A pacifist uncovered.

• Author: Pal, Amitabh
• Position: Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pakistani pacifist

It's tragic that India and Pakistan are almost constantly in a state of animosity and are now facing off against each other with nuclear weapons. It's also ironic, since both countries can claim pacifist pioneers. India has Gandhi, as most everyone knows. But few people know about Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a proponent of nonviolence and social change who lived in Pakistan.

Khan resided in what is now the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, and he was affectionately known as the "Frontier Gandhi." As Gandhi was given the title of Mahatma, meaning "Great Soul," Khan was given the title Badshah, meaning "Leader" or "Kings."

A devout practitioner of nonviolence and social reform, Khan worked to spread his ideals in the region. Eluding at least two assassination attempts and surviving three decades in prison, he remained committed to nonviolence to the day he died in 1988 at the age of ninety-eight.

"For today's children and the world, my thoughts are that only if they accept nonviolence can they escape destruction, with all this talk of the atom bomb, and live a life of peace," Khan told an interviewer in 1985. "If this doesn't happen, then the world will be in ruins."

Asfandiyar Wali Khan, Ghaffar's grandson, remembers two basic lessons his grandfather gave him about the superiority of nonviolence.

"He said that violence needs less courage than nonviolence," says Asfandiyar, who resides in Peshawar, Pakistan. "Second, violence will always breed hatred. Nonviolence breeds love."

As a young man, Ghaffar Khan started a school for Pashtun children. Soon, he came under the influence of Haji Abdul Wahid Sahib, a social reformer. Before long, he had established contact with other progressive Muslim leaders in India, who urged him to work for the education and uplift of the Pashtuns. But Ghaffar Khan was still searching for answers. In 1914, he performed a fast that lasted for days. The fast strengthened his resolve to dedicate his life to social reform, and he spent the nest few years touring the region. Soon he learned about Gandhi and his movement, which provided an enormous boost to Khan and his work.

Khan founded a nonviolent movement in 1929 called the Khudai Khidmatgar--the servants of God. This movement, which eventually involved more than 100,000 Pashtuns, was dedicated to social reform and to ending the rule of the British in then-undivided India.

Khan's calls for social change, more equitable land distribution, and religious harmony threatened some religious leaders and big landlords. But he toured incessantly, traveling twenty-five miles in a day, going from village to village, speaking about social reform and having his movement members stage dramas depicting the value of nonviolence.

"I visited a really remote village recently and was taking pride in the fact that I was the first outsider to be there," says Asfandiyar, the central president of the Awami (People's) National Party...