Khudai Khidmatgar

History glossary

Also called: Red Shirts, Servants of God · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Khudai Khidmatgar ("Servants of God") was a non-violent movement founded in 1929 by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the "Frontier Gandhi", among the Pathans (Pashtuns) of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). Its members were also called the Red Shirts because of their red uniforms.

It matters because it brought Gandhian non-violence (ahimsa) to the Pathans, a people the British saw as warlike. In 1930 they took a heavy part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), and the Peshawar firing made the Frontier an important centre of the national movement.

Explanation

Background: why the movement arose

  • The NWFP was a border province. The British ruled it under strict military-style control and saw its Pathan tribes mainly as a security problem.
  • Pathan society had a strong tradition of blood feuds and armed revenge.
  • Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a Pathan leader and a follower of Gandhi. He wanted to:
  • reform Pathan society: education, an end to blood feuds, and better social habits;

  • join the Pathans to the national struggle against British rule.

  • He founded the Khudai Khidmatgar in 1929, on the eve of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Main features

  • Non-violence (ahimsa): members took an oath to serve God by serving people and to give up violence and revenge. Pathans who had always carried arms now promised not to hit back.
  • Uniform: members wore red shirts, which gave them the name Red Shirts.
  • Discipline: the movement was organised like a volunteer corps, with drill, ranks and camps, but without weapons.
  • Social work: village service, schools, and cleanliness drives, alongside political protest.
  • Mass base: it drew in ordinary Pathan peasants, not just the educated few.
  • It worked closely with the Indian National Congress and later became allied with it.

How it worked in the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930–34)

  • 31 January 1930: Gandhi sent Viceroy Lord Irwin eleven demands. When the demands were not met, the Dandi March began on 12 March, and Gandhi broke the salt law on 6 April 1930.
  • April 1930: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was arrested.
  • Angry crowds came out in Peshawar.
  • They faced armoured cars and police firing, and many were killed.

  • Standard accounts name the site as the Qissa Khwani Bazaar ("Storytellers' Market") of Peshawar and date the firing to 23 April 1930.

  • A platoon of the Garhwal Rifles (Hindu soldiers) is widely reported to have refused to fire on the unarmed Muslim crowd. For this they were court-martialled. It showed that even Indian soldiers could turn against the Raj.

  • A month later, Gandhi himself was arrested (early May 1930). [1] Unrest then spread to other places, such as Sholapur.
  • 5 March 1931, Gandhi–Irwin Pact: civil disobedience was called off and political prisoners were released. [1][2]
  • After the Second Round Table Conference failed (1931), Lord Willingdon cracked down. Congress was declared illegal and leaders were jailed again. The Khudai Khidmatgars were also suppressed, and Ghaffar Khan spent long years in jail.

Results and later course

  • It proved non-violence could work anywhere. Pathans held to ahimsa even when fired upon.
  • It made the NWFP a Congress stronghold, even though most of its people were Muslim.

  • In the 1937 provincial elections, a Congress ministry was formed there under Dr Khan Sahib, Ghaffar Khan's brother.

  • It opposed the Partition of India. Ghaffar Khan felt betrayed when Congress accepted Partition. In his words, the Pathans were "thrown to the wolves".

  • Ghaffar Khan was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1987. He was the first non-Indian citizen to receive it.

Time, place and evidence

  • Period: founded in 1929. It was most active during the Civil Disobedience Movement (1930–34) and continued until Partition (1947).
  • Region: the North-West Frontier Province, centred on Peshawar and the Pathan villages around it (today in Pakistan).
  • Key people:
  • Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan: founder, also called the Frontier Gandhi and Badshah Khan.
  • Dr Khan Sahib: his brother and the Congress leader in the NWFP.

  • Gandhi and Lord Irwin: the two sides in the CDM and the 1931 Pact.

  • How we know:

  • NCERT Class 10, "Nationalism in India" records Ghaffar Khan's arrest in April 1930 and the Peshawar crowds facing armoured cars and police firing.
  • Official British records exist, including inquiries into the Peshawar firing and the court-martial of the Garhwal Rifles.
  • Congress reports and accounts from the period also cover these events.
  • Ghaffar Khan's own writings and Pashto-language publications describe the movement from the inside.

Don't confuse with

  • Khaksar Movement: founded by Allama Mashriqi in Punjab. It was a militant, uniformed organisation drilled with spades. Khudai Khidmatgar was strictly non-violent.
  • Garibaldi's Red Shirts (Italy): volunteer soldiers who fought for Italian unification in the 19th century. They are a world-history topic. The Indian "Red Shirts" were unarmed Pathans of the NWFP.
  • Sholapur rising (1930): industrial workers in Maharashtra attacked police posts, courts and railway stations after Gandhi's arrest. At Peshawar, the crowds protesting Ghaffar Khan's arrest were fired upon.
  • Muslim League: it claimed to speak for Muslims and later demanded Pakistan. The Khudai Khidmatgars were Muslims who stood with Congress and opposed Partition.

Prelims Hooks

  • Khudai Khidmatgar was founded in 1929 by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in the North-West Frontier Province. It was also called the Red Shirts.
  • Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was arrested in April 1930, and the crowds in Peshawar faced armoured cars and police firing.
  • The Peshawar firing (Qissa Khwani Bazaar, 1930) came before Gandhi's own arrest in early May 1930. [1]
  • Garhwal Rifles soldiers are known for refusing to fire on the unarmed crowd in Peshawar in 1930.
  • Chronological order: Khudai Khidmatgar founded (1929) → Dandi March (12 March 1930) → Peshawar firing (April 1930) → Gandhi–Irwin Pact (5 March 1931). [1][2]
  • Trap: "Frontier Gandhi" = Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bharat Ratna, 1987), not his brother Dr Khan Sahib.

Mains Points

  • Non-violence among a warrior people. The Khudai Khidmatgar is a strong answer to the claim that ahimsa only suited "soft" or peaceful societies.
  • Pathans, known for blood feuds and carrying arms, held their discipline even under police firing in Peshawar (1930).

  • This shows that Gandhian methods could be adapted to very different cultures. It also shows the CDM spread well beyond the salt coasts.

  • A secular, Muslim-majority base for Congress. The movement gave Congress strong support in a Muslim province.

  • This weakens the Muslim League's claim, which it pressed at the Second Round Table Conference, that Congress did not speak for Muslims.

  • The Peshawar firing and the Garhwal Rifles' refusal also showed Hindu–Muslim unity against the Raj.

  • The tragedy of Partition. The Khudai Khidmatgars opposed the two-nation theory. Even so, the NWFP went to Pakistan in 1947, and Ghaffar Khan spent many more years in jail there.

  • This is useful for answers on the limits of Congress's control over the Partition settlement.
  • It also helps answers on how regional and ethnic identities (Pathan, Pashtun) cut across religious ones.

Related concepts

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Sources

  1. 1Salt Marchkids.britannica.com · tier 3
  2. 2Gandhi-Irwin Pact | Date, Gandhi, Salt March, & Significancebritannica.com · tier 3