here are all our friends though they

SOLDIERS OF VIOLENCE v, SOLDIERS OF THE SPIRIT 105

are not Khudai Khidmatgars. They are eager to listen
to what we may tell them. But there may be others be¬
sides them elsewhere, who may not be well disposed to¬
wards us, who may even be hostile to us. In armed orga¬
nizations, the only recognized way of dealing with such,
persons is to drive them out by force. Here, to regard
even in thought, the opponent or, for that matter, anybody,
as your enemy, would, in the parlance of non-violence or
love, be called a sin. Far from seeking revenge, a votary
of non-violence would pray to God that He might bring
about a change of heart in his opponent and if that does
not happen he would be prepared to bear any injury that,
his opponent might inflict upon him, not in a cowardly or
helpless spirit, but bravely with a smile on his face. I.
believe implicitly in the ancient saying that non-violence
real and complete will melt the stoniest hearts.”

He illustrated his remarks by describing how Mir
Alam Khan, his Pathan assailant in South Africa, had
ultimately repented and become friendly: * “ This could
not have happened if I had retaliated. My action can be
fitly described as a process of conversion. Unless you have
felt within you this urge to convert your enemy by your
love, you had better retrace your steps. Non-violence is
not for you.

“ ‘ What about thieves, dacoits and spoilers of defence¬
less women ? ’ you will ask. ‘ Must a Khudai Khidmat-

* In 1908 Gandhiji made a settlement with General Smuts, on a
promise by the latter, that the anti-Asiatic legislation known as the
Black Act would be removed if the Indian settlers agreed to voluntary-
registration. It involved giving of finger prints. Mir Alam, a Pathan^.
who had joined Gandhiji’s struggle, misunderstood his motive and
made a murderous attack on him, knocking him down senseless and
left him for dead. As soon as Gandhi ji recovered consciousness he-
wrote a letter to the authorities saying that he did not want Mir Alam
to be prosecuted as he evidently was labouring under a misapprehen¬
sion and did not know what he was doing. Mir Alam was jailed*
his offence being cognizable, but he was so touched by GandhijiV
forgiveness that he became his devoted friend afterwards and con¬
stituted himself into his bodyguard.

(For full story see Gandhiji's History of Satyagraha in South
Africa, chapters 22 and 27).

106

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

gar maintain non-violence in regard to them too ? ’ My
repiy is, most decidedly ‘ yes Punishment is God’s who
alone is the infallible judge. It does not belong to man
“ with judgment weak Renunciation of violence must
not mean apathy or helplessness in the face of wrong¬
doing. If cur non-violence is genuine and rooted in love,
it ought to provide a more effective remedy against wrong¬
doing than the use of brute force. I certainly expect you
to trace out the dacoits, show them the error of their ways,
and in so doing, brave even death.”

From Lakki to Dera Ismail Khan was a long and
fatiguing drive. Wide stretches of an arid, waterless
waste, reaching right up to the Indus! Clay hills with
their sides deeply indurated by the action of the wind and
the rain, sprawling across it like the remains of huge,
antediluvian monsters! Strings of camels carrying on
their backs the entire paraphernalia of a household, from
■cherub-faced little tots to hens, chicks and firewood!
Caravans of Afghans trekking down from their native
homeland, with their families and shaggy, fat, fierce sheep
dogs, for their winter sojourn in the plains within the
British territory! A wisp of mirage shimmering in the
distance through a veil of heated air ! Dust-begrimed
hedgeberry bushes flitting past, ghost-like by the road¬
side ! The dust and the glare ! These make up the sum
■of impressions in retrospect of the route to Dera Ismail
Khan.

Dera Ismail Khan was reached at evening. It
was still passing through the aftermath of the 1930
Hindu-Muslim riot with its ugly memories of arson
and loot. The local Congress organization seemed
to exist only in name and even the co-operation of
Badshah Khan’s team of Khudai Khidmatgars seemed to
t>e unwelcome to the local volunteers. The result was
that arrangements for keeping the crowds under control
at Gandhiji’s residence completely broke down and there
was pandemonium making the holding of the prayer
meeting impossible. Gandhiji tried in vain to take shelter
behind bolted doors from the crowd who would not leave

SOLDIERS OF VIOLENCE v. SOLDIERS OF THE SPIRIT 107

iiim at peace even there. The more daring ones clam¬
bered on the roof, and the skylights looking into Gandhiji’s
room were soon lined with scores upon scores of curious,
prying eyes ! After two days, the Nawab Saheb of Dsra
Ismail Khan ‘ kidnapped ’ Gandhiji and party with the
permission of his Hindu host and removed them to the
comparative peace of his residence.

A purse of Rs. 5,753 was presented to Gandhiji at the
public meeting — by no means a creditable performance
for a city like Dera Ismail Khan. And even out of this
amount Rs. 5,000 was a single donation. The poor show
drew from Gandhiji a sharp rebuke in the course of his
joint reply to the various addresses of welcome that were
presented to him at the public meeting. “ I thank you
for the purse which you have presented,” he began, “ but
you should know that Daridranarayana, whose repre¬
sentative I claim to be, is not so easily satisfied. My busi¬
ness is with the crores of semi-starved masses, who sorely
need relief. We have to tackle through khadi, the ques¬
tion of the huge annual drain from India caused by the
importation of cotton goods and long staple cotton for
our textile mills. Through khadi the All-India Spinners’
Association has already distributed over four crores of
rupees as wages among the needy Hindu and Mussulman
spinners and weavers. Then, there is the question of
Harijan uplift — an equally Herculean task. Your dona¬
tion ought to be commensurate with the magnitude of
the task for which it is intended. Yours is not a poor
city. The donors are mostly merchants. Surely, you
could have done better.”

Referring next to the Khudai Khidmatgars and to the
strained relations between them and the local volunteers
which he had noticed, he proceeded : “ These differences
are unfortunate. If, however, the Khudai Khidmatgars live
tip to their creed as they have now understood it, the dif¬
ferences and quarrels will be things of the past. They
are on their trial. If they come out victorious they will
be instrumental in bringing about communal unity and
establishing Swaraj. To banish anger altogether from

108

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

one’s breast, I know, is a difficult task. It cannot be
achieved through purely personal effort. It can be done
only by God’s grace. I ask you all to join me in the prayer
that God might enable the Khudai Khidmatgars to con¬
quer the last traces of anger and violence that might still
be lurking in their breasts.”

Kulachi, the headquarters of the tahsil of that r amp
situated on the north bank of the Luni torrent, twenty-
seven miles west of Dera Ismail Khan presented an address
to Gandhiji at a public meeting held there on the 30th of
October. It referred to the chronic poverty of the tahsil
and the scarcity of rainfall which did not exceed four
inches in the year. Gandhiji had no hesitation in saying
that they could banish poverty by taking to the charkha :
“ I can say that if the Pathans will take to this peaceful
occupation, both cotton and wool spinning have a great
future.”

At the public meeting held next day at Tank, Gandhiji
referred to the lament that the Hindus of Tank had poured
out before him. A deputation of Hindus had waited upon
him and complained about the state of general insecurity
in respect of life and property under which they lived. If
only the local Khudai Khidmatgars helped them, they had
told him, their problem would be solved. “ They feel,”
observed Gandhiji, “that the existence of a microscopic
Hindu minority in the midst of the predominantly Mussul¬
man population in this area can be rendered possible only
if the latter will be as true hamsayas (neighbours) to
them, and they have asked me to appeal to the Khudai
Khidmatgars to fulfil their natural role in respect of them.
I entirely endorse their feeling and their appeal, and I
am convinced that it is within your power to set them at
their ease if you will but fulfil the expectations you have
raised in me. As I observed on a previous occasion, the
Hindus, the Mussulmans and the Englishmen in this pro¬
vince are being weighed in the balance. History will
record its verdict about the Englishmen’s deeds. But the
Hindus and the Mussulmans can write their own history
by being correct in their mutual dealings. For the Khudai

SOLDIERS OF VIOLENCE v. SOLDIERS OF THE SPIRIT 109

Khidmatgars their course of- action has been determined.
They have to become a living wall of protection to their
neighbours.

“ A small body of determined spirits fired by an un¬
quenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of
history. It has happened before and it may again happen
if the non-violence of the Khudai Khidmatgars is un¬
alloyed gold, not mere glittering tinsel.”

In his usual talk to the Khudai Khidmatgars, Gandhiji
chose for his text, what a local Mussulman notable had
told him and which Gandhiji himself later recorded : *

“ If in your heart of hearts there is the slightest inclina¬
tion to regard non-violence as a mere cloak for or a step¬
ping stone to greater violence as suggested by this friend,”
he told the Khudai Khidmatgars, “ nay, unless you are
prepared to carry your non-violence to its ultimate logical
conclusion and to pray for forgiveness even for a baby-
killer and a child-murderer, you cannot sign your Khudai
Khidmatgar’s pledge of non-violence. To sign that pledge
with mental reservations would only bring disgrace upon
you and your organization and hurt him whom you might
delight to call Fakhar-i-Afghan — the Pride of the
Afghans.”

Next, discussing the classical imaginary case of an
innocent girl being in danger of being molested by a
ruffian he explained to them how non-violent self-immo¬
lation provided a better and more efficacious way for
saving the girl from her threatened fate than the method
of violence : “ ‘ But what about the classical instance of the
defenceless sister or mother who is threatened with
molestation by an evil-minded ruffian ? ’ you will ask.
4 Is the ruffian in question to be allowed to work his will ?
“Would not the use of violence be permissible even in such
a case ? ’ My reply is, ‘ No ’. You will entreat the ruffian.
The odds are that in his intoxication he will®not listen.
You will then interpose yourself between him and his
intended victim. Very probably you will be killed but

See Chapter IX.

110

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

you will have done your duty. Ten to one, killing you
unarmed and unresisting will assuage the assailant's lust
and he will leave his victim unmolested. But it has been
said to me that tyrants do not act as we want or expect
them to. Finding you unresisting he may tie you to a
post and make you witness the rape of the victim. If you
have the will you will so exert yourself that you will
break the bonds or break yourself in the attempt. In
either case, you will open the eyes of the wrong-doer.
Your armed resistance could do no more, while if you
were worsted, the position would likely be much worse
than if you died unresisting. There is also the chance of
the intended victim copying your calm courage and im¬
molating herself rather than allowing herself to be
dishonoured."

It was probably for the first time that anybody had
spoken to them in that strain and dared to present to
them the gospel of non-violence in its completeness. The
very fact that Gandhiji found it possible to do so consti¬
tutes a new era in the history of the Pathan race. As
one watched these rough soldiers listening to Gandhiji’s
strange message of peace under the watchful eye of their
chief, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, one could not help
recalling to oneself the immortal lines of the poet describ¬
ing “ stout Cortez ” and his men that looked at each other
“ with mild surmise, silent, upon a peak in Darien."

“ Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken,

Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific, and all his men
Looked at each other with a mild surmise,
Silent, upon a peak in Darien."

CHAPTER Xn

ACROSS THE SALT RANGE

With Dera Ismail Khan ended GandhijYs tour of the
trans-Indus districts of the North-West Frontier Province,
Leaving Dera Ismail Khan in the afternoon we entered
upon the last lap of the tour. Gandhiji was anxious not
to extend his tour a day further than absolutely neces¬
sary into the month of Ramzan. The punctilious care
with which our Mussulman hosts throughout the tour and
Badshah Khan and his Old Guard of the Khudai Khid-
matgars looked after the feeding and other creature-com¬
forts of Gandhi ji and his party while they themselves
fasted, made Gandhi ji all the more determined to apply
in his own case the principle of noblesse oblige. He made-
a feeling reference jto it in the course of his talk with
the Khudai Khidmatgars in a small way-side village
where we halted for our midday meal later. “ It has
touched me deeply and also humbled me to find,” he ob¬
served, “ that at a time, when owing to the Ramzan fast,
not a kitchen fire was lit in the whole of this village of
Mussulman homes, food had to be cooked for us. I am.
past the stage w T hen I could fast with you as I did in South
Africa to teach the Mussulman boys who were under my
care to keep the Ramzan fast. I had also to consider the
feelings of Badshah Khan who had made my physical
well-being his day-and-night concern and who would have
felt embarrassed if I fasted. I can only ask your pardon.”

The rest of the journey was a mad rush. We covered
over one hundred miles on the first day, striking out into-
the interior to take in the village of Paniala, ten miles
from the main road. Evening had already fallen when
we reached Mirekhel and the roads were barricaded. Tra¬
velling on this section of the road was not considered safe r
and no traffic was permitted after 4 p.m. But Badshah:

111

112

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Khan’s presence acted as “ open sesame ” everywhere.
“ Tell them, we want to travel at our risk,” he instructed
his son Wali Khan who was behind the steering wheel,
as we approached the first barricade. And then, “ If you
hear somebody shout out ‘ stop ’, put on the brakes at
once. Nobody will touch us if they know who we are ;
but if you try to rush past, you may hear a shot ring out
.after you.” We halted for the night in the fruit garden of
M. Maqsudjan and his brother, who hides behind a rustic
exterior his university education. The rush was resumed
on the following morning. Doubling the track of our ori¬
ginal journey to Dera Ismail Khan we halted for a couple
-of hours in the village of Ahmadi Banda, skirted the town
of Bannu and sped past the gray masses of clay hills of the
Salt Range on whose crumbling crests a weird loneliness
and sleep seem to brood always. Then on through the
town of Kohat and over the Kohat pass, we passed the
point, now marked by a police picket, where a goat track
■emerges from a mountain defile and over which Mollie
Ellis was carried by her captors to her place of captivity.
And so on over one hundred and twenty-five miles of the
track, and finally “ the market square of the Peshawar
Town ” at the end of the day.

Badshah Khan kept up a running fire of comment on
the various sites and localities on the route while mile
after mile of the asphalted track reeled out and was left
■behind. As we sped past one of the military posts with
which the Bannu-Kohat road was studded, he broke out:
“ What a costly futility, Mahatmaji! Look at this vain
display of flags, armoured cars and tanks. And yet they
have not been able to capture a small band of robbers that
has been harrying this part of the country for so long.
The robber chief planted his flag on yonder hill in sight
■of the military and challenged them to arrest him, but
he is still at large. Either it spells hopeless inefficiency
on the part of the military or deliberate apathy which is
nothing short of criminal.”

There were meetings with Khudai Khidmatgars both
at Paniala and Ahmadi Banda and a public meeting

ACROSS THE SALT RANGE

113

besides at Paniala. But before giving the substance of
Gandhiji’s talks, it is necessary to note a few things about
the people to whom his remarks were addressed, their
characteristics and traditions.

Unlike the term Afghan which is used, in its widest
sense, to denote any inhabitant of the modern kingdom
of Afghanistan, the term Pathan has a linguistic deriva¬
tion, being a corruption of Pukhton, the Pukhtu-speakers.
It includes all Pushtu- or Pukhtu-speaking people of
Southern and Eastern Afghanistan and the Indian border¬
land. One of the points which Badshah Khan used often
to emphasize in his public speeches was that in the Front¬
ier Province everybody was a Pathan who had made that
province his home and spoke Pukhtu, irrespective of
whether he was a Hindu, Sikh or Mussulman. And as
a matter of fact there are Hindus and Sikhs, women and
children settled among the Pathans who have adopted the
Pathan dress and who can speak only Pushtu. They have
even adopted the Pushtu suffix zai- son of

By temperament the Pathans are a childlike and jovial
race. They are fond of music, poetry and folk-dances and
when exhilarated, will express their exuberance by the
firing of ‘ festive shots ’. Their favourite instruments of
music are drums ( nagara ), flute {surnai) and bagpipes.

In appearance the Pathan is of a stalwart make, lean
and wiry. Throughout our tour we did not come across
a single Pathan with a paunch, thanks to lean meat which
he consumes and his sparing use of starch. He never
moves without his weapons. When grazing his cattle or
driving his beasts of burden, when tilling the soil or at¬
tending a fair or a public function he is still armed. His
rifle or his long, heavy jezail (as the old style Pathan
matchlocks are called), which is generally slung over his
left shoulder, the belt of cartridges and the knives and
daggers that are stuck about his person, one of them often
between the nape of his neck and the collar of his mantle,
are never laid aside outside his home and during his wak¬
ing hours. He is a crack shot and an adept in ambuscade
and mountain guerrilla warfare.

P-8

114

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

It has become a fashion among English writers on
the Pathan question — most of whom are ex-military offi¬
cers, and therefore his enemies — to vilify Pathan charac¬
ter. He has been described as “ thievish and predatory to
the last degree “A Pathan will steal a blanket from
under a sleeping person,” observes Commander Stephen
King Hall. But we have the testimony both of Davies
and the author of that delightful book, The Khyber
Caravan, that the problem facing the military authorities
today is not how to prevent the disappearance of blankets
from under the sleeping citizens, but disappearance of pic¬
kets (who have forgotten sleep for fear of the raiders),
rifle and all. Loss of rifles of sentries on duty became so
frequent that orders were issued that except in the case
of Tochi scouts rifles must be chained to the person of the
picket. But neither the penalty of court-martial for loss
of rifle nor the practice of chaining the fire-arms to the
persons of scouts out on duty, “ at the wrist and the
waist ” was proof against the ingenuity of the raiders who
now carried away the sentry along with the rifle chained
to his person.

In his social relations the Pathan is ruled by what is
known as Pukhtonwali or the threefold Pathan code of
honour, which imposes upon tribesmen obligations, the
non-observance of which is regarded as the deadliest of
sins and is followed by lasting dishonour and ostracism :
(1) he must grant to all fugitives the right of asylum
( nanawatai ), (2) he must proffer openhanded hospitality
( melmastia ) even to his deadliest enemy, and (3) he must
wipe out insult with insult ( badal ). This last leads to
the practice of blood-feuds which is the bane of the Pathan
race. Every branch or section of a tribe has its inter¬
necine wars, every family its hereditary blood-feuds and
every individual his personal foes. “ Every person counts
up his murders, each tribe has its debtor and creditor
account with its neighbours, life for life.” “ Unfortunate¬
ly,” observes Davies, “unruly tribesmen fail to realize
that under the disastrous influence of this barbarous cus¬
tom, many of their noblest families are brought to the

ACROSS THE SALT RANGE

115

verge of extinction. Until these civil warfares die out,
there can be no united people and no reign of peace.”
As has been already stated in these pages, these blood-
feuds Badshah Khan deplores most and believes that if
non-violence takes deep root in the Pathan heart the sense¬
less feuds will die and the Pathan will live.

But whatever the virtues and defects of the Pathan
character may be, non-violence has not in the long past
been one of them. And so Gandhiji took pains to explain
to the Khudai Khidmatgars that what he had come to tell
them was not any addition to or extension of what they
had known and practised but in several ways its reverse.
“ I have now had the assurance from your own lips of
what I had from Badshah Khan already,” he remarked
to the Khudai Khidmatgars at Paniala. “ You have adopt¬
ed non-violence not merely as a temporary expedient but
as a creed for good. Therefore, mere renunciation of the
sword, if there is a sword in your heart, will not carry
you far. Your renunciation of the sword cannot be said
to be genuine unless it generates in your hearts a power,
the opposite of that of the sword and superior to it. Hither¬
to revenge or retaliation has been held amongst you as a
sacred obligation. If you have a feud with anybody that
man becomes your enemy for all time and the feud is
handed down from father to son. In non-violence even
if somebody regards you as his enemy, you may not so
regard him in return, and of course, there can be no ques¬
tion of revenge.” He asked them : “ Who could be more
cruel or bloodthirsty than the late General Dyer ? * Yet
the Jallianwalla Bagh Congress Inquiry Committee, on my

* On April 13, 1919, General Dyer killed (according to the official
figure) 327 and wounded 1,200, by giving the order to fire on a peaceful
and unarmed gathering of men, women and children in Jallianwalla
Bagh at Amritsar, that had assembled to protest against the repressive
Rowlatt Act, against which Gandhiji had launched Satyagraha. This
was followed by the introduction of Martial Law. A committee of
inquiry was appointed by the Indian National Congress to report
on the massacre and the “ Punjab Martial Law atrocities ”. Gandhiji
who was on the Committee opposed the idea of demanding punish¬
ment of General Dyer but asked that he be relieved of his charge.

116

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

advice, refused to ask for his prosecution. I had no trace of
ill-will against him in my heart. I would have also liked
to meet him personally and reach his heart, but that was
to remain a mere aspiration.” And he went on to tell them
how non-violence of a Khudai Khidmatgar should express
itself in acts of service to God’s creatures and the training
that was necessary for it.

At the end of his talk he was presented with a poser
by one of the Khudai Khidmatgars who had followed his
address closely: “You expect us to protect the Hindus
against the raiders and yet you tell us that we may not
use our weapons even against thieves and dacoits. How
can the two go together ? ” “ The contradiction,” Gan-
dhiji replied, “ is only apparent. If you have really assi¬
milated the non-violent spirit, you won’t wait for the
raiders to appear on the scene, but will seek them out
in their own territory and prevent the raids from taking
place. If even then a raid does take place, you will face
the raiders and tell them that they can take away all your
belongings but they shall touch the property of your
Hindu neighbours only over your dead body. And if there
are hundreds of Khudai Khidmatgars ready to protect the
Hindu hamsayas (neighbours) with their lives, the raiders
will certainly think better of butchering in cold blood all
the innocent and inoffensive Khudai Khidmatgars who are
non-violently pitched against them. You know the story
of Abdul Qadir Jilani and his forty gold mohurs with,
which his mother had sent him to Baghdad. On the way
the caravan was waylaid by robbers who proceeded to
strip Abdul Qadir’s companions of all their belongings.
Thereupon Abdul Qadir, who so far happened to be un¬
touched, shouted out to the raiders and offered them the
forty gold mohurs which his mother had sewn into the
lining of his tunic. The legend goes that the raiders were
so struck by the simple naivete of the boy, that the saint
then was, that they not only let him go untouched but
returned to his companions all their belongings.”

At Ahmadi Banda Gandhiii explained to the Khudai
Khidmatgars the place of Civil Disobedience in the

ACROSS THE SALT RANGE H7

programme of non-violence and its relation to the con¬
structive programme.

The Bar Association of Peshawar utilized Gandhijfs
presence in the city b} T presenting him with an address at
the Premier’s residence in which they proudly claimed
him as one of their confraternity and incidentally also
managed to blow their own trumpet a little by adverting
to the splendid services in the political field rendered by
the leading lights of the profession. Gandhiji, in a witty
little speech, while thanking them for the honour that
they had done him, observed that he was hardly entitled
to that privilege, in the first place because, as they all
knew, he had been disbarred by his own Inn and secondly,
because he had long forgotten his law. Of late, he had
more often been engaged in breaking laws than in ex¬
pounding or interpreting them in the courts of the land.
Still another and, perhaps, his most vital reason was his
peculiar views about lawyers and doctors which he had
recorded in his booklet, Indian Home Rule. A true lawyer,
he told them, was one who placed truth and service in
the first place and the emoluments of the profession in
the next place only. He did not know whether they had
all adopted that ideal but if they pledged themselves to
render service through their legal acumen in an altruistic
spirit, he -would be the first to pay them his homage.

Before leaving Peshawar Gandhiji had a meeting
with the members of the Frontier Ministry when, in ful¬
filment of his promises made at various places, he thrashed
out with them certain political and administrative matters
round which a lot of public controversy had gathered.
The discussion served the purpose of clarifying the posi¬
tion with regard to some of the matters, while in regard
to some others, definite decisions were adopted by the
Ministry in the light of Gandhi ji’s remarks.

A high official from Southern India w T ho sought out
Gandhiji at Peshawar, put to him a pretty poser: “ As

J^move from the south northwards, I seem to confront
a different humanity altogether. There seems to be no
meeting-ground between the type here and that found

:is

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

in the south. Will the twain ever meet ? ” Gandhiji’s
reply was that whilst apparent difference was there, non¬
violence was the golden bridge that united the ferocious
and warlike Pathan and the mild and intellectual South
Indian. The Khudai Khidmatgars 'who had accepted non¬
violence as their creed ceased to be different, except in the
degree of their non-violent valour, from people in other
parts of India. In this question of fusion of various types,
as in many another knotty question, the moment we
adopt the non-violent approach all difficulties melt away.

The cis-Indus District of Hazara, the last to be visited
during Gandhiji’s tour, is the northernmost district of the
North-West Frontier Province and the only territory of
that province east of the Indus. It lies like a wedge of
British territory 120 miles in length, driven in between
Kashmir on the East and the independent hills on the
West.

Before entering it, however, Gandhiji paid a brief visit
to Bibhuti, in Chach Ilaqa. This territory, though political¬
ly and geographically a part of the Punjab, is linguistically
and in respect of customs, habits and mode of life
of its people closely allied to the North-West Frontier
Province. They had requested that Pushtu-speaking peo¬
ple of their Ilaqa should be permitted to join the Khudai
Khidmatgar movement in the Frontier Province. Gan¬
dhiji told them that there could be no difficulty in their so
doing : “ The Khudai Khidmatgars is an organization with
its headquarters at Utmanzai. Any one who signs their
pledge and can speak Pushtu can enrol himself as a
Khudai Khidmatgar. The only condition is that he can¬
not simultaneously be on the register of any other organi¬
zation. You are, therefore, absolutely free to enrol as
Khudai Khidmatgars if you like and no special permis¬
sion is needed for it.”

While driving to Bibhuti, Gandhiji’s car had a slight
accident as a result of which a calf was knocked down
and partly run over. The local Congressmen accompany¬
ing Badshah Khan did not hesitate to throw the whole
blame for the accident on opponents of the Congress

ACROSS THE SALT RANGE

119

^Ministry. To Gandhiji this readiness on the part of Con¬
gress friends to fasten blame on opponents without suffi¬
cient ground savoured of intolerance and want of charity
which are incompatible with the attitude of non-violence.
“ The Khudai Khidmatgars have proved their undoubted
capacity for organization. The presence of a picked body
of Khudai' Khidmatgars at a public meeting makes ail the
difference between order and disorder. The principle of
non-violence requires that they should make the people
do, through their power of love, all those things that the
police do" through the power of the lathi and the bullet.
When the seedling of love sprouts forth in our hearts our
petty quarrels and mutual bickerings will become a thing

of the past.Take today’s incident of the calf that

was accidentally run over by our motor bus. Love should
have prompted the chauffeur to stop the car immediately
so that adequate arrangements might be made for the care
and treatment of the injured animal. One of our party
showed what seemed to me unseemly haste in naming the
so-called opponents as the deliberate authors of the acci¬
dent. In non-violence, we must not be in a hurry to
ascribe motives to the opponent or regard him with sus¬
picion unless we have proof positive for it. When love
fills the hearts of the Khudai Khidmatgars we shall have
independence. But independence will not come to us till
our love shines out in our littlest acts.”

“ We must send someone to the place where the acci¬
dent occurred,” he remarked to Badshah Khan at the end
of the meeting, “ to offer compensation to the owner of
the animal and to take the calf for treatment to a vet.”

‘‘Beshak ” (certainly), replied Badshah Khan and
did as he was bidden.

Gandhiji reached Haripur on the evening of the 6th
November paying a visit on the way to the famous Sikh
shrine of Panja Saheb where he and Badshah Khan were
presented with sarapa (dress of honour) by the manage¬
ment of the shrine. The scenes of disorder at Dera Ismail
Khan were repeated at Haripur. He was taken in a pro¬
cession through the city in spite of strict instructions to

120

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

the contrary and in spite of what he had been given to
understand. It took more than one hour to get Gandhiji’s
luggage to him, owing to the crush of the people who had
beleaguered the house of his host. The other gate was
crashed before we had been there many hours. The next
day he quietly slipped out to Abbottabad early in the morn¬
ing, several hours before the time fixed for departure.

A public meeting was held at Haripur at evening.
Here again, a little incident gave to Gandhiji his cue. Be¬
fore the meeting commenced a letter from the head master
of the local high school was handed to Gandhiji lodging
a gentle complaint that the local Congress authorities had
failed to ask for his formal permission for holding their
meeting on the school grounds. Commenting upon this
in his speech, Gandhiji told the audience that observance
of perfect courtesy and a punctiliously correct behaviour
were as much part of non-violence as some of the other
and bigger things of which he had been telling them:
“ Scientists tell us that we are descended from the ourang.
That may be so, but it is not man’s destiny to live and die
a brute. In proportion as we cultivate non-violence and
voluntary discipline we are contra-distinghished from
brute nature and fulfil our destiny. One of the obliga¬
tions that non-violence places upon us is to respect the
rights even of the weakest, for instance, even a little
child’s.”

A storm in a tea cup was caused by a small group
of “ Socialists ”. They handed to Badshah Khan ant
address which they wanted to present to Gandhiji, but as
the meeting had already commenced the permission could
not be granted. At this they left the meeting shouting
unseemly slogans. Gandhiji utilized the incident to em¬
phasize the necessity of forbearance in the scheme of
non-violence: “ We must meet abuse by forbearance.
Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely
no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it
will soon be weary of it and stop. We should harbour no
resentment against those who tried to create the dis¬
turbance which, without their meaning it, has taught us

ACROSS THE SALT RANGE

121

a valuable little lesson in forbearance. A satyagrahi
always regards the 4 enemy 7 as a potential friend. Dur¬
ing half a century of experience of non-violence I have
not come across a case of enmity persisting to the end in.
the face of absolute non-violence / 7

CHAPTER XIH

KHUDAI KHIDMATGARS AND THEIR CHIEF

Summing up his impressions of the tour in a signed
article afterwards, Gandhiji wrote : “ Whatever the Khu-
dai Ivhidmatgars may be or may ultimately turn out to
be, there can be no doubt about what their leader whom
they delight to call Badshah Khan is. He is unquestion¬
ably a man of God. He believes in His living presence
and knows that his movement will prosper only if God
wills it. Having put his whole soul into his cause, he
remains indifferent as to what happens. It is enough for
him to realize that there is no deliverance for the Path an
except through out and out acceptance of non-violence.
He does not take pride in the fact that the Pathan is a
fine fighter. He appreciates his bravery but he thinks
that he has been spoilt by overpraise. He does not want
to see his Pathan as a goonda of society. He believes that
the Pathan has been exploited and kept in ignorance. He
•wants the Pathan to become braver than he is and wants
"him to add true knowledge to his bravery. This he thinks
■can only be achieved through non-violence.

“ And as Badshah Khan believes in my non-violence,
lie wanted me to be as long as I could among the Khudai
Khidmatgars. For me I needed no temptation to go to
them. I was myself anxious to make their acquaintance.
I wanted to reach their hearts. I do not know that I have
done so now. Anyway I made the attempt.

“ But before I proceed to describe how I approached
my task and what I did I must say a word about Badshah
Khan as my host. His one* care throughout the tour was
to make me as comfortable as the circumstances permit¬
ted. He spared no pains to make me proof against priva¬
tion or discomfort. All my wants were anticipated by
Mm. And there was no fuss about what he did. It was

122

KHUDAI KHIDMATGARS AND THEIR CHIEF 123

ail perfectly natural for him. It was all from the heart.
There is no humbug about him. He is an utter stranger
to affectation. His attention is therefore never embar¬
rassing, never obtrusive. And so when we parted at
Taxila our eyes were wet. The parting was difficult. And
we parted in the hope that we would meet again probably
in March next. The Frontier Province must remain a
place of frequent pilgrimage for me. For though the rest
of India may fail to show true non-violence there seems
to be ground for hoping that the Frontier Province will
pass through the fiery ordeal. The reason is simple. _ Bad-
shah Khan commands willing obedience from his ad¬
herents, said to number more than one hundred thousand.
They hang on his lips. He has but to say the -word and
it is carried out. Whether in spite of all the veneration
he commands, the Khudai Khidmatgars will pass the test
in constructive non-violence remains to be seen.

“ At the outset both Badshah Khan and I had come
to the conclusion that instead of addressing the whole
of the Khudai Khidmatgars at the various centres, I should
confine myself to the leaders. This would save my energy
and be its wisest use. And so it proved to be. During
the five weeks, we visited all the centres, and the talks
lasted for one hour or more at each centre. I found Bad¬
shah Khan to be a very competent and faithful interpreter.
And as he believed in what I said, he put into the transla¬
tion all the force he could command. He is a born orator
and speaks with dignity and effect.

'• At every meeting I repeated the warning that un¬
less they felt that in non-violence they had come into pos¬
session of a force infinitely superior to the one they had
and in the use of which they w T ere adepts, they should
have nothing to do with non-violence and resume the
arms they possessed before. It must never be said of the
Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become
or been made cowards under Badshah Khan’s influence.
Their bravery consisted not in being good marksmen but
in defying death and being ever ready to bare their breasts
to the bullets. This bravery they had to keep intact and

124

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

be ready to show whenever occasion demanded. And for
the truly brave such occasions occurred often enough
without seeking.

“This non-violence was not a mere passive quality.
It was the mightiest force God had endowed man with.
Indeed, possession of non-violence distinguished man from,
the brute creation. It was inherent in every human being,,
but in most it lay dormant. Perhaps the word non-vio¬
lence was an inadequate rendering of ahimsa which itself
was an incomplete connotation of all it was used for con¬
veying. A better rendering w r ould be love or goodwill.
And goodwill came into play only when there was ill-will
matched against it. To be good to the good is an exchange
at par. A rupee against a rupee gives no index to its.
quality. It does when it is matched against an anna..
Similarly a man of goodwill is known only when he-
matches himself against one of ill-will.

“ This non-violence or goodwill was to be exercised
not only against Englishmen but it must have full play-
even among ourselves. Non-violence against Englishmen
may be a virtue of necessity, and may easily be a cover
for cowardice or simple weakness. It may be, as it often,
is, a mere expedient. But it could not be an expedient,
when we have an equal choice between violence and non¬
violence. Such instances occur in domestic relations, social
and political relations among ourselves, not only between
rival sects of the same faith but persons belonging to dif¬
ferent faiths. We cannot be truly tolerant towards
Englishmen if we are intolerant towards our neighbours:
and equals. Hence our goodwill, if we had it in any
degree, would be tested almost every day. And if we
actively exercised it, we would become habituated to its.
use in wider fields till at last it became second nature with,
us.

“ The very name Badshah Khan had adopted for them
had showed that they were to serve, not to injure,
humanity. For God took and needed no personal service.
He served His creatures without demanding any service-
for Himself in return. He Weft unique in this as in many

KHUDAI KHIDMATGARS AND THEIR CHIEF 125

other things. Therefore servants of God were to be known
by the service they rendered to His creatures.

" Hence the non-violence of the Khudai Khid.natgars
had to show itself in their daily action. It could be so
exhibited only if they were non-violent in thought, word
and deed.

“ And even as a person who relied upon the use of
force in his daily dealings would have to undergo a mili¬
tary training, so will a servant of God have to go through
•a definite training. This was provided for in the very
foundation resolution of the special Congress of 1920. It
was broadened from time to time. It was never toned
down to my knowledge. The exercise of active goodwill
was to be tested through communal unity, shedding of
untouchability by Hindus, the home- and hand-manufac¬
ture and use of Jchadi — a sure symbol of oneness with
the millions — and prohibition of intoxicating drinks and
drugs. This fourfold programme was called a process
of purification and a sure method of gaining organic free¬
dom for the country. This programme was followed but
half-heartedly by Congressmen and the country, thus be¬
traying a lack of living faith in non-violence, or faith in
the method devised for its daily practice, or both. But the
Khudai Khidmatgars were expected and believed to have
a living faith in non-violence. Therefore they would be
-expected to follow out the whole of the constructive self¬
purification programme of the Congress. I have added to
it village sanitation, hygiene and simple medical relief in
the villages. A Khudai Khidmatgar will be known by
his works. He cannot be in a village without his making
it cleaner and affording help to the villagers in their sim¬
ple ailments. Hospitals and the like are toys of the rich
and are available for the most part only to the city-dwel¬
lers. Efforts are no doubt being made to cover the land
with dispensaries. But the cost is prohibitive. Whereas
the Khudai Khidmatgars could, with a little but substan¬
tial training, easily give relief in the majority of cases
of illness that occurred in the villages.

126

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

" I told, the leaders of the Khudai Khidmatgars that
Civil Disobedience was the end of non-violence, by no
means its beginning. Yet I started in this country at the
wrong end in 1918. I was overwhelmed by necessity. The
country had not come to harm, only because I, claiming
to be an expert in non-violent technique, knew when and
how to retrace our steps. Suspension of Civil Disobe¬
dience at Patna was part of the technique. I have just
as much faith in the constructive programme of 1920 as
I had then. I could not lead a campaign of Civil Disobe¬
dience in terms of Puma Swaraj, without due fulfilment
of the programme. The right to Civil Disobedience ac¬
crues only to those who know and practise the duty of
voluntary obedience to laws whether made by them or
others. Obedience should come not from fear of the con¬
sequences of the breach but because it is the duty to obey
with all our heart and not merely mechanically. Without
the fulfilment of this preliminary condition, Civil Disobe¬
dience is civil only in name and never of the strong but
of the weak. It is not charged with goodwill, i.e., non¬
violence. The Khudai Khidmatgars had shown in un¬
mistakable terms their bravery in suffering during the
Civil Disobedience days as did many thousands in the
other provinces. But it was not proof positive of goodwill
at heart. And it would be a deterioration in the Pathan
if he was non-violent only in appearance. For he must
not be guilty of weakness.

“ The Khudai Khidmatgars listened to all I said with
rapt attention. Their faith in non-violence is not as yet
independent of Badshah Khan. It is derived from him.
But it is none the less living so long as they have unques¬
tioning faith in their leader who enjoys undisputed king¬
dom over their hearts. And Badshah Khan’s faith is no
lip profession. His whole heart is in it. Let the doubt¬
ers live with him, as I have all these precious five weeks,
and their doubt will be dissolved like mist before the
morning sun.”

“ This is how the whole tour struck a very well-known
Pathan who met me during the last days of the tour:

KHUDAI KHIDMATGARS AND THEIR CHIEF 127

‘ I like what you are doing. You are very clever (I do
not know that cunning is not the right word). You are
making my people braver than they are. You are teaching
them to husband their strength. Of course it is good to be
non-violent up to a point. That they will be under your
teaching. Hitler has perfected the technique of attaining
violent ends without the actual use of violence. But you
have bettered even Hitler. You are giving our men train¬
ing in non-violence, in dying without killing, so if ever the
occasion comes for the use of force, they will use it as
never before and certainly more effectively than any other
body of persons. I congratulate you.’ I was silent and
I had no heart to write out a reply to disillusion him. I
smiled and became pensive. I like the compliment that
the Pathans would be braver than before (as a result of
and) under my teaching. I do not know an instance of
a person becoming a coward under my influence. But the
friend’s deduction was deadly. If in the last heat the Khu-
dai Khidmatgars prove untrue to the creed they profess to
believe, non-violence was certainly not in their hearts.
The proof will soon come. If they zealously and faithfully
follow the constructive programme, there is no danger
of their fulfilling the prognostication of the critic. But
they will be found among the bravest of men when the
test comes.”

CHAPTER XIV

MORE SERMONS ON NON-VIOLENCE

Unlike the trans-Indus Districts of Peshawar, Mar-
dan, Kohat, Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan, the cis-Indus
District of Hazara is not predominantly Pathan in its popu¬
lation nor is the Pathan element here as unmellowed as
in the other districts. Comprised of the hilly tracts of
Manshera and Abottabad and the well-watered Tahsil of
Haripur, the district is more or less co-extensive with the
territory of Takshashila which was once a flourishing cis-
Indus Hindu kingdom with its capital at Taxila, the seat
of the famous university to which “ flocked students not
only from the farthest corners of India but also from places
beyond the Gobi desert in Central Asia.” Gandhiji’s pro¬
gramme in the district included visits to the headquarters
of all the three tahsils. Arriving at Abbottabad from
Haripur on the morning of 7th November several hours
before the scheduled time, he took his host Rai Bahadur
Paramanand by surprise. Situated at a height of 4,102
feet above sea level, and surrounded by the indescri¬
bable beauty of the Kagan valley on the northern and
the girdle of snow-capped peaks on the Manshera side,
Abbottabad is a charming little spot but for its past asso¬
ciations. There are not many places in India that have
paid such a heavy price for their first lesson in non-vio¬
lence as Abbottabad had to during the Khilafat days. And
even today a casual ramble about the town served to bring
home to the visitor the painful fact that here, as in many
another hill station in India, the civilian inhabitant was
the underdog in his own home. All the choicest places
were reserved for the military and the ruling caste. I was
shown one instance where an Indian gentleman was not
permitted to occupy his own bungalow in the civil lines,
because the two adjacent bungalows on either side of it,
also his property, had been rented out to saheblogs who

128

TA.\H,,\ — DISTANT VIEW
Wilde the Macedonian Jiiel more ihai

MORE SERMONS ON NON-VIOLENCE 129

would not tolerate the presence of a mere ‘ native ’ in
their midst!

In his village home Badshah Khan is popularly known
as the fakir, as his heart is always with the poor. The
meaning of it was vividly brought home to us when early
one morning he took out some members of the party for
a little mountain climbing. “We must watch the sunrise
from that mountain top,” he insisted as he dragged us
out willy nilly into the nipping morning cold. The spec¬
tacle presented by the russet mountain sides bathed in the
glory and freshness of the early winter morning was most
inspiring, while the panorama of terraced cultivation,
which rose tier upon tier from the gloomy depths of the
valleys below to the dizzy pine-clad tops of the surround¬
ing hills, vividly set forth before one the ultimate triumph
of the principle of non-violence in the form of patient
industry and co-operation of millions of human hands in
the obstinate duel against nature that goes on everlasting¬
ly among these hills. Badshah Khan took us to one of
these terraced fields to show us with what infinite toil the
work of preparing bare, stony mountain-sides for cultiva¬
tion is carried out. The struggle proceeds slowly, pain¬
fully, inch by inch. It may take years to remove the boul¬
ders with the unaided labour of the hand from a narrow,
little strip of the field. And yet as soon as the land begins
to yield something, the state steps in to claim land reve¬
nue. “ It is a most iniquitous and heartless practice,” broke
out Badshah Khan. “ If I had the power I would grant
subsidy for this kind of reclamation work instead of taxing
it. This is shameless grab.”

There was a solitary peasant hut in the midst of the
field. Badshah Khan insisted that my sister, Dr. Sushila
Nayyar, who accompanied us should visit the peasant
family in the hut and see whether they needed any medi¬
cal help. And when she presently returned and told him
how she had suggested a simple remedy to one of the
family who was suffering from a minor malady, his joy
knew no bounds. “Mahatmaji, I hate politics,” he had
repeated to Gandhiji more than once during the tour. “ It

P-9

130

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

is an empty and barren maze. I wish to run away from
it and to occupy myself with humanitarian service of the
poorest in their homes.” On our way back we suddenly
found him missing from the party. He had accidentally
found an occupation after his heart. A young Pathan lad
was driving an ass loaded with stones. The ass had stum¬
bled and the load had slipped off its back. Noticing his
struggles to replace the stones upon the animal’s back,
Badshah Khan had stopped to help him. He invited the
rest of the party too to come and help. They all came
and soon the load was replaced on the animal’s back. At
the end of it, as he wended his way home, it was with a
distinct feeling of satisfaction that he had begun the day
in a manner worthy of a Khudai Khidmatgar.

All the important events in the programme at Abbott-
abad were crowded into the second day of Gandhiji’s stay.
At Manshera there was a public meeting on the 8th of
November at which an address on behalf of the inhabi¬
tants of Manshera was presented to Gandhiji and another
on behalf of the Kisan Committee, Manshera. The latter
drew Gandhiji’s attention to and prayed for speedy aboli¬
tion of some amazingly ante-diluvian and oppressive
features of the land tenure system in certain parts of Man¬
shera Tahsil. For instance, under it (i) hereditary-occu¬
pancy tenants had to pay to the landlord from As. 4 to
As. 12 in the rupee as malikana (ownership fee) over and
above the land revenue; (ii) they had to furnish begar (for¬
ced labour) for a certain number of days in the year with¬
out any compensation (The quota of begar, however, was
not fixed according to the size of the holding but varied
with the number of incumbents among whom it might
be divided. To take an illustration, supposing five hands
was the quota of begar fixed for a holding of 40 kanals.
Then, if on the death of the landlord the holding was
subdivided among eight sons of the landlord, each one of
them would claim from the occupancy holder free labour
of five hands by way of begar ; (iii) inheritance in land
went all to the sons ; daughters were completely excluded.
In addition to it the address mentioned a number of

MORE SERMONS ON NON-VIOLENCE 131

abwabs or illegal exactions and instances of chicanery,
fraud and oppression resorted to by the landlords against
the cultivators. All that Gandhiji could say about these
revelations was that even if a fraction of them were true,
they constituted a disgraceful anachronism which ought
not to continue any longer, especially when there was a
Congress Ministry.

The address on behalf of the general public of Man-
shera was perhaps the most remarkable presented to
Gandhiji throughout his tour. It contained among other
things the following significant words: <£ You will

understand and allow for a little pardonable pride
on our part for the way in which we, of the Frontier
Province, have taken up and translated into practice your
gospel of non-violence. Violence used to be our main
preoccupation in life till Badshah Khan, the pride of the
Afghans, weaned us from it. Non-violence may have no
special significance for those who are bom into that creed.
But for us Pathans it has provided the specific which we
so badly needed for our ills. The Pathan is therefore
particularly fitted to understand and appreciate its worth.
Islam promulgated peace, i.e., non-violence as the rule of
life and permitted the use of force only as an exception.
But the Pathan, like the rest of the Mussulmans, had
allowed the exception to usurp the place of the central
principle and almost forgotten the central teaching. It
was for you, sir, to take us back to this central doctrine
which we had nearly lost sight of. We assure you that
in a very short time the Pathans of the North-West
Frontier Province will, without distinction of caste, creed
or religion, come to constitute the spear-head of India's
non-violent fight for freedom."

Gandhiji replying assured them that he set great
store by what they had already achieved in the field of
non-violence. But believing as he did in the old adage,
that from him who has, much more is expected, he warn¬
ed them that he would not rest satisfied till they had
fulfilled their mission of achieving through their non¬
violence not only their own freedom but the freedom of

132

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

India. He had visited their province a second time to
know them more intimately and to understand how non¬
violence worked in their midst, and it was his intention
to return to them a third time, when he hoped once more
to pick up the threads of various problems where he had
left them.

Speaking to the Khudai Khidmatgars earlier, he had
explained to them that the basis of all non-violent activity
was or should be love : “ It is not enough not to hate the
enemy. One should feel in one’s heart warmth of fellow-
feeling towards him. It has become the fashion these
days to say that society cannot be organized or run on
non-violent lines. I join issue on that point. In a family,
when a father slaps his delinquent child, the latter does
not think of retaliating. He obeys his father not because
of the deterrant effect of the slap but because of offended
love which he senses behind it. That in my opinion is
an epitome of the way in which society is or should - be
governed. What is true of the family must be true of
society which is but a larger family. It is man’s imagina¬
tion that divides the world into warring groups of ene¬
mies and Mends. In the ultimate resort it is the power
of love that acts even in the midst of the clash and sus¬
tains the world.

“ I am told that the Red Shirts here are Red Shirts
only in name. I hope the allegation is baseless. I know
that Badshah Khan is seriously disturbed at the infiltra¬
tion of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement with undesira¬
ble and self-seeking elements. I share with him his
feeling that mere accession of numbers, unless they are
true exponents of the creed which they profess, will only
weaken instead of adding strength to the movement.

“ The Red Shirt movement today has drawn the at¬
tention of the whole of India and even outside. And yet
what it has achieved is only a small fraction of what still
remains to be achieved. I implicitly accept the assurance
given by the Khudai Khidmatgars that they are anxious
to understand and practise the doctrine of non-violence
in full. There are tremendous heights before them to be

MORE SERMONS ON NON-VIOLENCE 133

scaled. The programme of constructive non-violence
that I have placed before them is self-acting when once it
is well started. Its enforcement will be a sure test, too,
of the earnestness and sincerity of the Khudai Khidmat-
gars.”

Returning to Abbottabad in the afternoon, Gandhiji
paid a visit to the local Harijan temple and was pleased
to learn that in Abbottabad at least the Harijans suffered
under no disabilities in respect of the admission of their
children to schools and the use of wells and other public
amenities. He also visited the Govind Girls’ School which
was the fruit of the labour of love of our hostess at Abbott¬
abad.

The minorities’ deputation met Gandhiji in the after¬
noon to discuss with him the difficulties and disabilities of
the minorities in the North-West Frontier Province. What'
disturbed them particularly was that the incidence
of violent crime had steadily increased since the con¬
stitution of the North-West Frontier Province into a
separate province. They suggested that in view of the
growing menace of insecurity, firearms and training in
their use ought to be provided free to the minority popu¬
lation settled on the border, to facilitate self-protection.
They agreed, however, that the problem of trans-border
raids could be finally and adequately solved only by the
majority community being awakened to its sense of duty
towards the minority community. Gandhiji in reply told
them that whilst he could support their demand that
licences for keeping firearms should be freely issued on
application, it would be too much to expect the Govern¬
ment to distribute firearms free amongst the entire border
population. They could raise a fund for free distribution
of firearms if they wanted, but he had his doubts whether
free distribution of and training in the use of firearms
would solve the question of trans-border insecurity. If
the experience during the recent raid at Bannu was any
guide, such a step would prove to be an expensive
pedantry. During the Bannu raid, he was told, only one
gun on the part of the citizens w r as in play although there

J34 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

was no lack of firearms in the city at the time of the raid
and even that gun caused more casualties among the pub¬
lic than among the raiders. He, however, agreed with
them in regard to what they had observed about the duty
of the majority community. Badshah Khan was trying to
prepare the Khudai Khidmatgars for discharging their
duty of protecting citizens against raids.

The deputationists discussed several other things with
Gandhiji, who told them they had better discuss them
with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad * and perhaps with Babu
Rajendraprasad. j who were deputed by the Working
Committee to visit the Frontier Province.

A few remarks in connection with the position of
these minority elements in the North-'West Frontier Pro¬
vince at the time of Gandhiji’s visit would not be out of
place here. The total population of the North-West Fron¬
tier Province was then 24.7 lakhs, out of which 22.5 lakhs
were Mussulmans, 1.5 lakhs Hindus, 47.9 thousand Sikhs,
16.4 thousand Christians, 62 Parsees, 11 Jews and 3 Bud¬
dhists. Expressed in percentages the population of Mus¬
sulmans varied from 95 per cent in the Hazara District
to 86 per cent in Dera Ismail Khan. Money-lending and
trade were predominantly in the hands of Hindus and
Sikhs, who in the past, owing to their better education,
held more than their share in public services. Of late,
they had been exposed to growing Muslim competition,
and competition had brought in its train the spirit of
rivalry, which in its turn served further to provoke the
nemesis that inevitably follows success. The successful
Rai Bahadur who accumulated a vast fortune out of his
military contracts naturally excited the greed of the trans-
border Waziri and Mahsud raider, who justified to himself
his predatory activity by conveniently equating the rich
man with the agent who helped to equip the mili¬
tary machine that led expeditions into tribal terri-

* The leader of the Nationalist Indian Muslims. He was later
elected President of the Congress.

f Member of the Congress Working Committee, at present Pre¬
sident of the Indian Constituent Assembly.

MORE SERMONS OX NON-VIOLENCE 135

tor} 7 . To the Mussulman politician, Congressite or
otherwise, he gave ground. for the complaint that
whilst he made his fortune in their province and
claimed protection and special privileges as a member
of the minority community, he was anxious only to
bask in the sunshine of official favour and never
showed any inclination to help any progressive cause
either with money or personal service. Talent and effi¬
ciency in members of a minority community are likely
to become a trap and a snare unless they are joined to a
spirit of altruistic service. The majority community will
soon learn to love and treasure them if they use their
superior talents and efficiency for service of the province
of their adoption. They will only arouse antagonism if
their superior talents and efficiency are only cited as an
argument for grabbing more positions of vantage and
power.

At one place it was complained that the Hindus and
Sikhs regarded contact with the Mussulmans as polluting.
This, Gandhiji pointed out, if true, was a travesty of true
religion. An equal regard and reverence for faiths other
than one’s own is a duty everywhere and always. But, in
the case of a microscopic minority that is placed in the
midst of an overwhelming majority holding a different
faith from its own, it becomes the primary condition of
its existence. If, however, it is a virtue of necessity for
the minority community, to hold in due respect the faith
and feelings of the majority community, it should be the
privilege and duty of the majority community to show
■scrupulous regard for the faiths and feelings of the mino¬
rities.

What gave the keenest satisfaction to Gandhiji was
the fact that throughout the tour not even the bitterest
critics of Dr. Khan Saheb’s Ministry charged the Khan
Brothers with harbouring communal bias or questioned
their sincerity.

CHAPTER XV

THE SHADOW OF PARTING

The programme at Abbottabad concluded with a
public meeting at which several addresses and a consoli¬
dated purse of Rs. 1,125 were presented to Gandhiji on
behalf of the whole district. Piquancy was added to the
proceedings by the circumstance that the framers of the
address had allowed their pen to run away with their
feelings and indulged in language of wild hyperbole to*
greet Gandhiji, whom they described as “ the greatest man.
on earth Gandhiji in a reply which was full of delicate-
banter gave them a severe castigation, for their use of un¬
balanced language, which they should remember for the
rest of their lives. “ I thank you for the address that you
have presented to me,” he began. “ You have in your
address expressed your gratification at having in your
midst ‘ the greatest man on earth ’. I wondered as I
listened to your address as to who that ‘ greatest man ’
could be. Certainly it could not be I. I know my short¬
comings but too well. There is a celebrated story about
Solon the great law-giver of Athens. He was asked by
Croesus, who was reputed to be the wealthiest man of his-
age, to name the happiest man on earth. Croesus had:
fondly hoped that Solon would name him. But Solon re¬
plied that he could say nothing as no one could be adjudg¬
ed happy before his end.”' “If,” continued Gandhiji,
" Solon found it difficult to pronounce on a man’s happi¬
ness during his lifetime, how much more difficult it must
be to adjudge a man’s greatness ? True greatness is not
found set upon a hill, for the vulgar crowd to gaze at. On
the contrary, my seventy years’ experience has taught me
that the truly great are often those of whom and of whose
greatness the world knows nothing during their lifetime.
God alone is judge of true greatness, because He alone
knows men’s hearts.”

136

THE SHADOW OF PARTING

137

Quoting again from the address he continued his
vivisection : “ Not only the inhabitants of Abbottabad,

but even the sun, the moon and the stars here were eager
to have a glimpse of me ! Am I to understand, my good
friends, that your city has all to itself a separate set of
sun, moon and stars which do not shine upon Wardha or
Sevagram ? In Kathiawad we have a class of people
known as bhats or professional bards who make it their job
to sing the praises of their chieftains for money. Well, I
won’t call you bhats — mercenaries ! ” (A voice from the
audience : * We had instead to pay money along with the
address ! ’) But Gandhiji was not to be put off so easily. He
continued, “ Banter apart, I -want you to realize that it is
wrong to indulge in hyperbolic praises of your leaders.
It neither helps them nor their work. I would like you
once for all to forget this practice of presenting laudatory
addresses. At three score and ten, I for one, have no de¬
sire to let what little time God has still left me to t be frit¬
tered away in listening to hyperbolic balderdash. If an
address must be presented I would like it to be descriptive
of the defects and shortcomings of the recipient of the
address so that he might be helped to turn the searchlight
inward and weed them out.

“ Ever since my arrival in this province I have been
trying to expound to the Khudai Khidmatgars the doc¬
trine of non-violence in all its uncompromising complete¬
ness, abating nothing, holding back nothing. I do not claim
to have understood the meaning of non-violence in its
entirety. What I have realized is only a small and insig¬
nificant fraction of the great whole. It is not given to*
imperfect man to grasp the whole meaning of non-vio¬
lence or to practise it in full. That is an attribute of God
alone, the Supreme Ruler who suffers no second. But
I have constantly and ceaselessly striven for over half a
century to understand non-violence and to translate it
into my own life. The Khudai Khidmatgars have no
doubt set a brilliant example in the practice of non-vio¬
lence, to the extent to which they have understood it. It
has earned for them universal admiration. But they have

X3S ' A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

now to move a step further. Their conception, of non¬
violence has to be broadened and their practice of it, espe¬
cially in its positive aspects, to be made fuller and deeper,
if they are to come out successful in the final heat. Non¬
violence is not mere disarmament. Nor is it the weapon
of the weak and the impotent. A child who has not the
strength to wield the lathi does not practise non-violence.
More powerful than armaments, non-violence is a unique
force that has come into the world. He who has not learnt
to recognize in it a weapon infinitely more potent than
brute force has not understood its true nature. This non¬
violence cannot be ‘ taught ’ by word of mouth. But it can
be kindled in our heart through the grace of God, in
answer to earnest prayer. It is stated that today there are
one lakh of Khudai Khidmatgars who have adopted non¬
violence as their creed. But before them as early as 1920,
Badshah. Khan had come to recognize in non-violence a
weapon, the mightiest in the world, and his choice was
made. Eighteen years of practice of non-violence have
only strengthened his faith in it. He has seen how it has
made his people fearless and strong. The prospect of
losing a paltry job used to unnerve them. They feel
•different beings today. At three score and ten, my faith
in non-violence today burns brighter than ever. People
say to me, ‘ Your programme of non-violence has been
before the country now for nearly two decades, but where
is the promised independence ? ’ My reply is that although
the creed of non-violence was professed by millions, it
was practised by but a few and that, too, as a policy only.
But with all that the result that has been achieved is
sufficiently striking to encourage me to carry on the ex¬
periment with the Khudai Khidmatgars, and God willing,
it will succeed.”

Gandhiji left Abbottabad to return to Sevagram on
the morning of 9th November. On his way, he paid a
visit to the famous archaelogical remains of Taxila. The
journey was done under the shadow of impending parting.
Four weeks of the closest communion in the common quest
of non-violence had brought Gandhiji ever so much closer

THE SHADOW OF PARTING

139

to Badshah Khan and his Old Guard of Khudai 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 his
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
he 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.
' I 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

140

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

to know gold from tinsel. I shall wait / 7 He mentioned
to Gandhiji an incident of non-co-operation days in the
North-West Frontier Province which reads like a little
epic of non-violence. At Charsadda the Khudai Khidmat-
gars had organized a public meeting. Before long
the military arrived on the scene and ordered them to-
disperse, which they refused to do. A lathi charge
was then ordered and was followed by the order to open
fire. But all that had little effect. The people refused to
budge and remained sitting unperturbed. The military
were taken aback. They were not prepared for such
calm determination on the part of the fiery Pathan. They
stopped firing after the first few rounds. A big crowd
had formed round them. His nephew Saaduila Khan was
there. “ What is it you want ? 77 the officer commanding
asked him. “ Nothing / 7 replied Saaduila, Dr. Khan
Saheb’s son. “ Allow us to depart. Give us way / 7 fumbled
out the military officer. And they passed out unhurt,
through the vast mass of people.

CHAPTER XVI

PESHAWAR KHADI EXHIBITION

In view of the central place which Gandhiji assigned
to khadi and organization of cottage industries in the
scheme of non-violence, he agreed to perform the opening
ceremony of a khadi exhibition at Peshawar, the first of
its kind in the North-West Frontier Province, that was
organized by the Punjab Branch of the All-India Spin¬
ners’ Association. The exhibition was held with the full
support and co-operation of the Frontier , Government.
Among those who rendered particular help were the Min¬
ister in charge of Industries, and the various officials con¬
nected with Health, Industries, Agriculture and Prison
Departments. The Khudai Khidmatgars supplied a corps
of volunteers. All the Ministers and a large section of
the gentry, especially the ladies, attended the exhibition.

Premier Khan Saheb and Dr. Gopichand Bhargava,
the agent of the Punjab branch of the All-India Spinners’
Association, in their joint address introducing the All-
India Spinners’ Association, made some striking remarks
which are worth pondering over.

“The All-India Spinners’ Association has over 600
production centres and sale bhandars (depots) in different
parts of India and Burma. It was serving 6,029 villages
in different parts of the country in the year 1932 ; in the
year 1937 their number increased to 10,280. In the current
year' (1938-1939) the number of villages served will be
somewhere near 20,000 at least. During the year 1936
there were 1,13,489 registered spinners and weavers
working under the Association; in the year 1937 the
figure rose to 1,91,094. In the current year the number
of registered spinners and weavers working under the
Association will come to nearly 4,00,000. The total pro¬
duction in the year 1936 was 23,75,694 yards while in the
year 1937 it rose to 30,15,339. During the half year ending

141

142

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

June 20th in the current year the production has been,
over 24 lakhs of rupees and the figure is sure to go over
50 lakhs of rupees. In the year 1937 seven lakhs of
rupees were distributed by way of wages and this is likely
to be at least doubled this year.

" Bombay and Ahmedabad mills with a capital of
over 50 erores of rupees are providing labour for 1,75.000
men while the All-India Spinners’ Association with a
capital of 25 lakhs is providing labour for over 1,60,000
men iexcluding workers employed by certified centres).
Further, while it requires only Re. 1/- to Rs. 3/- to buy'
a spinning wheel and give employment to a worker, it
needs Rs. 60/- to put up one spindle in a mill, and one
man can manage 200 spindles. So that a sum of
Rs. 12,000 will be necessary to give employment to one
man.

“ The following telling figures would illustrate the
strides that the country has taken towards the goal of
self-sufficiency under the inspiration provided by the
khadi movement, during the Civil Disobedience move¬
ment :

“ Production in Indian mills in 1920-21, before the
Civil Disobedience movement, was 158 erores of square
yards of cloth worth 63 erores of rupees. In 1921-22, after
the inauguration of Civil Disobedience, it stood at 173
erores of square yards. The figure stood at 242 erores of
square yards in 1929-30. In 1930-31 it shot up to 256
square yards. As against this the figure for cloth import¬
ed from foreign mills in 1920-21 was 141 crore square
yards worth 80 erores of rupees. In 1921-22 it dropped
to 98 crore yards worth 40 erores of rupees. In 1929-30,
it again shot up to 242 crore square yards but after the
resumption of Civil Disobedience in 1930-31, it again
dropped down to 81 crore square yards and further de¬
clined to 69 crore square yards in 1931-32.”

Still more striking was Premier Khan Saheb’s
reply to those critics who have tried to dub the Associa¬
tion as a communal organization: “ Our critics have
sometimes remarked that the Charkha Sangh is merely a

PESHAWAR KHADI EXHIBITION

143

Hindu organization. The following figures giving the
communal proportion will show that people of all corn-

munities without

distinction

are working under the

Association :

Spinners

Weavers

Total

Hindus

1,07,150

5,529

1,12,670

Muslims

50,23S

3,862

54,100

Harijans

15,940

3,702

19,842

Other communitie

s 335

—

335

Total

1,73,663

13,093

1,86,956

“ Within the

last 13 years of its existence,

although

only a very meagre proportion of our people have yet
taken seriously to khadi , it has distributed over
Rs. 4,00,00,000 in wages. How wonderful the result must
be if all or even a good majority take to it.”

Referring next to the neighbouring non-Congress-
Government of the Punjab,* Doctor Khan Saheb con¬
cluded : “ The Punjab Government which, by the way, is
no Congress Government, has been forced, by the logic of
facts, to accept khadi as the only specific for famine relief.
In Hissar, it has sanctioned Rs. 25,000 for organizing
spinning centres and I understand they are going to in¬
crease the amount further.

“ The day is not far ■when the most sceptical will be
forced to admit that the charkha is the only specific for
India’s economic ills.” Dr. Khan Saheb ended with a
passionate exhortation to establish a khadi centre in
every town and village of the North-West Frontier
Province.

Gandhiji in his written message in Hindustani, which
was printed and distributed among the visitors, made
some incisive observations on Swadeshi. “ Do not be
misled by names,” he warned his hearers. “ A piece of
Japanese cloth cannot become Swadeshi merely by being

* There was a Coalition Unionist Ministry in the Punjab at that

time.

144

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

labelled ‘ Swadeshi Only an article which is wholly
manufactured in India by the labour of India’s millions
living in the villages and out of raw materials grown in
India deserves the name of Swadeshi.

,c Khadi alone, it will be seen, fully satisfies this test
all other cloth is a travesty of Swadeshi. Just as there
can be no dawm without the sun, so there can be no
genuine Swadeshi without khadi.

“ Judged by this test, Peshawar is left far behind in
the race for Swadeshi. There is only one Khadi Bhandar
here and that too is being run at a loss. I hope that one
result of this Exhibition will be to put the Khadi Bhandar
on a firm footing and to preclude the possibility of its
having to close down.”

Declaring the exhibition open, in his oral remarks
Gandhiji gave some plain talk to the Frontier Ministers
and Congress M. L. A.’s for not wearing khadi. “ Dr.
Gopichand,” he observed, “ has thanked the Ministers for
the help that they are giving to khadi work. But I find that
neither all the Ministers nor all Congress M.L.A.’s here
use khadi as habitual wear. Some wear it only in the
Assembly. Some do not do that even. This is contrary
to both the spirit and the letter of the Congress Constitu¬
tion. Even the red shirts have yet to become khadi

shirts.if they all take to khadi, the one lakh of them

will in less than no time make the whole province khadi-
clad. This province is rich in the resources for the manu¬
facture of khadi but it comes last in respect of khadi
work actually done.

“ I would like you all to visit the Exhibition in a
spirit of enquiry and study. Organization of khadi pro¬
duction, unlike textile mill industry, does not require
lakhs of capital and highly specialized technical skill.
Even a layman can take it up. I hope that this first
Khadi Exhibition in the Frontier Province will be follow¬
ed by many more in the near future.”

The Exhibition was held in a school building which
was tastefully decorated with arches and buntings. Stalls
and boxes were improvised by ingeniously putting to-

\< >l\ .LSI }|(|(]

PESHAWAR KHADI EXHIBITION

145

gether tables, writing desks, and benches. The walls of
the khadi court were hung with instructive mottoes ex¬
plaining the economics of khadi ; and statistics of prices
-of different varieties of khadi and an analysis of their cost
of production to show that in khadi activity there could
be no scope for profiteering. The latest patterns of khadi
from the finest Andhra to thick bed clothing from upper
India and all the various lines from coating to saris ,
chintzes and prints from all parts of India were duly re¬
presented. Local manufactures were represented by a
fair variety of woollens, elegant embroidered chugas (over¬
coats of indigenous designs) and Swati blankets which
are amazingly cheap for their quality, and stuffs from the
Kagan valley in the Hazara District and Chitral, which
owing to very soft fleece that is found there showed the
immense possibilities of the development of woollen in¬
dustries in these parts.

The last day was set apart as the ‘ Ladies’ Day ’
when the khadi court proved itself to be so popular as to
take the organization by storm. They came in their
thousands, a fair sprinkling among them with notebooks
and pencils in hand and showed keen interest in khadi by
taking down texts of the more striking of the khadi
mottoes. The sales exceeded all expectations and all lines
in the ladies’ section were exhausted, more having had to
be indented telegraphically from the Punjab. In the
meantime the gentlemen’s printed turban stuff was requi¬
sitioned for feminine wear !

Next to the khadi court in popularity was the techni¬
cal court where all the processes involved in the manufac¬
ture of khadi were demonstrated. Of special interest was
a modified spindle-holder which took in a bare spindle
turned by a resin-coated string. It cost only five annas
and increased the revolutions of the old style Punjabi
charkha from 50 to 140.

Paper manufacture and different varieties of palm
and cane gur were shown in still another section. The
Government departments of Health, Agriculture and
Industries also had brought their exhibits. A comparative

P-10

146

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

study of a clean and well-planned village and an ill-plan¬
ned unclean one was provided in clay models. There were
also clay models of a village house, an orchard and culti¬
vated fields.

Entrance to the exhibition was free. This as
Gandhiji pointed out to the organizers was a mistake, as
payment of even a nominal fee is found to go a long way
towards ensuring a measure of genuine interest. The rush
on the first „day was so great that admission had to be
closed to all except women. Even so there was a lot of
gate-crashing and window smashing. The khadi sale for
the six days amounted to over Rs. 4,400/- which was re¬
markable, considering that the average annual sale of
khadi over the last decade in the local Khadi Bhandar had
never gone beyond Rs. 6,000/-.

The expenses of the Exhibition, leaving aside the-
essential expenses, i. e. on railway fare, freight, octroi, etc.,
amounted to only Rs. 220/-. Out of this should be deduct¬
ed the expenses on decorations, mottoes and charts as
these were permanent assets whose use would not cease-
with the Exhibition.

CHAPTER XVII

TAXILA — I

THE PAST SPEAKS

“ Where there is no knowledge of the past.

There is no vision of the future.”

— Rafael Sabitini

The past is always before us. Again and again, in the
endless spiral of human progress, we look down from
different heights upon the same familiar milestones.

“ Trembling at that at which we stood before ”

Those below provide the key to those that lie ahead.
The substance is the same, the context is different. It only
needs humility and receptivity of mind to unlock the
secret. To stand, for instance, on top of Mount Pisagh, like
Fielding King Hall, a thousand feet above the north¬
ern entrance to the Khyber, and look across eighty miles
into Afghanistan up the Kabul river valley, is to hear the
foot-falls of two thousand years. And what a tale of
human tragedy, glamour and wild romance they unfold!

Gandhiji rounded off his tour of the Frontier Province
by a visit to the ruins of Taxila before entraining at the
railway station of that name for Wardha — and most ap¬
propriately, too. Indeed, the tour of the Frontier Province
would have been incomplete without it. If four weeks of
the closest communion with Badshah Khan and his Khudai
Khidmatgars were needed to bring home the fact that the
non-violence movement of the Khudai Khidmatgars is
not a mere excrescence of a temporary and passing phase,
but is an organic development answering an inner neces¬
sity of their social existence, it needed a visit to Taxila
to dispel another notion which is all but universal about
the Pathans. It has been remarked by sceptics that non¬
violence is at best an exotic growth in the North-West
Frontier Province with but little chance of flourishing

147

148

A PILGRLMAGE FOR PEACE

in that inhospitable soil. It is little realized that for over
one thousand years, the flower of Buddhism flourished m
these parts in all its pristine glory. The whole of the
Swat and the Kabul river valleys and the region beyond
and across Afghanistan right to Khotan, is strewn thick
with the remains of stupas, monasteries and pillars, and
Buddhist relics that tell their own tale. It was by way
of Taxila and Gandahar that Northern Buddhism spread to
China. And when the present-day Khudai Khidmatgar
signs the pledge of non-violence in thought, word and
deed, he is only following in the footsteps of his forbears
who meditated over the meaning of
(Let a man conquer anger with non-anger) in the cloister¬
ed peace of the ancient university town of Takshashila in
the company of the Chinese pilgrim students who flocked
there across the Gobi desert.

Thanks to the labours of Sir John Marshall and the
amateur archaelogists like Crancroft, Delmerick and Cun¬
ningham before him, we can take a leap across the cen¬
turies and with a little imagination resurrect to ourselves
in all its vivid and colourful detail this most fascinating
page in the history of the Frontier Province. Twenty miles
north-west of Rawalpindi and immediately to the east
and north-east of the railway junction of Taxila are
the three distinct cities, the remains of ancient Taksha¬
shila as it was rebuilt and shifted from place to place in
the course of time. There is a mention of Takshashila
in the Mahabharata in connection with the serpent sacri¬
fice of Janamejaya. Arrian has referred to it as a great
and flourishing university town — “the greatest indeed
of all the cities which lay between the Indus and the
Hydaspes (Jhelum) and famous at that time, and during
the centuries immediately following, for its arts and
sciences of the day.”

In addition to these three city sites there are a num¬
ber of detached monuments, mainly Buddhist stupas and
monasteries, scattered over the face of the country. Of
these Gandhiji visited the remains of the Buddhist monas¬
tery at Jaulian. Perched on the top of a hill 300 feet

THE PAST SPEAKS

149

high, this monastery at one time provided an ideal retreat
to the members of the Buddhist Sangha and student pil¬
grims who had pledged themselves to shun delights and
live laborious days Its dominating position on the hill
commanding a panorama, its calm seclusion, and its “ cool
and dustless ” air must have appealed immensely to the
aesthetic sense of these people who regarded free com¬
munion with nature in its unsoiled and unspoiled fresh¬
ness as an essential aid to meditation. The monument con¬
sists of a monastery with two stupa courts on different
levels. The stupa courts are open quadrangles with small
alcoves and recesses running along the sides, and were
intended to serve as shrines for cult images. In the monas¬
tery again the open quadrangle is surrounded by ranges
of small cells for meditation and stud} 7 . One sees here
the kitchen where these people cooked their food, the
refectory, bathroom, the wells at the bottom of the hill
from where they fetched Vater, and the path by which
they went to the contiguous town of Sirkush to
obtain alms. In the cells may be seen the earthen pots
and cups for drinking water left just as they were used
by the inmates two thousand years ago. Some of the
finest and best preserved specimens of Gandahar art are
to be found in this monastery.

A short distance from it are the excavated remains
of Sirkap, the second of the three successive city sites,
where Takshashila stood in the early years of the second
century B. C. It is surrounded by a stone wall 6,000 yards
in circumference and from 15 to 20 feet thick. Up hill
and down dale it straggles, enclosing within its perimeter
three rocky and precipitous ridges of the Hathial spur,
besides an isolated flat-topped hill. The city, according
to Greek accounts, was as big as Nineveh and contained
a temple of the Sun and a royal palace. It is laid out
on a symmetrical plan. The streets are narrow and irre¬
gular after the style of Greek cities of those days. And
the houses, we are told, had the appearance of being one¬
storied, but had in reality basement rooms underground.
In 400 A. D. Fa Hien found the town, as well as the great

150

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Buddhist sanctuaries around, still relatively vigorous and
flourishing. The Buddhistic arts and culture reached their
zenith in the period of the Mauryan Empire and fell be¬
fore the ruthless and wanton destruction of white Huns
after 455 A. D.

Viewing these remains after a tour of the relics in
the museum that have been recovered from these excava¬
tions, one could easily picture to oneself in all its varie¬
gated detail the life that the people who once thronged
those resounding streets and habited these dwellings lived
— the clothes they wore, the brass and bell metal utensils
they ate from or used for cooking. The grinding stones,
pounding slabs and big earthen storage jars from 3 to 4
feet high, which were found intact and in position, were
so exactly like their counterparts in use in Indian villages
today that, if surreptitiously interchanged, they would
defy detection. In the museun^ one found clay carts and
toy soldiers and monks still warm, as it were, from the
caresses of tiny innocent hands that played with them
2,000 years ago, the counterparts of which any village
child of today could produce from his home. Similarly,
the vessels and the rest of the paraphernalia that were
employed in the performance of domestic ceremonies
seemed so familiar as to make one feel that if by a trick
of H. G. Wells’ time machine, one could be transported
back into that age and step into one of those homes while
those ceremonies were on, one could take part in them
without any feeling of strangeness. Even their little
vanities have been handed down to us in the' form of
combs, mirrors, razors and such other articles of toilet,
tiny round vermilion boxes and collyrium sticks and gold
and silver jewellery. “ Just like what my mother used to
wear,” exclaimed Gandhiji, with an affectionate sigh, as
a pair of heavy silver anklets was shown to him by the
curator!

What were these people’s thoughts, the beliefs
that they held, the customs and institutions which
regulated their society ? Strabo, Arrian and other
Greek savants, who accompanied Alexander in his march

THE PAST SPEAKS

151

or followed in his wake, have left a contemporaneous
account of the laws and customs and institutions into
which the Buddhistic doctrine of non-violence blossomed
forth here. Individual freedom occupied the central place
in this social order. “ Of several remarkable customs
existing among the Indians,” records Arrian, “ there is
■one prescribed by the ancient philosophers which one may
regard as truly admirable. For. the law ordains that no
one among them shall, under any circumstances, be a
slave, but that, enjoying freedom themselves, they shall
respect the equal right to it which all possess. For those,
they thought, who have learned neither to dominate over
nor cringe to others will attain the life best adapted for
all vicissitudes of lot, for it is but fair and reasonable to
institute laws which bind all equally, while allowing pro¬
perty to be unequally distributed.”

Special care was taken of foreigners and strangers,
■and their security was equally guaranteed with those of
native citizens. Officers -were appointed whose duty it
was to see that no foreigner was wronged : “ Should any
of them lose health, they send physicians to attend him
and take care of him otherwise, and if he dies they bury
him, and deliver over such property as he leaves to his
relatives. The judges also decide cases in which foreign¬
ers are concerned with the greatest care and come down
sharply on those who take unfair advantage of them ! ”

Usury was unknown and complicated litigation not
provided for by the laws. “The Indians,” runs one of
the classical texts unearthed by McCrindle, “ neither put
out money at usury, nor know how to borrow. It is con¬
trary to established usage for an Indian either to do or
suffer a wrong, and therefore they neither make contracts
nor require securities.”

And thus another fragment: “ Among the Indians,
one who is unable to recover a loan or a deposit has no
remedy at law. All the creditor can do is to blame himself
for trusting a rogue ! ”

The practice of medicine was fairly common. But
serious illness, particularly of a contagious nature, was-

152

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

regarded as an uncleanness and corruption of the flesh
to be terminated by self-immolation. Kalanos, the Indian,
sage, who fell from grace and accompanied Alexander on.
his march back from India, having got acute dysentery
burnt himself to death by mounting on a funeral pyre in
spite of the Macedonian's personal entreaties. “ Cures,”'
we are further told, “ were effected rather by regulating
diet than by the use of medicines. The remedies most
esteemed were ointments and plasters. All others were
considered to be in a great measure pernicious.”

While fighting was not altogether abolished, it was
restricted rigorously to the warrior caste. The cultivator
class, which was “ far more numerous than the others ”,
was exempted from fighting and other public service:
“ Nor would an enemy coming upon a husbandman at his
work on his land, do him any harm, for men of this class
being regarded as public benefactors, are protected from
all injury. The land thus remaining unravaged and pro¬
ducing heavy crops, supplies the inhabitants with all the
requisites to make life enjoyable.”

What a remarkable echo this of the following by
Raverty about the present-day Frontier Pathans : “ When
fighting amongst each other the Pathans of these parts
never interfere with or injure the helots of each other,
nor do they injure their women or children, or their guests
or strangers within the gates, and such might serve as an.
example to nations laying claim to a higher state of civili¬
zation.”

Far away in Pataliputra, Kautilya the economist,
migrating from his birthplace of Taxila, organized an eco¬
nomic system that was based upon the principle of “ unto
this last ”. Hear the following from his Arthashastra :
“ Those women who do not stir out of their houses, those
whose husbands are gone abroad and those who are crip¬
ple, or girls may, when obliged to work for their subsist¬
ence. be provided with work (spinning out threads) in due
courtesy through the medium of maid servants of a wea¬
ving establishment. Those women who can present them¬
selves at the weaving house shall at dawn be enabled to

THE PAST SPEAKS

153

exchange their spinning for wages. Gnh' so much light
as be enough to examine the threads shall be kept. If
the superintendent looks at the faces of such women or
talks about any other work, he shall be punished with
the first amercement. Delay in paying the wages shall be
punished with uttermost amercement; likewise when
wages are paid for work that is not completed.”

About half a century later Taxila came under the
operation of Asoka’s edicts, some of which can be seen
today at Shahbazgarh. Here are a few gleanings from
them which might well serve as leading texts for the
nations of the earth today : u The practice of virtue is
difficult, but those who practise virtue perform what is

difficult. To do evil is easy. .......Thirteen years

after my anointment I have created ministers of religion
(*r5 JT?TflT3r). They mix with Warriors and with Brahmins .
with the rich and the poor and the aged, the Yavanas r
the Gandharvas and with other frontier (anspcr) nations.
They bring comfort to him who is in fetters, remove his
obstacles and deliver him, because he has a family to sup¬
port, because he has been the victim of deceit, and be¬
cause he is bent with age.”

The following is about the administration of public-
justice : “ This is what I have done. At all moments,
during meals, during repose, in the inner apartments, hi
the secret chamber, in my retreat in the garden, every¬
where, officers entrusted with information about the
affairs of my people come to me, and I despatch the con¬
cerns relating to my people. Thus I have directed that
'wherever there is a division, a quarrel, in the assembly
of the clergy, it should always be reported to me, for there
cannot be too much activity employed in the administra¬
tion of justice.In incessant activity and the pro¬

per administration of justice lies the root of public-

good.All my endeavours have but this one object

— to pay this debt due to my people.”

Here is a present of a Frontier policy to those whom
it may concern. Never was it needed more badly than to¬
day : “ It is with this object that his religious inscription.

154

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

has been engraved in order that our sons and grandsons

may not think.that conquest by the sword deserves

the name of conquest, that they may see in it nothing bul
destruction and violence,.that the unsubdued bor¬

ders should not be afraid of me, that they should trust
me, and should receive from me happiness, not sorrow.’’

And the grandest of all is the following about religious
toleration : “ It is true the prevalence of essential virtues
differs in different sects. But there is a common basis
and that is gentleness and moderation in language. Thus
one should not exalt one’s own sect and decry the others.
One should not deprecate them without cause, but should
render them on every occasion the honour that they de¬
serve. Striving thus, one promotes the welfare of one’s
■own sect while serving others. Striving otherwise one
does not serve his own sect and does disservice to others.
And whoever, from attachment to his own sect and with
a view to promote it, exalts it and decries others, only
deals rude blows to his own sect. Hence concord alone
is meritorious, so that all bear and love to bear the belief
•of each others.”

Finally let me give the following text on authori¬
tarianism in propagating religion : “ The progress of reli¬
gion among men is secured in two ways : by positive rules
.and by religious sentiments which one can inspire in them.
Of these tw T o methods, that of positive rules is of poor
value ; it is the inspiration in the heart that best prevails.
Positive rules consist in what I order — when, for in¬
stance, I prohibit the slaughter of certain animals or lay
down other religious rules as I have done to a large num¬
ber. But it is wholly by a change in the sentiments of the
heart, that religion makes a real advance in inspiring a
respect for life. It is with this view that I have promul¬
gated this inscription, in order that it may endure for my

sons and my grandsons.For, by following this path

•one secures happiness here below, and in the other world.
Wherever this Edict exists, on pillars of stone, let it
■endure unto remote ages.”

To which one can only say * Amen

CHAPTER XVIII

TAXILA —II

WHEN THE WORLD CONQUEROR MET HIS MATCH

Reluctantly Gandhiji took leave of the pageant of
India’s glorious past that lay spread out before him. Re¬
flections crowded upon the mind thick and fast as
the train hurried the party away from the scene.
Twenty centuries have rolled by ; the wheel has come full
circle and humanity is once again faced with the question
of questions which, like the riddle of the Sphinx, it must
answer to itself or perish. Is there a power that can be
matched against the power of armaments ? What must
prevail in the end — temporal might or the spirit of man ?
It would be interesting to recall the answer to this poser
that was furnished by Indian sannyasis three hundred
years before the Christian era.

The story of the Greek invasion of India under Alex-
.ander the Great provides many an interesting footnote to
Indian history. But nothing is perhaps of more absorbing
interest today, owing to its symbolical value, than the
story of the encounter between the Macedonian and the
Indian sages in the valley of Taxila that has been faith¬
fully and minutely recorded by various Greek historians.

The fighting gave occasion for much heroism on both
sides, of which there was frank and mutual recognition.
Xing Paurava (called by the Greek Porus), worsted in
fight, more than regained what he had lost on the battle¬
field by his cool courage and fortitude in defeat. Being
asked as to how he thought the victor should treat him,
lie replied, “ With the lesson which this day teaches, a
•day on which you have witnessed how readily prosperity
can be blasted.” This spirited reply was appreciated by
Alexander more, observes the historian, than an entreaty
would have been.

155

156

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Militarily it went well with the Greeks, and every¬
thing fell before the prowess of Alexander’s arms. But
the World Conqueror felt that he had met more than his
match when he was confronted by men who baffled him
by their dialectical skill and still another who, though
unarmed, had rendered himself invulnerable, by virtue of
his spiritual power against which no earthly weapon could
prevail.

Near Peshawar, records the historian, Alexander cap¬
tured ten sannyasis who were principally concerned in
persuading King Sambhas to revolt and by infusing among*
the people an unconquerable spirit of resistance “ had
done much harm otherwise to Macedonians ”. He pro¬
posed for their solution some knotty conundrums with the
condition that “ he would put to death first the one whose
answer was the poorest and then the others in order.”

He demanded of the first which he took to be
most numerous — the living or the dead. The answer was,
“ The living, for the dead are not.”

The second was asked which bred the largest animals-
— the sea or the land. He answered, “ The land, for the
sea is only a part of it.”

The third was asked which was the cleverest of
beasts. He answered, “ That with which man is not ac¬
quainted.”

The fourth was asked for what reason he induced.
Sambhas to revolt. He replied, “ Because I wished him
to live with honour and die with honour.”

The fifth was asked which he thought existed first.
■— the day or the night. He answered, “ The day was
first by one day.” As the King appeared surprised at this
solution, he added, “ Impossible questions require impossi¬
ble answers.”

Alexander, then turning to the sixth, asked him how
a man could best make himself beloved. He replied, “ If
a man being possessed of great power did not make him¬
self feared.”

WHEN THE WORLD CONQUEROR MET HIS MATCH 157

Of the remaining three, one being asked how a man
could become a god, replied, “ By doing that which is im¬
possible for a man to do.”

The next being asked which of the two was stronger
— life or death, replied, “Life, because it bears so many
•evils.”

The last being asked how long it was honourable for
a man to live, answered, “ As long as he does not think it
better to die than to live.”

Upon this Alexander, turning to the judge, requested
him to give his decision. The judge said they had answer¬
ed “ each one worse than the other.”

“ Since such is your judgment,” retorted Alexander,
■“ you shall be yourself first to be put to death.”

“ Not so,” said he, “ 0 King, unless you are false to
your word, for you said that he who gave the worst
answer should be the first to die.”

On arriving at Taxila, it is recorded, the Macedonian
conceived a great desire that one of the sages should live
with him, because he admired their patience and stoical
fortitude in enduring hardships. Onesikritos, who was a
philosopher of the school of Diogenes, was thereupon sent
■with a message from the King to Dandamis, the president
and teacher of the order of sannyasis in that locality, to
fetch him.

There is hardly a more arresting figure in early Indian
history than this Indian sage who seems to combine in
his person the passion of a Savanarola with the directness
of Telemachus and a ripeness of wisdom and spiritual
power which outdistance them both. Through ceaseless
practice he had attained a complete self-mastery and de¬
tachment of spirit which made the pomp and panoply of
emperors look pale in his presence and reminded one of
the ancient Upanishadic text. arwispsjartfls'R h i

(The wise one who has realized the joy of Brahma
knows naught of fear). The imperial messenger found the
great sage stretched on a bed of leaves in a forest and
held a discourse with him.

158

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

The trend of the sage’s discourse was that the best
philosophy was that which liberated the mind from plea¬
sure and grief, that grief differed from labour, in that the
former was pernicious, the latter friendly to man. There¬
upon Onesikritos commented that Pythagoras taught a
like doctrine and instructed his disciples to abstain from
whatever had life ; that Socrates and Diogenes, whose
discourses he heard, held the same views. Dandamis
replied that in other respects he thought them to be wise,
but that they were mistaken “ in preferring custom to
nature,” else they would not be ashamed to live on frugal
fare and in uttermost simplicity. “ For, that house is the
best which requires least repairs.” Introducing next the
object of his visit Onesikritos began, “ Hail to thee, thou
teacher of Brahmins The son of the mighty God Zeus,
being Alexander who is the sovereign Lord of all men,
asks you to go to him, and if you comply, he will reward
you with great gifts, but if you refuse he will cut off your
head.”

The sage with a complaisant smile heard him to the
end, “ but did not so much as lift up his head from his-
couch of leaves,” and whilst still retaining his recumbent
attitude replied that he was also a son of Zeus if Alexander
was such, that he wanted nothing that was Alexander’s,
for he was content with what he had. whilst he saw that
the men with Alexander wandered over sea and land for
no advantage and were never coming to the end of their
wanderings : “ Go and tell Alexander,” he scornfully add¬
ed, “that God the supreme King is never the author of
insolent wrong, but is the creator of light, of peace, of life,
of water, of the body of man and of soul, and these he
receives when death sets them free, being in no way sub¬
ject to evil disease. He alone is the God of my homage,
who abhors slaughter and instigates no wars. But Alex¬
ander is no God, since he must taste of death. How can
such as he be the world’s master, when he has not yet
seated himself on a throne of universal dominion ? ”

Moreover, had Alexander solved the riddle of death
and life hereafter ? “ He has neither as yet entered living

WHEN THE WORLD CONQUEROR MET HIS MATCH 159

into Hades, nor does he know the course of the sun
through the central regions of the earth, while the nations
on its boundaries have not so much as heard his name.”

“ If his present dominions are not capacious enough for
his desires,” reprimanded the sage, " let him cross the
Ganges river, and there he will find a region able to sus¬
tain all his men. if the country on this side is too narrow
to hold him.

“ Know this, however, that what Alexander offers me*
and the gifts he promises are things to me utterly useless ;
but the things which I prize and find of real use and worth
are these ler.ves which are my house, these blooming
plants whn supply me with daily food, and the water
which is my drink ; while all other possessions and things
which are amassed with anxious care are wont to prove
ruinous to those who amass them, and cause only sorrow
and vexation, with which every poor mortal is' fully
fraught. But as for me I lie upon the forest leaves, and
having nothing which requires guarding, close my eyes in
tranquil slumber; whereas had I got anything to guard,
that would banish sleep. The earth supplies me with
everything even as a mother her child with milk. I go
wherever I please, and there are no cares with which I
am forced to cumber myself against my wish.

“ Should Alexander cut off my head, he cannot also
destroy my soul. My head alone now silent will remain,
leaving the body like a torn garment upon the earth,
whence also it was taken. I then, becoming spirit, shall
ascend to my God, who enclosed me in flesh and left us
upon earth to prove whether, when here below, we shall
live obedient to His ordinances and who also will require
of us, when we depart hence to His presence, an account
of our life, since He is judge of all proud wrong-doing:
for the groans of the oppressed become the punishment of
the oppressor.

“ Let Alexander then terrify with these threats those
who wish for gold and for wealth and who dread death,
for against us these weapons are both alike powerless.,
since the Brahmins neither love gold nor fear death.

160

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

“ Go then and tell Alexander this : Dandamis has no
need of aught that is yours, and therefore will not go to
you, and if you want anything from Dandamis come you
to him.”

Alexander on receiving from Onesikritos report of the
interview “ felt a stronger desire than ever to see Danda-
mis, who though old and naked was the only antagonist
in whom he, the conquerer of many nations, had met
more than his match.”

CHAPTER XIX

EPILOGUE

I

The Gathering Clouds

The march of events has rendered it necessary to
add an epilogue to the foregoing, to follow it up to its
poignant and strange sequel. In pursuance of the plan
which he had hammered out in consultation with Gan-
dhiji, Badshah Khan set up a centre at Sardaryab for the
training of the Khudai Khidmatgars. At his request Gan¬
dhi ji first sent Shrimati Mirabehn (Miss Slade) and then
Bibi Amtus Salam (a Muslim lady who has joined his Ash¬
ram and become like a daughter to him) to help Badshah
Khan especially in the work of education and social reform
among Muslim women. In 1939 Gandhiji again visited
the Frontier Province, but during the interval his health
had suffered a serious setback and he was unable to tour
the districts, or even to visit the Khudai Khidmatgar cen¬
tre. and he had to postpone to some future date the con¬
summation of his and Badshah Khan’s dream of going
and burying themselves among the Pathan folk and
Khudai Khidmatgar trainees, to conduct the experiment
of evolving the non-violence of the strong. But that was
never to be.

On 3rd September, 1939, war was declared between
England and France and the Axis Powers. On the 23rd
of October the Congress decided to go into the wilderness
and the Working Committee called upon the Congress
Ministries to resign as a protest against India being de¬
clared a belligerent country without her consent, and the
persistent refusal of the British Government to apply in
her case the principles for which the war was professed to
be fought. In obedience to that call the Congress Ministry

161

P-11

162

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

in the Frontier Province resigned on the 7th of November,
the resignation being accepted a week later. No alter¬
native Ministry could be formed following upon its re¬
signation, and the Governor’s rule under Section 93 of
the 1935 Government of India Act was clamped down
upon the province. (The deadlock continued till May,
1943.) On the 14th of October, 1940, after exhausting all¬
efforts for an honourable settlement, the Congress under
Gandhiji’s leadership launched upon an individual Civil
Disobedience campaign on the issue of No-Participation*
in-War and for the vindication of the right of free speech.
Events after that marched quick and fast, culminating in.
the August, 1942, ‘ Quit India ’ struggle.

Badshah Khan was a member of the Congress Work¬
ing Committee when the latter made its famous 1 Poona
Offer ’ of conditional co-operation in the war effort which
resulted in Gandhiji breaking away from it on the issue of
ahimsa. Badshah Khan too then resigned from the Work¬
ing Committee on the same issue. He was arrested and
put into prison during the ‘ Quit India ’ struggle, as were
Gandhiji and all other prominent Congressmen. Gandhiji.
was released in April, 1944. The face of things in the
Frontier Province had in the meantime changed. The-
Aurangzeb Ministry which had been installed in the place
of the Congress Ministry in May, 1943, by the Governor,
and which was keeping itself in office only by the arrest
and continued incarceration of the opposition members of
the legislature, had made itself thoroughly unpopular by
its cupidity, ineptitude and corruption. On 12th March,

1945, as a result of a no-confidence motion, it was over¬
thrown, and a Congress Ministry under Dr. Khan Saheb
once again came into power in the Frontier Province. One
of its first acts was to order the release of Badshah Khan,
the Khudai Khidniatgars and other popular political
prisoners.

The Cabinet Delegation arrived in India in March,

1946, and elections were held for the Central Assembly as
well as in the province in the month of May. Badshah
Khan took part in the 1946 elections. But it was more to-

EPILOGUE

163

educate the voters than to secure votes. “ I have not
come to beg votes because these votes and the present
Assemblies are not worth a penny to me,” he told them.
" I have brought you a message of friendship and good
wishes to achieve freedom for which you have fought for

years. You are on the threshold of freedom.avail

yourself of this chance. Don't miss the bus this time.”

Addressing the newly elected members of the Con¬
gress Parliamentary Party after the elections, he said,
“ You are aware that up to now I have taken no direct
interest either in the formation of the Ministry or in its
working. The reason is quite clear. I have never had

any inclination for such things.now.friends

have impressed upon me that working the parliamentary"
programme is also one of the ways of serving the poor
masses.”

On another occasion at Karachi, in a public address,
he was referred to as ‘ Sultan ’ ! His reply was charac¬
teristic. “ Brothers, I am very" grateful to you for this....
address. I am very sorry, you have referred to me as

Sultan.Our movement of Khudai Khidmatgars was

not intended to create Sultans. You know, the word

Sultan means a King and the word King.has spelt

poverty and misery.for the masses everywhere.

You are violating the very fundamentals of the Khudai
Khidmatgar movement, when you talk of Sultans.”

In October, 1946, Gandhiji set out for Noakhali to
build a golden bridge of reconciliation between Hindus
and Muslims after the fury that had broken loose as a
result of communal hatred preached by the protagonists
of the ‘ Two Nations ’ theory. It set up a chain of similar
communal outbreaks in other parts of the country in
Bihar, Calcutta, the U. P. and at last in the Punjab and in
Hazara in the Frontier Province and Sindh. It shook the
Khan Brothers to their depths but it only made their
faith burn brighter and clearer. In January? 1947, Badshah
Khan set out to join Gandhiji on his mission of peace and
mercy in Bihar, where his dignity and poise, rock-like
firmness and abiding faith in the essential goodness of

164

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

human nature and God stood out like a shining beacon in
the tempestuous darkness of the night.

“ The sincerity of the man which shows so trans¬
parently in every word he says has left a deep impression
on his audiences,” reported a hard-boiled pressman.

“ There was nothing new in what he said.Neverthe¬

less. the few simple words coming from a heavy heart
have struck an answering chord in many of his hearers.
The scenes of fraternization which marked one of the
Frontier Gandhi’s meetings and the coming together of
all communities in places of worship are reminiscent of
the Khilafat days.”

“ These are mere casual incidents,” the correspond¬
ent proceeded, “ but they are like a shining beam in the
prevailing darkness.”

“ Hindustan today seems an inferno of madness and
my heart weeps to see our homes set on fire by ourselves,”
Badshah Khan remarked at a joint gathering of Hindus,
Muslims and Sikhs in Gurudwara Harmandir, the birth¬
place of the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, in Patna City, to
which he had been invited. “ I find today darkness
reigning over Hindustan and my eyes vainly turn from
one direction to another to see light! ” He was fed up with
power politics, he said, and was deeply pained at the
hatred which he saw being preached all over India. As a
“ Servant of God ” he was eager only to be able to serve
suffering humanity. At the close of the-meeting, Hindus,
Sikhs, and Muslims accompanied him to a mosque adja¬
cent to the Gurudwara, exchanged greetings and embrac¬
ed one another.

“ I believe, India is inhabited by one single nation —
Hindus and Muslims included,” he declared at Monghyr.
“ There are provinces where Hindus are in a hopeless
minority, as there are places where Muslims are similarly
situated. If what has happened is repeated at other places
and the majority community try to crush and kill the
minority then surely the fate of the nation would be sealed
and it would be doomed to eternal slavery.” With his
characteristic directness, he told home truths to all

-EPILOGUE

165

concerned. He did not spare the Congress Minis¬
tries, and who had better right to speak to nationalist
India than he ? The Provincial Governments under the
popular Ministers were not powerful enough to check any
major trouble, he said. He appealed to the Muslim Lea¬
gue too. “ I would draw your attention to the fact that
the precepts of Islam are the most tolerant in the world

ana it we are

te Muslims we should realize this

and do our utmost to spread toleration amongst our bro¬

thers. .Today, I see, other communities are far more

tolerant. We should rectify this fault in ourselves.

to become true Muslims.”

But those were the days of mass dementia, and his
remained a voice in the wilderness. As early as December,
1946, from Bihar, incendiary propagandists had carried
the embers of communal conflagration to the Frontier,
and in February and March, 1947, there was again an out¬
break of lawlessness in the Hazara District, and lie had
to hurry back to his province. This is perhaps the most
critical period in the history of our country,” he observed
in a statement from Peshawar. “ Violence is in the air,
many of us have ceased to be men. We have become
savages.” The whole of his time in this Frontier Pro¬
vince, he said, would be devoted to weaning his correli-
gionists from savagery, whether in the Frontier or the
trans-Frontier. “ I have no quarrel with the Muslim Lea¬
gue or with the British official world. My ardent desire
is to see the Pathan and, for the matter of that, all peoples
of the world free from domination.”

“ I warn those who are setting our dear country on
fire that the fire kindled by them will consume them also,”
he observed addressing his first public meeting in his pro¬
vince after three and a half months of absence in Bihar.
“ I fail to understand how Islam can be served by setting

fire to religious places.and by killing and looting

innocent people.”

It gladdened his lacerated heart, however, that during
the March disturbances the Khudai Khidmatgars had
fully come up to his expectations and 10,000 of them, true

166

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

to their pledge, had rushed to the succour of their Hindu
and Sikh brethren in distress and helped to protect their
lives and property.

The more he pondered over the root cause of the orgy
of killing and devastation of innocent people’s hearths and
homes, the more distressed he became. But he never
lost heart and exhorted all sane elements not to
despair but to continue their peace efforts indefatigably.
“ Why do you despair of Hindu-Muslim unity ? ” he had
once told a scoffer and a sceptic. “ No true effort is vain.
Look at the fields over there. The grain sown therein has
to remain in the earth for a certain time, then it
sprouts, and in due time yields hundreds of its kind. The
same is the case with every effort in a good cause.” Ever
since his release in 1945, he had been devoting himself to
reorganizing and purifying the Khudai Khidmatgar move¬
ment. He now decided to send out bands of selfless Khudai
Khidmatgars on all-out tours in the province to appeal
to the conscience of the misguided people in the name of
God and humanity and bring home to them the error of
their ways. “ I hope and trust God will help me in the
sacred mission,” he said, “ and people will duly recognize
that the essence of love, truth and non-violence is the
hall-mark of every good, free and prosperous society ”.

II

A New Ordeal

But God had another ordeal in store for him. The
British Cabinet Delegation which had been sent to India,
had in its 16th of May Statement outlined a plan of
“ grouping ” as an “ integral part ” of their scheme for
the transfer of power to the people of India. The Muslim
majority areas in the North-Western and the Eastern
Frontiers of India, under this plan, were to be formed
into separate groups. The representatives of these res¬
pective groups would go into a section. The “ section ”
in its turn, would frame the constitution for the group,
individual units having the right to opt out by a majority

EPILOGUE

167

’vote of the representatives elected under the new group
constitution. Thus the North-West Frontier Province,
the Punjab, Baluchistan and Sindh came under group * B ’,
Assam and Bengal under group ‘ C ’, while the remaining
Provinces, not included in either of these two groups,
were put in Group ‘ A The idea was in this way to
create Muslim majority zones in the north-west and the
east, which would give to the Muslim League the “ sub¬
stance of Pakistan The snag lay in the fact that
although the foundation of the Cabinet Mission’s plan
had been declared to be voluntary, the effect of the group¬
ing clause would be to compel the North-West Frontier
Province, for instance, to join, against the wishes of its
•elected representatives, group ‘ B’ which would be
dominated by the protagonists of the “ Two Na¬
tions ” theory, which the former had categorically
repudiated. It was further conceivable that the “ sec¬
tion ” might frame a constitution which might render
it virtually impossible for a province to opt out of
the group afterwards. But on the assumption that
nobody could coerce a province to join a group if its people
were determined not to go into it, the Congress had
accepted the May 16 plan with its own interpretation of
the provisions relating to grouping, which would leave the
Frontier Province free to shape its destiny in the way
it chose. The Khan brothers were not much concerned
about the political aspect of grouping. They had no ob¬
jection to joining any group or section which was prepared
to guarantee to the Pathans full freedom to develop on
their own lines. As early as July, 1946, Badshah Khan
had declared, “ I have no objection to be in one group
with the Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan, but I must say
this — that before entering into such a partnership all of
us should sit like brothers and satisfy each other by re¬
moving certain doubts and assure one another that such
grouping is in the interest of each province. Some people
give it a religious colour, but that is not correct. What
has religion got to do with it ? This, is an economic pro¬
blem— a question of pure profit and loss. Nothing can

168

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

be done by force. Even a father cannot compel his son
these days. Apart from this there is the second import¬
ant question that requires attention — that of joining the
Hindus when we are surrounded on all sides by the Pun¬
jab. Sindh and Baluchistan. How can it be possible that
we should ignore one of our neighbours and over and
above that neighbour’s head join others ? If we ever
form a group, it can only be with the Punjab, Sindh and
Baluchistan and not with other provinces, as all Hindu
majority provinces are hundreds of miles away from us.’ r

But the 16th May plan of the Cabinet Delegation fell
through and on 20th of February. 1947, Mr. Atlee declared
in the House of Commons that in the event of an
agreement not being reached among the major parties as
regards the transfer of power and the future constitution
on the basis of the Cabinet Delegation’s May 16 plan, the
British would have to consider how and to whom to hand
over power on retirement. It was hinted that in the case
of provinces that might not be fully represented in the
Constituent Assembly, the power might be transferred on
the basis of existing Governments in those provinces at
the time. This meant that in the North-West Frontier
Province the power might be transferred to the Govern¬
ment headed by Dr. Khan Saheb, and all the energies of
the protagonists of the “ Two Nations ” theory were there¬
after bent therefore to overthrow it. And what could
be more handy for the purpose than an appeal to com¬
munal passions ? The result was, as v r e have already seen,
a widespread recrudescence of lawlessness against the
Hindus and Sikhs in various parts of the province, first
in the month of March and then again in April. Next,
following the pattern of action adopted in Assam and the
Punjab, ‘ Direct Action ’ was launched against the Khan
Saheb Ministry.

In March, 1947, Lord Mountbatten came to India as
Viceroy in the place of Lord Wavell. In April, 1947, he
visited the Frontier Province. The occasion of his visit
was utilized by the Muslim League volunteers to stage a
demonstration and the Governor took him to attend the

EPILOGUE

169

rally of a group which had been engaged in a law-break¬
ing campaign against his own Ministers, a strange thing
for the constitutional head of a province to do.

The Governor did another strange thing. He tried
to persuade the Viceroy to promulgate Section 03 rule in
the Frontier Province and thereafter order fresh elections.
He even got a garbled and falsified report of the proceed¬
ings of a Cabinet meeting, that was held during Lord
Mountbatten's visit, sent to the Viceroy and refused to for¬
ward the note of his own Prime Minister embodying the
corrected version, which had to be sent over the Governor’s
head to the authorities at Delhi. The fact is that the higher
British officials in the North-West Frontier Province were
determined to salvage as much as possible of power, which
they felt was slipping out of their hands, by passing it bn
to their protegee and ‘ traditional ally the Muslim Lea¬
gue, originally their own pampered offspring, which
had by now got under its * own steam. The British
Cabinet, on the other hand, while sincerely anxious to
terminate British rule in India, saw no other solution to
their dilemma than to make Partition acceptable to the
Muslim League and for that it was necessary that the
North-West Frontier Province should willy-nilly be made
to fall into line with the Muslim League’s demand. It is
no disparagement of British sincerity to say that between
the British Cabinet’s good intentions and the higher Bri¬
tish officials’ intrigues the North-West Frontier Province-
fell a casualty and in the result justice was sacrificed at
the altar of expediency.

During his stay in Bihar, Badshah Khan had seriously
thought of retiring from politics altogether. The petti¬
ness and selfishriess of the game of power politics repelled
him. But the developments in the Frontier now decided
him otherwise. To retire from public life at that stage,
he felt, would be tantamount to leaving the Pathans in the
lurch in their critical hour. “ We are passing through
critical times, ” he said, addressing a gathering of Moh-
mand tribesmen. “ The Englishmen and their henchmen
are worried over the prospect of losing power. People

170

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

mislead you in the name of Islam.I feel it my duty

to warn you against future dangers so that I may justify

myself before man and God on the Judgement Day.

I cannot rest.”

Referring to Sir Olaf Caroe, Governor of the N. W. F.
Province, he remarked : “ I have been in Delhi and I know
from intimate knowledge that the same person who meets
you at the jirgas and claims to be your friend, has been
submitting reports aginst you and urging the authorities
at Delhi to keep in readiness strong squadrons of bombers
to rain death and destruction on you. Ask him when he
again comes to you at jirgas whether what I say is true
or not. Let him face me if he denies and I shall quote
chapter and verse in support of my charge.”

He recalled how only recently Sir Olaf Caroe had told
the Frontier Ministers to remember that there was no¬
thing in common between them and India and if they
would agree to get out of the Congress, he would give
them all his support!

Why did Sir Olaf Caroe want a new election in the
Frontier, he asked. In the 1946 elections, which were
fought on the specific issue of Pakistan, out of 50 seats
the Congress had secured 32 seats including 21 out of the
38 Muslim seats, all the 9 Hindu seats and 2 out of 3 Sikh
seats. Out of the 17 Muslim seats which their opponents
had secured, 11 were from Hazara, which was a non-
Pushtu-speaking district. “ Sir Olaf s intention is plain.
He wants to hand over power to those lackeys and hench¬
men of his — the Khans, the Nawabs and some officers —
who helped the British in all the Khudai Khidmatgar
struggles against the British. At the timie of the transfer
of power, Governor Caroe is only too anxious to hand
over power to those friends of the British. There can be
no other meaning of a fresh election. For it was only a
year ago that the Pathans had given clear verdict on the
election issue of Pakistan. The Khudai Khidmatgars were
returned by the vast Pathan electorate in such a big
majority.

EPILOGUE

171

"It is dishonest to give a political status to the
communal movement of the Muslim League, whose fol¬
lowers have been indulging in crime.”

The Governor’s argument was that “ the violent de¬
monstrations throughout the province indicate lack of
confidence in the Ministry.” Badshah Khan pointed out
that the Governor could have helped to prevent the shed¬
ding of blood if he had done his duty. In 1930, a misguided
Pathan had fired at a British officer and the culprit was
arrested, condemned and executed within forty-eight
hours. When Miss Mollie Ellis was abducted and
rescued, it was held up by a leading Tory paper as an
illustration of how the entire resources of the British
Empire could be mobilized to retrieve the honour of a
British woman. During the six years of war, when the
British themselves were in trouble, there was no trouble
in the tribal territory. The British then wanted peace
and there was peace. And now hundreds of people had
been butchered, thousands orphaned and rendered home¬
less while the British power in the Frontier looked on, un¬
willing to take drastic measures, which their own Minis¬
ters asked for, to put down lawlessness, and instead, point¬
ed to lawlessness as a reason for the removal of those
Ministers, who had been returned to power by an over¬
whelming majority of the voters and still commanded a
majority in the legislature.

He made a passionate appeal to Muslim Leaguers
“ to sit with the Khudai Khidmatgars in a joint jirga to
tackle various important issues that are (were) likely to
crop up after the departure of the Britishers from India.
Mow that the British are going, they should sit in jirga
with us. We can patch up our differences today if they
meet us like brothers and renounce their violent methods.
I shall agree to any honourable settlement between our¬
selves if an earnest effort be made. Leaguers,” he said,
“ fear Hindu domination, while we fear British domina¬
tion. Let us meet together and convince each other. We
are prepared to allay their fears. But, I ask, will they in
turn allay ours ? ”

172

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

In June, 1947, he again made an effort at compromise.
He told the Leaguers that they were quite willing to join
Pakistan provided (i) if was on honourable terms, (ii)
in case Pakistan, after Independence, decided to stay on
under British domination, the Pathans in the Settled
Districts or in the Tribal areas should have the power to
opt out of such a Dominion and form a separate independ¬
ent State, (iii) all matters concerning tribal people should
be settled b} T the Pathans themselves, without the inter¬
ference or domination of the non-Pathans, a right which
had been conceded even by the existing Constituent
Assembly.

The offer was turned down and the Partition came.
The Partition plan provided for a referendum to be held
in the Frontier Province to decide on the issue of acces¬
sion. This was again an anomaly. In Baluchistan* a
quasi-representative body was created to order, to function
in place of referendum. In the Frontier where a body of
popular representatives already existed, to circumvent
its verdict, recourse was had to referendum on a spurious
issue. The Khan brothers declared that the issue of ac¬
cession to India versus Pakistan was already dead consi¬
dering that a Partition plan had been accepted in
principle both by the Congress and the Muslim League
and the Frontier Province was geographically isolated
from the rest of India. They were not afraid of a refer¬
endum but it must be on the issue of autonomy for the
Pathans in their homelands. In the alternative, the
Pathans, said Badshah Khan, wanted absolute freedom
to manage their affairs ££ in an autonomous Pathanistan
within the Pakistan State

The Pathan has a very strong antipathy, rooted in
history, to being dominated by men of the plains. And
accession to Pakistan, he feared, would mean domination
by the Punjabi Muslim capitalist interests. “ Our province
has been swamped by the Punjabis who are trying their
level best to make the Pathans fight amongst themselves/"
observed Badshah Khan in a statement to the Press, “ Hav¬
ing lost a good portion of the Punjab through a communal

EPILOGUE

173

division, the Punjabi Xawabs and big capitalists are now
after our province in order to make good their loss.”
Replying to the criticism that Pathanistan could not be
self-sufficient, he gave a reply which was equally charac¬
teristic of him : " We shall be satisfied with our thatched
huts and dry bread if our freedom remains intact. We
prefer it to palace slavery. It is wrong to say that Pathan¬
istan will be a deficit State. Today we are carrying on
under a top-heavy capitalist administration wherein the
Governor alone costs us lakhs of rupees. Besides there
are other British officials who take away a large portion
of our provincial revenue. If all this wastage is avoided,
ar.u the amount spent on productive schemes, we shall
definitely be able to make our province self-sufficient.

" Let the Muslim League agree to contest the referendum
on the issue of Pakistan versus a Free Pathan State, and
if the masses vote for Pakistan in such a contest, I shall
be the first person to support Pakistan.” He was charged
with playing the game of Afghanistan. It was a palpably
false and ridiculous charge to fling in the face of a man
with whom the freedom of his people was the breath of
his nostrils. Even Gandhiji was forced to break his self-
imposed silence in the face of the calumnious propaganda
against one whom he knew to be the soul of truth and
honour.

“ Badshah Khan and his co-workers do not relish
being asked to choose between Hindustan and Pakistan,

hearing the unjust meaning, Hindus or Muslims.”

he observed in his post-prayer written message on the
30th of July, his weekly day of silence and self-introspec¬
tion. “ The Khudai Khidmatgars will, therefore, not exer¬
cise their votes.The charge that Pathanistan is

a new cry is being flung in Badshah Khan’s face. Even
before the Congress Ministry came into being, so far as
I know, Badshah Khan had in his mind Pathan Inde¬
pendence in internal affairs. He does not want to create
a new additional State. If he can frame his local consti¬
tution, he will gladly make his choice of joining one State

174

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

or the other. It is difficult for me to understand the ob¬
jection to this yearning after Pathan autonomy unless
the object is to humiliate the Pathans and to tame them
into subjection.

“ The more serious charge is that Badshah Khan is
playing into the hands of Afghanistan. I consider him
to be incapable of any underhand dealing. He would not
allow the Frontier Province to be absorbed by Afghani¬
stan.”

Gandhiji went on to add, “ As his friend, and because
I am his friend, I must admit one failing of his. He is-
highly suspicious especially of British professions and in¬
tentions. I would urge on all to overlook this failing
which is by no means peculiar to him. Only it does not
sit well on a leader of his eminence. I contend that
though I have called it a failing, which it is in one way,
in another, it is to be regarded as a virtue in that he can¬
not. even if he tries, conceal his thoughts. He is too
honest to hide them.”

So the referendum was held.* The Khudai Khidmatgar
party and its supporters took no part in it, and the Front¬
ier Province was declared to be a part of Pakistan. But
for Badshah Khan the battle was not lost. It had just
begun. Hitherto they had to wage a struggle against the
British who were foreigners. Now their own brethren
were in power. Surely they could expect a fair deal from
them. They had not fought all these years merely to
exchange one yoke for another. Dr. Khan Saheb’s Ministry

* As for the “ climate ” on the eve of the referendum in Hazara,
the following published statement of a Muslim League M.L.A. from
Hazara, dated 3rd July, 1946, will give an indication:

“ I warn the Ministry that if any Minister tries to visit
Hazara District for Congress propaganda, he will be killed/’ de¬
clared Khan Jalaluddin, M.L.A., Hazara District, in the course
of a meeting held at Abbottabad to canvass support for Pakistan.
He further added that before returning to Hazara the Hindus and
Sikhs should clearly declare their full support to Pakistan and
send a copy of such a declaration to the League Office if they
want to live peacefully in the District/’

— Hindustan Times, 3-7*’46

EPILOGUE

175

was still in power after the Partition. It was too firmly
established to be dislodged by normal constitutional
means. So on 21st of August, 1947, it was dismissed by
Qaid-e-Azam by a ukase.

On September 3 and 4, 1947, at a large gathering con¬
sisting of the Provincial jlrgas, the Parliamentary Party,
Zalme Pukhtoon (The Young Pathan League), Khudai
Khidmatgars and representatives from Tribal areas at
Sardarvab, Badshah Khan once more defined his demand
of Pathanistan to mean full freedom for the Pathans to
manage their internal affairs as a unit within the Pakistan
State. '• This new State,” ran one of the resolutions adopt¬
ed in the meeting, “ will comprise the present six Settled
Districts of the Xortli-West Frontier Province and all such
other contiguous areas inhabited by the Pathans which
may wish to join the new State of their own free will.
This State will enter into agreement on Defence, External
Affairs and Communications with the Dominion of Pakis¬
tan.

“ I have been working for the establishment of
Pathanistan all my life,” said Badshah Khan in the course
of his address at Sardarvab. “ It was for the purpose of
achieving unity among the Pathans that the Khudai Khid-
matgar organization was started in 1930. I stand for those
principles today for which I stood in 1930. My path is
therefore quite clear. I will not forsake it even if I stand
alone in the world.”

But the campaign of vilification against and persecu¬
tion of Badshah Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgars con¬
tinued. Nothing daunted, Badshah Khan carried on an
untiring campaign to educate and organize public opinion
for the realization of his ideal of Pathanistan.

in

The Lone Witness

In January, 1948, Gandhiji who had inspired him and
guided his footsteps on the path of ahimsa all these years,
fell to the assassin’s bullet and the Frontier Gandhi was

176

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

left alone to carry on his great and perilous non-violent
experiment among the Pathans, which the two Gandhis
had jointly planned and conducted. Never did he show
himself to greater advantage or rise to greater heights
than in the months following upon Gandhiji’s martyrdom.

In February, 1948, he decided to go to Karachi to at¬
tend the Dominion Parliament with the express object of
removing the misunderstanding that had been created in
regard to him among the Muslims of Pakistan by a sys¬
tematic propaganda of misrepresentation. In a series of
trenchant statements to the Press he clarified his stand
as regards Pathanistan :

“ Pathanistan or Pukhtoonistan,” he explained
“ would be an autonomous unit in Pakistan. It would
stand for the Pathans just as Sindh stood for the Sindhis,
or the Punjab for the Punjabis and Bengal for the Ben¬
galis. The name North-West Frontier Province was a
British innovation and as such it ought not to continue.”

He categorically denied as baseless the charge that
he wanted to truncate Pakistan by forging an independent
.sovereign State of Pathanistan. The very fact that he
would be taking the oath of allegiance to the constitution
of Pakistan ought to give a lie to that allegation. Explain¬
ing further the rationale of their demand, he said that the
Frontier people were politically backward and belonged
mostly-to the poor and the middle classes. There was no
•capitalist class among them whereas Pakistan was domi¬
nated by very rich zamindars, capitalists and the upper
■classes. The policy now followed by Pakistan towards the
Pathans was worse than the “ Divide and Rule ” policy
of the British. The English rulers had not demoralized
the Pathans as the Pakistan authorities had done now.

He replied in the negative to a question whether there
was any connection whatsoever between the Fakir of Ipi
and his organization. He emphasized that all reports of
this nature were absolutely false and spread by their ene¬
mies.

He denied that there was a link between their orga¬
nization and Afghanistan over the question of Pathanistan.

*0X1-'

EPILOGUE

177

there were no other ties between them and Afghanistan
except that the people of both countries belonged to the
same racial stock and were connected with ties of blood.

Badshah Khan also denied having any connection
v ith or knowledge of the recent move of the Afghanistan
Government for the grant of the right of self-determina¬
tion to Pathans and in respect of some other questions
which had lately arisen between Afghanistan and Pakis¬
tan. It was purely a matter between these two Govern¬
ments, he asserted.

Denying emphatically the charge that his demand
for Pathanistan amounted to provincialism and that it
was therefore against the spirit of common brotherhood
of Islam, Badshah Khan asserted : “ The essence of Islam
is equality and not domination of one by another. We
Pathans do not want to usurp the rights of others, nor
do we want them to do so. In Pakistan there are four
peoples, viz., the Pathans, the Bengalis, the Punjabis and
the Sindhis. We are all brothers. What we want is that
no one of them should interfere in the affairs of the other.
All should enjoy complete autonomy. If one needs and
asks for the help of the other, it should be given.”

Asked whether that would not weaken Pakistan,
Badshah Khan said that on the contrary it would bring
about willing co-operation between the various units. He
added, “ I told Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah to allow the Pa thans
to become a strong nation for their own defence and for
the defence of the Muslims of Pakistan and for the good
of humanity. I am a humble servant of humanity.”

Asked whether they would demand a plebiscite on
the question of Pathanistan and why they had boycotted
the referendum, Badshah Khan replied that the referen¬
dum had been boycotted because of the wrong issues
raised therein and also because of the improper maimer
of taking it. Now there was no question of having a fresh
referendum on that matter which they would try to settle
directly with Pakistan.

Asked whether he did not apprehend that after the
death of Gandhiji the condition of Muslims in India would

P-12

178 A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

«

worsen, Badshah Khan emphatically disagreed and added,
“ As long as in India there are alive.at the top lead¬

ers following the principles of Gandhiji such as Pandit
Nehru, Babu Rajendraprasad and several others, Mus¬
lims in India have nothing to fear. Their condition will
not worsen.”

As an illustration of the length to which persecution
could go, he narrated how in the month of January, 1948,
a young boy of the Khudai Khidmatgars had come and
stayed with him, carrying a pistol in those days of trouble
and disorder to defend himself, if need be. This pistol
belonged to the boy’s uncle and both he and the boy said
that Badshah Khan had nothing at all to do with the
pistol nor even had any knowledge of it. Still Badshah
Khan was convicted and sentenced to a fine of Rs. 2 or
in the alternative, to “ imprisonment till the rising of the
court”. He refused to pay the fine.

He concluded by reiterating his faith in non-violence,
absolute and unqualified: “I am a practical man and
will judge things by their results. For the time being,
my main business will be to wait and watch. In all my
actions, I will be wedded to non-violence, which has been
the sheet-anchor of my life.”

All eyes were turned on him when, speaking for the
first time in the Pakistan Dominion Parliament, on the
6th of March, 1948, he elucidated the significance of the
Pathanistan movement and made an impassioned plea for
toleration and the practice of the Islamic teaching of
equality and brotherhood in order to make Pakistan strong
and prosperous.

Moving his cut motion to discuss general administra¬
tion, he declared that “ six months of freedom found
Pakistan having an administration much more foreign
and bureaucratic than even that which existed during the
worst days of British rule. This,” he said, “ was in glar¬
ing contrast to India where at least more Indian Gover¬
nors were administering an almost Indianized administra¬
tion. The Government in Pakistan must become the

EPILOGUE 179

servants of the people, and except technical experts no
foreign element should be permitted.”

Remarking that the Muslim League’s work was over
with the establishment of Pakistan, Badshah Khan urged
its liquidation and the formation in its place of a purely
non-communal body pledged to serve the poor and the
meek. Replying to ministerial interruptions, he retorted
that Muslim Leaguers, particularly the Punjabis, were
responsible for provincialism since the time Sind was sepa¬
rated. The Pathans wanted the same self-autonomous
status as Sind, the Punjab and Bengal, he asserted. He
desired neither to divide nor destroy Pakistan. India,
he declared, had achieved freedom. Pakistan, with Bri¬
tish Governors and more British in its administration than
had been the case for years, had passed from one oppres¬
sion to an even greater one. The Pakistan Government
rule the country on such lines as the British had perfect¬
ed and was in fact worse with its ordinance rule
and foreign, extravagant ways of living. It com¬
plained of provincialism, but provincialism was the pro¬
duct of the Muslim League and of the Punjabis. “ I want
Pathanistan, but I want Pathanistan inside Pakistan just
as the Sindhis want Sind and the Punjabis want the Pun¬
jab.”

Continuing further, he said, “ The Muslim League,
existing as a communal organization, must be re-formed
on an inclusive basis for all nationals of Pakistan if it
is to contribute to the good of the country. While Paki¬
stan must employ British and American technicians for
industrial development, they must be removed from the
administration, or the faith of Pakistanis will vanish.”

In a Press statement, he gave a long catalogue of per¬
secutions to which he and the Khudai Khidmatgars were
subjected. The Pakistan Government had denied having
gagged his paper Pakhtoon ; only their District Magistrate
had refused to accept the declaration authorizing its con¬
tinuance after the previous publisher had resigned. “ If
•non-acceptance of a paper’s declaration and its consequent

180

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

enforced discontinuance is not gagging, I wonder what
else it is ? ”

As regards civil liberties, in Mardan District, he was
not allowed even to continue social contacts and exchange
visits with his friends. When he had to appear in court,
Section 144, Criminal Procedure Code was clamped down
on the whole area. On the occasion of Mirwas celebra¬
tions, the very same section was applied to the whole of

Mardan and Peshawar Districts.True,.it had

for its objective suppression of those who had been agi¬
tating for more food. But merely because it affected Mus¬
lim Leaguers also, it did not follow that people’s civil liber¬
ties were intact. On the contrary, it only aggravated the
charge inasmuch as it proved that the fundamental liber¬
ties of even the Government’s own party men had, in the
new r set-up, disappeared. Thousands of citizens had been
put behind the bars, without any legal trial, under Section
40 of the Public Safety Ordinance. Could Government
furnish its own figures ?

Again, he did not know the precise nature of the
mechanism devised by the Government to black-out news
of the opposition parties, he remarked. But the fact
remained that in two important Red Shirt gatherings,
though the Press representatives were present, the pro¬
ceedings were not published in any of the newspapers
anywhere. “ Surely, the Press representatives had not
undertaken all that trouble aimlessly.”

Such things, he concluded, were quite intelligible
when foreigners ruled over the country. But now that
Pakistan had become free, and a popular Islamic Govern¬
ment was said to have come into existence, it baffled his
imagination why their Provincial Government chose to

use “the same old bureaucratic.methods of the

foreigner-imperialists.”

A touching little incident which was reported at that
time in the Press may be recorded here for its human
interest. During his last visit to' Karachi, he was
accompanied by about thirty Khudai Khidmatgars
who, though themselves poor, had come at their*

EPILOGUE

181

own expense and constituted themselves into his
bodyguard. They kept a constant vigil by turns with
arms at his residence in his village of Utmanzai and else¬
where during his movements, in order to protect him in
the event of an attack on his life. Ten years before f when
Gandhiji was his guest at Utmanzai, the question of
posting armed night-guards for the safety of Gandhiji had
arisen. Badshah Khan remembered the dialogue * he had
with him on that occasion. “ Badshah Khan,” ran a
press report, “ had several times admonished them for
keeping an armed guard over him in view of his adher¬
ence to the principle of non-violence. Still they had stuck
to what they conceived to be their duty. They have great
concern for the life of their beloved leader and their devo¬
tion to him is touching. They have to undergo great

privations.but they do not relax the watch.

even for a single minute.”

After Gandhiji’s passing away, Badshah Khan, whose
name had already become a legend, became the hope and
succour of the downtrodden and the oppressed in Pakistan
and the rallying focus of all progressive and liberal ele¬
ments. At a tea party given in his honour at Karachi, it was
remarked by a representative of the minority community
of Sindh that during the life time of Mahatmaji they
always went up to him for solving their difficulties, but
after his passing away, they would have to run on such
occasions to Badshah Khan, “ whom they revered next to
Mahatmaji ”. They therefore requested him to guide
them in the difficult time that lay ahead. Pouring out his
soul in .a reply full of noble pathos, Badshah Khan
said that it was the time of test and tribulations
for all. The Khudai Khidmatgars had got their Minis¬
try, in the North-West Frontier Province, but after
some years it was lost to them because the Ministry
had not served the masses and the poor to the
extent it should have done. It did not adequately
fulfil its pledges to the masses. He said he had warned

t Described on page 54.

* See Chapter VI.

182

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

the Congress Working Committee of this weakness of the
Congress Ministry in the North-West Frontier Province,
but matters were not set right either by the Working
Committee or the Ministry itself. “ Truth and righteous¬
ness will ultimately prevail in the world,” said Badshah
Khan, “ and only unselfish and devoted leaders, and not
selfish and self-seeking ones, can secure the advancement
of the country. Only when these qualities manifest them¬
selves in the leaders, both of India and Pakistan, will the
road to prosperity and advancement open before those
countries.”

Badshah Khan continued that he had listened care¬
fully to the tale of woe of the minorities in West Pakistan.
Trials and tests, he said, were always inflicted by God on
mankind but only those nations, organizations and in¬
dividuals who faced them with patience, endurance and
courage ultimately came out successful.

Since the inauguration of Pakistan, he said, pure
Ordinance Rule had been established in the North-West
Frontier Province. Pakistan could not have come
into existence but for the fight for freedom car¬
ried on for long by the Pathans and other sections
in the country. If they had not forced the British
to surrender power, Pakistan could not have come
into being. But while quitting the country, the British
rulers did not transfer power to those who had fought
for freedom, but to others who had done nothing for it.

He was essentially a man of religion, he told the
gathering, and he had always urged that the pledges of
service to the poor made by them before God must be
translated into action, which they had unfortunately not
done, and owing to which they had suffered. At the
moment of trial, they must control their anger and have a
rigid code of morals and ideals which they must stick to
through thick and thin and see that the code was also
applied to the running of the Government administration.

■ In the course of his remarks before a gathering of the
Pathans belonging mostly to the labouring class, he allow¬
ed his outspokenness to proceed perhaps to a perilous

EPILOGUE

183

length. The Pathans, he said, had for over a quarter of
a century been in the vanguard of the battle of freedom
against the British and it was they who had made Paki¬
stan possible. The capitalist class at the head of Pakistan
administration feared the Pathans because they were
unselfish and ever jready to suffer in the cause of the
country.

He had been strongly opposed to the division of India,
he said. His stand had been well justified, judging from
the bath of blood and untold miseries through which
millions of people had subsequently to pass. Since the
inauguration of Pakistan, however, he had regarded “ the
good or harm done to Pakistan as if it were done to him¬
self. 1 '

The Pathans, said Badshah Khan, were apprehensive as
to their future and wanted to know their exact place in
Pakistan. If it -was really intended to treat them as bro¬
thers, they should be consulted about the form of adminis¬
tration in Pakistan and other matters. In India, the Provin¬
cial Cabinets were consulted about the choice of their
Governors whereas in the North-West Frontier Province,
an English bureaucrat, disliked by the Pathans, had been
inflicted over their heads. The Pathans consequently
wanted to know their status in Pakistan. Would they be
treated as equals ?

The Khudai Khidmatgars, he said, did not want
anything but the removal of the present poverty and
backwardness of the masses of Pakistan, and in their efforts
in that direction, they would stick through thick and thin
to their life-long principle of non-violence.

On the 15th of April, 1948, he had a meeting with
Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah. The latter, it seems, wanted to know
if the Khudai Khidmatgars would be prepared to merge
themselves with the Muslim League or co-operate with
the Frontier Ministry by going into a coalition with it. In
reply, Badshah Khan, while reiterating his loyalty to
Pakistan, expressed his inability either to merge with the
Muslim League or to enter into a coalition with the Front¬
ier Ministry. Qaid-e-Azam thereupon announced at a

184

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

mammoth gathering that the negotiations between him
and Badshah Khan had failed. He urged the Pathans “ to
totally disown such people who make a pretension of
loyalty to the Pakistan State but are out really to weaken
its edifice.”

On the 13th of May, Badshah Khan announced that
he had decided to extend his Khudai Khidmatgar move¬
ment to all provinces in Pakistan. His organization
of Khudai Khidmatgars, he explained, would serve
as a volunteer corps to the Pakistan People’s Party,
which had just been formed and which elected him
as its first provisional President. It was a non-com-
munal organization inclusive of progressive .sections
in Pakistan that stood for liberal, democratic ideals. The
aims and objects of the organization inter alia were :
“ stabilization and security of Pakistan as a ‘ Union of
Socialist Republics, drawing its sanction and authority
from the people through their willing consent ’; provision
of full and unimpaired autonomy for all and cultural rela¬
tions with neighbouring States particularly with the
Indian Union

The convention before adjourning passed reso¬
lutions condemning the repressive policy of the Frontier
Government in incarcerating in jail hundreds of Khudai
Khidmatgars and demanding its complete reversal in the
interest of Pakistan, and urging the release of Baluchi¬
stan’s nationalist leader, Khan Abdus Samad Khan.

The convention which met in. May, 1948, declared
that the People’s Organization would be fully prepared to
co-operate with any party in power “ within and without
the legislature on the basis of an agreed programme en¬
suring stability, integrity and prosperity of the new State.”

It was also resolved that in the absence of such an
understanding, the policy of this organization would be tt>
support the existing Government in Pakistan.

The formation of the new Pakistan People’s Organiza¬
tion, it was soon made clear, was not regarded with favour
by the Pakistan authorities. Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan,
North-West Frontier Province Premier, denounced the

EPILOGUE

185

Red Shirt leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, as an “enemy
trying seriously to undermine the Pakistan Government ”,
and characterized the oath of allegiance taken by him and
his party as “ nothing better than a farce

“ We will not hesitate to take measures if and when
we feel necessary in the interests of our peace-loving citi¬
zens,” he significantly added.

Badshah Khan was dubbed a disruptionist. “ The
more I think, the more I find myself unable to understand
what the powers that be are heading for,” remarked Bad¬
shah Khan in a press statement. “ They appeal for soli¬
darity and strength of the State in the name of Islam, but
at the same time they are pursuing a policy of short¬
sightedness and petty-mindedness towards those of us who
are at one with them in the fundamental principle of
Pakistan’s strength, plenty and prosperity, but who con¬
scientiously differ from them as regards methods, approach
and outlook towards that end.

“ In the sister Dominion of India, before Partition, the
Hindu Mahasabha and Dr. Ambedkar’s Scheduled Castes
Federation were deadly opposed to the Congress consist¬
ently at every step, but immediately when India attained
freedom, all rival parties joined hands with the
result that Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Ambedkar
are now colleagues of Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel,
although they have not merged their respective organiza¬
tions in the Congress Party in power. As against this,
what is happening in Pakistan is utterly unfortunate and
if this continues, not only those Muslim League leaders but
the nation itself will have to suffer. I have so many times,
through press and platform, pledged our loyalty to Paki¬
stan, but still division is being created between Muslims
and Muslims by their unfriendly, rather inimical attitude
towards my party-men. I told them frankly, ‘We don’t
come in the way of your administration, we don’t want
power, let Ministries, etc., be your monopoly, allow us to
serve our countrymen in our own constructive wav,’ but
even then they would not leave us to ourselves.”

On the conclusion of the Constituent Assembly’s ses-

186

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

sion at Karachi Badshah Khan returned to the Frontier
Province to place before the people the programme of
Jamiat-ul-Awam or the new Pakistan People’s Party.

“ I have witnessed the show of the Pakistan Consti¬
tuent Assembly,” he observed, addressing a mammoth
gathering in Mardan District. “ There is absolutely no dif¬
ference between the Pakistan leaders and the old British
bureaucrats.

“ The most plausible argument which is usually ad¬
vanced in their favour is that the new State is yet in its
infancy. I invite them to look to India where the leaders
have safely piloted the ship of State, despite extremely
stormy weather. They have framed their new constitu¬
tion. whereas nothing so far has been done in Pakistan.

The only conclusion one can draw is that the pre¬
sent leaders of Pakistan are afraid of the democratic set¬
up. The leaders, who have their own axe to grind,
consider Pakistan as their personal jagir. It is a pity that
all of them are muhajreen (refugees) and do not originally
belong to Pakistan.”

He did not spare Qaid-e-Azam. “ Mr. Jinnah, as the
•Governor-General of Pakistan, is not a representative of
the Muslim nation. He was appointed by the British
King and as such he is responsible to him and not to the
nation.

“ I now take this opportunity to bring home to you
that Islamic Law or the Law of the Quran, as you call
it, for which you have been crying so long and for which
your dear and near ones have laid down their lives, would
never be enforced in Pakistan.”

Rising to a peroration, he concluded, " I warn you,
my Pathan brothers, that you are partners in the State of
Pakistan. You are fully entitled to a one-fourth share.
It is up to you now to rise and unite and pledge to achieve
what is your due. Be united and act with determination
and thus demolish the sandy walls which the leaders of
Pakistan have built around you. We cannot tolerate the
present state of affairs any longer. Gird up your loins and
march towards your cherished goal of freedom for the

EPILOGUE

187

Pathans, who have already made heavy sacrifices and suf¬
fered untold privations. We will not rest content till we
succeed in establishing Pathanistan — rule of the Pathans,
by the Pathans and for the Pathans.”

Three days later he was arrested. His son Abdul
Wali Khan and two other Red Shirt leaders were arrested
with him. A summary trial was held in the little mud-
plastered rest-house of Banda Daud Shah on the main
road to Bannu. He was charged with ‘ sedition ’ and ‘ in¬
tended collaboration with the hostile Faqir of Ipi ’. The
Deputy Commissioner of Kohat, who was holding the trial,
asked him to produce his defence. But beyond saying that
he was not guilty, he refused to defend himself. The
Magistrate then asked him if he was willing to furnish a
security of good behaviour for three years as required
under Section 40 of Frontier Crimes Regulation. But the
Khan replied that “ he had never given such securities in
the past and would not do so now.” The minimum punish¬
ment of three years’ rigorous imprisonment with hard
labour was then awarded to him.

Immediately after Badshah Khan’s arrest, the North¬
west Frontier Province Government issued a com¬
munique explaining its action. After stating that notwith¬
standing the fact that the division of India was mutually
agreed to by the Congress and the Muslim League, Abdul
Ghaffar Khan “ utterly opposed the establishment of
Pakistan ”, the communique went on to say : “ he advised
his followers not to take part in the Independence celebra¬
tions on August 15 and not to take the oath of allegiance
to the new State of Pakistan. Accordingly, his brother’s
Ministry which was in power at that time had to be dis¬
missed for disloyalty to Pakistan.At the same time,

he began enlarging his sphere of activities by founding
the so-called People’s Party by rallying together all old

Congress elements in Pakistan.After his second visit

to Karachi, Badshah Khan returned to the province with
a definite and clearly laid out plot to create disturbances
in the N. W. F. P. to synchronize with the expected and
much-advertised advance of the Indian Army towards the

188

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Frontier Province. The bombing of Garhi Habibuliah.

gave further impetus to Badshah Khan.”

It would be difficult to compress more untruth, dis¬
tortion and misrepresentation in so narrow a compass.
Badshah Khan had declared his acceptance of Pakistan as
early as September, only he wanted the same status and
rights for the Pushtu-speaking people in their homeland,
which he wanted to be named ‘Pathanistan’, as the Sindhis
had in Sindh, the Punjabis in the Punjab and the Bengalis
in Bengal. The allegation that he did not take the oath of
allegiance to the new State of Pakistan, and advised his
followers not to take part in the Independence celebrations
on August 15, even if true, became irrelevant after he took
the oath of allegiance in Karachi in the Constituent As¬
sembly and made an unequivocal declaration of his
loyalty in its truest sense to the Pakistan State. One may
ask what his alleged offence had to do with “ his brother’s
Ministry which was in power at that time ”. Has it not
the old, familiar ring of the wolf in the fable accusing
the lamb, before devouring it, of muddying his spring ?
Again, why should it be an offence to enlarge one’s
sphere of activities or to form an opposition party,
especially when that was pledged to non-violence ? To
dub the opposition as “ Congress elements ” is merely to
give a dog a bad name and hang him, the hackneyed old
way without even the merit of originality. Where is the
evidence for the “plot to create disturbances ” outside the
fevered imagination of the author of the communique ?
If there was a plot to synchronize his (Badshah.
Khan’s) alleged activities with the “ expected and much-
advertised advance of the Indian Army towards the
Frontier Province ”, well, the Pakistan Government must
have been party to it when it laid down the time-table for
the Constituent Assembly to which Badshah Khan had
gone to take the oath of allegiance and from which he
could return to his province only at the termination of
the session! “ The bombing of Garhi Habibuliah ” was,
as everybody knows, an unintended mistake of an
I. A. F. airman due to foggy weather, for which India

EPILOGUE

189

Government promptly expressed public regret. Under
the circumstances, how it could give “ further impetus to
Badshah Khan ”, passes one’s comprehension.

Badshah Khan’s own statement issued on 16-5-1948
ran: “ I am constrained to note that despite my recent
earnest appeal to my friends of the rival group, through
Press and platform, they have not viewed sympathetically
the coming into being of the People’s Organization — but
they are questioning the bona Mes of my party men again
and again, simply because at one time they happened to
owe allegiance to the Indian National Congress. This is
all the more unfortunate when the organization, in its main
resolution, has implicitly extended its hand of co-operation
in a patriotic spirit to the Government in power. The cri¬
terion of loyalty towards the State, according to the oppo¬
nents, is unconditional surrender to the one-party rule.”
It is taxing too much the credulity of the world to be told
to believe that this man whose passion in life was to wean
his people from violence, which he considered to be their
bane, and who had performed the miracle of almost con¬
verting the much-dreaded Pathan into the soldier of non¬
violence, all of a sudden foreswore his faith, t It is incre¬
dible that this man, to whose transparent sincerity and
truthfulness Gandhiji, after testing him through and
through, bore testimony, could after reiterating his
unadulterated faith in non-violence and loyalty to
the Pakistan State with whose best interests he
had publicly identified himself, jettison his life-long
principles. The writer of these lines has known
Badshah Khan, broken bread with him, lived with him
as a member of one family under Gandhiji’s wing. There
is not another person today in India or in Pakistan who
embodies Gandhiji’s principles of Truth and Non-violence,
his deep spirituality, meaning faith in and utter submis¬
sion to the will of God and passion for service of His crea¬
tures, in a greater measure than or even in an equal mea¬
sure with Badshah Khan.*

* So Mahadev Desai, who had an unequalled intimate knowledge

190

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Thus ended and was consigned to the limbo of might-
have-beens— only for the time being, one hopes, one of
the noblest experiments of our times. It held out rich
promise, and Gandhiji himself had fondly hoped it might
provide a ray of light to a strife-weary world aching for
peace. The continued incarceration of the Khan brothers
constitutes a challenge to the civilized conscience of the
world. If ever there was a case of martyred innocence
sanctified by devotion to the highest ideals, it is theirs —
particularly Badshah Khan’s. They bear enmity towards
none. Badshah Khan has no axe to grind, no personal
ambition to serve. “ I have been a soldier all my life and
I would like to die one,” were his words with which he
declined the Presidentship of the Congress in 1934. He
has inured himself to physical hardships as a matter of
voluntary discipline. During journeys he carried his own
kit. travelled third. When he came to meet Gandhiji at
Borsad in 1931 for the first time, he had brought with him
only one change of clothes, no bedding. “ He will use no
conveyance when he can walk out the distance, he will
select the cheapest means of transport when he cannot
do without jit. He eschews all luxuries and lives on the
simplest fare. He commands obedience and unflinching
loyalty because he himself is an embodiment of those
virtues.” *

Whatever political differences the Khan brothers may
have with the Government in power, their integrity is
above question. I remember how, after Partition, during
my last stay with Gandhiji in December, 1947, and January,
1948, Badshah Khan sent word to Gandhiji that he should
not worry about him and Dr. Khan Saheb as they were

deliberately not meeting him or writing to him in order to

/

of both Gandhiji and Badshah Khan, writing in 1934:

“ I do not yet know one who is greater than or even equal
to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the transparent purity and the
ascetic severity of his life combined with extreme tenderness of
feeling and living faith in God

— Mahadev Desai: The Two Servants of God

* Ibid.

EPILOGUE

191

put their bona fides vis-a-vis loyalty to the Pakistan State
above suspicion. It would be doing them cruel wrong to
suspect them of double-dealing or treachery. They are in¬
capable of either. They love their country and people with
a deep, passionate love. Badshah Khan is simple and
straight as a die and by nature guileless at times to the
point of embarrassment. Such a person can never be an
enemy of a State that calls itself Islamic.

It is well with the Khan brothers. They are
of the stuff of which heroes and martyrs are made.
They would be content to lay down their lives
for the cause for which they have lived to the
exclusion of all else. “ I am quite certain that it is all
God’s doing. He kept me out just for the time He wanted
to use me outside. Now it is His will that I must serve
from inside. What pleases Him pleases me,” Badshah
Khan had remarked in 1934 when he was taken away
from Wardha under a warrant of arrest by the then Bom¬
bay Government, to be sentenced to three years’ rigorous
imprisonment. I am sure he would repeat the same today.
But surely a better use could be found for such ‘ Servants
of God ’ than to immure them alive behind prison walls.

Would that India had a servant today like Badshah
Khan — a Godfearing, selfless, truth-loving and fearless
critic — to reprove the powers that be if they strayed from
the right path; a man of sterling character, unim¬
peachable integrity and Christlike compassion for the
downtrodden masses to whose emancipation and service
every breath of his life is dedicated. A couple of persons
of that type in either Dominion would be the safest gua¬
rantee for peace and amity between the two sister Domi¬
nions and — who knows — therethrough Asia and the
world !

This is not to say that he has no faults dr short¬
comings. What mortal has not ? I have already 7 adverted
to Gandhiji’s comments on his proneness to extreme sus¬
picion of Englishmen’s intentions. We are what circum¬
stances make us. I remember how in 1931, after the

192

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gandhiji took him to Sir Ralph Griffith.
Badshah Khan was unwilling to meet the higher ups. He
was a plain, simple man, he said; he did not understand
diplomacy. Gandhiji persuaded him to go. On meeting Sir
Ralph Griffith, Badshah Khan told him, “ I am a plain man.
I like a straight talk. Do not try to be diplomatic with
me ” The latter replied, “ Khan Saheb, politics is a game
with its chess-board moves and countermoves. I check¬
mate you. You checkmate me if you can.” “ Then, I am
not the man for you,” replied Badshah Khan and rose to
go. Sir Ralph Griffith diplomatically changed the note and
detained him and the interview proceeded. Years after¬
wards Badshah Khan narrated the sequel. “ I placed
before him my plan (of going among and winning the
•hearts of tribesmen by loving service). But instead of con¬
sidering it, he put me into prison.” He is hyper-sensitive
and at times irritable. He is plainspoken and blunt to a
fault,, and when his righteous indignation is aroused, he
pours forth speech like molten lava, which burns and
sears the hidden lie in the soul. But the indignation is
directed against the evil, never the evil-doer. All
the same, it is a handicap in terms of Satyagraha, for
it is an axiom in Satyagraha that Truth should never
sound harsh when it proceeds from the fulness of love.
Similarly, some other weaknesses could be enumerated,
God rectifies the mistakes of His devoted servants but He
never overlooks. The law of non-violence is inexorable, and
any amateurishness in handling it may result in failure
in terms of the immediate objective. The failure so called
in that case would not be that of non-violence, but of the
imperfect medium through which it was sought to be
expressed. Instead of weakening one’s faith or causing
one to give way to despondency, it should make the votary
of non-violence seek all the more God’s grace without
which nfhn is nought.

“ For more is not reserved
To man with soul just nerved
To act tomorrow what he learns today;
Here, work enough to watch

Facsimile of a letter in Badshah Khan’s own hand
from prison in reply to the invitation to attend the World
Pacifist Conference at Santiniketan and Sevagram in
December. 1949.

„ce iw". at V» jvpjHZJx&i. J«l** ,4»«i

' Si.*? ti

rm*© «r *m wkilwte^ **®*flfc«*® c*

?M*F2tr^>z ik «lu l»%4er ^

_ C4i.^JgyA^_-,aL Q^

£a &ar <ltt$r.<*fcaS ^«4r^

Yrv/Wp-

4if# f

Translation of Urdu Writing

My clear Hiralalji,

Your letter of November 15, 1949, reached me on December 8,
1949. Thanks.

Perhaps you do not know that I am in prison and am unable
to participate in your conference.

I am wholly with you in the noble work which you have
begun for the good of mankind and pray that the Almighty may
grant you success in your sacred mission.

29-12-*49 Sd. Abdul Gliaffar

(Prisoner)

EPILOGUE

193

The master work, and catch
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool’s
true play.”

Following upon Badshah Khan’s incarceration the
rani: and file of the Khudai Khidmatgars were subjected
to a series of reprisals. The biggest came on August 12,
1948, a date that will live long in the history of the Red
Shirt movement in the N. W. F. Province. On that day
the police opened fire on a gathering of Red Shirts assem¬
bled for a demonstration in Babra village in Charsadda
Tahsil, converting the maidan in front of that village into
a bloody shambles. The number of casualties officially
given out were fifteen killed and fifty injured. But ac¬
cording numerous reports that came through later they
must have run into hundreds. One eye-witness swore on
the Quran that there were two thousand deaths. One of
the biggest graveyards in that area is said to be in the
neighbourhood of that village today.

After the massacre there was a 'man hunt of Red
Shirts in which the military “who had been asked to
stand by ” took part. If even a fraction of what the rank
and file of the Red Shirts are said to have passed through
during that man hunt and since is correct, theirs has
been a hard ordeal indeed. On them rests a heavy res¬
ponsibility. Immured behind prison walls, their chief
continues to bear witness to his unquenchable faith in a
free and united Pukhtoon people, weaned from their tradi¬
tion of violence and raiding habit, one day setting an
example of bravery of the bravest of the brave to the
whole world — a dream which he and Gandhiji dreamt
together and for which they had jointly laboured. Let
the Khudai Khidmatgars in their hour of trial remember
and draw solace and strength from Gandhiji’s prophetic
words :

“If in the last heat the Khudai Khidmatgars prove
untrue to the creed they profess to believe, non-violence
was certainly not in their hearts. The proof will soon
come. If they zealously and faithfully follow the con-

P-13

194

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

stmctive programme, there is no danger. They will be
found among the bravest men when the test comes.

“ Non-violence does not depend on anybody’s suffer¬
ance. It is its own seal and sanction. It conquers through
Innocent suffering and what may look like defeat. It never
fails.”

APPENDIX

QUINTESSENCE OF SATYAGRAHA

APPENDIX

The following callings made by the author from Gandhiji's
waitings give in a connected form a complete outline of the Science
of Satyagraha in theory and practice which Gandhiji expounded to
the warlike Pathans :—

1

PREFATORY

Rights and Duties

1. I learned from my illiterate but wise mother that
all rights to he deserved and preserved came from duty
well done. Thus the very right to live accrues to us only
when we do the duty of the citizenship of the world. From
this one fundamental statement perhaps it is easy enough
to define the duties of Man and Woman and correlate
every right to some corresponding duty to be first per¬
formed. Every other right can he shown to he a usurpa¬
tion hardly worth fighting for.

2. Every man has an equal right to the necessaries
of life even as birds and beasts have. And since every
right carries with it a corresponding duty and the corres¬
ponding remedy for resisting an attack upon it, it is merely
a matter of finding out the corresponding duties and
remedies to vindicate the elementary equality. The corres¬
ponding duty is to labour with my limbs and the corres¬
ponding remedy is to non-co-operate with him who
deprives me of the fruit of my labour.

Ahimsa — The Supreme Duty

3. Ahimsa is the means; Truth is the end. Means
to be means must always be within our reach, and so
ahimsa is our supreme duty.

197

198

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

II

AHIMSA — ITS NATURE
Ahimsa (Non-violence) — A Positive Virtue

4. In its positive form ahimsa means the largest love,
the greatest charity. If I am a follower of ahimsa, I must
love my enemy. I must apply the same rules to the
wrong-doer -who is my enemy or a stranger to me, as I
would to my wrong-doing father or son. This active
ahimsa necessarily includes truth and fearlessness. As
man cannot deceive the loved one, he does not fear or
frighten him or her. Gift of life is the greatest of all
gifts; a man who gives it in reality, disarms all hostility.
He has paved the way for an honourable understanding.
And none who is himself subject to fear can bestow that
gift. He must therefore be himself fearless. A man can¬
not then practise ahimsa and be a coward at the same time.
The practice of ahimsa calls forth the greatest courage.

Power of Non-violence

5. With Satya combined with Ahimsa, you can
bring the world to your feet.

6. Ahimsa, truly understood, is panacea for all evils
mundane and extramundane.

7. Non-violence in its dynamic condition does not
mean meek submission to the will of the evil-doer, but it
means the pitting of one’s whole soul against the will of
the tyrant. Working under this law of our being, it is
possible for a single individual to defy the whole might
of an unjust empire to save his honour, his religion, his
soul and lay the foundation for that empire’s fall or its
regeneration.

8. It is a profound error to suppose that whilst the
law is good enough for individuals, it is not for masses
of mankind.

9. It is the acid test of non-violence that in a non¬
violent conflict there is no rancour left behind, and in the
end the enemies are converted into friends.

APPENDIX

199

Non-violence in Individual and Collective Life

10. I hold that non-violence is not merely a personal
virtue. It is also a social virtue to be cultivated like the
other virtues. Surely society is largely regulated by the
expression of non-violence in its mutual dealings. What
I ask for is an extension of it on a larger, national and in¬
ternational scale.

Non-violence — the Law of the Human Race

11. Non-violence is the law of the human race and
is infinitely greater than and superior to brute force.

12. The only condition of a successful use of this
force is a recognition of the existence of the soul as apart
from the body and its permanent nature. And this recog¬
nition must amount to a living faith and not mere intel¬
lectual grasp.

13. In the last resort it does not avail to those who
do not possess a living faith in the God of Love.

14. Non-violence affords the fullest protection to
one's self-respect and sense of honour, but not always to
possession of land or movable property, though its habitu¬
al practice does prove a better bulwark than the possession
of armed men to defend them. Non-violence in the very
nature of things is of no assistance in the defence of ill-
gotten gains and immoral acts.

15. Individuals and nations who would practise non¬
violence must be prepared to sacrifice (nations to the last
man ) their all except honour. It is therefore inconsistent
with the possession of other people’s countris, i. e., modem
imperialism which is frankly based on force for its defence.

16. Non-violence is a power which can be wielded
•equally by all — children, young men and women or
grown up people, provided they have a living faith in the
God of Love and have therefore equal love for all man¬
kind. When non-violence is accepted as the law of life
it must pervade the whole being and not be applied to
isolated acts.

Non-violence and Politics — Basic principle

17. I could not be leading a religious life unless I
Identified myself with the whole of mankind, and that I

200

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

could not do unless I took part in politics. The whole
gamut of man’s activities today constitutes an indivisible
whole. You cannot divide social, economic, political and
purely religious work into watertight compartments. I
do not know any religion apart from human activity.

18. No man could be actively non-violent and not
rise against social injustice no matter where it occurred.

19. To practise non-violence in mundane matters
is to know its true value. It is to bring heaven upon earth.
There is no such thing as the other world. All worlds
are one. I hold it therefore to be wrong to limit the use
of non-violence to cave-dwellers and for acquiring merit
for a favoured position in the other world. All virtue
ceases to have use if it serves no purpose in every walk
of life.

Non-violence — Virtue of the Strong

20. I do believe that where there is only a choice
between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.

21. My creed of non-violence is an extremely active
force. It has no room for cowardice or even weakness.
There is hope for a violent man to be some day non-vio¬
lent, but there is none for a coward.

22. Non-violence presupposes ability to strike. It is
a conscious, deliberate restraint put upon one’s desire for
vengeance. But vengeance is any day superior to passive,
effeminate and helpless submission. Forgiveness is high¬
er still.

23. Forgiveness is more manly than punishment.
Forgiveness adorns the soldier. But abstinence is forgive¬
ness only when there is the power to punish; it is
meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless
creature.

24. Non-violence is without exception superior to-
violence, i. e., the power at the disposal of a non-violent
person is always greater than he would have if he were-
violent.

25. Man for man, the strength of non-violence is in
exact proportion to the ability, not the will, of the non¬
violent person to inflict violence.

APPENDIX

201

III

SOUL FORCE IN ACTION

Satyagraha or Soul Force — The Law of Truth

26. The term Satyagraha was coined by me in
South Africa to express the force that the Indians there
used for full eight years. Its root meaning is holding on
to Truth. I have also called it Love-force or Soul-force.

27. In the application of Satyagraha, I discovered
in the earliest stages that pursuit of Truth did not admit
of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent.

28. For what appears to be Truth to the one may
appear to be error to the other. And patience means self¬
suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of
Truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but
on one’s self.

29. But on the political field, the struggle on behalf
of the people mostly consists in opposing error in the
shape of unjust laws. When you have failed to bring-
the error home to the law-giver by way of petitions and
the like, the only remedy open to you, if you do not wish
to submit to error, is to compel him by physical force to
yield to you or by suffering in your own person by invit¬
ing the penalty for the breach of the law. Hence Satya¬
graha appears to the public as Civil Disobedience or Civil
Resistance. It is civil in the sense that it is not criminal.
Satyagraha as Direct Action — How it Works

30. It is a force that works silently and apparently
slowly. In reality, there is no force in the world that is
so direct or so swift in working.

31. The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance
must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without
anger and without malice.

32. And when once it is set in motion, its effect, if
it is intensive enough, can overtake the whole universe.
It is the greatest force because it is the highest expression
of the soul.

33. Since Satyagraha is one of the most powerful
methods of direct action, a satyagrahi exhausts all other

202

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

means before he resorts to Satyagraha. He will therefore
constantly and continually approach the constituted
authority, he will appeal to public opinion, educate public
opinion, state his case calmly and coolly before everybody
who wants to listen to him, and only after he has exhaust¬
ed all these avenues will he resort to Satyagraha. But
when he has found the impelling call of the inner voice
within him and launches out upon Satyagraha he has
burnt his boats and there is no receding.

Ten Commandments of Satyagraha

34. Satyagraha is utter self-effacement, greatest
humility, greatest patience and brightest faith. It is its
own reward.

35. As a satyagrahi I must always allow my cards
to be examined and re-examined at all times and make
reparation if any error is discovered.

36. Satyagraha is gentle, it never wounds. It must
not be the result of anger or malice. It is never fussy,
never impatient, never vociferous. It is the direct oppo¬
site of compulsion.

37. A satyagrahi may not even ascend to heaven
on the wings of Satan.

38. He must believe in truth and non-violence as his
creed and therefore have faith in the inherent goodness
of human nature which he expects to evoke by his truth
and love expressed through his suffering.

39. A satyagrahi never misses, can never miss, a
chance of compromise on honourable terms, it being
always assumed that in the event of failure he is ever
ready to offer battle. He needs no previous preparation ;
his cards are always on the table.

40. A satyagrahi bids goodbye to fear. He is, there¬
fore, never afraid of trusting the opponent. Even if the
opponent plays him false twenty times, the satyagrahi
is ready to trust him the twenty-first time, for an implicit
trust in human nature is the very essence of his creed.

41. It is never the intention of a satyagrahi to em¬
barrass the wrong-doer. The appeal is never to his fear;

APPENDIX

203

it is, must be, always to his heart. The satyagrahi ’s object
is to convert, not to coerce, the wrong-doer. He should
avoid artificiality in all his doings. He acts naturally and
from inward conviction.

42. The very nature of the science of Satyagraha
precludes the student from seeing more than the step
immediately in front of him.

43. A satyagrahi must never forget the distinction
between evil and the evil-doer. He must not harbour ill-
wili or bitterness against the latter. He may not even
employ needlessly offensive language against the evil
•person, however unrelieved his evil might be._ For it is
an article of faith with every satyagrahi that there is no
one so fallen in this world but can be converted by love.
A satyagrahi will always try to overcome evil by good,
anger by love, untruth by truth, himsa by ahimsa. There
is no other way of purging the world of evil.

“Weapon of Non-co-operation

44. Non-co-operation with evil is as much a duty as
-co-operation with good.

45. When we are firmly of opinion that grave wrong
has been done to us and when after an appeal to the
highest authority we fail to secure redress, there must be
some power available to us for undoing the wrong.

46. We must refuse to wait for the wrong to be
righted till the wrong-doer has been roused to a sense of
his iniquity. But we must combat the wrong by ceasing
to assist the wrong-doer directly or indirectly.

47. The business of every God-fearing man is to
dissociate himself from evil in total disregard of conse¬
quences.

48. Non-co-operation predominantly implies with¬
drawing of co-operation from the State that in the
non-co-operator’s view has become corrupt, and excludes
Civil Disobedience of the fierce type. By its very nature,
non-co-operation is even open to children of understanding
and can be safely practised by the masses. Non-co-opera¬
tion too, like Civil Disobedience, is a branch of Satyagraha

204

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

which includes all non-violent resistance for the vindi¬
cation of Truth. Non-co-operation in itself is more harm¬
less than Civil Disobedience but in its effect it is far more
dangerous for the Government than Civil Disobedience.
Non-co-operation is intended so far to paralyse the Gov¬
ernment as to compel justice from it. If it is carried to
the extreme point, it can bring the Government to a
standstill.

49. Non-co-operation is not a passive state, it is an
intensely active state. Passive resistance is a misnomer.

50. My non-co-operation is with methods and sys¬
tems, never with men.

51. Behind my non-co-operation there is always the*
keenest desire to co-operate on the slightest pretext even,
with the worst of opponents. To me, a very imperfect
mortal, ever in need of God’s grace, no one is beyond
redemption.

Civil Disobedience — A Constitutional Weapon

52. Civil Disobedience is civil breach of unmoral
statutory enactments. The expression was, so far as I am
aware, coined by Thoreau. Civil Disobedience is not a
state of lawlessness and licence, but presupposes a law-
abiding spirit combined with self-restraint. Satvagraha
consists at times in Civil Disobedience and other times in
Civil Obedience.

53. Nor is it necessary for voluntary obedience that
the laws to be observed must be good. There are many
unjust laws which a good citizen obeys so long as they
do not hurt his self-respect or the moral being.

54. A Government that is evil has no room for good
men and women except in its prisons. As no government
in the world can possibly put a whole nation in prison,
it must yield to its demand or abdicate in favour of a
government suited to that nation.

55. Disobedience to the law of the State becomes a
peremptory duty when it comes in conflict with the law
of God.

56. A satyagrahi is nothing if not instinctively law-
abiding, and it is his law-abiding nature which exacts

APPENDIX

205

from him implicit obedience to the highest law, that is,
the voice of conscience which overrides all other laws.

57. A satyagrahi sometimes appears momentarily to
disobey laws and the constituted authority only to prove
in the end his regard for both.

58. Civil Disobedience is the purest type of consti¬
tutional agitation. Of course, it becomes degrading and
despicable if its civil, i. e., non-violent character is a mere
camouflage.

Civil Disobedience — Inherent Right of a Citizen

59. Civil Disobedience is the inherent right of a
citizen. He dare not give it up without ceasing to be a
man. Civil Disobedience is never followed by anarchy.
Criminal Disobedience ’tan lead to it. Every State puts
down Criminal Disobedience by force. It perishes if it
does not. But to put down Civil Disobedience is to at¬
tempt to imprison conscience.

60. Complete Civil Disobedience is rebellion without
the element of violence in it. An out and out civil resister
simply ignores the authority of the State. He becomes
an outlaw claiming to disregard every unmoral State law

.Submission to the State law is the price a citizen

pays for his personal liberty. Submission therefore to a
State law wholly or largely unjust is an immoral barter
for liberty. A citizen who thus realizes the evil nature of
a State is not satisfied to live on its sufferance and there¬
fore.he invites imprisonment and other uses of

force against himself. This he does because and when he
finds the bodily freedom he seemingly enjoys to be an
intolerable burden.Thus considered, Civil Resist¬

ance is a most powerful expression of a soul’s anguish
and an eloquent protest against the continuance of an
evil State.

Requisites of Civil Disobedience — Discipline, Non-vio¬
lence, Truth, Justice and Purity

61. A born democrat is a bom disciplinarian.
Democracy comes naturally to him who is habituated,
normally to yield willing obedience to all laws, human or
divine. I claim to be a democrat both by instinct and

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

206

training. Let those who are ambitious to serve democracy
qualify themselves by satisfying first this acid test of
democracy. A democrat must be utterly selfless. He
must think and dream not in terms of self or party but
only of democracy. Only then does he acquire the right
of Civil Disobedience.

62. Disobedience to be civil must be sincere, respect¬
ful, restrained, never defiant; must be based upon some
well understood principle; must not be capricious and
above all, must have no ill-will or hatred behind it.

63. For my movement I do not need believers in
the theory of non-violence, full or imperfect. It is enough
if people carry out the rules of non-violent action.

64. The first indispensable condition precedent to
any Civil Resistance is that there should be surety against
any outbreak of violence whether on the part of those
who are identified with Civil Resistance or on the part of
the general public. It would be no answer in the case of
an outbreak of violence that it was instigated by the State
or other agencies hostile to civil resisters. It should be
obvious that Civil Resistance cannot flourish in an atmos¬
phere of violence. This does not mean that the resources
of a satyagrahi have come to an end. Ways other than
Civil Disobedience should be found out.

65. The beauty of Satyagraha, of which non-co-
operation is but a chapter, is that it is available to either
side in a fight; that it has checks that automatically work
for the vindication of truth and justice in preponderating
measure. It is as powerful and faithful a weapon in the
hand of the capitalist as in that of the labourer. It is as
powerful in the hands of the Government as in that of the
people, and will bring victory to the Government, if people
are misguided or unjust, as it will win the battle for the
people if the Government be in the wrong.

66. In Satyagraha it is never the numbers that
count; it is always the quality, more so when the forces
of violence are uppermost.

67. Indeed one PERFECT civil resister is enough to
win the battle of Right against Wrong.

REFERENCES

1. Letter to Dr. Julian Huxley.

2. Young India, 26-3-’31, p. 49.

3. From Yeravda Mandir, p. 13.

4. G. A. Natesan & Co., Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi,

p. 346.

5. Young India, 10-3220, p. 3.

6. G. A. Natesan & Co., Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi,

pp. 346-347.

7. Young India, ll-8-’20, p. 3.

8. Harijan, 5-9-’36, p. 237.

9. Harijan, 1142238, p. 327.

10. Harijan, 7-l-’39, p. 417.

21. Harijan, 5-9-’36, p. 236.

12. Address to Europeans at Germiston (Transvaal) 1908.

13. Harijan, 5-9-’36, p. 236.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. Harijan, 24-12238, p. 393.

18. Harijan, 20-4-’40, p. 97.

19. Harijan, 26-7242, p. 248.

20. Young India, ll-S-’20, p. 3.

21. Young India, 16-6227, p. 196.

22. Young India, 12-8226, p. 285.

23. Young India, 13-8-’20, p.3.

24. Harijan, 12-10-’35, p. 276.

25. Ibid.

26. Young India, 14-1220, p. 5.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Young India, 4-6225, p. 189.

31. Young India, 10-2-’25, p. 61.

32. Young India, 23-9-’26, p. 332.

33. Young India, 2040-’27, p. 353.

34. Young India, 26-2225, p. 73.

35. Harijan, 15-4233, p, 8.

36. Ibid.

37. Harijan, 15-4239, p. 86.

38. Harijan, 25-3239, p. 64.

207

208

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

39. Young India, 16-4-’31, p. 77.

40. M. K. Gandhi: Satyagraha in South Africa, p. 246.

41. Harijan, 25-3-’39, p. 64.

42. Cited by Roy Walker: The Wisdom of Gandhi, p. 20.

43. Young India, 8-8-’29, p. 263.

44. Young India, 23-3-’22, p. 168.

45. Young India, 9-6-’20, p. 3.

46. Young India, 16-6-’20, p. 4.

47. Cited by Walker, op. cit., p. 40.

4S. Young India, 21-3-’21, p. 90 and 28-7-'20, p. 2.

49. Yong India, 2o-S-’20, p. 2.

-50. Young India, 12-9-’29, p. 300.

51. Young India, 4-6-’2o, p. 193.

52. Young India, 23-3-’21, p. 90 and Walker, op. cit., p. 44.

53. Cited by Walker, op. cit., p. 44.

54. Young India, 22-9-’21, p. 303 and 1-9-20, p. 575.

55. Ethical Religion, p. 45.

56. Cited by Walker, op. cit., p. 44.

57. Natesan’s collection, p. 302.

58. Young India, 15-12-’21, p. 419.

59. Young India, 5-l-’22, p. 5.

60. Young India, 10-11-’21, pp. 361-62.

61. Harijan, 27-5-39, p. 136.

62. Young India, 24-3-’20, p. 4.

63. Gandhiji’s Correspondence with Government, p. 169.

64. Harijan, 18-3-’39, p. 53.

65. Young India, 23-6-’20, p. 5.*

66. Harijan, 25-3-’39, p. 64.

67. Young India, 10-11-’21, p. 362.

* Though attributed to Gandhiji in some collections of his
writings, obviously the quotation is someone else’s but was published
in Young India with his sanction and approval.

INDEX

[KK and NWFP are used as short forms of Khudai Khidmatgar
and North-West Frontier Province in the index.]

Abbottabad, address to Gandhiji,
136-37; its past associations, 138 ;
minorities’ deputation to Gan¬
dhiji, 133; public meeting, 136
Abdali, Ahmed Shah, his Durrani
kingdom, 17-18

Abdul Gbaffar Khan, 31, 47; his
early career, 31; and his KKs,
49-50. See Badshah Khan
Abdul Qayyum Khan, 184; de¬
nounces Abdul Ghafar Khan as
enemy of Pakistan, 1S5
Abdul Wadud Badshah, Syed,
shoots himself, 39
Abdur Rahman, Amir, 24, 25
Abdur Rahman, Baba, 9
Abdus Samad Khan, 184
Afghan War, First, 20; Second, 21
Afghanistan, British policy towards,
20, 21

Afridis, the, 7, 8

Ahmadi Banda KKs addressed by

Gandhiji, 116
Ajab Khan, 81, 82
Akbar, 16

Alexander the Great, 150, 152, 158,
159; and Dandamis, 157-58; de¬
fied, 160; his invasion of India,
14, 155; his questions to

sannyasis, 156-57

All-India Spinners’ Association,
some facts and figures, 141-43
Ambedkar, Dr. 185
Axnbhi, Governor of Taxila, 14
Amtus Salam, Bibi, 161
Andrews, C.F., 11, 25, 31; his ques¬
tion of questions, 45-46; on air
bombing, 45

Anger, and non-violence, 88
Arrian, 148, 150, 151
Arthashastm, 152-53; its solicitude
for working women, 152

Asoka, his edict at Kalinga, 15, at
Shahabazgarh, 153-54; his fron¬
tier policy, 16

Atlee’s declaration re transfer of
power, 168

Aurangzeb, his frontier policy, 17

Authoritarianism, in propagating
religion condemned by Asokan
edicts, 154

Azad, Abul Kalam, 134

Babra village firing on KKs, 193

Badshah Khan, 46, 52, 129; a hater
of politics, 129; always suspi¬
cious of Englishmen, 191; and
Afghanistan, 177; and Fakir
of Ipi, 176; and Gandhiji confer,
71-78; and non-violence, 40;
arranges Khattak dance for
Gandhiji, 102; arrested by
Pakistan Govt., 187; arrested for
Bombay speech, 39; arrested for
starting national schools, 34;
arrested in 1942, 162; as inter¬
preter, 69, 123; attends Nagpur
Congress, 34; best disciple of
Gandhiji, 189; charged with
playing game of Afghanistan,
173; charges Caroe witji intri¬
guing, 170; compares Pakistan
with India Govt., 185, 186; de¬
clined Congress Presidentship,
190; deplores communal mad¬
ness, 164; entertains Gandhiji,
79-80; fond of humanitarian ser¬
vice, 130; Gandhiji on, 122; gives
up idea of going to England,
32; his appeal to Muslim League
to sit in jirga, 171, to Pathans
for Pafhanistan, 186-87; his as¬
pirations about Pathans, 122;
his character and personality,

209

210

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

189, 190-91; his choice for non¬
violence made in 1920, 138; his
comments on British display of
arms 112; his criticism of Pak.
Govt., 186; his decision to ex¬
tend KK movement to all
Pakistan, 184; his defence and
vindication of his policy, 181-83;
his demand for Pathanistan,
175; his failings, 191-92; his
faith in Gandhi ji, 40-41, in
Hindu-Muslim unity, 166, in ser-.
vice and non-violence, 42, 178;
his first jail experience and
release, 33; his first meet¬
ing with Gandhi ji, 36; his
first speech in Pakistan Par¬
liament, 178-79; his horror for
big cities, 52 ; his idea of a KK
home for constructive activities,
73; his ideal behaviour in jail,
35; his interpretation of Islam,
139; his interview with Bernays,
42; his meeting with Qaid-e-
Azam, 183; his mother, 32; his
question to Gandhiji re seeking
legal aid, 61; his reaction to
charge of helping Hindus with
KKs to subdue Muslims, 139;
his readiness to join Pakistan,
172; his regularity in Namaz,
35; his reply to critics of Patha¬
nistan not being self-sufficient,
173, to Karachi address, 163, to
minorities at Karachi, 181-83;
his sincerity, 164; his statement
from Karachi, 176, from Pesha-
war, of 16-5-’48, 189, 165, in
Young India, 41-42; his talk
with Griffith, 191-92; his wander
lust, 139; joins Gandhiji, 163;
on fate of Muslims in India,
177-78; on how he was perse¬
cuted by Pak. Govt., 178-79;
on India being one nation,
164; on lack of civil liber¬
ties and black out on news
in Pakistan, 180; on Pakistan
Govt., 178-79; on Pathan blood-
feuds, 115; on religious quarrels,
36; on transborder raids, 74; on
transformation of Pathans due to

ahimsa, 139; opposed to moi
of new elections, 70; pleads wit
father for national educatio
34; posts armed night watch
for Gandhiji, 54; puts h
daughter under Mirabehn, 3£
released from jail (1945), 16S
resigns from Working Commi
tee, 162; says Quranic law he
no place in Pak, 186; sentence
to 3 years' imprisonment, 187
sets up a training centre z
Sardaryab, 161; settles hi
future programme with Gai
dhiji, 139; starts nations
schools, 32; stays with Baja
40; studies Gita in jail, 35; take
Gandhiji to Utmanzai, 52; lake
part in 1946 elections, 162-63
throws himself into Rowlatt Ac
agitation, 33; urges liquidate
of Muslim League, 179; wit]
Gandhiji at Wardha, 39, 40
Bajaj, Jamnalal, 40
Bannu, deputations to Gandhij]
93; plain described, 96-97; raid
45, 92

Bannuchis, 9

Behram Khan, 31, 34; arrested anc
released, 33; his character
32-33

Bernays, Robert, 42

Bhargava, Dr. Gopichand, 141
Bhittanis, 7, 8

Bibhuti, Gandhijfs visit to, IIS
Black-and-Tan regime in NWFP, 3*
Blood-feuds among Pathans, 114-1C
British, how to drive them out, 9£
British, officers in NWFP, interestec
in spreading misrule and anar
chy in the province, 171
British policy of border protection,
9-10

Buddhism in NWFP, 14748
Burns, A., his commercial mission,
20

Burns, Sir William, his assassina¬
tion, 20

Cabinet delegation, 162; its state¬
ment of 16th May, 166-67
Carlyle, Thomas, 52

INDEX ’ ' 211

Caroe, Sir Olaf, Governor of
NWFP, and his anti-Congress
policy, 170

Chandragupta Maurya, 14
Charkha, how Gandhiji came by it,
100; the golden bridge to unite
rich and poor, 100
Charkha Sangh, charge against it,
of being a Hindu organization,
142-43

Charsadda incident, of non-violent
fearless behaviour of Pathans,
140; KK officers* assurance to
Gandhi ji, 57

Christianity, 78; and the sword, 59
Civil Disobedience, and Satyagraha,
85, 88-89; end of non-violence,
not its beginning, 126; for Swa¬
raj, suspension of, 85; in jail,
88; individual, launched upon,
162 ; right to, when accrues, 126;
should be charged with goodwill
or non-violence, 126
Communal riots in Hazara Dist,
165

Congress Ministries, resignation of.
161

Constructive non-violence pro¬
gramme, 133, 99

Constructive programme, its place
in scheme of non-violence as a
dynamic force, 99
Constructive work, training in,
prescribed for KKs, 66; two
types of, 97

Conversion, aim of jail going, 70
Cortez, 110
Crancroft, 148
Croesus and Solon, 136
Cultivators not molested by fight¬
ing armies in Ancient India, 152
Cunningham, 148

Curzon, Lord, constitutes NWFP,
22

Cyrus, King of Persia, 14

Daleep Singh, Maharaja, 18

Dalhousie, Lord, 20

Dandamis, and Alexander, 157-58;

his discourse, 158-60
Darius, 1, 14

Davies, Collin, cited, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12,
13, 23; his testimony to Pathans,

114; on Pathan civil warfare,
115

Delmerick, 148

Dera Ismail Khan 106; address to
Gandhiji, 107; riots, 44
Desai, Bhulabhai, cited, 26
Desai, Mahadev, 36; on Badshah
Khan’s parents, 32
Diogenes, 158

Disarmament, power of, 103
Dost Mohammad, dethroned, 20; his
death, 21

Durand agreement, 25
Durand line, 4, 21-22, 25
Dyer, General, 28, 115

Eden, Sir Anthony, on air bombing
for police purposes, 44
Edwards, Major, subjugates Bannu
valley, 19

Ellis, Mollie, 8, 82, 112, 171
Ellis, Mrs., 81

Elphinstone, Mount Stuart, and his
* Kabul Mission *, 20
Emerson, his visit to Carlyle, 52
Evil-doers, how to tackle. 77

Fa Hien, 149

Fearlessness and non-violence, 89
Foreigners, treated with considera¬
tion in Ancient India, 151
Foundation Resolution of the Con¬
gress of 1920, 125

Frontier Govt.’s charges against
Badshah Khan, 188
Frontier Ministry, meets Gandhiji,
117

Frontier Policy, of the British, too
costly, 93; its recurring finan¬
cial liabilities, 27

Frontier Province, a place of pil¬
grimage for Gandhiji, 123

Gandamak, Treaty of, 4, 21, 24
Gandhari, 14

Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 31; sought to
be broken by Government, 37-38
Gandhiji, 31, 36, 160; a declared
rebel against British Empire, 28;
addresses KKlsatAhmadi Banda,
116-17; advises Kulachi people
to take to charkha, 108; and
Anglo-French agreement with

212

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Hitler, 48; and Badshali Khan
confer, 71-78; and the Munich
crisis, 47-48; asks Tank KKs to
he true hamsayas of local Hin¬
dus, 108-09; asserts that Islam
was neither founded nor propa¬
gated by the sword. 58-59; at
Dera Ismail Khan, 106-07; breaks
away from Congress, 162; casti¬
gates Frontier Ministers and
Congress M.L. A.s for not wear¬
ing khadi, 144 ; cites the case of
Harijans fasting at his door, 61 ;
cites Mir Alam’s incident, 105;
claims to have been a constant
and ceaseless striver after non¬
violence, 137; clarifies Badshah
Khan’s position re Pakistan and
Afghanistan, 173-74; compares
KK with common soldier, 65;
confesses debt to his wife, 80-90 ;
criticizes Abbottabad address,
137; his address to Kohat pub¬
lic meeting, 82-83, to KKs
of Paniala, 115; advice to Ash¬
ram girls to shed fear of
Pathans, 84, to Czechs, 48-49;
aim in living at Sevagram, 76;
apology to his hosts re Ramzan
fast, 111; death, 175; discourse
on non-violence to Abbottabad
public, 137-38, to the audience
at Lakki, 103, to Manshera KKs,
132; faith in constructive pro¬
gramme, 100-01; impressions of
the Frontier tour, 122-27; love
for his mother, 32; non-violent
solution of trans-border raids,
93; passionate appeal to KKs
at Swabi, 69; prophetic words
re KKs, 193; reply to Manshera
public address, 131-32. to Pesha¬
war Bar Association’s address,
117, to South Indian officer’s
poser, 118: sharp rebuke to
Dera Ismail Khan public, 107;
speech at Bannu, 93; suggestion
of a course in constructive work
for KKs, 73, to send some *KKs
to Wardha for training, 74; talk
to Red shirt officers on non-vio¬
lent resistance, 56, with Abbot

tabad minorities, 133, ’ with
Badshah Khan on transborder
raids, 55, with Bannu KKs, 87,
with Hungoo KKs, 87, with Kohat
KK officers, 83-86, with Nasarat
Khel KKs, 87-91; test of non¬
violence, 57, 58; tour of Mar-
dan Dist., 63; view re going to
law, 61; visit to Taxila, 138;
warning to KKs before they
take to non-violence, 123; word-
picture of Pathan characteris¬
tics, 67-68; yearning to be one
with the poor, 100; how he came
to discover the charkha, 100;
launches satyagraha movement,
28; lays down crucial test of
KKs’ non-violence, 60; meets
Charsadda KK officers, 57;
meets Frontier Ministry, 117;
objects to armed night watches,
54; on achievement of his S.
African satyagraha, 56; on Bad¬
shah Khan’s faith in ahimsa,
126; on Badshah Khan’s hospi¬
tality, 122-23; on banishing
anger, 90-91; on the calf acci¬
dent on way to Bibhuti, 118-19;
on constructive work in terms
of non-violence, 83; on fight
from behind prison bars, 88-89;
on his harsh treatment of his
wife, 90; on his losing temper
with friends, 89; on kidnapping
and raids by transborder tribes¬
men, 75, 93-96; on the obser¬
vance of Ramzan, 90-91; on
punishment of Dyer, 115; on
purpose of visit to NWFP,
50-51; pensive on a Pathan’s
congratulations, 127; prescribes
not-violent self-immolation to
save a girl from outrage, 109-10;
prescribes training in con¬
structive work to KKs, 66; pro¬
pounds philosophy of courting
imprisonment, 67-70; receives
address from Nowshera KK
officers, 65, deputations at
Bannu, 93, gifts from Munat
Khan Kili people, 63, Kohat de¬
putations, 82, sarapa from Sikh

INDEX

213

shrine at Haripur, 119; refers
all his problems to God, 40-41;
relates his good relations with
Pathans in South Africa, 67-68;
reminded of his mother’s orna¬
ments oil seeing relics in Taxila
museum, 150; replies poser bv
KK at Panpiala, 116; repudiates
charge against Badshah Khan in
connection with non-violence,
57-58; sees Khattak dance, 102;
sets out for NWFP, 47; sets out
for Noakhali, 163; sounds and
cautions KKs at Mardan, 67;
takes Badshah Khan to Griffith,
191; urges Bannu KKs to adopt
non-violence of the strong, 98;
urges KKs to learn some craft
as an independent means of
livelihood, Hindustani, etc., 60;
urges KKs to proceed further on
the path of non-violence, 137-38;
visits Bibhuti, 118, again
NWFP, 161, the scene of Bannu
raid, 96, Taxila, 147; warns
Tank KKs to sign pledge after
full consideration, 109, Lakki
KKs to disarm only if they have
faith in non-violence, 103
Garhi Habibullah, bombing inci¬
dent, 187, 188, 180
Garhwalls, refuse to fire on unre¬
sisting Pathans, 30, 31
Goodwill or love, best rendering of
ahimsa, 124; should be second
nature with us, 124
Gopichand, Dr., 141
Governor of NWFP, 168, 169
Griffith, Sir Ralph, 191-92
Grouping according to Cabinet De¬
legation, 167

Habibur Rahman, his murder, 24
Haji Saheb of Turangzai, 32
Hall, Fielding King, 17, 147: his
description of a Khattak dance,
103; on Pathan inflammability,
39

Hall, Stephen King, on Pathan
character, 114

Plaripur Panja Saheb shrine pre¬
sents the Gandhis with sarapa,
119

Herbert, Mr., 18
II i rid Swaraj, 100
Hindu-Muslim Unity, 99
History of Satyagraha in South
Africa , quoted, 105
Hitler, 49, 68, 127; and the Anglo-
French agreement with him, 48
Hungoo public meeting and ad¬
dress, 87

Implications of renouncing vio¬
lence, 89

Indian Home Rule , on lawyers, 117
Ipi, Fakir of, 176
Islam, and the sword, 58-59 ; is un¬
adulterated peace, 78; its
essence, brotherhood, 177; most
tolerant in the world, 165; reli¬
gion of Peace, 139

Jail going, conversion aim of, 70
Jallianwala Bagh Congress Com¬
mittee re demanding punish¬
ment of Dyer, 115
James, Major, cited, 18
Jamiat-ul-Awam, 186
Janameiaya’s serpent sacrifice, 148
Jats. the. 9

Jaulian Buddhist monastery, re¬
mains of, 148-49

Jesus Christ and modern Europe,
59

Jilani, Abdul Qadir, story cited, 116
Jinnah, not a representative of the
Mushm nation, 186
Jirga system, 9

Tvalanos, 152

Kalinga edict of As oka, 15
Kanishka, his empire, 16
Kautilya, 14; his economy, 152-53
Keene, General, 20
Keppel, Sir George Roos, See Roos-
Keppel

Khacli exhibition at Peshawar,
141-46

Khadi movement and self-suffi¬
ciency, 142

Khan Brothers, above suspicion of
communal bias, 135; arrested
during Gandhi-Irwin truce, 37-
38; not opposed to grouping as

214

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

such, 167; opposed to referen¬
dum on India or Pakistan issue,
172; their integrity, 190; true
servants of God, 191
Khan Saheb. Dr., 35, 41, 52, 66, 141;
his early career, 31; his inter¬
view with Col. Sandeman, 37-38:
refutes charge against Charkha
Sangh, 143; resigns commission,
34

Khan Saheb Ministry, direct action
launched against, 16S ; dismissed
by Qaid-e-Azam, 175
Khattak dance, 102
Khattak, Khusbal, 9
Khattaks, the, 9
Khilafat, violation of, 28
Khudai Khidmatgar and a common
soldier, 65; mark of a real KK,
. 84-S5

Khudai Khidmatgars, 8, 46, 47; and
local volunteers at Dera Ismail
Khan, 107; crucial test of their
non-violence, 68-69; Govt, re¬
pression of, 38 ,* keeping vigil at
Badshah Khan’s residence, 181 ;
significance of the terms, 125;
subjected to reprisals, 192-93;
their pledge, 50; urged to pro¬
ceed further on the path of non¬
violence, 138, to work the con¬
structive self-purification pro¬
gramme of Congress, 125
Khudai Khidmatgar movement, 31,
36-37

Khyber, caravan, 114; pass, 80
Kidnapping by trans-border tribes¬
men, 94

Kohat, address to Gandhiji, 82; de¬
putations to Gandhiji, 82; dis¬
turbances, 29; pass, 80-81
Kulachi, address to Gandhiji, 108

Law Courts, fighting in, and non¬
violence, 61-62
Lawrence, Sir Henry, 18
Lawrence, Sir John, his masterly
inactivity, 20-21
Life in Ancient India, 151-52
Lord God and the Serpent, 54
Love and tolerance, 119
Lytton, Lord, 23

McCrindle, 151

McMunn, on air bombing, 45
McNaughten, W., Ms assassination,
20

Mad Mullah, his jehacl against Bri¬
tish, 24

Maffey, Sir John, 34
Mafiabharata, the, 148
Mahmud of Ghazni, 16
Mahsud Expedition, 25
Mahsuds, the, 7, 8
Majority community vis a vis
minorities, 113, 135
Manshera Kisans’ address to Gan¬
dhiji, 130, their grievances, 130
Manshera Public address to Gan¬
dhiji, 131

Maqsudjan, Mr., 112
Marshall, Sir John, 148
Marwat, Tahsil of, 102
Marwats, the, 9

Military organizations and peau
organizations, 104
Minorities, duty of, 135; vis a vis
majority community, 135; in
Pakistan, their faith in Badshah
Khan, SI, their position in
NWFP, 133-35
Mir Alam, 105

Mirabehn (Miss Slade), 16, 39, 161
Modesty of innocent girl being
threatened, case of, 10*9-10
Mohmands, the, 7
Mohammad Ghori, 16
Mookerjee, Dr. Shyama Prasad. 1S5
Mountbatten, Lord, comes to India
as Viceroy, 168

Munat Khan Kill, inhabitants of,
present gifts to Gandhiji, 63
Munich Pact, 47
Mussolini, 68

Nadirshah, his invasion, 17
Napier’s exploit in Sindh, cited, 21
Nasarat Khel address to Gandhiji,
87

Nayyar, Sushila, 129
Nehru, Pt. Jawaharlal, 63, 178, 185;
his car ambushed by tribesmen,
44, his visit to NWFP, 43; not
allowed to enter NWFP, 41
No-man’s land, 4, 11

INDEX

215

Non-co-operation 28 ; and NWFP, 29
Non-Muslims in NWFP, 10
Non-violence, active principle of
highest order, 75 ; and anger,
88; and fighting in law courts,
61-62; and respect for others'
rights, 120; can be kindled in
the heart by grace of God, 138 ;
cannot be taught by word of
mouth, 138 ; distinguishing mark
of man from brute, 124; does
not depend on another’s suf¬
ferance, 193; fearlessness essen¬
tial for, 89; how it was taken
up in India, 97-98; how to pro¬
tect hamsayas with, 116; inade¬
quate rendering of ahimsa, 124;
infinitely superior to brute
force, 103 ; is like radium in its
action, 76; is its own seal and
sanction, 193 ; its acid test, 77;
its two varieties, 97 ; mightiest
force God has endowed man
with, 124 ; no guru necessary
for, 89 ; not mere disarmament,
138 ; not mere passive quality,
124 ; taken up by Indians, was
of the weak, 98 [ transcends
space and time, 76; way of 4 unto
this last ’, 100; whole meaning
of, beyond man’s grasp, 137

Non-violence movement, great boon
to Pathans, 72-73

Non-violent non-co-operation, 77;

and constructive programme, 79
Non-violent, soldier, should enter¬
tain love for all, 105; strength,
practical hints for its cultiva¬
tion, 86; warfare, laws of, 99
North-West frontier of India, 11
North-West Frontier Province, and
Non-co-operation, 29; casualty
between Cabinet Mission’s good
intentipns and British officials’
intrigues, 169; diarchy in, 42-43;
excluded from Montford Re¬
forms, 22; its fluctuating boun¬
daries, 3; its inhabitants, 7; its
military and political impor¬
tance, 11-12; its mineral and
potential resources and wealth,
5; its natural beauty and
wealth, 3; its natural features,

5-6; its political divisions before
Partition, 6; its present bounda¬
ries, 4; its role in Indian
history, 11; land of contrasts,
3-10; made a Governor’s pro¬
vince, 23; rich in associations of
India’s long history, 13
NWFP Government’s communique
re Badshah Khan vis a vis
Pakistan, 187

Nowshera KK officers’ address to
Gandhiji, 65

Numbers, mere accession of, weak¬
ening, 132

Obhrai, Dewan Chand, 12, 22
O’Dwyer, Sir Michael, 27
Onesikritos, 157, 158
Orakzais, the, 7, 8
Organization of violence and that
of non-violence, 104

Pakhtoon, the, 179
Pakhtoonistan, see Pathanistan
Pakistan and India compared, 185,
186

Pakistan, authorities charged with
demoralizing Pathans, 176; lea¬
ders all refugees, 186, People’s
Party, 184; v. Free Pathanistan,
173 *

Paniala KKs addressed by Gan-
dhiji, 115-16
Panini, 14

Paramananda, Rao Bahadur, 128
Parashurama, founder of Pesha¬
war, 14

Patel, Sardar, 185

Patel, V. J., his report on Peshawar
firing, 30

Pathan, has no racial significance,
7, 113; his strong antipathy to
being dominated, 172; misrepre¬
sented by political and military
departments, 12-13; mortal fear
of, common in India, 84; revolt,
1897, 23; rising, 17
Pathan character, vilification of, by
English writers, 114
Pathan Code of Honour, 114
Pathans, carrying away sentries
with rifles, 114; civil war
among, 114; their characteris¬
tics, 113; vs. Punjabi nawabs,
172; violence their bane, 71

216

A PILGRIMAGE FOR PEACE

Paurava (Porus), king, 155
Peace organization and military or¬
ganization, 104

Fennel, Dr., the evangelist, 45
Peshawar Bar Association’s address
to Gandhiji, 117
Peshawar firing in 1930, 30
Philip, Macedonian Governor of
NWFP, 14
Poona offer, 162
Porus (Paurava), 14, 55
Poser by a KK at Paniala, 110
Prince of Wales’s visit and Bom¬
bay riots, 75

Pukhtu, language of Pathans, S, 9,

Pukhtunwali, 114

Punctuality, 74
Pushtu, see Pukhtu
Pythagoras, 158

Qaid-e-Azam, dismisses Dr. Khan
Ministry, 175; his announce¬
ment re negotiations with Bad-
shah Khan, 183-84
Quit India struggle, 162

Raids, transborder, 26
Rajendraprasad, Babu, 134, 178
Ramzan, month, and Gandhi ji’s
tour, 79

Ranjit Singh, creator of NWFP, IS
R avert y, on present-dav Paths ns,
152

Referendum in NWFP, boycotted
by Khan Brothers and KKs,
174; climate on the eve of, 174
Religious toleration, in Asoka’s
edicts, 154

Roads, construction programme in
NWFP, 24-26; metalled, 53
Roberts, General, 20
Roos-Keppel, Major, 25
Roos-Keppei, Sir George, his policy
to placate Pathans, 34
Rowlatt Act, 28; agitation against,

Settled Districts, 22, 23, 25
Sevagram, 76
Shah Jahan, 17

Shah Nawaz Khan, Haji, kills him
38-39 t0 expiate his disgrace.

Sher Ali, 21
Shujah, Shah, 20
Sikhs and kirpan, 58
Sikh rule on the Frontier, 17, 18
Sirkap one of the sites of Taksha-
shila, 149-50

Slade, Miss, see Mirabehn

oici v ery, Daiinea m Ancient Indian
law, 151

Smuts, General, 56, 77
Socrates, 158

South Indian officer’s poser, 117-18

Strabo, 150

, Tahsil, Gandhi ji at, 69 ;
Kivs _ assurance to Gandhi |i, 70
Swadeshi, defined, 144

Takshashila finds, 148, 150
Tank ^ Hindus’ lament before Gan-
dhiji, 108
Taxila, 12S
Taylor, Reynal, IS
Telemachus, 157
Thornburn on Bannu, cited, 96
Timur’s mvasion, 16-17
Training necessary for a servant of
God as for a soldier of violence,

Transborder raids, 55, 66, 74, 93 •
and kidnappings, 97 *

Truth and, Non-violence go to¬
gether, 90 s

‘Unto this last’, the way of non¬
violence, 100

Usury, unknown in Ancient India,
151

Utmanzai, its lack of drainage and
sanitation, 54; its natural sce¬
nery, 53

Sabuktagin, 16
Sambhas, King, 156
Sandeman, Col., 37-38
Sandeman, Sir Robert, 44
Sandeman System, 44, 45
Sannyasis, questioned by Alexan¬
der, 156-57

Satyagraha, and Civil Disobedience,
85, 88-89

Satyagrahi, should regard ‘ enemy ’
as potential friend, 121
Savanarola, 157
Sect. 93 regime in NWFP, 162
Servant of God, known by service
to His creatures, 125
Service of God, possible through
service of His creatures, 85-86

Violence, bane of the Pathans, 71 ;
eradication of, from the heart,
59

Wali Khan, Badshah Khan’s son,
112

War, outbreak of, 161
W 7 ardha Scheme of Education, 74
Wavell, Lord, retires, 168
Waziris, 1, 8
Wigram, Rev., 32
Wilson, Mr., on air bombing, 44
Working Committee Meeting at
Delhi under the shack,* of war,
47-48

Xerxes, 14
Yusufzais, 7