Each January, on the anniversary of his death, followers of the late-Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan gather in Peshawar and elsewhere in Pakistan to remember the man known to many as the Frontier Gandhi. Recognised also as Bacha or Badshah Khan ('khan of khans'), he preached non-violence, but his task was much more difficult than that of his mentor, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. As the Mahatma walked through Indian villages waging a non-violent struggle against colonialism, Badshah Khan attempted to convert his warlike Pakhtun people to an alien way of life – weaning them away from guns and violence.
It was on 20 January 1988, in a British-built public hospital in Peshawar, that Badshah Khan took his last breath. He had been in coma for some time and his supporters had been keeping a vigil by his side. Mourners converged in Peshawar from throughout Pakistan and abroad. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi led a delegation from India to pay last respects to the man who had befriended leaders from the Mahatma to Jawaharlal Nehru and aligned with the Hindu-led Congress Party instead of Mohammad Ali Jinnah's Muslim League. Condolences were received from Bangladesh, and a ceasefire was called to allow for a day of mourning in Afghanistan.
Having remained a controversial, non-conformist political figure all his life in Pakistan, Badshah Khan courted controversy even in death by leaving a will that provoked pro-establishment figures in Pakistan to condemn him as a traitor. His wish to be buried in Jalalabad, a city in eastern Afghanistan not far from Peshawar, was poorly received by his critics, mostly in the majority Punjab province. Already resentful of the Pakhtun nationalist leader for having opposed the creation of Pakistan in 1947, his opponents stoked new fires of resentment for his supposed unwillingness to be buried in Pakistani soil. Badshah Khan's followers, on the other hand, saw the decision as a remarkable effort by their leader to unite the crossborder Pakhtun communities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In their view, Badshah had offered his grave as the meeting point for the Pakhtuns of the two countries, halfway between Peshawar and Kabul.
For Pakhtun nationalists, the Durand Line border between Afghanistan and Pakistan was and remains entirely unnatural – a British-drawn barrier that separates one people from each other, dividing tribes, clans and villages (See Himal Nov-Dec 2005, "The line Durand drew"). Hopes that Badshah Khan's final resting place in Jalalabad would help to break down such barriers, however, remain unfulfilled. Pakistani collaboration in the US 'war on terror' has instead made the 2500 km-long Line an even more formidable obstacle.
Servant of God
Badshah Khan was born in 1890 in Utmanzai, in Charsadda District, near Peshawar. Although his father was a wealthy landowner, young Badshah chose a life of sacrifice in the struggle against British imperialism. His first known political activity was to participate in the annual session of the All India Muslim League, in Agra in 1913. Six years later, outrage over the massacre of peaceful protestors by British forces in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar prompted the 29-year-old Badshah to organise his first political protest, in Utmanzai. By that time, he had already become involved in the religious-social movement of Fazal Wahid, a respected cleric commonly known as Haji Sahib of Turangzai, who opposed British occupation of India and urged the enforcement of Shariah law.