Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 7672 Plough Quarterly • Summer 2015 “Nonviolence is not for cowards,” Mahatma Gandhi told his friend Badshah Khan in 1930. “It is for the brave, the courageous.”At the time they were working shoulder to shoulder, a Hindu and a Muslim, for Indian independence and for peace, as described in Eknath Easwaran’s biography, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam (Nilgiri, 1999). Khan (1890–1988) was born Abdul Ghaffar Khan near Pesha- war, in what is now Pakistan but was then British India’s North-West Frontier Province. The region was notorious for the violent uprisings of the Pathans (or Pashtuns), a fiercely proud Muslim people who followed an ancient code of tribal honor that caused fierce family feuds to rage for generations. The son of a prosperous landowner, Khan was educated in missionary schools. He was then offered a commission with the Guides, an elite military corps, but turned it down. He increasingly turned his attention to the unedu­ cated, impoverished people of his region, traveling from village to village, building schools, and teaching about agriculture and sanitation. His organizing work earned him the attention of the British who, worried about the burgeoning Free India movement, were suspi- cious of any attempts to unite the Pathans. Khan was arrested in 1921 as a subversive, and remained imprisoned until 1924. After his release, he established a nonviolent army called the Khudai Khidmatgars (“Servants of God”). Organized with the structure of a professional military force, it was open to all Pathans, both women and men, who were willing to take its oath of service and nonviolence. Known as the Red Shirts for the color of their uniform, Khudai Khidmatgars announced that “freedom is our goal” – freedom from British ­ oppression, from poverty and ignorance, and from the violence of their own culture. They opened schools, taught, and organized public ­ meetings. Khan insisted that women be allowed an education. He said in a speech: “God makes no distinction between men and women. If someone can surpass another, it is only through good deeds and morals.” Despite their nonviolence, the Khudai Khid- matgars faced some of the harshest repression meted out by British troops to any indepen- dence group. In an April 1930 massacre in Peshawar, the group’s unarmed members faced sustained machine-gun fire, and at least two hundred were killed. Witnesses reported that they went willingly and nonviolently to their deaths, clutching only their Qurans and shout- ing, “God is great!” When independence finally arrived in 1947, Khan opposed the All-India Muslim League’s demand for the partition of Pakistan and India, earning the enmity of Pakistan’s first leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Khan was placed under house arrest until 1954, and was repeat- edly imprisoned in the 1960s and 1970s. He died under house arrest in 1988, having spent a total of thirty years in confinement. Khan’s legacy continues to inspire new generations of nonviolent Muslim activists – such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai – who bear out Khan’s words: “That person is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God’s creatures.”   Veery Huleatt “If you want your people to prosper, you must start living for community.” F o r e ru n n e r s Badshah Khan and the Servants of God