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Abdul Ghaffar Khan didn’t have to struggle. Having been born into wealth and privilege, he could have cooperated with the British colonialists and lived the good life. But the violence endemic to his Pathan society, in which honor demanded that no wrong go unavenged, drove him to seek an alternative that could express the true spirit of Islam. Ghaffar Khan found this path in Gandhi’s movement of nonviolence, and in one of the most remarkable social transformations in history, he turned a people known for their fierceness into the largest army of nonviolent soldiers the world has every seen. The Khudai Khitmatgar (servants of God, or Red Shirts, as the British called them) united in the cause of nonviolent revolution, fighting the British with passive resistance and noncooperation. Although the price they paid under savage British suppression was enormous, they never buckled. They won the honor of all India, and Ghaffar Khan became known as the Frontier Gandhi. Ghaffar Khan also paid an enormous personal price, ultimately spending over half of his life in prison, first under the British and then under the Pakistanis, who squelched his call for a free Pathan homeland. Nonviolent Soldier of Islam a biography by the great spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran, keeps Ghaffar Khan’s spirit alive, a beacon for all who believe in freedom, dignity, and peace. --Brian Bruya
The Washington Post
“Eknath Easwaran’s great achievement is telling an international audience about an Islamic practitioner of pacifism at a moment when few in the West understand its effectiveness and fewer still associate it with anything Islamic.”
Reviews:
Reviewer: Dr. Thomas Balistrieri (see more about me) from Worcester, MA USA
Courage has to do with “big heartedness.” I have read about many courageous people but few as courageous as this man. If you are a seeking a role model, a template for bringing meaning to life, then read this book. It made me realize the essence of non-violent living, gave me a clearer picture of Gandhi, helped me to see how little wisdom is exhibited in our leaders today…and offered a hope for a new way of being. A way for bringing deep meaning to life. This is an important book and an important man. I intend to use it as a text in the class I teach at WPI.
Reviewer: curtis721 (see more about me) from Torrance, CA United States
This is an awesome book. I read it before 9/11/2000. I have always been interested in non-violence, and revere Gandhi and MLK Jr. We need the message of this book now, more than ever. This is “must reading” for Americans, westerners and Christians. Islam means peace. Here is a man who put his life on the line to LIVE his faith. Like Gandhi, his teacher, he suffered persecution and imprisonment for his efforts to bring a peaceful interpretation of Islam to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is a saint who should be revered by all the people of the book.
Reviewer: John R Chamberlain (see more about me) from Boca Raton, FL USA
This book really demonstrates how you can incorporate non-violence into every aspect of your daily life. This brought me to a new sense of understanding about the world, its people and our conflicts, and how petty or large ones can be avoided and not escalated.
Particularly relevant is how Khan came from the Pathans, or tribe with a reputation of violence which covers much of Afghanistan, and so much in the news today. Khan however raised history’s first “non-violent army” of 100,000 men form the ruthless Pathan tradition, and who through non-violent means courageously stood up unarmed against injustice.
Read this book, it is truly outstanding, and preferably after having read “Gandhi The Man” by the same author - Eknath Easwaran.
John Chamberlain
[This message has been edited by Yemeen (edited July 10, 2002).]