A Man to Match his Mountains

I don't imagine you have ever heard of Badshah Khan (1890-1988), the non-violent Pathan soldier of Islam – I certainly had not until my neighbour gave me this extraordinary book to read. I already had some books by the author – editions of Indian Scriptures, but this was completely new and totally mesmerising. Known as the Frontier Gandhi, Badshah Khan began as an educator with a mission to rescue his people from tyranny and create for them a world of freedom. As a humble man of God, he dedicated his life to this cause, spending nearly 30 years in prison - 15 of them under Britain - during his long life 'in the school of suffering' whereby his spirit was refined in this fire and strengthened in satyagraha (soul-force), even though he often lost up to 50 pounds through deprivation. His Pathan people were known as warriors and were historically caught in vicious cycles of revenge (badal), which makes it all the more incredible that Khan was able to recruit and train a non-violent army of 100,000 Pathans. As Gandhi himself observed, you need a warrior spirit in order for your nonviolence to come from strength and courage.

The British campaign of repression in his homeland was brutal in the extreme, involving shooting, beating and sacking whole villages. For them, Khan was a rebellious instigator of sedition who had to be contained by any means available. For Gandhi and his people, he was an inspiration, a man surrendered to the will of God and constantly acting out of love. Those who joined him took a solemn oath of refraining from violence and revenge, of forgiveness and service, of simplicity and virtue, devoting two hours a day to social work. At a time when Islam is still associated in public perception with militant violence, the example of Badshah Khan is inspirational and derived explicitly from the Prophet and his 'weapons' of patience and righteousness: 'no power on earth can stand against it.' Khan's troops at Kissa Khani Bazaar simply came forward with their breasts bared and exposed themselves to British fire from 11 until 5 in the evening - a staggering demonstration of courage and sacrifice, as well as of the inner eradication of anger. The book also describes Khan's time spent with Gandhi, who regarded him as embodying the true spirit of Islam in terms of submission to God. They both opposed partition, and their forecast of continued division proved to be true. Their joint legacy is that nonviolence as love in action can indeed be truly transformative but that it requires a rigorous and disciplined inner process to develop that unconquerable spirit they both demonstrated. The challenge of the book was well put in the New Yorker review with the observation that 'by his example Khan asks us what we ourselves, as individuals made from the same stuff as he, are doing to shape history.'