'Khudai Khidmatgars' back in action in India again

Khudai Khidmatgar, was originally formed in 1929 by Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Frontier Gandhi, in and around Peshawar, currently in Pakistan.

New Delhi: Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God), the name that is associated with Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as the Frontier Gandhi, is once again in the news for organizing several meetings for inter-faith harmony in various parts of the country.

Khan Abdul Gafar Khan founded “Khudai Khidmatgar in 1929 as part of India’s freedom struggle. Now it was revived in 2011 in India to spread inter-faith harmony.

“Its formal beginning was made at a function at a Gandhian institution in New Delhi in 2011 where Tara Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, administered membership to about 50 Khudai Khidmatgar volunteers,” said Faisal Khan the national convener of the Khudai Khidmatgar organization from Bhopal.

Since then there is no looking back. The Khudai Khidmatgar’s volunteers on January 30, 2025, organized a meeting on the occasion of the martyrdom day of Mahatma Gandhi in Bhopal.

"They also held a meeting on the birth anniversary of Badshah Khan on February 6, 2025. Faisal added that another meeting was organized in Saharanpur UP, followed by more meetings in Tamil Nadu”, Faisal added.

“The Bhopal meeting was organized with the help of Madhya Pradesh Sarvodaya Mandal who along with Khudai Khidmatgar organized ” Sadbhavna Samvad” on the day of ‘Gandhiji’s Shahadat Diwas’ on 30th January 2025 at Gandhi Bhawan.”

All meetings were devoted to spreading the message of inter-faith harmony and are done in collaboration with various like-minded organizations in the country,” Faisal added.

Kripal Singh Mandloi leader of Khudai Khidmatgar said, “Humanity is natural to human beings, not hate. Any fake or unnatural thing won’t last long as we all tend to return to our natural being very shortly."

"So all in all we need to do is be natural “human beings” filled with humanity and aspire for peace and harmony,” he added.

Giving the context of the revival of Khudai Khidmatgar, Kripal Singh Mandloi said, “In present times we again see big money is being used to spread hate."

"And hate can only be countered with love. So taking the message of love and Inter-faith harmony is the motto of Khudai Khidmatgar,” he summed.

Khudai Khidmatgars was originally formed in 1929 in and around Peshawar, currently in Pakistan. The name of this organization means ‘those who serve God or the creation of God serve humanity’.

The nuanced understanding of the concept of Khudai Khidmatgar is, “it is our duty to serve God but God does not need any service, so the best way to serve God is to serve his creations that are we human beings particularly those who are in distress and in need.”

[The writer, Syed Ali Mujtaba, is a Journalist. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com]

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