PAKISTAN: The Frontier Gandhi

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan .stands 6 ft. 3 in., and once weighed 220 Ibs. He has a martial beak of a nose and a clipped white beard. Though at 63 he is ailing, he used to look capable of tearing a bullock apart with his hands. For the past 30 years, Ghaffar Khan has practiced and preached nonviolence. He was Gandhi’s chief convert among the Moslems, and in the rugged Khyber Pass region he is still known as “the Frontier Gandhi.”

A Pathan. and scion of Moslem notables in the North-West Frontier Province, Ghaffar Khan tramped the roads, spreading the gospel of satyagraha (passive resistance). His followers were called “Red Shirts” because they wore garments dyed with a cheap red coloring from red bricks.

The British came to fear his nonviolence more than the rifles of the Frontiersmen, and Ghaffar Khan was jailed repeatedly, serving a total of six years. Once in a British prison, his ankle was bound so tightly that the flesh became infected. He came out of jail 100 Ibs. lighter. Said he: “With love you can persuade a Pathan to go to hell, but by force you can not take him even to Heaven.”

When India and Pakistan won their freedom, the North-West Frontier Province, 92% Moslem, voted adherence to Pakistan. Ghaffar Khan then set up a clamor for a separate Pathan nation, to be called Pathanistan or Pukhtoonistan. Once again he was jailed for subversion —this time by the Pakistan government. India’s Jawaharlal Nehru called him “one of the bravest and straightest men in India” and bewailed his imprisonment, saying it was “a thorn in my heart.”

Last week, after he had served more than four years in the grim prison at

Rawalpindi, the Pakistani suddenly freed Ghaffar Khan, along with 44 other political prisoners. Probable motive: to give a more convincing ring to Pakistan’s protests against India’s jailing of the deposed Sheik Abdullah of Kashmir. The Indians, who had long agitated for Ghaffar Khan’s release, front-paged the good news. They got a shock when, upon leaving jail. Ghaffar Khan proved to be as independent and plain-speaking as ever. To the cheering crowds who garlanded him with flowers, he declared that Kashmir rightfully belongs to Pakistan—and that he had twice offered his services in Kashmir on Pakistan’s behalf. Jawaharlal Nehru had no comment.