ABSTRACT

T h e National Movement in India, during the last twenty years, has thrown up many striking per­ sonalities and met with many extraordinary adven­ tures, but no event has been more unexpected than the awakening of the North-West Frontier province under the leadership of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Suddenly to find a Pathan leader, a king among men by stature and dignity of bearing, practising Ahimsa, or Non-Violence, enjoining it upon his followers, and implicitly taking instructions from Mahatma Gandhi, reads almost like a legend or a romance; but in reality it is a solid fact in modern Indian history, of which future historians will have to take full account. As to the powerful character of the movement there can be hardly a question. How far it has kept non-violent has been much debated. O f one thing I can speak with certainty at first hand, namely, about the character of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan himself.