1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Quotes

Abdul Ghaffār Khān , nicknamed Fakhr-e-Afghān, lit. "pride of Afghans", Bādshāh Khān, or Bāchā Khān, "king of chiefs", was a Pashtun independence activist who worked to end the rule of the British Raj. He was a political and spiritual leader known for his nonviolent opposition; he was a lifelong pacifist and devout Muslim. A close friend of Mohandas Gandhi, Bacha Khan was nicknamed the "Frontier Gandhi" in British India by his close associate Amir Chand Bombwal. Bacha Khan founded the Khudai Khidmatgar movement in 1929. Its success triggered a harsh crackdown by the British Raj against him and his supporters, and they suffered some of the most severe repression of the Indian independence movement.Bacha Khan strongly opposed the All-India Muslim League's demand for the partition of India. When the Indian National Congress declared its acceptance of the partition plan without consulting the Khudai Khidmatgar leaders, he felt very sad and told the Congress "you have thrown us to the wolves." In June 1947, Khan and other Khudai Khidmatgars declared the Bannu Resolution, demanding that the Pashtuns be given a choice to have an independent state of Pashtunistan, composing all Pashtun territories of British India, instead of being made to join Pakistan. However, the British Raj refused to comply with the demand of this resolution.After the partition, Bacha Khan pledged allegiance to Pakistan, but was frequently arrested by the Pakistani government between 1948 and 1954. In 1956, he was again arrested for his opposition to the One Unit program, under which the government announced its plan to merge all provinces of West Pakistan into a single province. Khan was jailed or in exile during much of the 1960s and 1970s. Upon his death in 1988 in Peshawar under house arrest, following his will, he was buried at his house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of mourners attended his funeral, marching through the Khyber Pass from Peshawar to Jalalabad. It was marred by two bomb explosions that killed 15 people. Despite the heavy fighting at the time during the Soviet–Afghan War, both sides, namely the communist army and the mujahideen, declared a ceasefire to allow Khan's burial.

✵ 6. February 1890 – 20. January 1988
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan photo
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan: 9   quotes 5   likes

Famous Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan Quotes

“Pathans! Your house has fallen into ruin. Arise and rebuild it and remember to what race you belong.”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Quoted in Eknath Easwaran, A Man to Match his Mountains: Bacha Khan, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam (Nilgiri Press, Petaluma, 1984), p. 25.

“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.”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Badshah Khan by Eknath Easwaran (Penguin Books).

“In 1958, Ghaffar Khan wrote that he had been killed ’by those people for whom he had forsaken his own people’.”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Afghan Frontier: Feuding and Fighting in Central Asia
Source: p 245 (writing in reference to Dr. Khan Sahibs support for the One Unit.

“I have one great desire.”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

“My religion is truth, love and service to God and humanity. Every religion that has come into the world has brought the message of love and brotherhood. Those who are indifferent to the welfare of their fellowmen, whose hearts are empty of love, they do not know the meaning of religion.”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Quoted from the Progressive February 2002

““It is my inmost conviction,” Badshah Khan said, “that Islam is amal, yakeen, muhabat” – selfless service, faith, and love.”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Badshah Khan by Eknath Easwaran (Penguin Books).

“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…”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

February 1948
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan: A True Servant of Humanity by Girdhari Lal Puri pp -188 ? 190

“Better be poisoned in one's own blood then to be poisoned in one's principle.”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

As quoted by Governor Barnett's Declaration to the Profile of Mississippi Broadcast via TV and Radio. Sep. 13, 1962 http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/olemiss/controversy/doc2.html without citation and in An unknown legend of India: A bharat ratna By Gaurav Pundeer https://books.google.com/books?isbn=3736889569
Famous speeches

“Only a dead nation remembers its heroes when they die. Real nations respect them when they are alive.”

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Zareef, Adil Saturday, (January 28, 2006) The Demise of a Dream. The Daily Times https://archive.is/20130416144347/www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=2006%5C01%5C28%5Cstory_28-1-2006_pg7_35

Similar authors

Jawaharlal Nehru photo
Jawaharlal Nehru 110
Indian lawyer, statesman, and writer, first Prime Minister …
Mahatma Gandhi photo
Mahatma Gandhi 238
pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-rul…
Indíra Gándhí photo
Indíra Gándhí 35
Indian politician and Prime Minister
Anthony de Mello photo
Anthony de Mello 135
Indian writer
C. V. Raman photo
C. V. Raman 20
Indian physicist
Amartya Sen photo
Amartya Sen 31
Indian economist
Sathya Sai Baba photo
Sathya Sai Baba 33
Indian guru
Hazrat Inayat Khan photo
Hazrat Inayat Khan 37
Indian Sufi
Sri Chinmoy photo
Sri Chinmoy 75
Indian writer and guru
Patch Adams photo
Patch Adams 10
Physician, activist, diplomat, author