The Genesis and Evolution of Khudai Khidmatgars (1929-1947)

AbstractThe North West Frontier Province (renamed as Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa)1 was directly affected by political development taking place in India during the second decade of 20th Century. The anti-Rowlatt Act2 campaign and 3Khilafat Movement ignited the feelings of liberation in this part of the World. The Khudai Khitmatgar Tehreek (KKT); an outcome of those anti- British campaigns, was founded to the end of 3rd decade of the 20th Century. With the passage of time, it acquired strength and became formidable political force in the province. The KKT was in alliance with All India National Congress and its leader Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan4 was influenced by the Non-violence creed of Gandhi. The electoral strength pf KKT can be judged from the fact that they formed ministries thrice in NWFP i.e. in 1937, 1945 and 1946. The founder of this movement Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan had a multidimensional personality. Besides his hard work and popularity, he was the most controversial figure in the pre and post partition eras. In this paper, an attempt has been made to take into account the foundation, objectives, organizational structure and evolution of Khudai Khidmatgar TehreekKeywords. Khudai Khidmatgar, Red Shirts, Non-violence, Congress, Muslim LeagueThe Foundation of KKTThe Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek was a culmination of Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan's social and political activism. It was founded by him in 1929. In the British circles the term 'Red Shirt' has been used for the movement. The reason for giving this name to the movement was because of the red uniform its members used to wear. In the beginning, they wore white uniform but it was changed by its leadership to red colour. J. Spain has another version:Khudai Khidmatgars, the servants of God, whose uniform was dyed with local brick dust, to a distinctive shade of red. In British official records, the organization quickly dubbed as "The Red Shirts" and nervous administrators professed to see sinister connection between it and the "Red menace" which had been discovered beyond the Hindu Kush almost before the Tsarist threat was in its grave. (Spain, 1985:97)Before the foundation of Khudai Khidmatgars, Abdul Ghafar Khan kept himself associated with educational and social activities. Being impressed by the plan of Azad Schools initiated by the Haji Sahib of Turangzai, he, in collaboration with Mulvi Abdul Aziz, opened Azad Islamia High School in Uthmanzai, in 1921; some other schools were opened in various parts of the province. Besides, he founded a reformatory and social welfare organization Anjuman Islahul Afaghina in 1924. (Spain J.W, 1985:98) To universalize his ideas, Abdul Ghafar Khan started a monthly Pashto journal Pukhtoon in 1928 with Uthmanzai as its head office. He was the founder editor of the journal while Muhammad Akbar Khadim acted as its sub-editor. (Spain, 1985:97) The Pukhtoon Journal continued to appear until 1947 although it was banned time and again. On September 1, 1929 Abdul Ghafar Khan laid the foundation of a Jirga called, Da Suba Sarhad Da Zalmo Jirga or the Afghan Youth League. Although having separate identity and organizational setup, the Jirga was in close contact with the Khudai Khidmatgars Abdul Akbar Khan was chosen the first president of the Jirga (Spain, 1985:98).The above details bear testimony to the fact that Abdul Ghafar Khan founded and took part in many socio-political movements but the Khudai Khidmatgar movement became synonymous with his personality. About the foundation of Khudai Khidmatgars, he himself writes:As a matter of fact, we already had the Islahul Afaghina the organization we had started for the spreading of education in our province. In our opinion, this was very important work and we thought that the organization should continue to concentrate on education. But we realized that there were many weaknesses in our social system and we felt that we ought to start a movement that would help to make people more socially conscious. …