SECTION I : Selected Letters

Gandhi Letter 97 : To Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Bhangi Colony,
New Delhi,
5th July 1947

DEAR BADSHAH,

Khudai Khidmatgar Alam Khkn saw me before 12 o'clock and he said that he was leaving for Peshawar tonight. I did not send any letter through him. But I told him that there should be no demonstration against the Muslim League, that it should be enough that in the present state of tension and misrepresentation Khudai Khidmatgars should not vote at all one way or the other, that they were entitled so far as internal affairs were concerned to claim and to have complete autonomy without any interference from Pakistan or the Union, and that they could come to a decision as to the choice between the Union or Pakistan when the constitutions of the two were promulgated and when the Frontier Province had fashioned its own autonomous constitu-tion. Above all, every occasion for clash with the Muslim League members was to be avoided. Real Pathan brav¬ery was now on its trial. It was to be shown by cheerfully meeting blows or even meeting death at the hands of the opponents without the slightest sort of retaliation. Boycott would certainly result in a legal victory for Pakistanis, but it would be a moral defeat, if without the slightest fear of violence from your side, the bulk of Pathans refrained in a dignified manner from participating in the referendum. There should be no fuss, no procession, and no disobedience of any orders from the authority.
I had acted promptly on receipt of your letter. I wrote a long letter to His Excellency on which he took action. You must have seen also how I had dealt with the question of the Frontier Province in one of my post- prayer speeches. I send you herewith a copy of my letter to the Viceroy and of my post-prayer speech. This letter is also in answer to a complaint received by the Viceroy that it was reported that there was fear of disturbance to be caused by the Khudai Khidmatgars.
I hope the strain under which you are working is not telling upon your health.1

Love,
BAPU

Abdul Ghaffar Khan, p. 445

1. Two days later, Gandhi again wrote to him:
   "No news from you. I hope you had my long letter and that you have acted up to it. Your and my honour is involved in strict adherence to non-violence on our part in thought, word and deed. No news up to now (9-30) in the papers."