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1. A Comparative Essay on
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan & Martin Luther King Jr.’s
Non-violence Philosophy
By: M. Dawood Mohammadi
In the 20th
century, Philosophy of Nonviolence played an essential role in freedom, civil rights, and
anti-apartheid movements. This philosophy aims to evade from the use of weapons and to react to
violence with peaceful and nonviolent means during resistance, and social change. The purpose of
this mechanism is not to defeat an enemy by swords but to conquer their minds and heart and
convince them that our struggle is right. According to liberal theory of international relations, it is
a win-win game for both parties, not a zero-sum game. In this essay, I will compare the central
theme of the nonviolence philosophy of the two prominent leaders of the 20th
century, Khan Abdul
Ghaffar Khan, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan:
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan aka Bacha Khan was born on 6 February 1890 in a wealthy and
landowner family of Charssada (Near Peshawar) located today in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
of Pakistan. Bacha Khan was a social reformer, Pashtun nationalist, freedom activist, pacifist and
nonviolent leader against British Raj. He attended the Edward’s Mission school, and he was also
an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University. He founded two reform movements called Anjuman
Islah e Afaghana1
and Kudai Khidmatgar2
, an unarmed and nonviolent army. In 1930, he joined
India National Congress party, and he was against the partition of Sub-continent, although, after
partition, he showed his allegiance to the new state of Pakistan. He is considered the most
controversial leader in the history of that country. Bacha Khan spent one-third of his life in prison.
At the age of 98, he died under house-arrest in 1988 and was buried in Jalalabad, an eastern city
in Afghanistan.
Martin Luther King Jr:
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in a moderately religious family in Atlanta,
Georgia. He grew up in a state of miserable racial segregation, got a secular and religious
education, and in 1955 he got his doctorate in theology from the University of Boston. King was
the leader of the Equality and Racial Discrimination Movement in America. He is today the patron
of many black youths around the world. The civil campaign in Montgomery placed King at the
center of the civil rights movement. While his primary goal was racial equality, he initially chose
smaller targets and organized local campaigning for the equality of African-Americans. In 1955,
he actively participated in the first grand civil rights campaign in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1963,
King marched 250,000 demonstrators on Washington streets, where he delivered his historic "I
1
The Society for the Reformation of Afghans.
2
The Servant of God movement

2. have a dream" speech, He expounded that all dwellers of USA should be judged by the personal
abilities, not by their skin color. He was murdered by a white racist in 4th
April 1968 in Memphis.
Bacha Khan Philosophy of Nonviolence:
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, aka Bacha Khan, was a renowned activist of nonviolence and a famous
leader in South Asia of the twentieth century. He struggled for the civil right and liberty of Pashtun
ethnicity. Pashtuns lived a very miserable life riddled with deprivation, alienation, and violence
perpetrated by the British Raj. He started his nonviolent movement in 1910, and two decades later
he met Gandhi in 1929 while attending Khilafat conference at Delhi. It shows that when his idea
of nonviolence not inspired by the Gandhi movement (Bright 1944). Khan believed that without
reforms and education of the Pashtuns and elimination of social evils from the community, the
Pashtuns would never succeed in their resistance against colonialist Britain. Therefore, he, with
the assistance of Haji Fazli Wahid aka Haji of Turangzai founded the first educational institution
in his hometown Utmanzai and Mardan (Shah 2010). In this school, the curriculum consisted of
nationalist, religious and science subjects; the chain of schools later spread to other villages and
districts. Initially, Bacha Khan was allied with Haji of Turangzai, Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, and
Maulana Mahmood Al Hassan of Deoband in anti-British resistance but their revolt against British
Raj continually failed, their schools were banned, and the many of their teachers were prisoned
(Khan 1969, 29). Later, he chose the path of nonviolence and determined that social activism and
reform would be more useful for the Pashtuns in their resistance against the Raj. Khan established
Anjuman Islah e Afaghana and Khudai Khidmatgar movements in 1921 and 1929 respectively.
The former one was purely an educational and social reforms movement while the latter one was
a political movement to motivate Pashtun for the resistance and civil disobedience against British
atrocities (Tendulkar 1967). The primary duties of Anjuman were the eradication of social evils,
settlement of the intertribal disputes through Jirga3
, the establishment of unity amongst tribes,
resumption of schools and support to Pashto language and literature, and the creation Islamic and
nationalist sense among Pashtuns. The curriculum of these schools included languages, civics,
religious, vocational and nationalistic subjects which were very different from the contemporary
Britsh Raj and traditional Madrassa educational systems (Shah 2010, 7-8).
The Khudai Khidmatgar Movement was an unarmed and nonviolent political group created by
Bacha Khan to provoke Pashtuns for peaceful resistance and civil disobedience against British
imperialism and atrocities. Pashtuns were deprived of their rights and liberties; he felt that only
through non-cooperation and nonviolent protest Pashtuns could acquire their freedom and rights.
Initially, the KKM members were 10000, but later it reached up to 100000 unarmed soldiers, which
was also known as a Sorkh-Posh Lashkar – a Red Uniform Army. Membership in KKM was very
simple. Every Pashtun who believed in nonviolence and was loyal to the nonviolence philosophy
of Khan Abdul Ghaffar was eligible to get a membership. Every soldier should take an oath to
become the member of the movement.
3
A Jirga is a traditional assembly of leaders that make decisions by consensus and according to the teachings of
Pashtunwali.

3. 1. I call on God as a witness, and solemnly declare on oath that I will abide by the following
principles:
2. With sincerity and faith, I offer my name for Khudai Khidmatgarship.
3. I will sacrifice my wealth, comfort and self in the service of my nation and for the liberation
of my country.
4. I will never have “para Jamba” (party feeling), enmity with or willfully oppose anybody,
and I shall help the oppressed against the oppressor.
5. I will not become a member of any other rival party nor will I give security or apologize
during the fight.
6. I will always obey every lawful order of every officer of mine.
7. I will always abide by the principle of nonviolence.
8. I will serve all human beings alike, and my goal will be the attainment of the freedom of
my country and my religion.
9. I will always perform the good and noble deed.
10. All my efforts will be directed to seeking the will of God and not toward little show or
become an office-holder. (Bala April 2013, 133-34)
The KKM was the world’s first unarmed army who used nonviolence and non-cooperation
techniques instead of weapons. About the significance of nonviolent resistance, Khan stated in his
autobiography that;
“it is a power and has an army just like violence. But its weapon is preaching while the
arm of violence is the gun. Some people argue that violence is necessary for self-defense,
but they don't realize that by adopting this attitude they close the door on nonviolence.
Nonviolence has a self-defense mechanism because it does not believe in the concept of
defeat while there is a possibility of failure in violence. The objective of nonviolent
resistance is to convince your enemy; to attract their mind and heart and motivate them
that our point of view is correct. Nonviolent resistance strives for a ‘win-win’ solution
whenever possible.” (Khan 1969, 138-140).
In 1929, Bacha Khan with other KK members attended the Lahore summit of Indian National
Congress. He aimed to make them aware of the painful situation of oppressed Pashtuns in the
NWFP4
and gain their support for the liberty and rights of Pashtuns. While returning from Lahore,
he toured the entire province and arranged a Jirga to decide about joining the Indian National
Congress and to start a civil disobedience movement in the whole region against British Raj. In
19-20th
April of 1930, more than 1200 hundred members of the Jirga decided to join Congress and
start non-cooperation movement. His disobedience was unique, and its characteristics were as
follows;
o Refuse to pay tax and lease to the government;
o Boycott from the purchasing of foreign fabrics and products;
o Closure of wine shops in Peshawar city;
4
A province in Pakistan between Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir: part of British India from 1901 until 1947;
of strategic importance, especially for the Khyber Pass, new name Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

4. o A boycott of public institutions;
o Non-cooperation with government institutions,
o A boycott of court decisions, and use of Jirga tradition to settle criminal and civil cases;
o A celebration of historical incidents annually, like Qissa Khwani Massacre;
o Persuasion of public servants to leave their jobs in governmental institutions and if
they did not accept, then isolate them.
Bacha Khan emphasized on morality and ethics during civil disobedience resistance. He wrote in
his autobiography that “we decide to cut telephone line and remove railway sleeper, I allowed
them on one condition that saboteur himself should go to police station and told them what he had
done. This would make him develop moral courage, and this would be an inspiration to another
worker. Also, no innocent people would come under suspicion, and the police would have no
excuse for hunting and harassment” (Khan 1969, 160-161).
Bacha Khan spent one-third of his life in prison and struggled to attain freedom without using
violence. He did not restrict peaceful resistance for attaining political goals, but he also sought to
impact the cultural and educational mores of the Pashtun society. He believed that education is the
best weapon against British imperialism.
King Philosophy of Nonviolence:
Martin Luther King Jr. devoted his life to the nonviolent struggle for racial equality in the United
States. In early days of his struggle for civil rights and justice for black people, King believed that
the use of the gun was necessary for self-defense, but, later his colleagues compelled him to use
tactics of nonviolent resistance to accomplish his goals. His ideas of civil disobedience and
nonviolence were influenced by Christian principles and the Satyagraha5
teachings of Mahatma
Gandhi. He also traveled to India in 1959 to strengthen his understanding of Gandhi and his
principles (King 1958).
King helped organize the Montgomery bus boycott6
. By using eloquent talents, he struggled to end
the segregation and legal inequality of black people. During the 1960s, he was arrested during
peaceful demonstrations in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. King traveled 54 miles from Salma to
Montgomery for voting rights and many other protests. King, when he was imprisoned in 1963,
wrote a "Letter from the Birmingham City Prison," which confirmed the moral and philosophical
foundations for the civil rights movement. In August, he presented his famous "I Have a Dream"
speech to more than 200,000 people gathered at Washington National Park. He dreamt that all
dwellers of USA would be judged by the personal abilities, not by the color of their skin.
Martin Luther King grew up in the environment of segregation, oppression and barbarous actions
of white-dominated wealthy class, and he also the saw the police brutality and courts prejudices
against black people. In university, he read H. D. Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience, and
social and ethical theories of Plato, Mill, Bentham, Hobbes, and Locke. He also critically studied
Karl Marx’s and V. Lenin’s writings about communism which strengthened his ideas about
5
Satyu is truth which equals love, and agruha is force: “Satyagraha,” therefore, means truth-force or love force.
6
The one-year-old fight began when Ms. Rosa Park was arrested for a white passenger after refusing to give her
chair a bus. The Supreme Court then abolished the law of separation in the Alabama bus in 1956.

5. classless society, social justice, and equality. He stated in his book that he searched for the moral
and intellectual satisfaction which he could not find in Mill, Nietzsche, Marx, and Locke writings,
He succeeds to gain it in the writings of Gandhi. (King 1958).
During the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S, King adopted nonviolence resistance tactics to
create Beloved Community7
. According to The King Center website (Center 2012), he classifies
his idea of nonviolence into following six principles;
First: Nonviolence is the resistance weapon of the strong not the weak. It means when
people are confronted with conflict and violence; they should not retaliate against, rather
they should attempt to deal with it productively. It is active resistance to social injustice
and evils.
Second: The ultimate goal of nonviolence resistance are freedom, reconciliation and the
creation of Beloved Community. The significance of such utopian community depends on
public good and welfare. With no oppressor and oppressed, no class, cast and color
discrimination, no winner and loser, all human beings will live in peace and harmony.
Third: Nonviolence directed against the idea of evil rather than the evil-doer. Defeat the
forces of evil and injustice, not the wrong-doing person because they are also the victims
of the catastrophe.
Fourth: Accept the suffering without revenge for the sake of the cause and to achieve the
ultimate goal.
Fifth: Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate, the principle of love is at the core of
nonviolence resistance. It rejects violence on the spirits as well as the body.
Sixth: Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice and truth. In every
competition, the deep faith, truth, justice, and honesty will eventually win.
One of the central principles of this philosophy was the belief that nonviolent opposition was one
of the most robust weapons available to the oppressed nation in their seeking for social justice.
Martin Luther King as civil rights activists desired to bring social changes in American
discriminated society, proposed six phase to such changes:
i) To understand the problem and injustice, one needs to research, investigate and collect
relevant information. It will make one an expert on the issue.
ii) After that, one must use different media to make people aware and educate them
about the problem. He must also notify our opponent to lesser their misperception and
to gain their support.
7
According to King, it mean a realistic, achievable goal that could be attained by a critical mass of people
committed to and trained in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence in in which all people can share in the
wealth of the earth.

6. iii) As one engages in demonstrations, he should commit to the core principles of
nonviolence, accept suffering, prison, and torturing and avoid his/her hidden motives
during the demonstration.
iv) Participate in discussion with the opponents, present the list of injustices and present
a plan to resolve the problems, using win-win strategies.
v) If the negotiations fail, start nonviolence resistance to compel the other side to
resolve the problems using different tactics of nonviolence philosophy like non-
cooperation, rallies, boycott, petitions and civil disobedience.
vi) Consequently, we attempt to resolve the issues with our opponents; nonviolence
pursues friendship and understanding with the enemy. It does not desire to defeat the
enemy, it is against injustice, state atrocities, discrimination, evil system and the
oppression of people but not against individuals. The follower of nonviolence settle
with reason, logic, and plan of action, to find a Beloved Community (Dear 2012).
So from the six principles mentioned above and steps of nonviolence, I realized that King’s
philosophy is very similar to that of Bacha Khan. Bacha Khan believed in nonviolent resistance
to achieve justice and civil rights from Britain. His colleagues criticized him for his adoption of
nonviolent means of protest, much similar to what Martin Luther King Jr would face three
decades later by Malcolm X. Many Indian historians believe that Khan was inspired by Mahatma
Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence and gave him the title of “Sarhadi Gandhi” (Bala April
2013). But, Bacha Khan denied this claim and instead said that he drew inspiration from the
prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The first World War, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Independence
of Afghanistan in 1919, the Second World War, the Independence of India, and the creation of
Pakistan influenced Bacha Khan's political thinking. These violent events made Khan turn
towards non-violence and peaceful resistance. King was, however, influenced by the writings of
Henry D. Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi which shaped his philosophy of nonviolence. Both
Khan and King were sent behind bars for leading their respective movements. Khan was also
twice forced into exile in Afghanistan in 1920 and 1964.
Conclusion:
The philosophy of nonviolence was the way of life for Bacha Khan and King, while for Nelson
Mandela (Mandela 1995), and Jawahar Lal Nehru (Nehru 1940, 82) it was a mere strategy and
means to achieve political ends. Although Bacha Khan did not succeed in his political struggle
for the independence and rights of Pashtuns, he sows the seeds of nonviolence and pacifist
resistance against the oppressor. It was a miracle of Bacha Khan that he could convert rebellious
and weapon-loving Pashtuns to peaceful and pacifist people. He successfully reduced the gap
between Mula8
and Malak9
and used these two positions for the rights and liberties of his people
against British Raj. He attempted to evoke political consciousness in Pashtuns through education,
tried eradicating evil and obsolete traditions from the community and reintroduced the method of
8
A religious Islamic scholar who plays an important role in religious teaching in Pashtun community.
9
A tribal leader in Pashtun community, a strong figure of decision-making and settler of disputes.

7. settling disputes through traditional Jirga system. His philosophy of nonviolence and civil
disobedience is still very much alive in Pashtun-settled areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Martin Luther King sacrificed his life for nonviolent movement and civil rights of black people
in the USA. His nonviolent, peaceful protests proved to the world that action without violence
could be productive and successful. King has inspired numerous leaders in changing their
societies through passive means. King’s philosophy of nonviolence inspired the nonviolent
revolution in Poland in 1989 and Nelson Mandela's Anti-Apartheid movement.

8. Bibliography
Bala, Saruti. "WAGINGNONVIOLENCE: REFLECTIONS ON THE." A Journal of Peace and Research, April
2013.
Bright, Jagat. S. Frontier and Its Gandhi. Lahore: Read Books, 1944.
Center, The King. The King Center. 2012. http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy#sub4 (accessed
10 23, 2017).
Dear, John. National Catholic Reporter. January 17, 2012. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/road-
peace/what-martin-luther-king-jr-can-teach-us-about-nonviolence (accessed October 23, 2017).
Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar. My Life and Struggle. Delhi: Hind Pocket Books, 1969.
King, Martin Luther. Stride Toward Freedom; the Montgomery Story. New York: Harper & Row, 1958.
Mandela, Nelson. LONG WALK TO FREEDOM. LONDON: Little. Brown and Company, 1995.
Nehru, Jawahir Lal. TOWARD FREEDOM - Autobiography. New York: The John Day Company, 1940.
Shah, Dr. Syed Waqar Ali. "Abdul Gaffar Khan." Bacha Khan Trust Article Series, 2010.
Tendulkar, D. G. Abdul Ghafar Khan - Faith is A Battle. New Delhi: Gandhi Peace Foundation, 1967.