Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890–1988), known as Bacha Khan, was a Pashtun independence leader who founded the Khudai Khidmatgar movement and advocated nonviolent resistance.

Mahatma Gandhi: An Indian independence leader who organized mass campaigns of nonviolent resistance against British rule. Gandhi and Khan built a close political partnership around nonviolent resistance.
Khudai Khidmatgar: A Pashtun nonviolent resistance movement founded by Abdul Ghaffar Khan in British India. Khan founded and led this movement, whose members were known as the Red Shirts.
British Raj: The period of direct British Crown rule over India from 1858 to 1947. Khan’s organizing and imprisonment unfolded under this colonial government.
Partition of India: The 1947 division of British India into the independent states of India and Pakistan. Partition divided Khan’s political world and left his movement in Pakistan.
Pashtun nationalism: A political movement seeking recognition, rights, or self-rule for Pashtuns. Khan promoted Pashtun rights while working within a broader Indian independence movement.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah: The leader of the All-India Muslim League and Pakistan’s founding governor-general. Jinnah’s support for partition sharply diverged from Khan’s opposition to dividing India.
Nonviolent resistance: Political action that opposes injustice without using physical violence. Khan made nonviolence the organizing principle of Pashtun resistance to British rule.
North-West Frontier Province: A province of British India established in 1901, now largely part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The province was Khan’s political base and the setting for the movement’s major confrontations.
Bannu Resolution: A 1947 resolution by Pashtun leaders rejecting the available choices in the North-West Frontier Province referendum. Khan and allied leaders sought a Pashtun alternative to joining India or Pakistan.
Pashtuns: An Iranian-speaking ethnic group concentrated in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Khan’s political identity and reform work were rooted in Pashtun society.

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