The death anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan popularly known as Bacha Khan is being commemorated by his admirers and followers on January 20, 2020. The epoch making personalities like Bacha Khan can be best assessed in terms of their interaction with the times in which they lived.

Epitomising non-violence and peace as a creed, Gautama Buddha and Christ stand out in the annals of history. In the contemporary period Tolstoy left deep impressions on the thoughts of Gandhi, who embraced the ideal of non-violence and passive resistance using it as a weapon against the apartheid in South Africa.

But on this list of preachers of non-violence, in the history of the region Bacha Khan emerged as the tallest. Though born and brought up in a typical Pakhtun family of rural background, Bacha Khan had the vision, courage and firmness not to blindly follow the old trodden path hindering the progress and unity of Pakhtun society.

Therefore, from a beginning, he denounced the norm of ‘badal’ (revenge) fracturing the society and campaigned against it. His movement focused to purge the society of the vices, including gender discrimination, disregard for education and religious extremism.

The Pakhtuns were battered by colonial rulers as they considered them to be the weakest link in their defence against potential invaders through Afghanistan. His thinking made him realise Bacha Khan that emancipation of the mind and soul lay in freeing the society from the evil.

In a rural setup, in the prime of his youth, he established his first school in Utmanzai, soon to be followed by chain of more in other parts of Pakhtunkhwa. Averse to such activities, British using all means from bribes to intimidation and incarceration, however, they could not break his resolve.

His courage of conviction led him to form Anjuman-i-Islah-i-Afghana, enabling him to continue with the campaign of social reforms. His other crowning achievement was the publication of Pashto journal ‘Pakhtun’. The zenith of his struggle came in the form of Khudai Khidmatgar Movement, which helped in imparting political awareness to the people of Pakhtun belt.

Whilst alive and attached to his passion for freedom from the colonial imperialists, Bacha Khan did not lose sense of realism.

He had the vision that the might of imperialism could not be browbeaten with an armed struggle and, therefore, popularised the idea of non-violent struggle imbuing the ideas and might of morality and ethics.

Reached to every village; with person to person contact, he tried his best to foster unity among the fragmented groups.

The irony is that, even after the winding up of the British rule, the light of democracy associated with fundamental rights never dawned upon the people in Pakistan. With his motto ‘never say die’ he never compromised on the issues of political rights and carried on his struggle for democracy, bearing all hardships at the hands of new tormenters.

His warning that the forced policy of centralisation was dangerous for the unity of different cultural entities of the country proved prophetic as we lost half of Pakistan.

His predictions about the Afghan conflict also came true as the so-called holy war in Afghanistan brought nothing but death, destruction and displacement to the country in general and Pashtuns in particular.

Unfortunate we are that we do not learn lessons from the history. We have not made humane and loving personalities like Bacha Khan our national heroes and instead cultivate fake heroes. In the words of George Orwell, we are rewriting history, as those that control the past control the present.

Bacha Khan’s romance and commitment to the philosophy of non-violence, democratic values, national rights and reawakening of the nation and downtrodden through struggle have made him not only immortal but one of the greatest personalities of this age.

His personality had left deep imprints not only on the history of independence struggle before 1947 but also upon democratic movements in Pakistan.

Perhaps Asma Jahangir had best summarised the contribution of Bacha Khan in one of her last speeches as: “A Pakistan without Pakhtuns and a Pakistan without Bacha Khan would have been a narrow minded Pakistan.” The best tribute to him is to uphold his ideals by making Pakistan a true federal democracy.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2020