Talk:Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

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• The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us ‘That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures.’ Belief in God is to love one's fellow men.(dont know where he got this qoute from)

• There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca.

• It has not, no more than our prosperity will drop from heaven. There secret of their prosperity is that they have men and woman who sacrifice their luxuries, their pleasures, and their comfort for the sake of the prosperity of the nation. We do not have such men amongst us. We look only to our own self-interest and let the country go to the devil. In other countries, people have learnt that no man is an island. But in our country every one lives in a dream-world of his own – like the animals. Any animal can find a place to live, find a mate, rear it's young. Can we call ourselves the crown of creation if we do just that and nothing more"?

• You have thrown us to the wolves
  • Bacha khan to Mahatma Gandhi, claiming that the people of the NWFP were thrown to the wolves who created Pakistan.

"Today’s world is traveling in some strange direction. You see that the world is going toward destruction and violence. And the specialty of violence is to create hatred among people and to create fear. I am a believer in nonviolence and I say that no peace or tranquility will descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence is practiced, because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people."

• • – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to an interviewer in 1985.

In his speech to the assembly he said:

"Whenever I had an opportunity to address the people in different parts of our province, I told them clearly that indeed, I was of the opinion that India should not be divided because today in India we have witnessed the result. Thousands and thousands of young and old, children, men, and women were massacred and ruined. But now that the division is an accomplished fact, the dispute is over.

"I delivered many speeches against the division of India, but the question is: has anybody listened to me? You may hold any opinion about me, but I am not a man of destruction but of construction. If you study my life, you will find that I devoted it to the welfare of our country. We have proclaimed that if the Government of Pakistan would work for our people and our country the Khudai Khidmatgars would be with them. I repeat that I am not for the destruction of Pakistan. In destruction lies no good.

"Neither Hindus nor Muslims, nor the Frontier, not Punjab, Bengal or Sindh stands to gain from it. There is advantage only in construction. I want to tell you categorically I will not support anybody in destruction. If any constructive programme is before you, if you want to do something constructive for our people, not in theory, but in practice, I declare before this House that I and my people are at your service..." (Puri, pp 188-190)

Notes

1. My life and struggle, Autobiography Abdul Gaffar Khan

2. Seemanth Gandhi Badshah Khan by Madalsa Narayan

3. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Ek Jeevani by Ram Saran Nageena

4. The Pathan Unarmed by Mukulika Bannerjee

5. Badshah Khan by Omkar Sharad

6. Abdul Gaffar Khan, Faith is a battle by D.G Tendulkar

7. Sarhadi Gandhi by Pyarelal

8. India, Pakistan and Afghanistan (A Study of Freedom Struggle and Abdul Gaffar Khan) by Attar Chand

9. Frontier Gandhi by G.L Zutshi

10. Khudai Khidmatgar and National Movement, Momentous speeches of Badshah Khan By P.S Ramu

11. Eknath Easwaran (1999). Non-violent soldier of Islam: Ghaffar Khan: a man to match his mountains. Nilgiri Press, Tomales, CA. ISBN 1888314001