The Two Gandhis

When Mahatma Gandhi roused millions in a peaceful revolution against colonial rule, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan seemed an unlikely man to enlist. Yet from the ruthless Pathan tradition in Indian’s 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.