Author: Eknath Easwaran
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 274
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0141006641
Description
From a tradition of blood revenge came one of history’s greatest peacemakers. In this impressive biography, based on close observation of both their lives, the author shows how perfectly Khan embodies what Gandhi called the nonviolence of the brave.
When Mahatma Gandhi roused millions in a peaceful revolution against colonial rule, Abdul Ghaffar Khan seemed an unlikely man to enlist. Yet from the ruthless Pathan tradition in the rugged North-West Frontier Province, Khan raised history’s first nonviolent “army” of 100,00 men.
Many cautioned Gandhi against involving in his nonviolent struggle these people with such a record of brutality. But under Khan’s leadership, the Pathans proved that it is often those who are capable of great violence who have the courage to stand unarmed against injustice.
Eknath Easwaran grew up in Mahatma Gandhi’s India when Badshah Khan’s influence was at its zenith. In this impressive biography based close observation of both their lives, he shows how perfectly Khan embodies what Gandhi called the nonviolence of the brave. “ There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It’s not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the prophet all the time he was in Mecca.” – Badshah Khan
MEDIA COMMENTS:
Sweepingly written . . . an inspiring heroic account.- The Los Angeles Times Book Review
With a superb biography like this, Khan would become a global force, the kind that no armies or prisons can stop.- The Washington Post
By his example, Khan asks what we ourselves, as individuals made from the same stuff as he, are doing to shape history.- The New Yorker