Khudai Khidmatgars and Badshah khan – Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Khudai Khidmatgars and Badshah khan – Mahatma Gandhi

 

Whatever the Khudai Khidmatgars 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 unquestionably 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 Pathan except throughout 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 over praise. 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 Khan Saheb believes in my non-violence, he 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 Khan Saheb as my host. His one care throughout the tour was to make me as comfortable as the circumstances permitted. He spared no pains to make me proof against privation or discomfort. All my wants were anticipated by him. And there was no fuss about what he did. It was all 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 embarrassing, 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 good ground for hoping that the Frontier Province will pass through the fiery ordeal. The reason is simple. Badshah Khan commands willing obedience from his adherents 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.

Though Pyarelal has been giving a faithful record of the tour in the Frontier Province I must even at the risk of repetition in places give in my own way a resume of what has been done. At the outset both Khan Saheb and I had come to the conclusion that instead of addressing the whole of the Khudai Khidmatgars at the various centres I should confine me 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 Khan Saheb to be a very competent and faithful interpreter. And as he believed in what I said, he put into the translation 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 unless they felt that in non-violence they had come into possession of a force infinitely superior to the one they had and in the use of which they were adepts, they should have nothing to do with non-violence and resume the arms they possessed before. It must never be said of Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become or been made cowards under Khan Saheb’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 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-violence’ was an inadequate rendering of ahimsa which itself was an incomplete connotation of all it was used for conveying. A better rendering would be love or goodwill. Violence was to be met by 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 good will 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 us.

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 expedience. But it could not be an expedience when we have an equal choice between violence and non-violence. Such instances occur in domestic relations, social and political relations among us, not only between rival sects of the same faith but persons belonging to different 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 Khan Saheb had adopted for them 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 was unique in this as in many other things. Therefore servants of God were to be known by the service they rendered to His creatures. Hence the non-violence of Khudai Khidmatgars had to show itself in their daily actions.

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 military 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-manufacture and use of khadi 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 freedom for the country. This programme was followed but half-heartedly by Congressmen and the country, thus betraying a lack of living faith in non-violence, or faith in the method devised for its daily practice, or both. But 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 Khidmatgars 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 simple ailments. Hospitals and the like are toys of the rich and are available for the most part only to the city-dwellers. 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 substantial training, easily give relief in the majority of cases of illnesses that occurred in the villages. 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 disobedience 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 disobedience in terms of purna swaraj without due fulfillment of the programme.

The right to civil disobedience accrues 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 consequences of the breach but because it is the duty to obey with all our heart and not merely mechanically. Without the fulfillment of this preliminary condition, civil disobedience is civil only in name and never of the strong but of the weak. It is not charged with goodwill, i. e., non-violence. Khudai Khidmatgars had shown in unmistakable 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 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 Khan Saheb. It is derived from him. But it is none the less living so long as they have unquestioning faith in their leader who enjoys undisputed kingdom over their hearts. And Khan Saheb’s faith is no lip profession. His whole heart is in it. Let the doubters 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: 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 training 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 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 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 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.

 

Reference:

Harijan, 19-11-1938