Facts Are Sacred
by Khan Abdul Wali Khan
PREFACE
MUCH of this book was written during two spells in Jail, one under
Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub khan 1n 1969 and next during the time of
Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1973. I was handicapped by the fact that
I could not obtain the reference books I needed. During the second
term especially, I regretted the time wasted. I was mostly in
solitary confinement, and could have wholly devoted myself to
writing. But under Bhutto, even pen and paper were often not
available, leaving alone books.
However, with what references I could get, I have tried to present
the other side of the picture of the people.
How unfortunate it is for a nation that it is always given the
rulers accounts of events and is barred form all other versions. The
rulers in Pakistan have brought up people on their own understanding
of history. In fact, just in order to justify their political acts
they haven't hesitated to distort history. They have prevented the
people from getting to know true facts. They do not report history,
they manufacture it.
It appeared to me then, and still appears now, as if a case were
being tried in a court of law, and only the prosecution could offer
arguments and evidences against the accused. The accused was not
allowed to say a word in his defence. He just stood there bound hand
and foot, his mouth sealed, his pen snatched away. Who would call
that a court? Who would expect justice in such circumstances?
So I thought even if I can not personally reach out to people, I
should at least leave behind some account of the past so that
history does not stand permanently distorted. The present generation
may remain oblivious of the truth, but at least the coming
generations would get to know it. My main concern was to convey the
spirit of our own political struggle; to place before posterity the
true story of Bacha khan's Khidmatgar movement. I too had been a
member of that caravan.
In writing the account, I like other writers, have made full use of
the diaries and memories of concerned British officials, especially
in relation to their attitude and policies towards our movement.
Besides that material I have used my own knowledge of facts and
political experiences, as also the principles of induction and
deduction of offer certain conclusion. We have a saying in Pushto
that if we say round, yellow and sour, wise men immediately know
that we are referring to orange. Similar was my quest for clues.
After release from Mr. Bhutto's jail when I went to London and had
some free time from medical treatment I came to know about the
classified government document in the India Office Library which had
now been thrown open to public. They could now be read on the
premises and even photocopies of any portion could be obtained.
According to British rules all secret official documents are
declassified and made available to scholars after a lap of 30 years.
I was keen on collecting all possible historical material on our
movement. Readers of this book will see that Bacha khan's politics
and the khudai khidmatgar movement became red rags for the colonials
for two reasons. First, the British were determined to squash any
movement that aimed at Indian independence and thus constituted a
threat to their rule. Secondly, they were resolved to crush any
activity which in their view would help a hostile outside power
against them.
It is known that the independence movement with in India was being
spearheaded by the Indian National congress which was representative
of all the religious and other creeds, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh,
Christian, parsi-no matter what the persuasion, the party was open
to all. The British strategy, as it soon developed, was to somehow
weaken the Congress and to aid and abet bodies functioning in
opposition to it.
Secondly, Indian was geographically so placed that it had oceans on
three sides and a rampart of a mighty range of mountains on the
forth. There were also a few mountain passes in the north-west and
the only danger from a hostile foreign power could come through
them. Russia was of course considered the main source of that
danger. The Khudai Khidmatgars could not become instruments in
either of the two thrusts of British policies, so they became an
object of harassment from the very start.
In the India office library I set about looking for documents
relating to the external aspects of the British rule in India. I
wished to find out the point of time and exact factors that saw
basic changes in British policies towards Moscow - the steps if
adopted to confront the first ideological state to emerge on the
world map in 1917.
The viceroy of India used to send a weekly report addressed to the
secretary of state for India in London. The latter replied outlining
the government's policy issues of the moment. I decided that I only
needed to carefully study this weekly correspondence to get all the
material wanted. I began from the time immediately following Lenin's
death.
What I saw and read was beyond anything I had imagined. My object
was the British foreign policy in relation to India, but as a bonus
I got a close view of how with all looked on the internal affairs of
India. Our elders used to tell us about how Britain intrigued to get
its way in the subcontinent. Their stories, their doubts and
suspicions had seemed hard to believe. I used to think that Bacha
khan had become unduly embittered with the colonial rulers because
of the agonies he and his followers had suffered at their hands. I
was particularly skeptical about the Congress charges that the
British were responsible for fanning communal passions within the
country to further their imperialistic designs. I used to think that
such accusations were exercises in finding scapegoat. It is a common
human failing to blame others for the consequences of one's own
follies.
Not that I regarded the Congress' and Bacha khan's charges as wholly
without basis. But I had not imagined that the truth was infinitely
uglier than their portrayal of it. The evidences were there in black
and white, written and signed by the guilty ones themselves, secured
for posterity in their own official library - the communications
highest British dignitary in India, the viceroy, and the minister
concerned with Indian affairs in Whitehall. Given such authoritative
sources where was the room for disbelief? Indeed, when I was going
through these documents there were moments when my mind would get
boggled. I would take out my glasses and hold my head in my hands
bewildered at what I had read. Unable to continue, I would put away
the books and go out for a cup of coffee.
It will be unfair not to give full credit to the British. They did
whatever good or bad they thought was necessary for their people-
they did not hesitate to put all that down with total can dour.
There was no hypocrisy to oneself, no pulling of veils for anyone
else. Everyone is here bared to the last stitch. No friend or
relative or colleague is spared. All participants in all
conspiracies are named. Even the Indians who played the British game
have been exposing with out regard to how their compatriots would be
shocked when they would come to know of the secret doings of the
idols they had worshipped.
Studying this correspondence of over 20 years, between 1922 and
1942, I realised that all my preceding labour in collecting material
from diaries and memories had gone waste. The conclusions that I was
collecting the evidence for were all given there as explicitly as
one could wish. The government of India's policies against the
Soviet Union was down in cold details.
Those policies were of course no surprise. What did come as a
revelation was the shameful role played by certain eminent leaders
of India in Indian affairs. The worst was the conduct of certain
Muslim leaders. It was an embarrassment reading about them. The
accusation of the Congress and Bacha khan were not a fraction of
what the highest British officials had unblushingly laid down here.
What pains I had taken to prove that the thing was an orange. I went
through hundreds of papers, pursued the trail of countless books to
collect the evidence of roundness, yellowness, sourness. All that
now was rendered unnecessary. The masters themselves here say: why
all this effort; what need for proof; logic, reasoning, political
sense to what purpose; we ourselves attest that it is an orange.
Once I almost decided to abandon my book and just compile this
correspondence in to a book let to show to the nation the other side
of the picture and let it decide itself who were really its
well-wishes, and who wanted to consign it to perpetual slavery of
the British.
But after much thought I decided to stay with my earlier plan.
Publishing only the documents, while it would expose Bacha khan's
critics, it would not serve my original purpose of presenting the
story of Bacha khan's political struggle and the khudai khidmatgar's
great endeavors. That would also check the course of disreputable
politicking which only aims at misleading simpleminded Muslims and
distorting the facts of history through loudmouthed falsehood and
slanders. Truth emerges one day. Diamond shines forth even in a pile
of ashes.
To allow history to remain distorted is to betray a national trust.
Coming to know of the facts I had not sufficiently known hurt me
bitterly and made me hang my head in shame. I wondered how it would
affect those honest and devoted workers who had rendered untold
sacrifices for what they were told was an Islamic cause; how they
would react when they would come to know that those they had
regarded as champions of Islam, those who did not consider anyone
apart from themselves and their loyal hangers-on as true Muslims or
well-wishers of Muslims, had in fact been on the side of the enemy,
working to strengthen his hands. I have my self nothing against
there having supported the British; my objection is to their having
used the fair name of Islam to back a usurping, and, worst of all, a
heretical regime.
It is important that the story is told so that the Muslims are not
again stung from the same snake hole. They have to learn to be wary
of again being misled in the name of Islam.
Truth is bitter. The present one is particularly so, I realise that
this book will hurt many, but it should also open many eyes. As the
Englishman says, it is just to put the record straight.
I do not consider it necessary to emphasis that regardless of my
political views, whatever I have written down here is based on
sources that a re-available in the British Library. Whoever wants
proof can satisfy him with the help of the references to the sources
I have given in the text.
As they, say, comment is free, but facts are sacred.
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